Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Stealing is not Okay, Unless It's The Government

One absolute moral truth is that stealing is not okay, or at least that is what I thought. Apparently, I am wrong on that, because it seems to be okay to steal if you are the government.

Could you imagine if I was a volunteer for a charitable organization that provides to the poor, and donations were low, lower than usual, so rather than finding ways to reduce some of the administrative costs to hopefully free up some money, I decided to go into a rich neighborhood and break into the homes of these people? I walk into their homes and take their money and valuable items. What do you think the response would be? Would there be an outcry?

Of course in my defense, in the liberal tradition, I would cry out, "But they don't need what I took. They've got more than enough! Don't you understand? It's going to go to the poor. That makes it okay! It is a beneficial thing! Don't you have a heart?"

No matter the intention, it would still be stealing - and the people would not stand for it. I would be arrested, and in jail for my crimes. What I did would be considered a criminal action.

However, when the government does the same thing, it is somehow not considered stealing. After all, said Obama, it is about what the government can do for you. He says it is the right thing to do.

Hillary Clinton actually proposed, at one point, taking the "excessive" profits from oil companies to help the poor - welfare money for the poor with the money that the oil companies don't need (after all, they've got more than enough!).

My paycheck is hammered by income taxes, and social security taxes, and medicare taxes so that that money can be given to other people who, frankly, may not deserve it.

"But they're poor," the government says. "You have more than enough, you don't need it. We'll just take it from you by increasing your taxes, and redistribute it to the less fortunate."

Don't get me wrong. I'm not against charity. I believe that giving to worthwhile charitable organizations is a wonderful thing. But charity by Congress, charity by the government, is unconstitutional. Just read Madison's notes. Or read some of Calvin Coolidge's vetoes, for that matter, regarding the government view, or what the view should be, regarding the redistributing the wealth.

I am glad I live in a nation where I have the opportunity to improve myself, make a very good living, make a lot of money through hard work and good decisions, and own property where I can kick my feet up and enjoy my freedom. That is the hope and dream of the American Way. Everybody has the freedom to pursue those opportunities. Everybody in this nation has the right to pursue those opportunities. Yet, we have the government (and I am not just pointing fingers at the liberal left - because there is a large segment of the Republican Party that now believes this way) believing that it is up to them to be a charitable organization, and make sure everyone receives, and receives, and receives.

More than two-thirds of our federal budget is unconstitutional, and a lot of that is government's version of charity. I'm a firm believer that medicare and social security and welfare, for that matter, are all unconstitutional. Of course, now that they are in place, to take any of them away would create such an outcry - because once a society gets used to a hand-out, they soon learn to position themselves to be unable to live without it.

The New Deal by Franklin Delano Roosevelt (or should I call it the Raw Deal?) was the beginning of the end of American Liberty, the Free Market System, and America as it has always been known.

The Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson, and The New Deal. . . None of those liberal, socialist ideas fixed the problems. In fact, now they have made things worse. Granted, there were those short moments of prosperity. Our most prosperous times have followed fiscal conservatism, most recently the Reagan Era. Our nation enjoyed prosperity that carried through moderate Daddy Bush's presidency, it struggled, but carried. It was rescued momentarily by Gingrich and his gang, during Clinton's attempt to tax us into poverty. That prosperity from the Reagan years, however, eventually came to an end. The last vestige of it is sizzling out now.

George W. Bush, a lot of non-conservative Republicans, and just about every Democrat in existence, seems to think that the best way to save the Free Market is to destroy it with government intervention, with government manipulation.

That's what caused the problem in the first place! We are in this mess because of government manipulation of the economy - government intrusion into our economy, the free market, and our lives!

My friends, the government is stealing from you. But because it's the government, well, they claim it is okay.

And once Pandora's Box of bailouts is opened, Lord knows where it will end.

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