Government Is Not A Charity

I don't want anyone to think that I am opposed to charitable giving or that I think we should replace the judgement of the State for the Fed in regard to taxpayer dollars spent on charitable giving. Government is not a charity. If I want to give my money to a charity then I should have the right and freedom to give it to the cause of my choice, not the cause of Barack Obama's choice or Nancy Pelosi or George Bush or any other politician. What I do with my money should be up to me. Now having said that, taxes are required to fund the necessary functions of government, like providing for the common defense, and infrastructure - roads, etc. Providing healthcare is not the responsibility of the Federal government. Cultivating an economic environment that encourages the market to provide quality, as well as competitive healthcare is responsibility of the Federal government. Not to mention, there are a lot of people out there with a lot of money, griping about the "40 million Americans without healthcare coverage". If they are so concerned for these people why not set up a non-profit that could actually focus on that one task and much more effectively help to provide preventative healthcare and/or healthcare for those facing a catastrophic health issue. There are some out there - St. Jude's, Shriners, Ronald McDonald House to name a few. I agree that the state of healthcare is less than ideal, but you cannot strip healthcare professionals of their ability to make a decent living - they invest a lot of time and money to get trained, to be prepared to provide care for others at their most vulnerable. And we begrudge them a profit from their investment. Fewer and fewer people are going into these kinds of jobs, because the cost is too great and the reward too little. If we don't figure out a way to incentivize people to want to become doctors and nurses we are going to end up with rationed healthcare in this country, which by the way is pretty much what has happened everywhere that healthcare has been "nationalized".

Why Don't People Get It?

It is not the government's responsibility to provide all the innumerable services that it is currently attempting to provide. If you expect the government to take care of you from cradle to grave, then you should expect ridiculously high taxes and not just on the rich. Government doesn't create wealth. All it can do is take it from those who create it. The Federal Government is out of control. Let's be honest, apart from the military, what else does it do well? Education? Postal Service? For crying out loud, both houses of Congress had to privatize its cafeteria service because it kept losing money. I think I have made my point that the Federal Government is not the most well oiled machine out there. It also is not a charity. Simply because a cause is noble, doesn't mean that the United States Federal Government should force its free citizens to give to it. When did our citizenry become a bunch of immature children incapable of being trusted with their own money. Why won't government let us decide in our own states and communities what we want to spend our money on? Too many Washington insiders are funding their pet projects with our paychecks and it needs to stop.

The Upcoming Election

One of the more disturbing things to me in regard to the upcoming elections is how little some people seem to be bothered by the lack of character and integrity demonstrated by so many involved. It is incredibly sad that so many of our political leaders have lied to us that we come to expect it. Let me be clear that while I believe that deceit is deceit, I recognize that there is a difference between "spin" and outright lies. Sadly, we have gone way beyond "spin" this time around. We should expect our leaders to be forthright about who they and what they believe. Not everyone bases their votes on intellectual evaluation of the candidates, most of us base our votes on emotion. That is just reality, but just because something is real doesn't make it right. We should vote our conscience, our beliefs, our morals, our convictions. We should vote for the person who we believe is best qualified, as well as, the person whose character and integrity we can trust. Most of us would agree that we would rather someone be honest and tell us something we don't want to hear than someone lie to us and tell us what we do want to hear. The truth always seems to find its way to the light and it is always so much more devastating when it comes on the heels of a lie. The current financial crisis is a prime example. There were people who saw it coming, even facilitated it in some ways and said the opposite in public, allowing the rest of us to continue with no preparation for the coming storm. These people need to be held accountable. Our leaders need to be held accountable. If they aren't doing the job they were hired to do in the way we think they ought to, then it is our responsibility, our obligation to call them on it. Even fire them if necessary. They will not police themselves.