From the Wall Street Journal:
“In 2010 alone, government at all levels oversaw a transfer of over $2.2 trillion in money, goods and services. The burden of these entitlements came to slightly more than $7,200 for every person in America. Scaled against a notional family of four, the average entitlements burden for that year alone approached $29,000.
A half-century of unfettered expansion of entitlement outlays has completely inverted the priorities, structure and functions of federal administration as these were understood by all previous generations”
“.. approached $29,000“. That is set against the average income of the American family around $54,000 – and it becomes easy to see why families are paying 50% of their income in taxes (or more) to all levels of government (local, county, state, and Federal). Is this what the Founders wanted to create – families paying half of what they have labored for to fund Government? I think not.
Is it really the role of Government to take care of us? Or is it the role of Government to simply set a floor so that we can take care of ourselves? Or has something happened to our national psyche such that our formerly “con-do, self-reliant” outlook has been reduced to a “take care of me!” mentality? In looking at the chart, I fear that the answer is yes. Have we gone from a general Society that depends on Individuals voluntarily banding together to solve problems in helping others to one where Individuals have outsourced that responsibility to Government?
Or have we been just been handed the line that ONLY Government can fix “what ails us” by politicians trolling for votes and Progressives Regressives – and swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. Have we been seduced by the lure of “hey, you CAN take it easier – Government will worry about the big stuff”? And never have to worry about the cost (where the financial cost may well be the least of the costs)? All it takes is a line like racecar driver Danica Patrick:
“I leave it up to the government to make good decisions for Americans.”
What ever happened to US making good decisions for ourselves – and telling government to stay the heck out of OUR personal lives? Regressives are all about Government staying out of our bedrooms; the problem is that they want to take over and be the National Busybodies over pretty much everything else we do. That Liberal canard of “Government is just the stuff we choose to do together” is rapidly becoming “Government is telling us what stuff we WILL do together”.
(H/T: Instapundit)
