Ja: Soooeeeeeee!!!

Let politicians loose around the people's resources and they become the proverbial hogs before the trough.

Should you think otherwise, you need only consider the behaviour of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) members of parliament on Tuesday. They squealed loudly over the administration's decision to cut, by $143 million or about 32 per cent, the Social and Economic Support Programme - the notorious SESP.

That the outcry came from the Opposition side of the aisle does not mean that ruling People's National Party MPs are on the moral high ground on this issue. They too would have had a good old angry roll in the mud for being deprived of another go at the trough, were it not for the political embarrassment it would cause the government.

I would like politicians everywhere to pass a law that no tax increases may be effected without the consent of three-fifths of the governed. I fear that figure might be too low, though because, based on what I've seen on tv news, there's always some idiot who doesn't mind paying higher fees and taxes for a thing. Moreover, many politicians have a wonderful way with words, and they can make the worser seem the better; thus, by sweet and guileful words, they lead unsuspecting taxpayers down the garden path to the paradox of obtaining something free for more money. Confronted with these modern-day Socrates, it is not outside the realm of possibility, therefore, that enough idiots would vote to take their own hard-earned money out of their own pockets so that politicians may play Monopoly with it.

Since it's 2:22AM and I'm awake and fantasizing, I'd also like politicians to pass another law requiring the merging of all social programs which have a common function, and this must be followed by a fifty percent reduction in funding for the new entity. The 50% is a totally arbitrary number; however, inasmuch as there is usually much duplication of services in government agencies, I estimate that it is likely that five agencies may be found all having the same function. For each such agency, a 10% reduction in funding. That 10% is supposed to be the amount that is just right (I've forgotten the reason why); so, when five become one, 50% of the funding can be subtracted from the whole or the gross of the new entity. Nevertheless, that may not necessarily prevent the hogs from feeding at the trough because, as I've said, politicians are wonderful at making the worser seem the better (the accusation leveled against Socrates, I believe). In the view of many of the elected elites, our money is theirs, and theirs is theirs, too. So, you silly taxpayer you, bend over and take it like a man.