SOCIALISM IS STILL BAD NEWS - (Print)
Most Americans might not really appreciate this, but the U.S. Constitution
does not entitle anybody to health insurance.
It's true.
The Constitution does not require Congress to take money from those Americans
who possess more and hand it over to those with less. It doesn’t even encourage
Congress to subsidize farmers or pay for prescription medications. It just
doesn't.
In Article I Section 8, the Constitution does say:
"The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts
and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general
Welfare of the United States…"
It goes on to talk about securing patents for scientists and establishing
postal offices and roads and supporting armies and maintaining a navy. It says
nothing about feeding all the downtrodden. There were plenty of poor people back
in the days of the Founders, and they did not once mention using taxes to feed
'em. Apparently, providing for the general Welfare did include
maintaining roads and hiring judges and keeping the peace, and did not
include buying tuna fish for single moms.
Does that mean we should let the poor starve to death? Should we leave our
grandparents without support or health care? Of course not. It just was never
supposed to be the federal government's job to take care of these things. Here's
why:
- Congress is not an industry. It does not produce anything that can be
sold. It must take money from the people in order to pay for anything.
- Governments are by nature wasteful. It's easy to overspend money when the
funds come from somebody else’s hard work.
- Governments are run by imperfect humans and are therefore subject to
mismanagement. For this reason, it is best to keep them small and easily
managed, with very specified responsibilities.
- Governments are run by imperfect humans and are therefore subject to
corruption. For this reason, it is best to keep them out of trouble by
limiting their power. (Lobbyists and special interest groups could just go
home were Congress kept within its constitutional limits.)
- Bigger government means more bureaucracy, more government fingers in
private lives, and less liberty.
Socialism is corrupt by nature. As soon as Congress started taking
money from taxpayers to give it to somebody else, the whole idea of private
property was compromised. My property is not really mine if the government
officials can stick me in jail for not giving some of it to them.
As George Mason University economics professor Walter E. Williams
wrote recently:
"Whatever Congress wishes to give, it has to first take other
people's money. Thus, at the root of the welfare state is the immorality of
intimidation, threats and coercion backed up with the threat of violence by
the agents of the U.S. Congress. In order for Congress to do what some
Americans deem as good, it must first do evil. It must do that which if done
privately would mean a jail sentence; namely, take the property of one
American to give to another."
But...if the federal government did not take care of poverty, of
health care, of the elderly, then who would do it! Who would take care of all
these things that need serious attention?
We would, of course. We the people.
We are caring for people every day in communities all across this
great nation without any government involvement. Unfortunately, we Americans
have gotten so spoiled, we're in danger of losing the ability to properly govern
ourselves. We think that "freedom" means license to do whatever we want to do.
We think that "general welfare" means adding on to that massive government
feeding trough. As we have stopped obeying God's Word and controlling ourselves,
as we have gone lax in caring for our own families, young and old, we have found
ourselves in an increasingly deep hole, surrounded by a growing number of
government officials, along with red tape and high taxes, and... the poor still
with us.
Let's get back to taking responsibility for ourselves, to doing what
is right ourselves, and maybe we will find the federal government shrinking as a
natural result.
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