Analysis for Critical Thinkers

Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) describes recent bribe taking of Democrat Senators as “small stuff” that distracts people from the “real issue” of Big Government health care. His apathy regarding the purchase of votes using taxpayer money is appalling. Felonious bribery is always shocking to critical thinkers such as those who vist this web site. What happened was that certain Democrat senators who had originally said that they were opposed to the 2000 page travesty agreed to vote for the bill once they were offered various monetary incentives for their pet re-election projects back home.

One can only hope that intelligent, rational and honest politicians formulate their position -and their vote – based on integrity, reflection, principles and critical analysis of the issue at hand. It is disgraceful that their opinions and votes can be bought using other people’s money. In a third-world dictatorship or in a socialist form of government that is strived for so often even by our own countrymen, this sort of conduct is to be expected. But in our own country where laws exist to prohibit such flagrant corruption, one can only wonder how these people can remain in office, let alone out of prison.

Strangely, their defense for such atrocity is not denial, but the assertion that this sort of thing is done all of the time –  that this is how politics works. They then go on to recite names of Republican politicians that have done the same thing as if to startle the critics into some sort of ignorant acceptance of these crimes. Speaking as an American who has no affiliation to any particular political party, this type of conduct is unacceptable. I can expect no expulsion from office of these offenders because any expulsion would presumably require some sort of vote that we now  see can be bought and sold to the highest bidder using my money and that of taxpayers nationwide.

Such arrogance and lack of principles can only be handled through the ballot box. Let us hope that voters remember such conduct almost one year from now – on Election Day 2010.

I was walking down the sidewalk recently. I was passing by a house where some dogs live. As I approached the house, still on the sidewalk, the dogs began to bark menacingly at me. It seemed as if the dogs were trying to protect their master’s property by barking at me to prevent me from coming any closer. Apparently unknown to the dogs was the fact that I had no intention of approaching the house. My intent had all along been to simply walk past this house on my way to my destination. Once I passed the house, the barking continued until the dogs supposed that I was far enough away that I posed no further danger to their turf.

From the standpoint of the dogs and their simple logic, they are probably proud of their victory over me. They saw me as a threat, barked at me – and their barking worked because after all, I was “chased away”. Encouraged by success such as these, the dogs will likely repeat their behavior the next time somebody walks past the house.

Regarding the economy, the President of the United States and Congress are just like the barking dogs. They perceive some sort of threat and feel that they are the ones to “fix it.” As the problem gets better on its own – despite their meddling – they believe that their “bark” is what saved the day.

One big difference is, by meddling into areas that they have no business getting involved in, the President and Congress are prolonging the natural recovery of the economy. Having Big Government run the economy is likely the root cause of the current state of the economy in the first place. You can bet though, that when the economy does rebound as it always has throughout our history, the President as well as Congress will portray themselves as the hero and ask for even more power and more tax dollars to run what was once called the free enterprise system.

Examples of bizarre ideas that only prolong and intensify our economic problems incude:

– Spending record amounts of tax money seized from the successful people on trying to bail out unsuccessful companies.
– Taxing and penalizing companies for some arbitrary “cap and trade” formula made by bureaucrats based on the global warming hoax.
– Raising taxes on the higher-earning segment of our population, that is to say, the ones most likely to employ people, and then wondering why they won’t hire any new people.
– Seizing money from people who worked hard and long in order to finally pay for their own medical care and then forcing these people to pay for everybody else’s medical care too.
– Asking banks to “ease up on their lending requirements” to try to artificially stimulate the economy while forgetting that this easing up is what started this whole mess in the first place.
– Perpetuating the belief that if you cannot afford something, you can always count on Big Government to step in and seize some money for you.
– Calling the near-one-trillion dollar spending frenzy the “Stimulus” package and then counting jobs that were saved as some sort of victory. “Stimulus” implies some sort of growth, not merely maintaining the status quo.
– Believing that Big Government is in charge of – or somehow responsible for – running the economy and the employment of our citizens.
– Believing that you can always spend spend spend like never before as long as you can still blame prior administrations.
– Calling people names when they question the authority of Big Government to try to run the free enterprise system.
– Carrying on the tradition that if only more money were seized from people and more power were given to Big Government, any problem could be solved.

All we ask as citizens is that the President and Congress uphold their oath of office by protecting the Constitution of the United States. Please do not meddle with things that you have no business meddling with. And like the dogs who bark when a stranger approaches, do not believe that it was your victory when the economy gets better on its own. Please leave us alone and we will do fine thank you.