Here is my reply, slightly abbreviated, as I feel my actual rebuttal lies in most of the posts already on my blog and those of many other conservatives.
Kristen,
I’m glad you chose my piece as the opposing view for your article and I hope you continue your search for what it means to be an American. It is one of the most important questions you will ever ask of yourself or your fellow Americans.
You mentioned in your accompanying email message that you didn’t want to start a debate but I cannot let these arguments go unchallenged. It is clear to me that you are concerned for the well being of your fellow Americans and that is admirable. It is also painfully clear that you’ve bought into the whole “victim mentality” that permeates much of our country and serves only to reinforce the entitlement culture. While you say we agree on the fact that some entitlements are unearned, you don’t propose any steps to alleviate the problem. In fact, you mention it once and proceed to gloss over it.
I could go through Kristen’s piece line by line, but I’ll just do the first. It exemplifies the rest.
Medicare is currently doing its job now without being excessive, according to the chart you provide.
Did you ignore the chart after 2011? Didn’t you see the projected outlay of money to social programs which, if left unchecked, will bankrupt the nation? Not being excessive? Really? We are currently living on borrowed money to enable these programs. The interest on that debt is a huge contributor to the projected debt levels in the chart, not to mention when Obamacare really gets going.
You mentioned also that, according to some guy who wrote something (FDR – Corning), it is the social duty of government to take money from those who have earned it and give that money to those who have not (The bottom line of your quote.). The qualifications for that “benefit” are also to be laid out by the government doing the taking. You don’t have a problem with that? You don’t see the potential for abuse of power being actualized at this moment by the politicians buying votes with peoples’ taxed (stolen) dollars? This is why the Founders were against social programs born of the Federal Government, because the Fed. is too far removed from the people it is supposed to serve. These programs belong at the local, regional, or state level, if they come from government at all. (See Romneycare for an example of more government healthcare failure.)
It is clear to me from your arguments that restraining the powers of the Federal Government to its original “few and defined” number, has ceased to be taught in our schools. In fact, it ceased to be taught years before the New Deal. If it had been, people would have never been duped into such a ponsi scheme as Social Security or many other New Deal type programs. The New Deal was the gateway drug to government’s addiction to taking it’s citizen’s property, leading the way to ever more taxes and increases on those taxes for some other new entitlement, and now that they have set the IRS as a redistributive tool, they disguise any thievery at all in some cloak of charitable outlay while accusing the taxed of being cold-hearted, uncaring and greedy. Witness political projection at it’s finest.
Not far from where I live is a city called Port Arthur, Texas, which has a rich history in the oil exploration and refinery industry. The city has been run for decades by predominantly liberal policy. As of the latest tally the local unemployment rate stands at 16% to 17%, which is quite probably the worst in Texas. The jobs are available. High paying ones. There are many workers coming in from all over the country to fill positions the local people won’t take. Why? Entitlement Mentality. They have been trained for years by their government and culture to not take a job if it will interfere with their welfare or unemployment check, plain and simple.
The unemployment rate in the state of Texas is 8%. Even if we assume that 8% of the population of Port Arthur is indigent, how do you explain the other 8%? I’ve lived here for 25 years and I can tell you that they do not want a real job, even when one is readily available. If you look at most any city or county across the nation (Detroit for example?) that has long standing leftist policies I believe you will find the vast majority to be the same. People won’t work if they are paid not to. It’s that simple. Look for yourself. Question what your professors tell you is “progress” and you will find that their version of progress only takes away a person’s will to provide for themselves.