Whatever happened to personal responsibility>

Whatever happened to personal responsibility?

I hear this refrain quite often. I see and hear too often people in this country who will not accept responsibility for anything – not their activities, not their jobs, not even their lives. They want everything given to them, grades in school, government hand-outs, pay for jobs NOT done, etc. And many people are willing to lie, cheat and steal to get these “free” things.

Many people take direction from those who lead them and surround them; children learn from their parents & siblings, students from their teachers and classmates, employees from their bosses and other employees, citizens from their neighbors and elected officials, so if their role models & peers do not take responsibility, why should they?

I read this week that 47% of US households will pay no taxes for 2009. Either their incomes were too low, or they qualified for enough credits, deductions and exemptions to eliminate their liability. In fact, the bottom 40 percent of households by income, on average, make a profit from the federal income tax, meaning they get more money in tax credits than they would otherwise owe in taxes. For those people, the government sends them a payment.

This is responsible behavior? You could make the argument that these people did nothing wrong, that they are just in a position to take advantage of a system that they did not create, but that everyone must live with. I can see the logic of this argument, but I disagree with the basic premise.

Our federal government set up this system, and the question is “Why?” I argue that they did it to buy votes – plain and simple. Politicians overriding objective is to keep their offices. It is better for them to do everything in their power to buy votes, and what better way to buy votes than give the citizens money?

Personal responsibility by elected officials to do the right thing for the country? Please. Personal responsibility by citizens to NOT take the money? Are you nuts? Its FREE!

Now, I don’t expect citizens to NOT file a tax return or NOT accept a lawful payment from the government. I realize this is asking too much. We do have to play by the rules, even when the game is fixed. Let’s fix the rules and un-fix the game.
I heard a definition of character that I really like: Character is what you do when no one is watching. Think about that for a minute. It comes down to morality and conscience.

I realize that in today’s liberal world, morality is relative, and judging others is wrong. Well, that type of thinking is wrong, and that is my judgement. There are things that are inherently wrong, and no amount of rationalization and dissembling will change that.

Now, I know from personal experience that not everyone is out just for themselves, and that people still do a “day’s work for a day’s pay,” that many if not most people do take responsibility for their own actions. But, the predominant message we get – especially younger people and people of lesser economic status – from the media and government - is that you should get something for nothing, and the government will take care you; that you will not have to accept personal responsibility for anything.

This is wrong, wrong, a thousand times wrong! If no one takes responsibility, then nothing gets done, and there will be nothing for the government to hand out.

Responsibility has a flip side – it’s called freedom.

One of my favorite web sites is www.pjtv.com. This site has conservative content, both written and video, and one of its best recurring videos is “Afterburner”, hosted by Bill Whittle. His latest edition of this series is about the death of freedom in the US. He speaks of a growing, dangerous phenomenon in the US – people wanting to “escape from freedom, escape from responsibilities.” Mr. Whittle is talking about people in the US who do not want to make their own decisions, who want someone else to be responsible, and who seem willing to allow the government to assume their responsibilities. What these people do not seem to realize is that by giving up responsibility, they are giving up freedom. They would never agree that this is the case, but by abdicating personal responsibility, you give up freedom – the freedom to decide for yourself how you will live your life.

Freedom is not a buffet where you can pick the things you like and ignore the rest. Freedom comes as a package deal – you either take it as it comes, or you are NOT FREE, you must answer to whoever you gave your freedoms. That is called tyranny.

There was a widespread saying in the Soviet Union towards the end if its time: “They pretend to pay us, so we pretend to work.” Is this the way YOU want to live?

If we keep up the direction we are going, you may be making that statement too soon. Be different, take responsibility for your own life, speak your mind, take stand, accept the consequences for your action or inaction, BE FREE!

Pay to Breathe?!

In addition to all the other egregious assaults on American freedoms in the recently passed health care “reform” legislation, the most egregious is the Health care mandate that will take effect in 2014.

This provision of this awful bill – forcing all Americans to buy health care insurance or be fined/jailed – is in effect a tax on breathing.

Think that could not possibly be true? Think again. As stated in Chapter 48, Section 5000A of HR Bill 3590:
“An applicable individual shall for each month beginning after 2013 ensure that the individual, and any dependent of the individual who is an applicable individual, is covered under minimum essential coverage for such month.”

The next several paragraphs, sections, etc., of the new law lay out the penalties for failing to get “minimum essential coverage” – a complicated description of fines based on your income and number of dependents, among other things.

By the way – this bill is incredibly difficult to read – you have to go back and forth between sections, and have other bills and IRS Codes, etc., available to really discern what is in the thing. You don’t suppose they do this on purpose to confuse and frustrate regular citizens trying to decipher the law, do you? Nah, they wouldn’t do that.

Cutting to the chase – this section of the law states that if you are breathing in America in 2014, you will have to pay – either buy health insurance or pay fines. In other words, a tax on breathing.

But Wait! There’s More!

You will not have to comply with this mandate to have health coverage if you are in a protected class as defined in the same section:

• Religious Exemptions -
  * “Religious Conscience Exemption” – if you are a member of a “recognized religious sect
  or division thereof described in section 1402(g)(1)”. In the copy of the bill I downloaded, there is NO section 1402(g)(1) – that section stops at (f) – very curious. I don’t know exactly which religious sects this includes, but I know Christian Scientists and the Amish do not make use of modern medical care. I am sure there are others.
  * "Health Care Ministries” – I understand this to be people in a common religious sect
  who share medical expenses.
• Individuals who are not lawfully present – so if you are not in this country legally, you are not required to have health insurance or be fined for not having it. Illegal immigrants can breathe and get their health care for free! Yea!
• Incarcerated Individuals – if you are in jail, you get your health care for free
• Individuals Who Cannot Afford Coverage - If your required contribution to your coverage
  exceeds 8% of your household income, you are exempt. Or, if your income puts you at or below the official poverty level. They use the phrase “Taxpayers with income under 100 percent of the poverty line” – which is ridiculous, because nobody at that level of income pays any taxes, so how can they be a tax payer? Or if you are a member of an “Indian Tribe.”

Oh, and member of the US Congress and their staffs will be exempt too. Of course, they know best for you and me, but they do not have to follow their own rules.

So, assuming the Law of Unintended Consequences (a corollary of Murphy’s Law) is working – and it ALWAYS is with ANYTHING Congress does – there will be plenty of loopholes for people to use, especially if you are a crony of a Democrat Congressman.

How is Congress justifying this infringement into our lives and health? The commerce clause of the US Constitution of course.

The clause; Article I, Section 8, Clause 3, of our Constitution states; (The Congress shall have Power) to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.

In the bill, there is this:
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following findings:
(1) IN GENERAL.—The individual responsibility requirement provided for in this section (in this subsection referred to as the ‘‘requirement’’) is commercial and economic in nature, and substantially affects interstate commerce, as a result of the effects described in paragraph (2).
(2) EFFECTS ON THE NATIONAL ECONOMY AND INTERSTATE COMMERCE.—The effects described in this paragraph are the following:
(A) The requirement regulates activity that is commercial and economic in nature: economic and financial decisions about how and when health care is paid for, and when health insurance is purchased.
So, Congress in its infinite wisdom, found that Americans NOT buying something – in this case health insurance – is “commercial and economic in nature and substantially affects interstate commerce”.

Huh? A non-existent “activity” is “commercial and economic in nature.” How can something that DOES NOT EXIST be commercial and economic? It is a non-event.

This is the same thing as saying that every time you decide NOT to buy something – say a new DVD or dinner out, or a new car, or ANYTHING, you are engaging in commercial and economic activity, and the Congress can REQUIRE you to buy it. Somehow, your decision to not buy health insurance is now defined as commerce “among the several states”.

Any third grader can tell you that not doing something is NOTHING – IT DOES NOT EXIST.

This is such a convoluted piece of logic that it defies explanation. The US government can now FORCE you to spend YOUR money on something you may decide you do NOT want, and justify it as “constitutional.”

The people who foisted this HUGE piece of crap on us HAVE TO LEARN that this will not stand. November is coming, and they will see then that the American people WILL be listened to and WILL be obeyed by their elected representatives – or we will get new representatives.

How I View the Tea Parties

I haven’t ranted on here in a while – there are other outlets for my anger.
But with all that is being written about the people who are part of the Tea Party movement, it is time to get a good rant on.
My wife and I are Tea Partiers. We went to the Dallas Tea Party rally last April 15th (2009), marched in Washington DC last 9/12, and have continued to be involved. We have also recently joined the Republican Party (we see this as the best way to see that what we want to happen in DC actually happens, and to work within the system to make changes.
Why have we gotten involved? We were never really political. I was reasonably well-informed about political matters through my reading and listening (several on-line newspapers everyday & the Dallas Morning News hardcopy, various news reports on the radio, etc.). I gave up on the network news several years ago after it became clear that they had a liberal agenda and colored their reporting to satisfy that agenda. My wife was not political and not that well informed. Her political awakening came with my comments over the years, and with what she witnessed during and since the last election.
In case you are not clear, we are conservative – fiscally conservative, not socially conservative. Neither of us sees an issue with same sex marriage –let the states decide. If a state wants to recognize a marriage, OK, but let the voters decide. And it is up to each church to decide if they will sanctify such unions. Abortion is also something that should be decided at the state level.
We think that the most important issue facing the U.S. today is the federal government and how it taking over as much of our lives as it can. This has to stop, the spending has to be reduced – a LOT - and the encroachment has to be rolled back greatly.
About my anger. I hear what is said about us Tea Partiers; angry right-wing white men with guns & Bibles; racists, and homophobes. I look at myself and my wife to see if any of that is true.
I am angry, make no doubt about that. I am very angry. I am angry at the undermining of the US Constitution by people who think they are better at deciding how I should live my life than I am. I am angry at the people who think a government handout is their right, and for whom personal responsibility is a joke. I am angry at the federal government overreach in just about every aspect of our lives today.
I am also white, and have guns and Bibles in my home. That makes four checkmarks against me so far. I am white by birth, I had nothing to do with it and no choice in how it happened. I like guns and like to shoot, and having a gun is actually my right under the Constitution, unlike some other things many people want a “rights.”
Right-wing? I am a fiscally conservative American who thinks our Government – local, state and federal, but mostly FEDERAL – should live within its means. That means a balanced budget. And that they stop encroaching on free enterprise and free markets. If that makes me a right-winger, then so be it, and that is a fifth checkmark against me.
Racist and homophobe? Nope, not me. These adjectives revolve around hate. I do not hate anyone – I just don’t like the direction this country is going and I want to get back to the basics on the US Constitution, have people take responsibility for their own lives and not look to government for answers – the answers they get are ruining this country
So, 5 out of 7 you can say are true. Does that make me some sort of domestic terrorist? Of course not. It makes me like millions of other Americans who have reached the limit of our patience and are now demanding that things change.
We will change things – at the ballot box. We will vote in conservatives and then we will make them cut the bloat in Washington, cut it to the bone. And if they are not willing to get this done, we will vote in more conservatives until we have people in place who will do the right thing.
We know this will not be a quick victory – it will take years and many elections, but this is the start.
Yes, the Tea Parties are loose groups of like-minded Americans. We will not create a third party – Perot showed that is a bad idea – and we will probably not all endorse or vote for the same candidates. But the candidates better listen to what we are saying and abide by our wishes.
We will not be marginalized by the media – they seem to be doing a good job of marginalizing themselves. They can ridicule us as much as they wish, all this accomplishes is to make us more determined to succeed.