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WVCA benefits from “Super Smash Bros for Wii U” tournament

Marriage licenses and divorce applications

Slowly but surely, and quietly, over the past four decades, we have become a nation ruled by a central planner.While other nations that historically have been governed by a central planner have loosened the grip on their economy by moving toward a market economy, we have moved away from the free market that promotes employment, reduces taxes and, in the larger picture, sustains our quality of life, freedom of choice and reinforces the innate right to private property.The most recent omnibus bill passed by Congress increases spending, increases taxes and, overall, takes money out of the private sector and redistributes it wherever and to whomever the government sees fit. The &#8220;War On Poverty,&#8221; now approximately 50 years old and costing billions of dollars, has been effective in only subsidizing the underclass rather than providing a way out. The Affordable Care Act, which tramples the 10th Amendment and fines those of us who either choose not to have health insurance or cannot pay the high deductibles for health insurance, robs us of our freedom of choice and, in turn, reduces our quality of life.Common Core, Race to the Top, No Child Left Behind are just a few examples of government intervening in our children&#8217;s education by standardizing the curriculum, which completely defies common sense but more importantly takes the educational decisions away from us as parents.Sub-prime mortgages are still being offered, supported by the government&#8217;s own mortgage clearinghouses, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which prompted the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009.The alphabet soup of bureaucracy continues to grow and acquire more power, requiring applications, permits, licenses and inspections &#8211; further reducing our freedom of choice, our incentive to improve our quality of life, while making compliance too costly to achieve. The more we place our trust in government to protect our property and livelihoods, we will be continually disappointed.The relief promised by Gov. Ed Rendell&#8217;s Act 1 never really materialized and the pittance the taxpayer received as tax relief has been wiped out by the steady rise in school property tax propelled by the need to fund pension costs. This continues today, since both sides have a vested interest in the pension system and neither side is ready to address this unsustainable debacle.We have endured the malfeasance of the Ridge administration, the lies and deceit of the Rendell administration, the ineptitude of the Corbett administration and now we must endure the ideology of the Wolf administration.The budget stalemate is nurtured by an ever-growing need for bigger government requiring an increase of $1.8 billion in taxes to support it, which finally trickles down to the taxpayer who is a hair&#8217;s breadth away of having their private property confiscated by government while trying to pay for it. Big business and big labor have the attention and support of our elected officials; taxpayers on the other hand are repeatedly ignored.Patrick P. MustoDallas

Letter to the Editor: Consequences of big government catching up with us