http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2009-05-18-auto-emissions_N.htm

http://www.reuters.com/article/mergersNews/idUSN1943363120090519

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/18/feehery.health/index.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/obama-calls-for-an-extrem_b_204903.html

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/19/cafferty.bush.administration/index.html

Looking at these stories IN ORDER:

• · The Government will now force car companies to build smaller, more “energy efficient” cars that Americans have proven time and again that they do not want, effectively forcing Obama’s preferred products onto the consumer.
• · The Government is on the verge of buying General Motors, thus socializing America’s largest car company. How long will it be before the Government begins imposing regulations on car companies that have the gall to oppose Government Motors?
• · The Obama Healthcare plan, which again pits the Government against the free market by “competing” with the existing private companies, will soon be underway. This will eventually kill those private companies because Government insurance will simply always cost less—unless you count the enormous bill that taxpayers will be funding until my great-grandchildren are eligible for public office (I am currently 18 years old).
• · The Government is calling for a “culture” that resists personal success in favor of “collective success” (my words, a paraphrase of the President). In other words: let’s destroy the free market in favor of a system that meets some bureaucrat’s arbitrary idea of “fairness.”
• · The Loony Left is honestly considering prosecuting Bush-era officials over simply having different policies than the current Administration. Let’s ignore the fact that Bush-era policies kept America safe for the 7 years following 9/11, and thwarted over 40 planned terrorist attacks, thereby saving thousands of lives or more.

Put it all together, and what do we get?

It is NOT the government's job to guarantee that you have a job, healthcare, food, money, or housing. Rather, the government exists solely to keep you safe while you provide all of those things for yourself. In other words: the government’s job is to ensure an environment where anyone—from any economic background, of any color, of either gender, adhering to any creed, and holding any set of values—can fight for themselves without fear of hindrance or molestation.

I take the time to say this because, according to a new Fox News / Opinion Dynamics Poll:

• ·      68% of Americans think that it is the government’s responsibility to make sure all Americans have food.
• ·      66% think that it is the government’s responsibility to make sure all Americans have health care.
• ·      52% think that government has a duty to provide housing to all Americans.
• ·      51 % think that government has a duty to provide jobs to all Americans who want one.

Those numbers scare the living daylights out of me. And they should scare any given capitalist, as well.

Look at history; look at facts. Every time that a government has decided to try to “provide” something to its people, it has failed. There’s a reason that, save for China and Cuba, the world has sworn off communism. It doesn’t work. Look at the Soviet healthcare system: you’ve all seen it because it’s two aspirin. That’s all that the great “medicine for all, paid for by all” could afford. News alert to President Obama: “Spreading the wealth around” does not work.

Yes, I will concede that, in capitalism, some people must, from time to time, fail. Capitalism involves risk and effort. But there are two sides of the coin: if you must own your failures in full, then you also get to own your successes in full. It is those successes that America was built upon.

To quote President Washington, “Like fire, government is a dangerous servant and a fearsome master.” If we start asking government to do things for us instead of us doing things for ourselves, then the government will ask something in return: funding.

To remind my readers: government is bankrupt. It’s true; the government has never spent a single dollar that it already had. Rather, that trillion-dollar spending bill that just plowed through congress will be funded by you through new, higher, and ever more ridiculous taxes. And, as much as it sounds like universal healthcare is a warm, compassionate thing for government to do; it is really a cold and foolhardy concept that calls for the government to play the role of Robin Hood, taking from everybody and redistributing money where government deems it more appropriate.

This also means that that “top 2%” that the President keeps saying will be getting a tax hike includes 85% of small business owners—anyone earning over $250,000. I hate to break this to you, Mr. President, but even if you raised their taxes from 35% to 100% (no, that’s not a typo), the government would still not have enough money to pay for your ludicrous spending projects.

Here’s the bottom line: government cannot give something to one person without stealing something from somebody else. Expecting government to provide for your family’s needs is not just illogical; it’s lazy and irrational. It is your job to provide for yourself and your family, nobody else’s. Government needs to step aside and get out of your way.

If Americans want to remain a free nation, then Americans need to shake this asinine sense of entitlement that has pervaded our collective psyche. Ours is a nation of the self-reliant. Let’s start acting like it.