Wisdom

I received the following paragraph in an email and thought it so profound, I had to share it here. I did a little research and as near as I can tell it is attributed to Dr. Adrian Pierce Rogers, a very wise man in my estimation.

“You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that, my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”

Profound words indeed. I wish our esteemed President would heed them.

Response to the President's address to congress - part 4

Well, Mr. President, now we have to address the final item in your trilogy of huge spending, education. Here’s where you went right over the top I think. You really left reality in the dust.

You opened your remarks by stating that this country is way behind in education. I don’t really know how you can say that with the level of education that this country has to offer. I can’t imagine that any other country on earth has better colleges than this country, yet you say we are way behind. But I guess it’s not really the schools since you said, “We have one of the highest high school dropout rates of any industrialized nation. And half of the students who begin college never finish.” Well Sir, if that’s the case, the problem certainly doesn’t lie with the school system. Kids dropping out of high school has far more to do with families than the school system and it certainly isn’t something that money from the government is going to fix. I’d venture a guess that kids dropping out of college has more to do with them not having the drive or desire to make it through more than anything else.

Then you just blew my mind when you said, “That is why it will be the goal of this administration to ensure that every child has access to a complete and competitive education – from the day they are born to the day they begin a career.” You’re going to ensure that EVERY child has a college education? FROM THE DAY THEY ARE BORN TO THE DAY THEY BEGIN A CAREER??? I cannot even imagine what the price tag on this one is. How can you possibly make a statement like that with a straight face? I guess you’re just laying it right out there, the whole left wing “cradle to grave, government takes care of your every need” concept. Socialism at it’s finest.

Oh, but let’s continue, “Already, we have made an historic investment in education through the economic recovery plan.” In other words you have already thrown a TON of money at this issue and you intend on dumping TONS more into it. Don’t get me wrong, I think education is a worthy cause but we are in economic decline right now. How is spending all this money on education going to help the economy, or should I ask, how is it not going to run the economy into the toilet? If the money spent has any affect at all, it will be 10-20 years down the road! You yourself stated your goal as, “…by 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.” 2020! Hey Mr. President, I got a news flash for ya! It won’t make any difference if they have a college education or not because the U.S. economy will be wrecked and they’ll be lucky to get a job shoveling crap on a family farm somewhere!

THEN, you said, “In the end, there is no program or policy that can substitute for a mother or father who will attend those parent/teacher conferences, or help with homework after dinner, or turn off the TV, put away the video games and read to their child. I speak to you not just as a President, but as a father when I say that responsibility for our children’s education must begin at home.” Thank you for stating what’s so obvious to the rest of us but those are absolutely meaningless and hollow words AFTER you just told everyone that the government is going to be mommy and daddy “from the day they are born to the day they begin a career.” I just don’t know which side of your mouth to believe.

Now we get to the point that you made a statement that I agree with but with your next breath you totally lost any support from me you could ever hope to get. You said, “There is, of course, another responsibility we have to our children. And that is the responsibility to ensure that we do not pass on to them a debt they cannot pay.” I was glad to hear that as were a large majority of the members of congress including the Republicans. A lot of them gave you a standing ovation at that statement. But then you had to ruin it. You couldn’t even give the Republicans one moment to cheer. Not one moment. You were so anxious to put them down again, you didn’t even wait until the applause died down until you almost shouted, “With the deficit we inherited, the cost of the crisis we face…we do what it takes to bring this deficit down.” You had to get that in one more time, had to lay blame on someone else. That's the one that did it. That was the straw that broke the camels back. You drove the point home that you are a hypocrite and you ARE partisan. Never mind that the Republicans ran up a debt over the course of 8 years and you just spent the same amount with the stroke of a pen a month after you took office. It's all their fault and you're not taking any blame at all. I’ve never seen such a hypocrite as you. Well, maybe Barney Frank…

Then you had the gall to say, “Yesterday, I held a fiscal summit where I pledged to cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term in office.” Hey, I got some advice for ya on how you can do that. QUIT SPENDING MONEY!!!

Then you just started just bald-faced lying through your teeth by saying, “I’m proud that we passed the recovery plan free of earmarks…” Right… no matter what you call it or how much you argue semantics, MOST of your “recovery” plan is wasteful spending that has absolutely NOTHING to do with helping the economy and indeed will HURT the economy but you stand up there and say you’re “proud that it’s free of earmarks”? Right… and Bill didn’t have sex with that woman either…

You went on to lie, er say, you were going to root out wasteful spending. Right… I believe that with a spending package that has over 8600 earmarks. And these truly ARE earmarks Mr. President, no two ways about it and I’d bet you’re going to put pen to paper on that turkey too.

You mentioned getting rid of no-bid contracts (good idea) and reform the defense budget (good idea if it’s done right, but have no faith that it will be) and root out more waste and fraud. Right… you know what? I don’t believe a word you say anymore.

You finished up your speech by railing against the former administration some more, then told some inspirational stories, etc, etc, but at this point I wasn’t much listening. You know why? Because I have absolutely NO FAITH that the Federal Government can possibly do anything good at this point. The more you try and fix, the more you foul up. Have you looked at the stock market lately? It’s pretty much been on a downward spiral ever since your big speech Mr. President. Does that give you a clue?

I actually had faith that our economy was going to recover, but now I have more doubt than ever. I remember when they interviewed a guy on the trading floor of the stock market after the first big drop and he said, “You know the government should just shut up. Every time they open their mouth they make things worse.” That’s all I see you doing Mr. President, spending my money and causing my retirement account to disappear.

You’ll try and blame the last administration for everything, but it’s in your hands now. YOU are responsible for what happens now. I think I see why you are trying to do everything now, it’s because there’s no way you will be there after 4 years and you know it. If you try real hard, maybe you can set another record. You can be the first black President to be impeached.

Response to the President's address to Congress - part 3

Well, Mr. President, as we continue through your speech to congress, it seems you are speaking in contradictions. Your words say one thing but your actions are just the opposite. You said, “…I will submit a budget to Congress. So often, we have come to view these documents as simply numbers on a page or laundry lists of programs. I see this document differently. I see it as a vision for America – as a blueprint for our future.” It looks just like a laundry list of programs to me as it has over 8,600 earmarks of wasteful spending in it. Personally, I don’t think you have much of a vision if your blueprint for America is to waste our taxpayer dollars and spend us further into debt.

You had to yet again show your hatred for the Republicans when you said your budget “reflects the stark reality of what we’ve inherited – a trillion dollar deficit, a financial crisis, and a costly recession.” Had to get “inherited” and “crisis” in there again, right? Don’t forget, the Democrats in Congress had a BIG hand in causing this “crisis” that you “inherited.”

Then you said, “Given these realities, everyone in this chamber – Democrats and Republicans – will have to sacrifice some worthy priorities for which there are no dollars. And that includes me.” Noble words but the REALITY is that nobody is sacrificing anything, including you, since there are a handful of earmarks included in that 8,600 that you personally authored. If you actually mean anything you say, you will not sign this budget until all of the earmarks are removed. I seriously doubt we will see that happen though.

You went on to say, “That is why, even as it cuts back on the programs we don’t need, the budget I submit will invest in the three areas that are absolutely critical to our economic future, energy, health care and education.” What exactly did you cut back on? The spending bill you speak of increases spending 8% over the last budget, which is much higher than the inflation rate, by the way, so how did you CUT anything? Usually, when I hear someone say they are cutting something, I think it means LESS, not more. Do you have some other definition of “cut” that nobody knows about? Maybe Bill Clinton has been tutoring you on creative word definitions…

So… starting on your “big 3”, energy, health care and education. When it comes to investing in renewable energy and ending our dependence on imported oil, I have to say, I’m with you. I think it’s a high priority to eliminate the possibility of Middle East nations holding us hostage with oil. I did, however, think that your statements about it lacked substance. You said, “…we will double this nation’s supply of renewable energy in the next three years.” What “supply” of renewable energy do we have? Are we stocked up on some renewable form of energy somewhere? What is it?

You went on to say, “We have also made the largest investment in basic research funding in American history – an investment that will spur not only new discoveries in energy, but breakthroughs in medicine, science and technology.” We know you’re spending a crap-load of money, but just because you throw money at a problem doesn’t mean that is going to guarantee a breakthrough. Then again, I guess it wouldn’t be a political speech unless it was riddled with platitudes…

You went on to say, “…we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy. So I ask this Congress to send me legislation that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more renewable energy in America.” You know, that sounds good on the surface but I can’t help but think that if a power company is restricted on how much energy they can produce with existing plants and you FORCE them to invest in other methods that maybe aren’t profitable at existing rates, it’s going to mean us consumers are going to be paying a lot more for our electricity. I don’t really think that’s a great idea right now in our present economy. Maybe after we recover a bit, but not now.

On to health care… “Our recovery plan will invest in electronic health records and new technology that will reduce errors, bring down costs, ensure privacy and save lives.” Hmmm… Is this going to be our health records maintained electronically by the government? I’m not sure I like that idea. How would maintaining health records electronically save lives, by the way? Oh, and while I’m thinking about it, how is health care reform going to stimulate the economy? It’s in the recovery plan, right? How does this improve the economy? Or is this just one of those things that has been on the Democrat’s wish list for so many years you thought now would be good time to sneak it through and call it part of the stimulus package? Or are you blurring the lines and calling the budget spending bill part of the “recovery plan” now?

You went on to say that the “historic commitment to comprehensive health care reform” is a “down-payment on the principle that we must have quality, affordable health care for every American.” So the enormous spending that is taking place right now is only the “down-payment”. I guess that means the major payment us taxpayers will have to cough up comes later. They you said, “And it’s a step we must take if we hope to bring down our deficit in the years to come.” I gotta say, you totally lost me here… Universal health care is going to bring down our deficit? Which deficit are you talking about? I see absolutely no logic here whatsoever.

Then you made me laugh again when you said, “…I’m bringing together businesses and workers, doctors and health care providers, Democrats and Republicans to begin work on this issue next week.” Right… I bet you’ll get some workers off the street to help solve this problem… But the really funny part was when you mentioned Republicans, like you are going to listen to a single thing THEY have to say. This is just another case of you paying lip service to being bi-partisan. Why don’t you just tell the truth, come right out and say it, you and the Democrats in Congress are running the show and the Republicans are powerless to do anything about it so you’re not going to listen to a thing they have to say unless they agree with you. Period.

And you finished off health care by saying, “So let there be no doubt: health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait and it will not wait another year.” I guess it’s sort of like the stimulus package that couldn’t wait until anybody read it before you signed it…

Don’t you think it might be a good idea to try and recover the economy first before you change the world? You think maybe that trying to accomplish all this reform by unbridled spending on everything ever wanted by the liberal left wing might just push our economy to the limit when it's already on the brink? Or is it your intention to get this Democrat Christmas list passed at any cost, even if it wrecks the economy? Maybe you think it's ok to take that chance to get what you want.

Well, I guess I’ll wait until tomorrow to talk about your third big reform, education, because that one might take a while…