Dear Editor, Let’s be honest - every single one of us has felt it. That soul-crushing frustration when payday comes, and before you even have a chance to breathe, your hard-earned money is gutted by taxes, bills, and rising costs. Many of us are working two jobs or endless overtime, sacrificing time with our families just to keep the lights on - and even then, there’s still too much month left at the end of the money.
But here’s what really burns: While we’re struggling, the government is spending our tax dollars like a trust-fund kid with Daddy’s credit card.
Think about it. The money that’s stripped from your paycheck, the money you traded family dinners for late-night shifts, the money that came at the cost of missed Little League games, school plays, and weekends with your kids—that’s the money they’re blowing on absolute nonsense.
• $1.5 million to study fish on treadmills - because apparently, mudskippers need cardio plans.
• $2.5 million for electric vehicle chargers… in Vietnam - because while you’re paying $5 a gallon, taxpayers are funding gas-free utopias overseas.
• $20 million on “Sesame Street” in Afghanistan - because educating kids in a country where the Taliban runs things is apparently more important than fixing our own failing schools.
A World War’s Debt—Without a War
The Greatest Generation incurred massive national debt to defeat the Nazis and Imperial Japan - a war fought for the very survival of freedom itself. Americans knew where every dollar went: to build ships, arm soldiers, and defend democracy.
Today? We have World War II levels of national debt… without fighting a war.
So again, I ask - where did the money go?
If we’re supposed to tighten our belts, why don’t they? Why are we expected to work longer hours, pay more in taxes, and watch our quality of life evaporate while bureaucrats throw our sacrifices into a financial bonfire?
From One-Income Families to Two—By Design
Not long ago, a single income was enough to run a household, pay a mortgage, and still allow for family time. We had parents raising their own children, not being forced to outsource parenting to daycares and schools because both parents need to work just to survive.
Now? Dual incomes are a requirement, not a choice. That’s not progress - that’s serfdom disguised as normalcy. The American Dream has gone from raising a family on one income to hoping you can afford daycare so you can work a second job.
And why? Because we’re funding insane government waste instead of keeping our own money.
If we stopped burning billions on nonsense, would we get back to the days where a family could live comfortably on one income? Could we reclaim the golden age where raising our own kids was the norm, not a luxury?
The answer is yes - if we demand it.
California: The Capital of Fiscal Insanity
If Washington is reckless, Sacramento is criminal. The waste is beyond staggering:
• $9.5 BILLION on healthcare for illegal immigrants - while the state is staring down a $30 BILLION deficit.
• The High-Speed Rail scam, promised to connect California, is now a $100 billion train to nowhere - connecting Bakersfield to Fresno and nothing else.
• Homeownership is impossible. Crime is exploding. Businesses are fleeing. And Sacramento’s answer? Spend more, regulate more, and ignore the consequences.
We Don’t Have to Play This Game
So what do we do? Wait for the bureaucrats to fix it? Trust the same people who created the mess? Not a chance.
America was built on the idea that the people, not the government, hold the power. That starts at the local level.
Porterville, we don’t have to play their game. We can govern ourselves.
The Plan for Taking Back Control
1. Demand Local Transparency - Every dollar spent should be accounted for. No more blank checks to Sacramento. No more slush funds disguised as “progress.”
2. Push Back on Federal Overreach - Washington doesn’t get to dictate how we live in the Central Valley. If their policies bankrupt the nation, we don’t have to follow them off the cliff.
3. Elect Leaders Who Fight For Us, Not Themselves - No more politicians bowing to Sacramento’s spending addiction. We need leaders who put our community first.
4. Keep Money in Our Communities - Every dollar we keep local is a dollar spent on our roads, our schools, our businesses—not bureaucratic black holes.
The Golden Age is Ours for the Taking
We don’t have to accept this new reality. We don’t have to work ourselves into the grave just to keep up with the financial black hole of government waste.
The Great American Constitutional Revival isn’t just about exposing the problem - it’s about fixing it. It’s about returning to a time where a single income was enough, families weren’t forced into economic slavery, and we actually kept the money we worked so hard for.
Porterville, this is our moment.
The Golden Age isn’t behind us - it’s ahead of us. But we won’t get there if we let the Stealers keep taking from us while we struggle just to get by.
It’s time to stand up, speak out, and take back control. The life we want is within reach—we just have to demand it.
Respectfully, Josh Flowers From Porterville, CA.
