The "American Experiment" is being slowly strangled. The lust of power of politicians is successfully selling the snake oil of "free" government handouts for the price of citizenship and Liberty. And, it is diametrically opposed to the very foundations of the united States.
The very core principal of Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, is that all men have equal Rights and duties of Citizenship, that government is a necessary evil, that must be contained, and rulers are inherently untrustworthy.
The Founding Fathers set out to limit the power of government, and politicians, to base necessary authorities, while guaranteeing that the Rights of The People, Sovereign Citizens, exceeded those of the person they chose to preside over the government. Despite modern perceptions that the President governs the Nation, and rules the people, the very concept of the office in the Constitution is that he is in charge, only over the day to day business of running government offices, employees, and infrastructure of the government.
They wrote of united States, not the United States, as a State, by definition is Sovereign, and our States were united in Foreign Affairs and Defense, and Sovereign in governance within their borders. They knew that politicians closest to the Citizenry would be forced to be most responsive to it, yet that small States were vulnerable to rivalries and invasions. The Constitution specifically forbids the Federal government from interference of the affairs of States within their own borders. It affords for the Federal government to regulate only those issues that cross State borders, to maintain a level playing field.
The only authorized role of the Federal government in the lives of individuals, of Citizens, was to guarantee their God-Given Rights. The Declaration of Independence makes clear the Founders attributed those Rights to be granted by God, not man, and not the Government. Provisions were made for those that betrayed the Nation, that betrayed the Constitution, and for those that betrayed the trust of the People. And protections were built in, to ensure that Rights were removed from Citizens, only with a high bar of evidence, and the conviction by a jury of peers, and rule of judge.
It was given that the fruits of the labor of the Citizenry should not be taken easily by the government, and only in those amounts that were necessary for the functioning of a very limited government.
"Giving power and money to government is like giving car keys and whiskey to teenage boys." P.J. O'Rourke
That's clearly not one of the Founding Fathers, but it does elaborate on the wisdom they shared in the Constitution. It demonstrates the same distrust the writers of the Constitution had for those of not just unlimited power, but of any power, even the limited power they afforded the Republic of the united States.
Today, there are those that believe that the government should provide for the People. There was a time when it was argued that the government should provide a safety net, for those that could not provide for themselves, but that has expanded to arguments that the government should force the Citizen to be caught up in that net. The government simply cannot give everyone everything they need, much less want. The very concept of the fruits of Citizen's labor going to government, in exchange for the government deciding what morsels it will give the Subjects of the Empire, is slavery or serfdom.
It is fundamentally different than the Liberty of Citizens to determine their own futures, to benefit from their own labors, and decide for themselves what goods and services they need and want to purchase. But why would a Citizen prefer to keep his money and decide for himself to buy a service, rather than give his income to the government and receive the same service "for free?"
Let's say you want health insurance. Insurance is a payment to a company in an amount greater than your current costs, in return for defraying the future costs of the actual service you may need. The company invests excess funds to decrease your costs, and attempts to sell policies to those needing less of the service, at present. In order to not go bankrupt, the return on their investments and the total payments of all customers, must be greater than the payments for the insured services. A reasonable amount to charge the insured customer might be $5000.00 a year, with payments in the early years of $2,500.00 a year, with the company investing the rest. Already, the customer is paying twice as much for the insurance, as he would for the direct services.
Insurance is most effective for events that are unlikely, but catatrophic. That's why home insurance costs so much less than car insurance, despite insuring a greater amount of value. A far greater proportion of cars end in total destruction than do homes. The "risk" of a payout is far greater for a car insurance policy. The cost increases due to the government requirement that drivers purchase it. It is also why it costs more to insure a rental property than a homeowner occupied property (the structure, not the contents). Renters are less likely to protect the property from damage than is a homeowner.
So, if you have the option of insuring your own health, you would be paying for the associated risks based on your current health, plus the costs of the company to hire employees that would manage it, and the buildings they would work in.
But if you instead pay the government to insure your health care, you still have to pay (through taxes) the costs of your health care risks (that $5000/year), plus the government bureacrats that will collect those funds (IRS), that will choose your insurance company (DHHS), and disburse those funds (Treasury), as well as those that support those agencies (GSA), and maintain those buildings (ACE), and protect those buildings and bureacrats (DHS). All of those costs are additional to the $5000 you are paying for the insurance, and the base $2500 you would pay for the actual service.
Before the government has even begun collecting those taxes, and before it has even begun paying your health insurance bill, the Federal government is already collecting more taxes and borrowing more money, than any other government in the world.
For most people, it is already financially better to take the money and buy their own health insurance or medical services, than it is to take the health insurance as a "benefit" of employment, but when you add the costs of bureacracy to the equation, your "free" health care is costing you far more than that of even that "benefit," that ties you down to a company. Initially, these costs will be paid with "greater debt" of the Federal government, but already the Administration has pushed through greater taxes and is pushing for more, under the general auspices of government, while cutting back on the amounts they spend on actual Constitutionally mandated affairs, such as Defense and Diplomacy.
Wouldn't it be great if the government provided you all your basic needs, like food, shelter, and water? Or would you chaff at the idea that you were given 3 brussel sprouts, 6 slices of bread, and 12 ounces of meat a day, in exchange for your day's labor? Oh, yeah, that was tried, and it was called Feudalism, and tried again, and it was called Communism. Despite the ideological slogans that one was led by the divine decision of a diety to choose a monarch, and the people's communal property of everything, nothing good was achieved by an enslaved nation of men that were not allowed to make their own decisions. And current day examples of North Korea, Cuba, and Iran afford no better outlook on the powerful few ruling the individual lives of subjects.
The recent scandals at the IRS, DOJ, and Department of State (Benghazi) afford us plenty of reason to maintain, and regain, the limited government Our Founding Fathers prescribed.
To reattain it, those that understand it, must regain the halls of education. History must be taught. It is not just a list of dates and data, but a story of real men, doing things fiction writers cannot fathom. To reattain it, the Constitution and the Federalist Papers must be taught. To reattain Liberty, Citizens must not only understand their Rights, but why Our Founders attributed them to God, not government, but still saw the need to guarantee them from government.
To regain the Rights of a Sovereign Citizenry, the subjects of the Empire will have to give up some of the "free" goods the rulers have promised them.
Stumble It!
