In the book, “The 5000 Year Leap”, Cleon Skousen makes the point that the Founders of this country did not intend for the federal government to be handing out welfare payments to people. The Founders believed in the ideal that people were helped more by requiring them to work for their living, than handing out the requirements for their existence. Part of this ideal came from the Bible and part came from the pioneer work ethic.

Dr. Skousen quotes many of the Founders in their writings against having the federal government hand out money to the poor. Many thought that taxing the wealthy to give to the poor a bad idea. They also condemned the idea of spreading the wealth around. Those statements are taken from quotes of the Founders in their own words over 200 years ago. It is amazing how far we have fallen in that time in regards to taking care of our poor.

Jesus Christ said that we shall always have the poor among us. By definition, there will always be someone poorer than someone else. To try and make everyone have the same amount of “stuff” is impossible. There will always be inequality. If the government mandates equality of “stuff”, it might be able to maintain some degree of equality of stuff for a time. As soon as the control is lifted, some will be richer and some poorer than others. It is the laws of human nature. Some people are going to be more industrious than others and so be richer. Some will want things done for them and so be poorer. You cannot eliminate the poor. What you can do is improve their lot in life. We have achieved that in America. The left talks like our poor are so bad that they would flee the country if they could. But, if you compare our poor to the poor of any other country in the world, ours have more things.

We have a massive federal bureaucracy to fight the war on poverty as President Johnson called it. In over 40 years of fighting this war on poverty, the percentage of “poor” has not changed. That is not really a surprise as you always have poor. That Democrats make us all think that our poor are so poor as to be barely surviving is a joke. Our poor are comparatively well off. That is not to say that I want to be one of the poor. I want to be one of the rich. I am working hard to become one of the rich. The likelihood that I will make it to the rich category diminishes with each passing year, but I keep trying.

My wife and I are firmly in the middle class. We started out in the poor category when we were first married. We stayed that way until I took my first full time job as a Deputy Sheriff in Colorado about a year and a half after being married. During the interview process, my wife was asked if we could live on the salary of a starting Deputy Sheriff, which they thought was very low. My wife replied that we had been living comfortably on half of that. The interviewers were astounded that we could have lived on less than that beginning salary.

Since that first job, we have gradually moved up the ladder financially. We would never be considered rich, but we do make incomes in the top ten percent of households. I do not consider that rich. I consider that middle class. We would have to make at least 2.5-3 times what we make to be considered rich in my book. Of course, Obama put the cutoff point where he would not raise taxes at that point 2.5 times what my wife and I make.

That is a typical story of most Americans. It is also typical of many of those who are poor today. Many of the poor are those starting out in life like my kids. They have little today, but over time will move up the financial ladder. Some have lost everything and will rebound. There are some that have been there for generations. To talk of the”poor” as all the same is wrong. All are individuals and need individual help. Government help is always “one size fits all”. When I worked for the government I was required to do things that made no sense, because they were needed in other states. In my state, they made no sense. Government help is always this way.

The Founders envisioned that the individual would help himself first. Second, the family would step in and help the individual. Then you move up the ladder through Church and other groups long before you would reach the federal government. Their idea was that the federal government was to come in after a natural disaster or something like that, not for everyday assistance. Many of the Founders wrote that general assistance to the poor was unconstitutional.

We have moved a long way from the ideals of the Founders when it comes to helping the poor. It would be wonderful if we could get back to those days. In my family, we try to help those starting out or who need help. We try hard never to go to the government for assistance. Sometimes it is something too big for the family or the Church to handle, so my kids have gone to the government to get some assistance. Those times have been rare. We are trying to live the ideals of the Founders when it comes to the treatment of those in need. It would be wonderful if others would do so as well.

The latest outrage on the Obamacare debate is the requirement that everyone have Obamacare insurance. If you do not have Obamacare insurance you can be fined (taxed) $1900. If you do not pay the fine you can be charged with a misdemeanor and fined (taxed again) $25,000 or go to jail. Since Obamacare insurance is undoubtedly going to be more than the $1900 tax, you should not get Obamacare insurance. When they come after you, pay the $1900 fine (tax). But, do not purchase Obamacare insurance. That way you only pay a $1900 tax per year for no insurance instead of $4000 for insurance. But, always comply and pay the initial $1900 fine (tax) or you could be charged with a crime. You do not want that to go on your record, mainly because the next fine is really stiff and jail is no fun.

I am being sarcastic in the preceding paragraph. They would undoubtedly have some provision that would require compliance upon paying the $1900 fine (tax).  The Republicans almost killed the requirement in committee, but Olympia Snowe (RINO – ME) came to the rescue and voted with the Democrats. You can always count on Olympia Snowe to come in and stab you in the back when you think you have a hard fought victory in the bag.

In this Obamacare debate, we are not starting at the right place. The debate always starts with the supposed agreement that we must “fix” our damaged healthcare system. We never start where we should start. That is: Should we “fix” the healthcare system at all? After all, we have the best healthcare system in the world. Thousands of people come here from socialist countries to get healthcare that is unavailable in their countries.

Everyone talks about how expensive healthcare is in this country. That is true that healthcare costs are out of control. But, even so, our healthcare costs are less than in any socialized medicine country and we get better medical care for that reduced cost. If you want the truth, the reason our healthcare costs are increasing as fast as they are is the government is too involved in the system. The fastest way to reduce our healthcare costs would be to reduce the government’s involvement in healthcare. Big government types would hate to see that last statement. They like socialized medicine as it gives government total control over the lives of every citizen in the country. Removing government from healthcare would promote freedom and individual responsibility. That is something a statist would hate to have happen. A statist wants a nanny state governing our lives from cradle to grave.

The other night, I was talking to some students before class. I made the statement that in general, less government is better than more government. In reading the “5000 year miracle” by Cleon Skousen, he said that the Founders were trying to find a balance between no government and total government. We have moved the ball far toward total government. We need to get the ball back toward the center of the chart. That means removing government involvement from a whole host of things. Ronald Reagan said it best when he said, “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problems. Government is the problem.”

In looking at everything proposed by the Democrats and the Obama administration, their solution to every problem is to inject more government into a government caused problem. That will not solve anything. It will cause the problem to get worse. If government caused the problem in the first place, more government will not solve the problem. Less government will solve a problem of too much government involvement.

Glenn Beck said the other day that the older he gets the more Libertarian he gets. I feel the same way. I started out as a Democrat and became more conservative. So I became a Republican and a conservative. Now, I wonder about the big government Republicans that have so much power in the party. We need small government Republicans to lead the party. Then we can have the revolution that is long overdue in this country.

Sorry about the lack of posts this week. On Monday, I had an emergency to take care of. By the time I was finished, it was 9 pm and I was exhausted. On Tuesday, I had to make up for everything I did not do on Monday. Today, I started reading the book Glenn Beck recommends, “The 5000 year Miracle” by Cleon Skousen. Just getting through the introductory material took me my full exercise period. I was really struck with the force of the arguments in the introductory material. I can hardly wait to get into the body of the book. I will probably be posting comments about the book over the next week or two.

Over the weekend, Barack Obama hit all the Government run media. He got real hardball questions like what he thought about the White Sox baseball team’s chances in the American League pennant race. That was really important to the future of the United States to know that bit of information. Had the other questions been weighty, that question would not be out of place. Since the others were not as hard hitting as that one, that one was out of place.

The Obama team thought they were punishing the Fox News Corporation by not putting Barack Obama on Fox News. That increased the viewership of Fox News during those times. That was some punishment. The Obama team is extremely thin skinned. If any TV or radio personality says one thing that might be interpreted as not praising the President, they come unglued and banish that host to the nether world. They call the host and complain. They call the station and complain. They withhold direct comments from Barack Obama as punishment for the misdeed. This group cannot stand to be criticized at all. Where are they from? This is America. Since the time of the Founding Fathers, politicians have been criticized by the press and other politicians. Some of the names have been much worse than those thrown at Barack Obama. Should anyone take these names seriously? No, they are just part of American politics. The Obama team thinks that the names are important and seek to stifle all name calling by anyone, unless it is considered positive.

The Obama team seems to think that our allies and the political opposition in the United States are the enemy. The people that have said that they want to see America destroyed are just “misunderstood”. The misunderstood declared enemies of the United States can be talked to and you can come to some agreement with them. With the political opposition in the US or our allies, they have to be destroyed or made to bow to King Barack I.

What the Obama team seems to not understand is that we have a Republic. When you have a Republic, the leader is a President, not a King. You can criticize a President all you want without fear of reprisal. You cannot criticize a King without fear of reprisal. The Obama team punishes those who do not give the proper respect to Barack Obama. In my book, you have to earn respect. Obama has done nothing to earn my respect. He has done a lot to lose my respect, but none to gain it. Therefore, I will not bow to King Barack I. I will treat him as Mr. President. Just like George Washington wanted it in 1791. It has been that way from 1791-2009. It should remain that way from 1791-51791. In other words, it should remain that way as long as the United States remains a Republic. I will do everything I can to help her remain a Republic as long as I live. If Obamacare passes, that won’t be too much longer. If we defeat Obamacare, I plan on being a thorn from now until Election Day 2012.