Analysis for Critical Thinkers

“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the constitution which granted a right to congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents….”
-James Madison, 4th president of the United States and “Father of the Constitution”

SInce that time, no such article has been added. The headlines today include the fact that the United States Department of Agriculture has purchased millions and millions of dollars of food using “the money of their constituents.”

From the USDA website: “Through the Recovery Act, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has made $100 million available to the states for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), which acquires food that is distributed to local organizations that assist the needy – including food banks, food pantries, and soup kitchens.”

This is an unconstitutional expenditure.

“But wait, you are evil! This is to benefit needy people of our country!” people may cry.

Do not misunderstand. It is not that the needy people of our country should not or will not be helped. However, it is not the job of Big Government to do it. Of this, there is no question if one looks toward the Constitution for guidance. The people of this country are among the most generous people in the world. There is no need for Big Government Bureaucracy. Let the people donate the money to their favorite local charity – or donate food – or volunteer somehow to help whatever cause you believe in. Maybe start your own charity. If you think that more should be done then do more – and get your friends and other like-minded people to help.

This $100,000,000 is not “Government Money”, it is money seized from taxpayers – the very same people who could have just donated it themselves – without the expensive bureaucrat middlemen.

The current rush to establish socialized medicine in the United States is a classic example of the tax and spend theory of Big Government. But as long as someone else is being taxed for it, the proponents say, the plan should sit well with the public. Terms such as “free health care” for all Americans sounds like a notion that no sane person could ever argue with – until it is pointed out that it is not free at all. Somebody is paying for it and it is not The Government. The Government has no money other than that which it takes from the citizens. Presumably though, it is commonly accepted that this “Somebody else” will pay for it – somebody else who already is paying for his own health care. So yes, it will actually be free for some people.

“It is time that the rich pay their fair share” was a common theme during the Obama campaign and now during the Obama administration as well. Force the dwindling numbers of rich to pay the way for the bulk of Americans who earn below some arbitrary number that keeps changing as the true costs are discovered. It has been said though that more taxes may have to be taken from even more people once they see what the cost really is.  Apparently, as long as a majority of voters are still the ones getting more for nothing while having the “evil rich” pay their way, then this plan can not fail – at least at the voting booth.

It is common to try to rationalize this redistribution of wealth by demonizing the very ones who will be paying for it all. “They are rich – they are greedy – they don’t deserve all that money! It is time that they give more of it to me!” Today, the ones taking money from Peter to pay Paul are the perceived heroes while Peter himself is portrayed as the enemy.

A recent headline describes this proposed socialism as a way to “finally make medical care one of the rights we have as Americans”. What is forgotten in the zeal toward re-election is that Big Government is not the ones empowered to either grant nor deny rights to its citizens. What is more scary than being forced into a new medical system that has demonstrably failed wherever it has been tried in the world is the growing belief that Big Government is once again the answer to any perceived problem and can do whatever it pleases if enough people are fooled into dependency of it.