Aye. It is the Christian thing to do for people to use their own money to help those in need. That is Charity. Taking money at gunpoint to help others is not Charity, it is thievery.
TRUE.
‘compassionate conservatism’ -where have I heard that before?
If you subsidize something (unemployment), you get more of it.
We have more debt, more unemployment, and less happiness in this country now because hope and change turn out to be discord and confusion.
You are right that facilitating a lack of productivity is not Christian at all, but for those who are looking for any possible sort of work available for an extended period of time and still find that jobs are not available for them, then there should be ways to help them get back on their feet and if one has a problem with the fed and state gov’ts doing it - and it is perfectly reasonable that one would have a problem with it - then there also comes a point where the churches and charities need to actually step up their productivity so that public funds are not ever needed for these situations.