President Obama's America

All you really needed to know about President Obama’s understanding of America was found in one of the introductory lines of his "jobs" speech. Obama’s America is one in which "everyone gets a fair shake and does their fair share." This is nothing more than slang for the core principle of communism as explained by Karl Marx; "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." Obama’s vision is Marx’s vision and everything in this speech is explained by this statement.

To bring about the communist ideal where private property is abolished and everyone is made "equal", an all powerful government needs to be established to equitably redistribute the property the greedy capitalists have stolen from the poor working man. Obama repeated his call for a war on the successful, vowing to take even more from those who actually create wealth and prosperity. He brought up his favorite billionaire, Warren Buffet, again. He said even Warren agrees that he doesn’t pay enough taxes and that Warren said that government should take more of his money. Warren should shut up. If he wants to "contribute" more, no one’s stopping him. He should put his money where his mouth is instead of shielding as much of his income and wealth as he can from taxes and fighting the IRS to keep from paying the taxes he already owes. But Warren is a prime example for Obama’s belief that all rich people are really stingy, cruel, immoral people who are incapable of compassion and therefore must have it forcibly extracted from them. If poor Warren, who has so much more than he needs, won’t give even when he says he should, then it is obvious that the only way the rich are going to help those "less fortunate" is if the government shows up with a gun and takes it.

In Obama’s understanding of America, we became a great nation because of government and only government intervention and expansion can make us great again. It was when we abandoned the "rigid idea of what government could and could not do" , i.e. the Constitution, and passed the great "entitlement" programs that America became a nation worthy of greatness. It is obvious that our form of government as described in the Constitution is an impediment to Obama’s communist vision. For Obama, government should be able to confiscate, redistribute, regulate and control without restraint. To that end he must work to bring down the structure of government that exists within the constraints of the Constitution and replace it with an autocratic form much more conducive to implementing his vision. He has already shown himself to be more dictatorial than any other president. He rules by fiat whenever he can get away with it. He ignores the rules or makes them up as he goes along. If congress can’t or won’t act, it is his prerogative to do so.

But to really achieve his goal, he must collapse the current system. This explains his push for a larger and larger payroll tax reduction. No statist ever wants to reduce taxes but this has been a theme in the Obama administration for a while. Why? Because all the spending and borrowing is meant to collapse the system. We all know Social Security is a Ponzi scheme we have been forced to contribute to and is, therefore, by definition, unsustainable. The dates for its demise under the current structure vary but there is no question that if Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid continue as they are, they will break the bank, a bank that is already broke. Obamacare is accelerating that day for the heath care side of the equation. If we suddenly cut in half the amount of money we are contributing to the Social Security "trust fund", will it not break sooner? The crisis these bankrupt entitlements create will be just the excuse a statist will need to step in and take even more wealth and control; and the majority of Americans will ask for it. We want our "free" health care and our pensions and if we are convinced after many years of liberal indoctrination that Obama is right, the Constitution is an impediment to our happiness, we will allow the autocrats to ignore or scrap it and accept whatever keeps the goodies flowing.
In Obama’s America we are not allowed to be on our own, or write our own rules. No, we must take care of each other and government exists to make sure we do. Without this bill children will not be educated, roads will not be repaired, veterans will not get jobs, teen-agers will spend their summers playing video games and America will never out build or out innovate the rest of the world. If government doesn’t spend a half trillion dollars, America is finished. Of course he never said where that money was coming from, only that it was "paid for." By whom? The rich? If you confiscated all the wealth of the rich, it would fund the government for a period of weeks, at most. Savings elsewhere? Laughable. This president and even the Republicans in congress haven't shown any ability to cut anything substantial from a federal budget for which "bloated" seems an inadequate description anymore and suddenly they are going to come up with a half trillion dollars of savings this year? No, we will all pay, we and our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren through debt and inflation. All to ensure jobs for government employees and union members.

President Obama, your vision of America is most un-American. America is not a place where everyone gets a fair shake and does their fair share. Life is not fair. The circumstances of everyone’s birth are different and very unequal. Some are born poor, others rich. Some are born on the mean streets of the inner city, others on expansive farms. Some have parents that spoil them, other have parents that neglect them. In most places in the world and throughout history, birth determines opportunity. Once a serf, slave or peasant, always a serf, slave or peasant. That is "unfair" and unjust. America was the first to reject this idea. Every man is equal in his capacity for success and in America, no matter what a man’s previous circumstances were, he had the opportunity to try to make what he could of himself. He owned what he acquired through his hard work, no one else could claim it. Some accumulated more than others because they were smarter or harder working or even "luckier" but the whole world benefited from the innovations and wealth produced by truly free men.

President Obama, government did not make America successful. America was successful because its government took little and did little. America did not become compassionate because of government. America was, and is, the most compassionate nation on earth because of our religious heritage. If, as you said in your conclusion, you really want to see America great once again, cure her ills, and restore hope and prosperity to all her people, you need not spend another dime. Just give us opportunity. Opportunity to succeed and keep the fruits of our success. Let us work without a government bureaucrat looking over our shoulder with his hand in our pocket. Freedom, not coercion, is the key to peace and prosperity. Until we have people in government who actually believe that and have the courage to act on it, we are condemned to continue our decline with this president leading the way.