Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you feed him for life.
Chinese Proverb.
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You know what irony is? Irony is the first “black” president enslaving massive numbers of Americans by increasing their reliance on earmarks, subsidies and entitlement programs. More Americans are reliant on the federal government for their sustenance than ever before. Do you think this is a coincidence? Guess again!!!!
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There are many forms of slavery and addiction. One can be a slave as in property or chattel. One can be a slave due to debt, a sexual slave, or in some cultures a slave due to arranged marriage.
Additionally, one can also be addicted to many different things or activities; from substance abuse like drugs, alcohol and tobacco to food, love, shopping, gambling, TV or even excess amounts of exercise. And today many people consider having to pay high rates of taxes as a modern day form of indentured servitude or slavery.
A countries citizens can be addicted to government subsidy and entitlement programs like Federal Unemployment Insurance, SNAP, Disaster Unemployment Assistance, Home and Property Disaster Loans, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Research and Research Training, Kentucky Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), Tax Benefits for Adoption, Terrorist Attack-Disaster Relief Information for Individuals, etcetera, Etcetera, ETCETERA. For a more complete list see of the over 1,000 programs representing 17 Federal partners see: Benefits.gov.
Our politicians and government officials at the federal, state and local levels are addicted to remaining in power by extracting exorbitant and ever increasing tax levels from the citizenry. Politicians create special earmarks and subsidies for their home district; greatly increasing the likelihood of re-election. They use the tax code to reward friends and punish enemies, shifting monies from less advantageously situated groups to those with more political clout. They use legally obtained tax revenue to pay specific groups to vote for them. This is how they stay in power.
What the master and the slave have in common is an unhealthy co-dependence. Each needs the other to survive. Politicians take by force and the threat of financial penalties and even jail, monies rightfully earned by hard working citizens. They dole out monies to those groups that will, in turn, vote back into office those same politicians. Once back in office these politicians reward their loyal voting blocs with financial largesse. Whether its college students receiving more government subsidized college loans, or the bailout of GM and Chrysler on behalf of the United Auto Workers, it’s all the same. The government shifts monies from one group to another. It is a bastardized version of Robin Hood.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report in April 2012 called “The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program” finding that in the 2011 fiscal year expenditure of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), formally known as Food Stamp Benefits, reached $78 billion, the highest it’s ever been. This means 1 out of 7 or roughly 45 million U.S. residents received this benefit in 2011. This was a 70% increase over the roughly 26 million people (or one of every 11) who received these benefits in 2007. Outlays for SNAP benefits (not including administrative costs) more than doubled during that period, from about $30 billion to $72 billion. This represents an increase of 135% in spending for this program during those years.
Although, the CBO also found that participants stay on the program as long as they are eligible, the benefit amount will decrease as family income increases, administrative changes to the program have made it easier to qualify and participate. This benefit fosters a permanent underclass of individuals dependent on the mistaken generosity, not of the general population, but of the politicians and bureaucrats who administer the program, creating a closed loop of inter-dependency between these two groups. The program’s recipients are dependent on elected officials for their sustenance and the elected officials/bureaucrats are dependent on the SNAP recipients as a loyal voter block. It’s the perfect storm. The group that supplies the funds to make this all possible is virtually frozen out of the decision making process.
In an article from THE CENTER for DATA ANALYSIS, the authors found some very disturbing trends concerning the percentage of US citizens dependent on the federal government for such items as housing, healthcare and retirement. According to the study, and adjusting for inflation, 15 times the resources were used to pay for people dependent on the government in 2010 than in 1962. Additionally the percentage of people who do not pay taxes and are not claimed as dependent has increased from 14.8 percent in 1984 49.5 percent in 2009.
Simply put, this means that more government resources are being used to fund more programs than ever before while the number of people replenishing the well by paying taxes is dropping dramatically. This means the disparity, between self-sufficient people and those relying on government entitlements, is growing at an alarming and unsustainable rate. Once the tipping point is reached, where more citizens receive most of their income from the government, than they receive from gainful employment is reached, we may never be able to reverse this trend. I am afraid that may be the death blow to United States as you and I know it.
I believe that this trend is a conscious effort by the Libs to change the social and economic make-up of the country. They are effectively creating an entire social group totally reliant on the federal government. Not sure? Just take a look at “The Life of Julia” if you’re not sure. Case closed.
Why are we following the catastrophic economic policies of Greece, Spain and Italy? Sometimes the sincerest form of flattery is not imitation. Can this trend be reversed? If so, how do we accomplish this reversal and what is the plan?
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The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.
Alexis de Tocqueville
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