By Chris Charles

With words from Ronald Reagan, the 40^th President of the United States of America

“Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”

Since the new deal policies of FDR in the 1930’s conservatives have fought the advancing tide of bigger and more oppressive government. A federal government that limits individual freedoms, taxes prosperity, spends beyond its means, places oppressive controls on business, continuously expands entitlements and the number of people beholden to it, as well as taking every opportunity expand its self in the guise of public interest.

 “It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.”

Republicans and Democrats have both contributed to the problem, although, only one party claims government to be the solution to all of our problems. Since the great depression conservatives have fought against liberal expansion of government and political pandering to interest groups. True conservatives understand that the blueprint for success as a country is limited government, low taxes, and individual liberties.

“No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!”

Government fails at much of what it sets out to do, but because it’s the government it cannot go out of business. Government will just continue to take your tax dollars to fund its unsuccessful ventures. When a government program is fruitless the conventional wisdom is always to throw more money at it. The DC brain trust insists the problem with government is underfunding, never wasteful spending or crippling bureaucracy.

“The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.”

Look no further than education; government spends more and more money on education every year, all the time the quality of public education continues to decline. Big government liberals claim we need to raise taxes to increase funding for schools even more. Even though the government spends an average of $10,770 per student in public schools, these public schools continue to fail. Meanwhile, the average tuition for private schools is $6,600; even lower is the average tuition at Catholic schools, $4,254 per student (NCES). Why can a Catholic school educate a student for less than half the price of its public counter-part? All the while providing it most cases a far superior education to that of public schools. These “nanny-staters” claim a good education is a right for all children in America, as long as the education is provided to them by the government with all of its rules and regulations. Never mind the fact that private or (god forbid) catholic schools provide smaller class sizes, higher test scores, better discipline, safer campuses, better character development, and the ability for parents to choose a curriculum that is right for their child.

“The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.”

The “state-ist” believes that government run schools are the only option. Most states have school choice pilot programs to find the feasibility of school vouchers so that parents and students could choose which school is best for them. These trials have been successful, at least for the students who are using them, not so much for the public school teachers unions that fight tooth and nail against any form of school choice. Vouchers would save the government money; the same cannot be said of public schools considering the cure for public school futility is always more and more money. Private school vouchers would benefit low income and inner-city youth the most, a segment of the population that the left claims to represent. Unfortunately, liberals are more concerned with growing the power and control of the State than with what is best for underprivileged kids. You can bet that most children and grandchildren of the liberal elite will attend private schools.

“Status quo, you know, is Latin for 'the mess we're in'.”

Liberals, teachers, and government bureaucrats continue to impede the futures of young Americans by continuing to recycle the same failed tactics. The next time you hear somebody say that schools can’t afford textbooks, ask them why the private school down the street can afford text books and a new cafeteria, at half the cost. It is important to stand up to these people and not back down from the debate. Liberals make emotional arguments about the protecting teachers, conservatives’ site facts and conclude that students and parents can make better decisions concerning education, not government.

 “Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.”

Many on the left are also worried about public funds going to religious based schools. For some reason the thought of God being mentioned to young impressionable kids is scary for liberals. Much the same way that sex ED and condoms on cucumbers for 1^st graders is scary to conservatives. The important thing to remember is that parents could have the choice! If you wanted your child to spend hours learning about sex and condoms at school or if you do not want your child to hear any mention of a higher power, public school is great. Those public schools will always be there, but at least the rest of us could have the choice of a quality education and save the tax payer $5,000 per child.

“We should measure welfare's success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added”

For years conservatives have battled the bloated public entitlement programs. Trillions and trillions have been spent on programs like welfare that were designed to be a safety net, but instead enable irresponsibility and continue poverty. Since the days of FDR, entitlements have been considered by big government as “untouchable” because so many rely on them. This becomes a self fulfilling prophecy when the government steps in and says that it will take care of everything. Added to this problem, is that of government again spending more than it needs to because of mismanagement and bureaucracy.

 “We're spending 45 billion dollars on welfare. Now do a little arithmetic, and you'll find that if we divided the 45 billion dollars up equally among those 9 million poor families, we'd be able to give each family 4,600 dollars a year. And this added to their present income should eliminate poverty. Direct aid to the poor, however, is only running only about 600 dollars per family. It would seem that someplace there must be some overhead.”

Government has had the same problems for years. The problem with government is that the state-ist thinks government can make better decisions than you. Liberals say that government can spend your money more wisely than you can. The facts do not support that theory, not to mention the tax-payer. Tax payers want to keep more of their well earned money and a funny thing happens when they do, economies thrive and government gets more tax money as a result.

“The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much.”

Higher taxes lead to lower tax revenue for the government because higher taxes result in less spending by consumers. If consumers spend less, less sales tax is paid and businesses earn less money, therefore workers earn less money and consumers spend even less. As you can see this is a vicious circle, the only part of this equation that does not cut spending is the government even though revenue is reduced because of lower consumer spending and lower earnings by workers.

“Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15.”

The state-ist solution to this is to raise taxes even higher in an attempt to balance the books. You see, the government does not care how much money is taken from you; all that is important is that government not cut expenditures, because as you know the state can spend your money better and more wisely than you can. This is proven by more liberal states that inhibit economic growth with oppressive taxes, like California. California takes in around $115 billion in revenue, by far the most of any state, yet is near bankruptcy because of massive overspending. States like Florida and Texas take in $35-40 billion annually and yet they somehow manage to survive. (US census)  

“Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets.”

Liberals continue to try and increase the size and scope of the state and federal government despite the fact that government, for the most part, is inefficient, wasteful and burdensome. The liberal and the state-ist insist on more and more governmental control, and as a consequence we have less and less individual liberty. Of course, the left will not admit this; they insist the society depends of the benevolence of big government. We insist that our society is great because of the individual.

“Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States.”

Today we face the largest expansion of government since the great depression era. Presidents Bush and Obama have already spent Trillions on wasteful stimulus programs. Now, President Obama is pushing nationalized healthcare as well as cap and trade programs. Both of which we cannot afford, both of which would do irreparable harm to businesses and personal liberties, not to mention personal health and personal wealth.

“One way to make sure crime doesn't pay would be to let the government run it.”

Liberals justify socialized healthcare by citing inflated numbers of uninsured and sob stories of people that do not receive basic medical attention, both of which stretch the facts. Although, even if they were true government run healthcare cannot be justified because it’s just that, government run. Never expect government to do something well. Government can’t do the basics of government right, why do liberals believe it can do something as complex and important to our survival as healthcare? Again, we have examples of failed socialized medicine programs around the world. Most of which are horror stories of people not getting quality care or waiting months to receive it, or both. What the state-ist does not comprehend is that the free market incentivizes doctors to provide better care to patients; it also helps create advancements in medical technology.

“Facts are stubborn things.”

Liberals like to demonize the pharmaceutical industry for mixing money with medicine, but the truth is there would be no medicine without money. They do not realize that advanced medicines cost millions to create, so if pharmaceuticals were not as profitable there would cease to be the kind of medical advancements that we have seen in this country in recent decades. Research and development is paid for with profits from existing drugs. Without a free market healthcare system, medicine will not advance in the ways that we have seen in the past.

“If the federal government had been around when the Creator was putting His hand to this state, Indiana wouldn't be here. It'd still be waiting for an environmental impact statement”

Cap and trade or as liberals will call it the “climate bill” will tax individuals and companies in relation to their use of fossil fuels and other forms of carbon emissions. All in an attempt to save the earth from an invisible/imaginary enemy of global warming or is it global cooling again? It’s impossible to remember which one will cause the apocalypse this week. If the weather happens to be hot, then global warming is going to melt the polar ice and kill us all, if it’s cold out then its global cooling that will freeze all of us to death. It becomes a little tricky when the weather outside is 72 and partly cloudy.

“All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk.”

Let’s assume for a moment that carbon emissions will kill us all in the future. Americans have already invented a way to create electricity for the entire world without releasing those darn carbon atoms. It is called nuclear energy, but liberals do not like this either. They think that it will kill us all, are you starting to see a theme here? A liberal hears the word ‘nuclear’ and runs for cover, when in fact nuclear energy is very safe contrary to the conventional wisdom of liberal sissies. What do liberals have to lose? If global warming/cooling is going to kill us all anyway, why not take a chance on nuclear energy? Nuclear energy is produced by using fissionable nuclear material (uranium) to heat water to create steam that in turn, rotates turbines that create electricity. It’s not like scientists are lighting off nukes in the desert to create electricity, it is a very safe way to create a great deal of energy with just a little amount of nuclear material. It is also a clean, abundant, sustainable form of energy at a cheap price. But, don’t let the facts get in the way of a new scheme to wrestle away more power and money from the American people in favor of the all knowing all powerful government.

“Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.”

Our founding fathers gave to us the most benevolent form of government the world has ever seen. Along with the Declaration of Independence the framers gave us our Constitution, which limits the role of the federal government. It also protects individual freedoms and liberties. Government is necessary for a society to survive; a limit to the power of that government is just as essential. The trend of ever increasing government control must be reversed if we are to remain “the last best hope for man on earth.”