Progress in Federal Government Change

Open email to Members of Congress and the Electorate:

Dear members of Congress and Electorate,
I am discouraged. For the past few years I have devoted considerable time and effort to trying to establish some change in the operation of our federal government. I've done this essentially through writing directly to House Representatives and Senators, with copies to the general electorate through blogs.
I've tried to point out the dangers of socialism, which basically is a philosophy that we pay for any project by dividing the cost among the electorate. The obvious difficulty is that many individuals interpret this as excluding themselves from bearing any portion of the cost while still reaping the benefits of the project paid for by others. With such operation, the nonpayers fall into a position of nonincentive as they gain "free stuff". The remaining payers see the inequity of this and try to do everything possible to reduce their payments, which is also a tendency to develop disincentive. When nobody is trying anymore and this is carried out over a reasonably long period of time, the project fails. The project may also be the total operations of the federal government. We have many examples of the failure of socialism, sometimes also called communism.
I've also tried to introduce the concept that power, which is apparently what many in Congress seek, is the ability to control something of value. Chief executive officers of private corporations are powerful within their sphere, because they control the assets of the corporations. Whenever a CEO is in charge of a private corporation on the verge of bankruptcy, he has effectively lost all his power. Congress apparently operates on the basis that power is based upon the ability to control the spending of large amounts of public money, basically generated by taxes, or through significant borrowing. I've tried to influence a change.
Within those specific two categories, I have promoted the following:
1. Develop a smaller federal government, by reducing funding to the various departments. Since federal departments are generally restrictive in nature, with respect to business development and individual liberties, that would seem to be advantageous.
2. Develop a balanced federal budget, which means a budget in which expenditures do not exceed revenues, so that further borrowing is unnecessary. 3. Start a program to work off the $17 trillion of debt, after we have established a program of not increasing it.
4. Specifically reduce, and in many cases eliminate, research grants to universities by various federal departments.
5. Consider every foreign national action from the point of view of what it means to US citizens and their livelihood. Eliminate costly involvement in foreign controversies based on "maintaining the status of the US" or "saving the world for democracy".
We recently held a Republican primary election in Lubbock. Two special incumbents were reestablishing their positions to maintain their office. One incumbent was instrumental in passing a $1 trillion Farm Law, which obviously would require further borrowing with an increase in the national debt. The second incumbent was instrumental in bringing an extension of the national debt to the Senate floor, where it was automatically endorsed by the democratically controlled Senate. I thought that I had clearly laid out the disadvantages of these two actions, at least is I saw it. In spite of that, the two incumbents were strongly endorsed by the electorate for the next federal election against the Democrats. From this I concluded that no matter what I say or how I say it, it has little or no effect on the electorate. I also concluded that the Republican electorate in Lubbock is also basically socialistic or composed of Limbaugh "low information" voters, who vote on name recognition, rather than issues.
In January, the Congress passed a massive omnibus appropriations bill, with funding levels for fiscal 2014. For 9 federal departments involved in research and development funding, which is basically giving grants to universities for various research projects, all had in increase. Homeland Security increased 53.8%, the National Institute of Standards and Technology increased .7%. Agriculture increased 9.8%. The lowest was the National Institute of Health, with an increase of 3.5%. One might say this is only research and development, which is a small matter. However, the total research and development expenditures for these nine departments totals $105 billion. Perhaps many in the electorate don't understand what $105 billion is, in which case we can place them in the low information voter category. We can also conclude that since funding for these agencies is generated in the House, of which the present composition is primarily Republican, at least the House Republicans have no intention of controlling the federal budget and the national debt and are easily placed in the same category as freespending Democrats.
We also see in arousal of Congress to the situation in the Ukraine. There's congressional rhetoric, which promotes our involvement, presumably on the basis that we must maintain some status in world affairs, even though we are in a semi-bankrupt condition, unable to realize that we have no real total power, but can use only intermediate forces, such as portions of our military, and economic sanctions. Fox News discussion this morning brought out the fact that use of economic sanctions against Russia will also have a negative effect on our already weak economy.
All told, the US continues to move to a high degree of socialism, with massive federal government, and no significant progress in any attempts to change. Obviously, I can do nothing about it. I've said my piece and recognize that when I have been essentially ineffective, there's no justification for me to continue to fight windmills. I may occasionally have a comment or two in the future, but I plan to significantly reduce my writing. I also don't see anything else that I can do to change the present progression, but am certainly willing to help others, within my capability, if I see they have any program which has a possibility for success.