Posted on 08/30/2009 7:45:34 PM PDT by Roberts
Al Gore and Bill Clinton ghosts of Democratic victories past who are increasingly showing up to buck up the faithful as President Obama goes through his first real trials in office were the star guests at the Tennessee Democratic Partys annual Jackson Day dinner. . .
Clinton, who made a bit of political history by actually arriving early for this event, gave a typically rambling, discursive lecture on, among other things, the history of American politics since 1968 and the history of health care reform from 1994 on, accompanied by a corrective lesson explaining how the failure of his health care initiative really didnt cost Democrats control of Congress in 1994. . .
You need to back these congressmen and let them know youre not going to let them be steamrollered by a bunch of people who have been frightened, Clinton said, in reference to the town hall tumult of the last few weeks. Dont let anybody tell you that President Obama wants to ration health care. We are rationing health care in America.
Im not a very good politician any more; I just say what I think, Clinton said. But I have been waiting for this for 40 years ... to recreate the American dream.
Gore, in a much shorter set of remarks, was loose-limbed and noticeably thinner than in recent years and he seemed to elicit the nights most emotional moment.
Playing off the focus of the Kennedy funeral on the Gospel of Matthews parable of Jesus taking care of the least of us, Gore thundered that the country has a moral duty to pass health care reform. This year.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Can government do the work of God (Charity)?
What I have read and understood from the Bible is that God and Jesus wants us to help each other by using our own time, treasure and talent and to give from our hearts (”Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” - 2 Corinthians 9:7). Nowhere have I found anything along the lines of “Go out and institute huge bureaucracies that will take money from some people at the point of a sword and give that money to other people as a politician sees fit.”
Our Founding Fathers were Christian and very pious men. They founded this country under strong Judeo-Christian tenets and reflected on their religious beliefs on all their decisions. They wrote nothing into the Constitution of any type of government “aid” to help the poor, children or anyone else on purpose. They wanted a very limited government for good reason. Limited government is the best way to ensure that freedom will be preserved. The Scottish philosopher Alexander Tytler, who lived during the time of the American Revolution and writing of the US Constitution, summed these views:
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure.
From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s great civilizations has been two hundred years.
These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage.”
There are many interesting questions if citizens rely on government to do “God’s Work.”
If a government takes a portion of a man’s wages and does good with it, has the man also done good? If a government takes away a portion of a woman’s property and does evil with it, has the woman also done evil?
When a rich man pays more in taxes than a poor person, is he more Godly?
If the government then does evil, is he more to blame? A woman works for the government and uses other people’s tax money and does “God Work” with it, is this government woman now a good/Godly woman? If I legally try to avoid paying taxes, does that not make me an “Ungodly” man?
Today, the US government (federal, state and local) takes nearly 50% of a middle-class person’s paycheck after all taxes are factored in (income taxes, Social Security, sales tax, real estate taxes, gas tax, death taxes, phone taxes, highway tolls, sad etc.). Uncle Sam will spend more money in just this year (2004) than it spent combined between 1787 and 1900 - even after adjusting for inflation. I cringe at those numbers.
The Founding Fathers wanted nothing like the tax-consuming monster that we have as a government today. I also think of all the good work that could have be done if people were allowed to keep more of their own money and give it to organizations/people that they believe in their heart are doing God’s work. Maybe it comes down to trust. Will people do the right thing with their own money or must a government take a huge chunk of it to do the “right things?”
Except government rarely does anything right except for those tasks that were explicitly outlined in the Constitution as the Founding Father intended. I could cite many examples (such as where would you rather put $10,000 in retirement money - in Social Security or in your own 401k
plan?) but the plight of black America illustrates this failure beyond comparison.
In 1965, the US government was going to wipe out poverty by the “Great Society” programs, in which to date over 3.5 trillion dollars has been spent. These federal programs were designed to “help families and children” or “buy votes” depending on your political viewpoint.
At the beginning of the 1960’s, the black out of wedlock birth rate was 22%. In the late 1975 it reached 49% and shot up to 65% in 1989. In some of the largest urban centers of the nation the rate of illegitimacy among blacks today exceeds 80% and averages 69% nationwide. As late as the 1970’s there was still a social stigma attached to a woman who was pregnant outside marriage. Now, government programs have substituted for the father and for black moral leadership. The black family and culture has collapsed (and white families are not that far behind).
Illegitimacy leads directly to poverty, crime and social problems. Out of wedlock children are four times more likely to be poor. They are much more likely to live in high crime areas with no hope of escape. In turn, they are forced to attend dangerous and poor-performing government schools, which directly leads to another generation of poverty.
Traditional black areas of Harlem, Englewood and West Philadelphia in the 1950s were safe working class neighborhoods (even though “poor” by material measures). Women were unafraid to walk at night and children played unmolested in the streets and parks. Today, these are some of the worst crime plagued areas of our nation. Work that was once dignified is now shunned. Welfare does not require recipients to do anything in exchange for their benefits. Many rules actually discourage work or provide benefits that reduce the incentive to find work.
The black abortion rate today is nearly 40%. Pregnancies among black women are twice as likely to end in abortion as pregnancies among white and Hispanic women.
The “Great Society” programs all had good intentions. Unfortunately, their real world results are that they have replaced the traditional/Christian models of family/work with that of what a government bureaucrat thinks it should be.
I could make an excellent argument that if the US government had hired former grand wizards of the KKK to run the “Great Society” programs, and if they had worked every day from 1965 to today without rest, they could have hardly have done better in destroying black America than the “Works of God” that the government has done or is trying to do.
I have visited many countries in which the government “guarantees” that everyone has a job, a place to live, education, health care and cradle to grave “government help” for all children and families. It all sounds great except that the people in these countries are/were miserable. They wanted to escape but were forced by their governments, at the end of a gun, to stay. The “worker’s paradises” of socialist and communist counties are chilling reminders of letting governments do “God’s Work.”
The Bible clearly states that we are to help those in need. The question is “Who should help those in need?” I firmly believe that scripture and the historical evidence strongly support that individuals, private organizations and churches should be the ones doing the heavy lifting.
Government help should be the last resort. “Charity,” enforced by the government, is not charity, it is extortion. “Charity,” delivered by the government, is not charity, it is a bribe which corrupts both the giver and the receiver.
Very Sincerely,
2banana
Stupid***ed LIBERALS... they for so long PREACHED ..”Separation of Church and State”
There is no room in the Liberal world for church, which, as MOST OF US Know, Instinctively, is from where all Morals come,
Liberals sound absolutely HYPOCRITICAL when they start preaching MORAL ANYTHING!!!
EFFING MORONS!!
Yes, it’s right there in Matt. 25:36: “I was sick, and ye cheerfully paid taxes so that I might have government-run health care.”
Each of us has one overriding moral duty: To avoid violating the rights of others. That means we have a positive moral duty to not use others as slaves in order to satisfy our own needs. That means we have a moral duty to not steal from Peter to pay for Paul’s healthcare.
Sicko Hasbens,
We have a moral duty to send all you socialist jerks packing...TO CUBA!
When Bush mentioned God, liberals accused him of wedding of church and state. Their silence here is deafening.
Roughriders.
What do this bastard lefties say to us all the time? “do not impose your morality upon us”! Right?
Yes, and a guy who flunked out of divinity school is just the person to tell the country what it’s moral responsibilities are. Why isn’t it our moral responsibility to pass legal reform, tort reform etc.? It would appear there’s an ozone hole in his head.
Are you gonna "play on our fears" some more, you lying blowhard pussy?
I knew there was something fishy about algore's claims. Check out Matthew 25:31-46
Talk about scripture lawyers twisting the WORD, as bad as Bama half quoting Cain's words as moral authority....
Slick Willy wants to see Obama fail. If Zero passes this dog of a healthcare bill, he’s over. Hillary can then come in and save the day by winning the next election.
I must say I love it when Slick Willy sets up ZerObama. Zero falls for it every single time - not unlike Charlie Brown and the football. XD
these are a fine pair to use the word moral....they both would sell their mothers.
Clinton and Gore, but especially Clinton, have this certain effect on things they endorse. I wonder if anyone has the list. It’s quite extensive, almost like a curse.
I do not want to type the whole so called parable, read plain to me but Christ is distinguishing those He will separate sheep to His right hand and why. And the goats to his left hand any why and it is there where algore gets his moral authority of 'the least of these', those separated 'goats' on the 'left' hand....... Yep Christ spoke of the "RIGHT and the LEFT" ... Matthew 25:31-46

Like it is a moral imperative to pass Cap and Trade, huh, Gore? How about shut your piehole.
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