Stealing from My Neighbor

 

A while ago I found myself in desperate financial stress. I had unpaid bills, an overdue mortgage, and the city was threatening to turn my electricity off. To be honest I was in trouble because I had lived beyond my means and lost my job because of poor performance. Oh yes, I almost forgot about the little drug problem I had.

I noticed my next door neighbor had been doing well. In fact he had just gotten a promotion and a big raise. I decided I would go to his house, hold a gun to his head and demand he share some of his money with me. I knew that would be both illegal and immoral, but I was desperate.

Fortunately I didn’t have to rob my neighbor. The government tax man came to his house and demanded part of his money. If he refused the government would put him in jail, so he complied. The government took his money, skimmed off 20-30% in administrative fees, and sent me a nice check with what was left. I also got Food Stamps, a voucher for children’s needs, and was eligible for subsidized housing. Since I lost my telephone service, the government gave me a free cell phone. Getting money from my neighbor in this manner was considered both legal and moral.

Because the government confiscated so much of his salary, my neighbor didn’t feel he was properly rewarded for his efforts at his job. He quit working so hard. He didn’t like giving 40% of the fruit of his labor to me and others. It made him resentful. So at his job, he filled his desk and did little more. His efficiency fell as did the efficiency of his entire company. Innovation declined.

This story was not true, but it illustrates what is going on in America and much of the west. A few days ago Mitt Romney remarked tat 47% of Americans do not pay income tax, and therefore are more or less lost to a candidate who wants to decrease the size of government, thereby lowering dependency on it.

The corrupt media and his political opponents jumped all over his remark, saying he was heartless and didn’t care about the poor. This is untrue, but that didn’t stop the dishonest commentators and misleading ads running on TV. In fact Romney wants to help the poor by lessening their dependence on the government. He wants to re-establish the American values of independence, hard work, and self reliance. His opponents want to increase dependence and are not at all shy about using class warfare to do so.

Once being rich and successful like Romney was considered a good thing in America. The rich were admired. Children wanted to grow up to become rich. In America it was possible to become successful with hard work and good habits. Some of our recent presidents like Kennedy and Roosevelt were rich, and it was never considered a negative. Under the great divider Obama, being rich is somehow being evil.

Now equality of outcome is becoming more impotent than equality of opportunity. This is not a good way to go. The government can not make a stupid or lazy person smart or ambitious. But it can kill the initiative of the ambition of others by taking away the rewards of their labors. This is Barack Obama’s vision for America. He is intent on making as many people as possible wards of the state in return for their votes.

His now famous “Julia” campaign ad Obama pictures a woman who depends on government assistance from birth until death. She gets assistance from her pre-school years until her retirement. In no stage of her life was she completely responsible for herself. The government happily helped her through her life.

Julia had a good life thanks to the government. The fly in the ointment was that the government has no money or resources of its own. The government generates no revenue, the government produces nothing. The only money the government has is extracted from its citizens. So in other words, Julia is living from the labors of her fellow citizens. She uses the government as an instrument to take resources from some and give them to her. This works out well for the takers like Julia. Not so much for the givers, and not so much for society as a whole

 

Gingrich Owes John King

Newt Gingrich owes John King a generous gift next Christmas. The stupid question King asked about Gingrich’s ex-wife and Newt’s powerful answer propelled him to the win in South Carolina. I wonder if King isn’t a closet Republican.

If Gingrich goes on to secure the nomination and then wins the presidency, I hope he will remember John King and offer him a prominent seat on the podium at his inauguration.

Who Won the Budget Deal?

The recent budget deal has been characterized as a victory for Republicans because there were budget cuts and no tax increases.

It is questionable whether the Democrats really lost the debate. The government gets to keep spending like Greeks. The national debt is scheduled to increase by some 8 trillion dollars over the next 10 years, and it is a certainty there will be a lot of additional spending added bring the deficit way higher.

The Republicans got a small amount of spending cuts over 10 years – most of which are so covered in smoke and mirrors we will never see them. The only meaningful budget cuts are a few billion over the next two years.

In the mean time how many more times will the debt limit have to be raised over the same 10 years so the spending can increase? The deficit is scheduled to continue to grow at nearly a trillion a year, so several increases are inevitable. The only thing the Democrats didn’t get was a tax hike…yet. The so-called super committee has yet to unveil its work.

Why the Tea Party Is Successful

One reason the Tea Party movement has been successful is it has divorced itself from the Taliban-like religious wing of the Republican Party. Like the Taliban, the religious right wants to impose its ideology on the rest of the country with a ban on abortion, prayer in schools, no stem cell research, etc.

These things are religious beliefs, and whether they agree with them or not, many conservatives are uncomfortable imposing their religion on others.

By sticking to the straight forward call for smaller, constitutional government, the TP has dodged the religious bullet. As usual KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) works.

Party of No vs. Party of Less

Almost daily the Republican Party is attacked as being the party of no, meaning they oppose Democrat backed taxing, spending and regulating schemes. True to their beltway ways, the Republicans usually counter the Dems plans with their own plan which involves a little less taxing, spending, and regulating.

Thus the government grows ever larger and the governed grow poorer and find themselves with fewer freedoms.

But what would happen if the Party of no became the party of less? Instead of proposing Dem-lite plans and programs, why doesn’t the Republican Party begin advancing legislation that could actually cut programs, reduce spending and repeal regulations?

Maybe the Republicans could propose cutting some superfluous program by 25% and offer to compromise with the Democrats by cutting it only 15%. Isn’t this is the bipartisanship everyone seems to want?

With the relic media firmly in the pocket of the statists it will be hard to do. When something is scheduled to be cut, the relic media and the Democrats will trot out an innocent child whose father lost his bureaucrat job shuffling paper. It will be up to the Republicans to have a simple, well-reasoned, and direct response to these situations. I don’t see such a leader in Washington today.

Free Speech on the Right? No Way.

The mantra is that the left wants to shut down free speech. They want to control everything by using political correctness, the “fairness doctrine” for broadcasting, etc. It is the right that truly loves free speech. Having never experienced anything else, I believed it to be true.

Well, it is not true. There is a right wing website called RedState. Actually, it is not right-wing, it is a Republican site. If anyone posts a discussion or a comment that in some way is considered anti-Republican, it is deleted. The posters are banned.

Yesterday I posted a discussion about Republican RINOs. It must have gone against the “party line.” In addition, the fact that I live in China came into play. My discussion was deleted, and I was banned from the site.

RedState is a disgrace. The Republican Party should publically distance itself from it.

I Like Sara Palin, But…

I can not get over her quitting the governorship. Yes, I know she had several good reasons. The investigations, family considerations, financial problems, living in a difficult location from which to travel and develop relationships, etc. Still…

I like her because she seems feisty and doesn’t have the need to be liked by insiders. She chooses her own path and does not follow cookie cutter advice offered by “experts.” I like the fact that she excites grass roots conservatives like no one since Reagan.

Her political beliefs seem to be strongly conservative, and are neither RINO, nor birther. She has matured politically and hasn’t made the beginner’s errors she made as VP candidate. I especially like the fact that the relic media hates her, and she has been able to go around them in getting her message out.

My misgivings come from the fact that she quit her job when the going got rough. The problems she will face as president will make her Alaska problems seem like a Bermuda’s vacation. How will she handle them?