Saving tax money means getting rid of career politicians

COMMENTARY...

The economy: It’s not good in the Bayshore or Monmouth County. It’s not good in the United States, but I live in Monmouth County, New Jersey. I care about the economy right here.

Government: It costs too much at every single level.

Taxpayers: Are not making enough money. They are not making enough money because the economy is bad. One reason the economy is bad is because the government rolled out the red carpet to send jobs overseas from businesses (some of which were in Monmouth County). Somehow, this is supposed to be a smart move.

Locally, every single taxpayer feels it. Government wants more money. The economy is bad so taxpayers do not have more money.

When all of the bull is done getting thrown, this is the state of affairs.

One significant place to find cost savings in government is by cutting the benefits and pay of every single elected and politically-appointed official in government today, on every level of government, without any exception whatsoever. This does not include the workers of government, who are the police officers, firefighters, town employees or people with actual jobs. I am talking about the people who are prominent Republicans and Democrats.

Why are elected and appointed people of every level given lavish benefits? Why are appointed people, who are really nothing more than friends of elected officials or party hangers on, given the star treatment on the taxpayers’ dime with the same benefits as elected people?

There is no excuse. None of these people should receive state-sponsored benefits.

When the United States of America was created, the people who did this were termed “Founders.” These Founders were people like George Washington, John Hancock, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and the like.

None of them believed government should be a career. All of them had jobs before government and all of them kept their businesses or at least an avenue back to those businesses while they served their communities in government. The idea was that none of the founders conceived of themselves as “professional politicians,” a profession that was generally discredited by these Founders.

So, if someone was looking for benefits and a big check, then they needed to provide that for themselves. These were the principles that founded this nation; made it great and will always work (then, now and in the future).

If I made the assumption that everything the Founders did was right, which I do, and little of what they did (by way of structuring the ideology and bodies of government) was wrong, then there is “right” and “wrong” in my opinion.

When I hear some whiney politician telling me about how they need some taxpayer-paid benefit, it is wrong. Elected office is not supposed to be a “profession,” and anyone who characterizes it as such is basically publicly abdicating his or her participation in the private sector in favor of being a “career politician.” Career politicians are everything that is wrong with municipal, county, state and national government.

When someone is a politician as a career option, then his or her political life is afforded by the support of some party or other. Party chieftains and not his or her own conscience then regulate the politician’s “ethics” and behavior. Should a career politician use their own judgment and not the traditional party wisdom, and then they are not in the party and thereby not in office.

So making the water comfortable for career politicians and their hack buddies is perilous to the efficient conduct of the government’s affairs on behalf of the people and really cannot be condoned in any way. Turning out this breed of leach is imperative if someone wants to vote for less government and best government.

Give me someone with a job in the private sector and enough self-discipline to hold it for a number of years, has some good ideas and earns no money from government (and has no aspiration to) and they have my vote. Make sure candidates are not feeding into any political machine and, there we have it, someone who is a good potential candidate.

Some ways to make sure of all the above: Take away the benefits from elected and appointed people, take away all of the take-home cars for non-emergency personnel in government and get the State Pension System out of local and county governments for elected and appointed people and the result will be cleaner, better-managed government.