Oct

04

2008

Notable Quotes – Dr. Walter E. Williams

by Skip

Just found this over at ARRA News Service where they had a post on Dr. Walter E. Williams (I just LOVE listening to this guy!):

Americans demand that Congress spend trillions of dollars on farm subsidies, business bailouts, education subsidies, Social Security, Medicare and prescription drugs and other elements of a welfare state. The problem is that Congress produces nothing. Whatever Congress wishes to give, it has to first take other people’s money. Thus, at the root of the welfare state is the immorality of intimidation, threats and coercion backed up with the threat of violence by the agents of the U.S. Congress. In order for Congress to do what some Americans deem as good, it must first do evil. It must do that which if done privately would mean a jail sentence; namely, take the property of one American to give to another. . . .

-Dr. Walter E. Williams, Ph.D

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by Skip Murphy

Co-founder of GraniteGrok, my concern is around Individual Liberty and Freedom (and how Government is taking that away from us). My fight, from a Conservative (with small "L" libertarian leanings) and evangelical Christian perspective, is with the Progressives that are forcing a collectivized and secular humanistic future upon us. As TEA Party activist, citizen journalist (and pundit!), my goal is to use the New Media to advance the radical notions of America's Founders back into our culture again.

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Leave a Comment

  • wolfwalker

    If that quote is accurate, then Walter Williams just demonstrated that he should no longer be taken seriously. Government has always had authority to do things that, from a private citizen, would be considered illegal. Government requires such authority to do its jobs — even the carefully limited jobs it was assigned under the original US Constitution. (Which, in case you’ve forgotten, did contain a clause authorizing Congress to pass and enforce taxes.) The “taxation equals theft” argument proves nothing except that anyone who makes it has taken leave of both their senses and their knowledge of history. You can argue that a government takes too much in taxes, or that it does the wrong things with the tax money it collects. But you can’t rationally argue that taxation is by definition immoral or evil. If you try, you only wind up sounding like an idiot.

  • skip

    The problem is that, often, government has gone beyond taking what it needs to adequately fund necessary functions. Instead, in the name of “caring for the least of these” or “the downtrodden” or “the victims”, it takes from taxpayers and funds what used to be called “charity”. Instead of sticking to it’s proper role, it is becoming ever more generous in taking from many and giving to the few.
    And that, sir, is immoral.

  • Owen Bideway

    “Whatever Congress wishes to give, it has to first take other people’s money.”
    Who do you think is paying for that war you idiots love so much? A Martian coalition?
    Whenever those agitating against liberal largesse start spouting about such excesses, it is trivially easy to find examples of far more wasteful spending on the Republican side. Your party has ruined the economy of this country, has a certified retard/thief as a VP candidate, and you sit there chittering about “the welfare state.” What ribald hypocrisy.

  • mer

    You all must put $100 in an envelope and leave it at my front door by Friday of this week.
    SS and Medicare expansion. “Everyone gets a home loan, regardless of their ability to pay”. “Bush cut funding for education because he only gave us a 3% increase instead of the 12% we wanted”. Take a look at all the extras tacked onto this 700 billion “bailout”, who added them? I was under the impression that all spending bills are supposed to originate in the House (don’t try and tell me this is NOT a spending bill); since the House vote originally failed, is this latest thing even Constitutional?
    Owen, you need to put $500 in your envelope.

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