Power of the Purse

Desperate to counter the profoundly negative effects of Obamacare on this year’s upcoming Congressional elections, the Obama administration is attempting to bribe as many voters as possible.  This includes trying to extending unemployment benefits, forgiving the penalties for neglecting to sign up for Obamacare, expanding the food stamps program (see: CNS News Story), (over)using the canard “equal pay for equal work (for women)” and now abandoning attempts to collect hundreds of million of dollars of past Social Security overpayments … see: CNBC Story.

As long as President Obama has the power of the purse … and can capture two minutes of every nightly TV news broadcast with these saccharine promises, it will be a more difficult for the Republicans to make significant headway in this November’s elections. The term “buying votes” really does have meaning … and the Democrats seem to know most of the old tricks.  Alexis de Tocqueville famously said that “the American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.” He clearly neglected to include the President in this insight.

But stay tuned … over the next six months I am certain that this administration will discover and propound even more voter bribes. Watch and wait.

The Road Ahead?

The following was submitted by a reader and old friend (Charlie Radigan) and is recommended for your perusal and reflection:

  

Trying to make sense of the 2012 election results, I soon realized it all makes sense when discovering quotes from important people from our past.  The position we are now in has been predicted. For example, Alexis de Tocqueville in the 1800s said, "The American Republic will endure until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money." Thomas Jefferson said, "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." Phil Steffen said: " Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large groups." Samuel Adams said, "When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the Republic." 

There are many more quotes that accurately predict the economic and political mess we are now in and what lies ahead for America. My favorite has been attributed to Alexander Tytler  professor of history at the University of Edinburgh in the late 1700s.  He reportedly wrote: "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.  A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."  

Is that what lies ahead for America? Often the outcomes of complicated problems become easily predictable when the problems are reduced to simple forms.  It is frightening to me what lies ahead for my children and grandchildren because of "the power of very stupid people in large groups" who gave us the sideshow we now have in Washington. A housecleaning in 2016 is our only and last hope, if it is not already too late.

Ned Crockett

Irvington, VA

(Reprinted from the The Rappahannock Record)