Rokita Readings 10-13-13 - Shutdown Theater

Statement

A clickable offering of books and articles that I've read recently and highly recommend, as we strive together to "Keep the Republic."

Another can't miss read from John Stossel, and it's a short one. In his column Shutdown Theater, Stossel does an excellent job of showing just how dependent on our federal government we have been coaxed into thinking we have become. It reminds me of what Mitch Daniels said when he was Governor, "You'd be amazed how much government you never miss."

We used to practice that theory when I was Secretary of State ( operating on 1987 dollars in 2010). and its exactly one of the points I am making now with this government shutdown. To be fair though, please realize that for all the "pain"the President and liberals feign that people are going through because of this shutdown, 80 % of federal spending is still occurring! Thats right, the "shutdown" had stopped on about 17% of spending... because most of our spending is mandatory. This underscores the need for budget process reforms, as well as entitlement reforms. Roughly 2/3 of government spending doesn't even come up during the budgeting process. Our entitlement programs are on auto-pilot.

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