Some Truths Will Never Change
A photo was recently published showing Michelle Obama serving food at a shelter for the homeless in Washington, D. C. One of those being served his free dinner, a young, able-bodied man, was proudly shown taking a photo of the First Lady with his camera phone. While some in the Obama White House may have seen this as a brilliant photo opportunity, to me it begged two serious questions. If the young man was poor, how could he afford the camera phone and if he was homeless, where do they send the cell phone bill?
This photo could serve as a metaphor for the current socialistic philosophy of the Obama Administration. President Obama tells the public what they are seeing but the reality is far different. President Obama would have you believe that we have a disastrous healthcare system in the United States. President Obama tells us that we must radically overhaul our environmental policies. President Obama tells us that we must reform our energy strategies. President Obama tells us that we must pour millions into Wall Street and Detroit to repair the financial services and auto industries. President Obama spends virtually all of his time telling us all of the wonderful things that Government is going to give us. The plain, unvarnished, inconvenient truth is that Barack Obama has nothing “free” to give us. Everything, and I do mean everything, has a price and it will be paid for by current taxpayers, our children, our grandchildren ad infinitum.
When the people from the BBC came to Kokomo for the purpose of broadcasting a give-and-take program on President Obama’s first 100 days, I had the privilege of participating with a wide variety of our citizens. The program also interviewed people in Atlanta during the hour long program. One of the Atlanta interviewees declared how happy she was because President Obama was going to ”give” her more welfare benefits and social security. The reporter stuck the microphone in my face and asked what I thought. I told the woman in Atlanta that Obama had nothing to give her, that he could only give her something that he had taken from someone else. And so it goes with all of the President’s grand designs in social engineering and income redistribution. All of his plans depend on taking from the productive and giving to the non-productive.
President Obama intends to “give” everyone universal health care. How will he pay for it? Tax people who currently receive health coverage! Tax higher wage earners!
Reduce Medicare benefits! Take away coverage that some people now receive! President Obama giveth and Big Government taketh away.
President Obama intends to clean up our environment and reverse that nasty old global warming. How will he pay for it? His plan of cap and trade will require that the users of coal fired and natural gas electric utilities pay up to 50% more on their bills. Will you be happy paying an extra 50% on your heating bills? Of course, those receiving energy assistance payments won’t give it a second thought.
President Obama intends to make us less dependent on foreign oil. How will he do that? Will he drill offshore, drill in the ANWAR, and drill on U.S. owned land? No, his solution is to utilize gas taxes to drive the cost of gas up so high that we will drive less and consider using mass transportation. Are you going to catch the bus in front of your house tomorrow? How about catching a commuter train to work? Who will pay for this insane strategy? Everyone who drives a car, truck or tractor! The consumer will pay higher prices for transported goods. Talk about those nasty Arabs and their oil cartels!
President Obama declares that the United States must pump billions into our auto companies and financial services companies to keep them afloat. Where does all of that money come from? The money comes from massive borrowing by the United States Treasury. Weekly now, our country is borrowing over $100 billion by selling Treasury securities. How will we pay off these bonds? There will be only three ways of doing it and my suspicion is that the government will only consider two of them. You can only pay off the bonds by reducing government spending, by increasing revenues through higher taxes or by printing money. You can put your money on higher taxes and printing money. Make no mistake; you will pay one way or another!
Let me be clear here. I would like to see everyone have affordable health care. I would like a clean environment. I would like the United States to have energy independence. I would like our auto industry to thrive and prosper. I would like our financial system to be the best in the world and be solvent. I would like to see free markets and responsible governmental policies facilitate each of these goals. I don’t want to see President Obama turn to the Marxist approach of “From each according to their ability to each according to their need.” This approach has never worked and will never work, even when cleverly packaged and sprinkled with foo foo dust by the Obamasiah.
The ugly truth hidden from the American public by Obama, Pelosi, Reid and their band of merry socialist minions is that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Nothing that this or any other government gives you will be free. Someone will pay for it, most likely you. You can’t escape it and, more importantly, even your future progeny cannot escape it. The Obama social welfare and social engineering grand design will have a price tag that untold generations will be expected to pay.
This brings me to my final musing. If a productive member of society decides that they have become overloaded with the bills for the Obama Plan and they sell their house and move under an overpass somewhere, how will the Government know where to send the bill?
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