GIVERnment

(The above cartoon is courtesy of www.sodahead.com)

I was reading an article from the Washington Post‘s Charles Lane last night, and he gave some solid data regarding the financial trouble we’re in, along with some suggestions for the immediate future. It’s well worth a read.

And it got me thinking……

There are a plethora of different debates which are blathered about endlessly: the pros and cons of welfare; is healthcare a “right”; economic “fairness”; etc.,…  The common denominator in all of these is government, or more accurately: GIVERnment. We have seen from the last several administrations the promotion of D.C. being (or attempting to be) THE central player in almost everything: student loans, energy exploration, commerce, …and the list goes on.

Is this the way to prosperity?

When we find ourselves in debt up to our grandchildren’s eyeballs, and our elected leaders vilifying even the attempt to rein in the profligacy, shouldn’t we allow some consideration to assessing where our current trajectory will invariably take us?

Yesterday I wrote about the self-delusional aspect of our current energy strategy, which seems to depend on ignoring the vast natural resources at our disposal. This could just as easily be applied to our national spending. The followers of John Maynard Keynes may bellow, “but the government NEEDS to spend even MORE”, but this has been proven false time and again, with the 2009 Stimulus being just the most recent example.

The United States became the greatest nation on Earth based upon the work ethic and pluck of her citizens. Some worked, some invented, some risked, some supplied. Charities sprang up and people gave their time and treasure of their own freewill. It worked. That social compact, however, is now in danger. Critics have increasingly warned against the imminent government-centric approach to our lives ever since Obama was elected, and in any society, the bigger the government becomes, the smaller the individual can be.

For the record, that is NOT what our founders intended.

We can make a difference if we don’t sit idly by and wait for someone else to defend our freedoms. The price for freedom is dear, as these men illustrated.

It’s now time for all of us to do our part….. and electing someone OTHER than Obama will be a crucial first step.