GREG RATHS FOR CONGRESS/CA 45TH DISTRICT

My Views on Government

The most salient issue of our time is curtailing the power and influence of the growing Washingtonian class of elites. Massive omnibus bills that concern education, healthcare, financial reform and agriculture have become vehicles for the political class to dole out favors to connected cronies and influential insiders.  By sucking up more of the taxpayers’ income, these DC insiders are enriching themselves and empowering the reach of an ever-expanding state.

            Our national government is polarized and corrupt. Democrats despise Republicans and vice versa, in a never-ending game of political intrigue and power plays. But with a federal government so vast, so powerful, and so far-reaching, such partisan polarization and corruption is inevitable as legislators and bureaucrats battle over the distribution of political favors. With billions of dollars’ worth of special-interest tax breaks and subsidies, is it any wonder that legislative debacles, like farm bills and Obamacare, benefit the politically connected and influential?

            Governing in Washington is dictated by a simple principle: concentrate the benefits to the well-informed and well-organized and distribute the costs onto the uninformed and unorganized. For example, a soybean subsidy might only cost the average American a few dollars per year, and these costs are generally opaque. However, for the soybean farmers of the country, that subsidy benefits them by thousands of dollars a year. The public is generally unaware of their mulching, and besides, who would take the time and attempt to protest to their elected representation over a few dollars anyhow? This scenario plays out countless times in all sorts of special-interest areas, and costs American families thousands of dollars per year. This is how we are nickeled and dimed by our government.

            Our bloated government thrives on this sort of favor-trading and special-interest sickness. The only way to stop these abuses is to radically shrink the size and scope of federal power, with constitutional restrains, like the balanced budget amendment and term limits.

Colonel Greg Raths USMC (RET)

Candidate For CA 45h Congressional District

Vote June 3rd