Ok, FreedomWorks and Tea Party Patriots, we have heard and seen your message on the Capitol Mall and in cities all over the country on this significant day, September 12, 2009!
We understand you want to take back America, want to stop the burden of taxation, want to restore liberty, want to promote a return to the old virtues of family, community, and personal responsibility, with no such thing as being your “brother’s keeper”. In other words, you want to go back to the age of unbridled capitalism, individualism, small town America, a country without major international commitments, and a time when either we did not have racial and ethnic and religious minorities, but if they existed anyway, they knew their status in society.
Ok, so let’s work to bring this back! First thing is cut defense dramatically, as we cannot afford it. Next, cut Social Security and Medicare, as they are socialistic programs. Third, we have to get rid of bureaucracy in government and unnecessary civil servants, so we have to cut out mail delivery, bank deposit insurance, unemployment compensation, aid to disabled and handicapped people, research on health issues and disease, public schools, parks, beaches, libraries, public universities and community colleges, the police force, firefighters, prison guards, road building, the court system, regulation of banks and stock markets, public transportation, and whatever else is not specifically mentioned in this paragraph, but is obviously wasteful spending and not allowed in the Constitution!
Imagine, almost no government, and lots of taxes saved, and a sense of freedom and liberty! Isn’t this GRAND, or is it?
Is it possible you guys and gals in the FreedomWorks and Tea Party Patriots just might reconsider when you see the implications of what you are demanding?
Is it possible that the American people will come to realize that you DON’T have the solutions, and in fact, when one of you said, we are “not our brother’s keepers”, that that is not following religious teachings which you espouse to, as Jesus Christ said just that, that we ARE “our brother’s keepers”?
In other words, why are you doing what you are doing? Could it be you are arousing discontent for your own financial and power advantages? Oh no, you say, NO WAY, but I say it is very obvious that you who lead this march today are deceiving the American people, and misleading them in a delusional way!
The reality is there is no “free lunch”! If you want government, which despite what you say we all NEED, then you MUST PAY TAXES as part of the responsibility of citizenship! Anything else espoused is a BUNCH OF LIES perpetrated on the American people to their detriment!
“…A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.”
-Thomas Jefferson
First Inaugural Address, Wednesday, March 4, 1801
I welcome your participation in this blog, Mike, but I must point out that Thomas Jefferson has been utilized constantly by conservatives, but yet he adopted Hamiltonian ideas over time. He wrote so much that he can be quoted to back anything you want to defend, but I would contend that Jefferson ultimately was a realist, and would not believe that ideas from 1801 could apply in 2009. The Constitution is a LIVING document and the elastic clause, Article 1, Section 8, allows for expansion of government when “necessary and proper”, for the “common defense and general welfare”. I would appreciate your explaining what could be cut from government in order to lower taxes, and how in the modern world, the national government can become smaller, and give more power back to the states, when states themselves have proved much too often their inability to govern without national government intervention. State and local governments have had a far worse record of performance than the national government historically.
Mike, look how well we, as a people, have done following this example. Greed and theft took over and all of us are on the hook for it. Wallstreet was unregulated, banks were unregulated, and those issuing the loans were unregulated. Why, on earth, would you want that to continue? We are on the brink of complete collapse as a result.
Some other quotes that may interest you:
“If human beings are fundamentally good, no government is necessary; if they are fundamentally bad, any government, being composed of human beings, would be bad also. ”
Fred Woodworth
“If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”
James Madison