Decision 2008 – The Novel

The election of 2008 has come and gone. It was indeed historic. But it was also very discouraging. In my opinion, the choices for president were “bad” (McCain) and “worse than bad” (Obama). But I voted anyway. The sad part was that my vote was merely an attempt to keep “worse than bad” out of office. But, he was elected anyway.

The only bright spot in the election process was that measures passed in California, Florida, and Arizona which define marriage as being between one man and one woman and essentially placed a ban on same-sex marriages in those states.

WARNING: From here on, I am going to rant about politics! So if you’d rather not read a lot of super conservative views, I suggest that you stop reading NOW. Besides, it is REALLY long!

My vote for president had nothing to do with whether or not I liked the candidates. Neither did it have anything to do with race, age, gender, attractiveness, oratory skills or dancing ability. It all boiled down to policy. So I voted for the candidate whose policies I agreed with the most. But it was slim pickin’s! As far as social issues (traditional family values, right to life, etc.) and foreign policy issues, my beliefs are mostly in alignment with McCain. But when it comes to economic issues, I think our country is headed in the wrong direction! Obama said “McCain calls it (Obama’s policies) socialism, I call it opportunity.” Frankly I would call it socialism too. But McCain’s policies are also headed toward socialism, just at a slightly slower pace.

I recently heard a political commentator say that 40 years ago government was seen as the problem, now it is seen as the solution. In my opinion, the fact that government has become “the solution” in so many people’s minds IS the problem. Politicians are promising everything under the sun because that seems to be what the people want and they think it will get them elected. But while people may want government handouts and programs and benefits that take care of them or others, that is not necessarily what is best for them or for the county. Such handouts rarely have the desired effect. People start to rely on the government to take care of them. And those who end up paying the taxes that fund such benefits rarely feel charitable or pleased that they had the opportunity to “help” others when their money is involuntarily taken from them. Most government programs end up being poorly run and costing far more than they should. Government benefits and assistance programs do not encourage self reliance or thrift or accountability or hard work. They encourage laziness and an attitude of entitlement.

In his inaugural address in 1961, John F. Kennedy spoke of pledging “our best efforts to help [people] help themselves”. He made his famous statement: “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.” I don’t know enough about JFK to know if he really believed in these words or if they were just rhetoric, but I am in agreement with the sentiment. I think that people today need to stop asking what the government can do for them. They need to stop looking for handouts and free rides. And those running for public office need to stop promising that the government will provide solutions to every problem.

After the Republican National Convention, I almost thought I could get behind John McCain and be excited about supporting him in his run for the presidency. These are the statements he made that I found encouraging and they are ideals I can believe in:

“In the end, it matters less that you can fight. What you fight for is the real test... We believe in low taxes; spending discipline, and open markets. We believe in rewarding hard work and risk takers and letting people keep the fruits of their labor. We believe in a strong defense, work, faith, service, a culture of life, personal responsibility, the rule of law, and judges who dispense justice impartially and don't legislate from the bench. We believe in the values of families, neighborhoods and communities. We believe in a government that unleashes the creativity and initiative of Americans. Government that doesn't make your choices for you, but works to make sure you have more choices to make for yourself… If you find faults with our country, make it a better one. If you're disappointed with the mistakes of government, join its ranks and work to correct them. Enlist in our Armed Forces. Become a teacher. Enter the ministry. Run for public office. Feed a hungry child. Teach an illiterate adult to read. Comfort the afflicted. Defend the rights of the oppressed. Our country will be the better, and you will be the happier. Because nothing brings greater happiness in life than to serve a cause greater than yourself …With hard work, strong faith and a little courage, great things are always within our reach. Fight with me. Fight with me. Fight for what's right for our country. Fight for the ideals and character of a free people. Fight for our children's future. Fight for justice and opportunity for all. Stand up to defend our country from its enemies. Stand up for each other; for beautiful, blessed, bountiful America. Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight. Nothing is inevitable here. We're Americans, and we never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history.”

But then McCain went and blew it!

I was enormously disappointed when he supported the $700 billion economic bailout plan. How do you keep taxes low when you incur an expense like that? And is it really a good idea for the government to take over the financial institutions of this country? I’m not even sure that the bailout will do all that the politicians claim it will; and there are a lot of economists who say it won’t do what politicians say it will.

Then I lost all confidence in him when in the second debate McCain stated: "As president of the United States, I would order the secretary of the Treasury to immediately buy up the bad home-loan mortgages in America and renegotiate at the new value of those homes - at the diminished value of those homes - and let people be able to make those payments and stay in their homes.”

Really?! Should the government be in the business of renegotiating your mortgage for you when you bought a house you couldn’t afford? How exactly is the government going to pay for all those bailouts? Oh yah, taxes…

When the founding fathers set out to establish the Constitution and initiate the government for this country, they held a strong distrust of a centralized government and therefore tried to give the federal government very limited powers. There are good reasons why it is not a good idea for government to hold too much power. After all, governments are run by men (and women) and “We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.” D&C 121:39

So how on earth did the government get to where it is now? Well, I think it really started with FDR and the "New Deal" and it's been going downhill ever since. I certainly wouldn’t call government today “limited”. The federal government currently provides over 1000 benefits and assistance programs. (Really! This is not an exaggeration. Look it up: www.govbenefits.gov.) These programs include social security, medicare, housing assistance, food and nutrition programs, education grants, disability assistance, child development programs, and career development, etc. I am sure that all of these programs are well intentioned. But is that really the role that we want government to have? Why should it be the government’s responsibility to make sure that nothing bad ever happens to you? The candidates from both political parties seem to promise everything. When bad things happen that aren’t your fault, the government will be there to fix it. For that matter, even if it was your fault, the government will fix that too! And how is the government paying for helping all the disadvantaged and less fortunate and anyone else who thinks they need assistance? By taxing the rich, of course!

I am hoping that you will not think I am completely cold hearted. I really am not without compassion and I do believe in being charitable and helping my fellow men. In fact, I believe we all have a moral obligation to help the poor and afflicted and less fortunate – those who are unable to help themselves. We are commanded by God to do this. I am just not in favor of the government compelling its citizens to be charitable. I am against the concepts of “economic justice” and “redistribution of wealth”. I think it becomes rather dangerous when the government can, at will, take the property or income of one citizen and reallocate that property to someone else. I think it is wrong to punish those citizens of this country who have, through their hard work and ingenuity, become "rich". Of course, if people became wealthy through illegal means, then they should have to answer to the law. But those who work hard and are successful are the most productive members of society. They provide jobs for other members of our society. So why should the government be able to take a portion of their property from them because others weren’t so fortunate. I think our founding fathers would be appalled.

As a matter of fact, did you know that the top 25% of wage earners pay approximately 85% of the federal income taxes collected? (To be in that top 25%, your adjusted gross income on your tax return would have to have been $65,000 or more according to 2006 statistics.) The bottom 50% of wage earners pay less than 5%. I am not anti-government, but I do think our government has gotten out of control. I also think that if they are going to tax people, they should at least make it fair. I think it would be a great idea to tax everyone at a certain percentage, or perhaps have a national sales tax instead of income tax. But tax structure is another topic that would take way too much time to go into right now. This puppy is already plenty long.

In 1936, the leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints met and established its Welfare Plan. Its aims and goals seem to be everything that the government’s Welfare Program is not. “Our primary purpose was to set up, in so far as it might be possible, a system under which the curse of idleness would be done away with, the evils of a dole abolished, and independence, industry, thrift and self-respect be once more established amongst our people. The aim of the Church is to help the people to help themselves. Work is to be re-enthroned as the ruling principle of the lives of our Church membership.” (General Conference, Oct. 1936.)

The government could and should take a lesson from the Church’s Welfare program. Actually, the government should get out of the business of providing welfare and benefit programs all together. Rather churches and faith based groups and non-profit organizations should be in charge of charities and assistance programs. I believe that most people, particularly in a prosperous nation like ours, are willing and anxious to help others - especially if they believe that their contributions will actually improve the lives of others and will not be wasted or end up in the pockets of administrators.

I can think of many, many examples that I know of when people willingly gave of their resources and their time. When the attack on September 11 occurred, my husband went down to the blood bank to donate blood. The line was out the building and around the corner. People here in Austin, thousands of miles away, were trying to do something that they thought would be helpful. You may say that of course people are willing to help when there are huge disasters. But you see people coming to the aid of others all the time. TV stations organize coat drives and schools take up collections, involving both monetary and non-monetary contributions, to help children and families inside and outside of their communities. Various groups organize ways to send care packages to military troops overseas. And lots and lots and lots of people, both rich and poor, willingly give money to or establish charitable organizations, not because they have to, but because they want to! I see acts of kindness in my life all the time. When I broke my ankle a few years ago, I was overwhelmed by the help and assistance I received. Much of that assistance came from people I knew through my church. But I was amazed at how many people from my neighborhood and from the school my kids go to went out of their way to help me. People I barely knew, who knew my kids from school or had heard about my situation, brought meals to us and called offering assistance to take my kids to soccer practices or to bring them home from school or to help in any way they could. My next door neighbor brought my kids home from school for over a month and always fed them a snack at her house before sending them home. She called every time she went to the grocery store just to see if I needed her to pick anything up. These are the kinds of people who would and do give to organizations that are established to help the disadvantaged and unfortunate. When I was on my mission, there were times when, upon explaining the principle of fast offerings, people we were teaching would voluntarily fast and then give money to the church because they wanted to help. There are already many churches and organizations in this country established to help others. And I believe that if government was not involved in assistance programs, then these and other organizations would take on the responsibility and people would contribute money and time to those organizations. Granted, there probably would not be as many assistance programs as the government currently has. But I am not sure that that would be a bad thing.

Government programs are wasteful and full of bureaucracy. And, I think one could argue that government assistance programs have actually discouraged people from being more charitable because they assume that the government will take care of people. In addition, people believe that there are many individuals who take advantage of the government systems who do not really need assistance. But I think people have more faith in non-government charities and they believe that they are run better. And if it turns out that a charitable organization is poorly run, people will demand that it either change its practices or discontinue operation. When government programs are poorly run, what can be done about it? Well, I suppose you can write your congressman, but ...

Okay, I will stop ranting for now. Most of this is just a soap box dissertation anyway, because government is too deeply entrenched in social programs to really change any time in the near future. But change has to start somewhere and people have to speak up to make that change happen.

Finally, while I am discouraged about many aspects of our government, I must say that I still believe that the United States is the greatest country ever established. The standard of living that we enjoy is unprecedented in the history of the world. Also, how great is it that I can go into a public forum like this and say that I am annoyed with government policies and practices and that I really wish that the President Elect had not won the election? And I can say it all without any fear that some official from the government or the Obama campaign will come to my door and haul me away or try to shut me up. People reading this blog may wish that they could shut me up, but that is another matter all together!

THE END