U.S. becoming like Greece

By Hon. Hayes Gahagan
    The unemployment rate of 8.2 percent represents about 14 million people who are unemployed but still looking for work; this is up from 8 million who were unemployed but still looking for work under the Bush administration. What the 8.2 percent unemployment rate doesn’t show is the 20 million people who have lost their jobs but are no longer looking for work.
    We’ve reached the point where 52 percent of our population pays income taxes; 48 percent of our population pays no income taxes; this represents about 135 million people who are either working or looking for work and about 85 million people who are not looking for work, either voluntarily or involuntarily.
    This appears to be a permanent, unsettling condition, in which our country, like Eastern Europe, is being divided by those who work vs. those who are, regardless of the reason, either seeking or living off government benefits.
    Our capitalist economy is being asked to pull an ever-increasing load of big-government welfare where fewer and fewer workers, the 52 percent, are being taxed to effectively support 48 percent of the population. At the rate we’re taxing and spending, it won’t be long before these numbers flip into a slippery slope where those who have simply won’t be able to afford to carry those who have not.
    The U.S. is becoming like Greece. From a kitchen table economics perspective, we can’t afford to live beyond our means any more than we can afford to police the New World Order.
    Hayes Gahagan, of Presque Isle, is a former State Senator from Aroostook County and serves as chairman of the Aroostook County Republican Committee.