How to waste $23,000,000. Build the unjustifiable Williamsport Regional Airport access road . Then throw away another $13-$15 million for a new terminal, add $650,000 for a new security fence and most recently, $1 million to lure another airline. Local officials support these boondoggles, because its free money, thanks to Uncle Sam's putrid pork barrel. Sixty percent of the handout is your tax money, 40 percent is borrowed from China and other dear friends or merely printed by the Federal Reserve. We need our airport. Do the airlines? Upgrade the facility based on necessity, not a hope or childish dream.
Speaking of free money, consider our local bus system. Annual revenues are less than $1 million, while operating costs are $5-6 million. It costs $85 per hour to operate each of the systems 30-40 buses. Ticket sales account for about $12 per bus hour. $10's of millions in additional gifts from Harrisburg and Washington paid for the bus garage, compressed natural gas fueling station and the steady stream of new buses.
While reaffirming that America provides an equal opportunity to all, it must be made emphatically clear that America is not an entitlement based society. No free cars or cell phones. A solid work ethic is a basic American trait. Laziness is rejected. Some people will be alarmed when told of the old, but new to them, paradigm of "work, any work is far better than idleness, both mentally and physically". During the Great Depression, if you were penniless, you were penniless. Work, any work was a blessing. Purposely building a culture of entitlement is destructive, to the individual and to America.
The federal government spending now accounts for 24 percent of our overall economy. Our nation's debt of $16 trillion exceeds our GDP.
The president's never ending, "attack the rich" babble has no basis. Its sole purpose is to evoke envy and division. His "tax the rich" proposal only raises $80 billion, 6 percent of the annual budget deficit. And it would not be used to reduce the deficit, but for additional spending.
In November, Americans will either recommit to the American dream or move to the government's plantation and fester in an environment reminiscent of our ancestral homelands. Only in our worst nightmare, could we conceive that the leader of the free world would have us back track the footsteps of our Founders. Europe today is Obama's America of tomorrow. Obama is synonymous with his ideology. His ideology has always failed. The still unfolding tragedy in Europe, demonstrates the horrifying aftermath of grandiose government promises.
Ronald Arner
Montoursville
Submitted by E-Mail
