SPENDING OPM (Other People's Money)

"Why do, basically, people with money have good healthcare and why do people who live on lower salaries not have good healthcare?" asked President Bush's 28-year-old daughter, Barbara (left). "Healthcare should be a right for everyone."

Universal healthcare is what everyone deserves. That would be optimum and it would also be nice to think that everyone deserves a home. Everyone deserves a decent wage. Everyone deserves adequate food on the table. Everyone deserves...(fill in the blank).

Short of eternity, we live in the reality that everyone may deserve all those things and more, but there is no feasible or economic way for the government to provide them.

History shows folks who have tried; the systems that tried to redistribute money failed. What works best is capitalism to give the "have nots" a better shot at providing for themselves. And we have laws that ensure that no one is turned away from emergency rooms.

We could look at Europe to see the systems that are failures, but if you don't have time to cross the ocean, just look at California and New York. They are in the process of trying to subsidize living and those states are going under. Look at Detroit. They already have gone under after thirty years of unchecked one-party "compassion". The same was true in New Orleans pre-Katrina. One party ruled with liberality and it was one big reservoir of helpless people. The poor didn't get richer, they got poorer.

How could that happen in the midst of such compassion?

Clearly, compassion is NOT "Uncle Sam picks up the tab". If Detroit and New Orleans are studied to see what happens when government tries to be everyone's Daddy...it should be obvious. Life just doesn't operate that way.

Instead, we should realize that Uncle Sam was never intended to provide for us. Uncle Sam's job is to protect us while we help each other. Americans are more generous than anyone else on the planet. And conservative/church goers are the most giving. HUH? Liberals are said to be caring and conservatives are thought to be cold. But as the articles below show, the numbers aren't witness to that assumption.

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2682730&page=1

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/03/conservatives_more_liberal_giv.html

Here are some additional eye-openers:

Liberals call for sacrifice and volunteerism and paying higher taxes as though it was duty. But check out the tax returns and see who walks their talk. In 2007, the Bushes donated 23% of their income to charity. In 2008, the Obamas donated 6 1/2%. Vice President Dick Cheney gave 75% to charity ($6 million) in a single year...versus the $369 a year average for 10 years by Vice President Joe Biden. http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-09-12-biden-financial_N.htm

Conservatives give their money; liberals give taxpayer's money.

That brings us to today's spending and the national debt. Taxes are sure to rise and there will be less money in circulation. Charitable giving will go down. The people who give the most will not be able to give what they have in the past. That will not bode well for the needy. When that happens, the government will be benefactor and determiner of need.

I prefer the liberty of choice.