I heard this wonderful little snippet that I had to rewind and hear about twenty times just to make sure I heard it come out of the President’s speech tonight:
A belief that in this country, hard work and responsibility should be rewarded by some measure of security and fair play. And an acknowledgment that sometimes government has to step in to help deliver on that promise.
This has always been the history of our progress.
In 1935, when over half of our seniors could not support themselves and millions had seen their savings wiped away, there were those who argued that Social Security would lead to socialism. But the men and women of Congress stood fast, and we are all the better for it.
In 1965, when some argued that Medicare represented a government takeover of health care, members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, did not back down.
I will agree with the statement that hard work and responsibility SHOULD be rewarded with “some measure of security and fair play” in that if you work an honest days work, you should find yourself better off. SHOULD. There is no guarantee, never has been. Living is risk. Doing anything carries risk. You can work your butt off and circumstances could pop up and “BAM”, everything you worked for is gone. OR things go really, really well, and you are comfortable and wealthy beyond one’s wildest imagination. That is our history.
Not the GOVERNMENT having to come in to “help deliver on that promise”, though I’m not sure what the “promise” was.
And THEN he has the guts to come out and say that this is the way our “progress” has always been, using FDR’s New Deal and Johnson’s Great Society as examples of “always”. Yeah. Don’t go back to the Founders, but just back into the progressive era of this country where the foundations of socialism were set, where the soft tyranny could begin, complete with the nanny state we will all enjoy. This is a slow creep. Though it seems that the snowball has picked up momentum in the last few years or so…
We have gone from equality of opportunity to equality of results. We must now guarantee a certain level for each citizen to enjoy, regardless of effort or circumstance. And we must take away from others in order to do this. Once again, our Founders did not intend this.
Bah. I fundamentally differ with this man, and the majority of his party and supporters. They believe in “leveling” the playing field, implying that adversity, and overcoming it, are their jobs and not each individual citizens.
Before some lefty troll jumps in and starts sqwaking that I am talking all crazy anarachist here, let me say that the government, local, state and federal all have their roles, with the federals the weakest as far as what it should be meddling in. That being said, if laws are being broke to the detriment of one, then ofcourse the government steps in to the fray to correct it.
And how the U.S. Constitution is being violated here requiring the use of federal power to correct a violation of a right is lost on me, and is just ignored as a non-issue. Because only those crazy Ron Paulians or nutty libertarians give a rats arse about that withered old parchment anymore. Shoot, there is a NEEEEEEEED. People are HUUUURRRRTTTING! Going BAAAAANKRUPT! Blah. Blah. Blah. I don’t say this to be harsh or cold, but the people spewing these sob stories are doing so not because they want me to help them, but so that I will let the government step in and help them, by taking away my choice and freedoms, confiscating more of my wealth and property, all to further their agendas that they can’t pay for. Yeah, that was a run-on sentence, I’m pretty sure, but I’m on a roll, so screw it.
On Fox, they’re discussing the cost, and how the President is pretty much got 10 pounds of crap stuffed into a 5 pound bag with his figures on how to pay for it. Not just the evil Repubs, but even Obama supporters are saying that he’s off. On CNN, they’re stuck on lamenting the “LIE” outcry during his speech that got Pelosi’s eyes bugged out and her hot under the collar, and anything else but the costs. I won’t even turn over to MSNBC where Matthew’s leg is quivering, Olbermann is frothing at the mouth, and Maddow, well, I can’t even look at her much listen to her smug Adam’s apple.
The question I have is, how are we going to fight this when it passes. And it will pass, in some form. Public option or not, the government will show its tentacles in the bathing suit areas of our liberties. Will the states say enough! We reassert our rights under that dusty and ill-used 10th Amendment, and since this has nothing to do with interstate commerce, you can go pound sand D.C. Or will individuals say that they’re rights are being violated because the federal government has come and ORDERED them, under penalty of law, to purchase a product. And this is NOT like auto insurance. IF I don’t own a car, I don’t have to purchase auto insurance. When this happens, and our freedoms continue to be whittled away for our own good, when is enough enough? And where do WE go to find freedom again?
Bah. I’m going to bed…