The fundamental problem with Beaufort County Government today | Eastern North Carolina Now

Big government has become so dominant that everyone has to consider “what the government implications are” before doing anything.  Government no longer provides us with just the things we as individuals cannot provide ourselves with.  These are roads, bridges, an education system, a court system, police and national protection. 

Government is in our bedroom with the LGBT and “whatever” thing.  Government feeds our children, provides for our elderly and disabled parents and relatives.  Government, both, provides the permissive environment for drug use and then tries to re-habilitate or facilitate the user.  Government sends enough money to households so one does not have to work unless one wants to.  Government will take us to our doctor and pay the bill.  I call this American Socialism.

We have too much government.  Unless we deny government funding and shrink government’s size, socialism will dominate our society to the point we will not be able to produce enough goods and services to maintain ourselves as a nation. 

One fundamental problem is that we have too many depending on government for too much and it will reach a point where the productive people cannot, or will not, produce enough to sustain the system.  As Ian Rand explains in the classic Atlas Shrugged, as the moochers of society (those who depend on government/”looters”) to steal from the “producers” until the producers vanish (to Galt’s Gulch) and the system ultimately collapses on itself.

Beaufort County has accumulated a large surplus of money.  About 44 million dollars.  We need only about 20 million dollars to carry us through a business year.  Stan Deatherage and I have forced votes on property tax reductions during the past several years.  We always lose.  With five Republicans sitting on the Board one would think giving this money back to the taxpayer would be easy.

We are over taxing property owners. Beaufort County spending is extravagant.  Look at all the new county-owned cars. Commissioners no longer examine the need for anything and Fake Frankie Waters shuts the meeting down if anything controversial comes up.  We donate a lot to charity.  We spend very little time examining alternatives.  Frankie says to let the staff tell us what to do.  That is called "continuation budgeting."  County spending goes up and up every year.

The pressure is mounting for a tax reduction as the huge surplus of 24 million dollars grows.  Those who are paying taxes should be concerned because majorities on government boards tend to accumulate a lot of money and then waste it on some unnecessary project.(s).

For example, we still have a jail committee and they still meet, even though the jail is a little more than half full and there are no projections that criminal activity is about to explode.  More than half of these people are in jail because of drugs.  Yet, these commissioners cannot figure out how to reduce jail costs. The majority of the commissioners have been sympathetic to drug dealers.  Don’t believe me, take a look at commissioner meetings.  There is the county park?!!.  Rebholz wants to “bring the cost of housing down by building housing.”  These are just a few of the rat holes this money will go into if not refunded to taxpayers.  Spending on schools goes up while the number of students is going down.

The Gang of Four got a jump on not reducing taxes this year by dumping over five million dollars into a so-called capital projects account during the February 2023 meeting.  The gang of four are RINO’s Frankie Waters and John Rebholz along with the two Democrats Ed Booth and  Jerry Langley.  They said this took care of the "surplus of the surplus.”  In spite of this, a ten percent tax reduction can easily be granted this year.  If the public demands, my guess is, they will give a 1.5 percent (one penny) tax reduction so they can say they gave something.

Maybe your county has a surplus.  Money handed out by the Biden Administration during the pandemic has given surpluses to most governments, agencies and schools.  Maybe every county should have a property tax reduction.

Expect big government to become more dominant from now until the 2024 elections.  I attended the Winter Legislative Session of the National Association of County Commissioners in Washington, DC about two weeks ago.  There are 3069 counties in the United States.  I would estimate there were 3,000 people in attendance.   I like to attend this meeting because some of the best experts in the nation in government functions are brought in,  in addition to the bureaucrats who infest the DC area. 

We had Secretaries Buttigieg, and Yellen speak to us.  President Biden spoke.  I think Biden is gearing up to run again because we only get Presidents to speak who want to run again.

There are enough meetings on enough subjects going on at one time over the four days that one can attend only about ten percent of what is offered.  I attended the Environmental Affairs meeting, a session on electric cars, broad band, how to get money from the Inflation Reduction Act, Global Information Systems (GIS), the internet, etc.

The message was the same in all meetings.  “The Federal Government has a lot of money to do the (liberal) things you have been hearing about.  Ask for it.  Be innovative.  They are looking for a lot of places to spend this money. The Government very plainly said (we) are using counties as our most important tool in sending out inflation Reduction Act money.  Some of the projects we are funding are homes for the homeless, homes for low income, homes just for housing, charging stations for electric cars, social programs….

Within the presentation on electric car charging stations was this factoid.  The average range of the cars is 150 miles per charge.  If you need a charge you can travel another 25 miles for each hour you charge. Their conclusion was the best places to have stations was at shopping malls and hotels. Think that thru and you will see how successful this electric car thing will be, not!

It is disheartening that the 19 RINO’s in the U. S. House passed the anti-inflation act for this kind of socialism to provide the money for Biden to use over the next two years to try to get either himself or another super liberal elected president.  The scent of socialism and communism was in the air.

Not one word was said at any conference meetings I attended about capitalism, self respect, educating people so they could be free and economically independent, the honor of work, building self-reliance, the workforce, lowering government costs or taxes, or any of the  basic things government should provide.

What was painfully obvious to me was that the role of government has shifted to a focus of looting more and more from the producers and providing “free stuff” to the moochers so the will vote to keep the looters in power.  That is, more and more socialism until eventually the looters (politicians and bureaucrats) take it all and we find ourselves with a communistic system of the Ruling Elites deciding what we are going to “get” from the government. 

All it may take is one more “pandemic”…or a war.  There you have it…the Great Reset.

But former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was absolutely right when she observed:  'The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.'

Someone else has said:  Remember, government can’t “give” us anything it has not forcibly taken from someone else.

Who is John Galt?

The fundamental problem with our county government is not Democrat vs. Republican but rather a Ruling Class of Elites who think they know better what is good for you than you know for yourself.