MATERGRAVY

Some here have said we shouldn't oppose legislation because of the ripple effects the legislation will cause. Specifically, it has been said that to oppose a proposed state law that would force daycare owners to join a labor union if they accept children of parents who receive state aid is "scare tactic". Really?

I opposed "sin" taxes on cigarettes became it opens the door for all sorts of other behavior modification taxes. The sky's the limit. We've all heard rumblings that a soda tax is the next sin tax. Like the cigarette tax, the one that paved the way, this tax is "for our own good" and meant to force us to drink less soda. Horse hockey. It is designed to increase tax revenue. Now, the mayor of Philly is proposing a 2 cent per ounce tax on sweet drinks. Tea, soda, energy drinks ... even chocolate milk.

[url]http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_stories/20100304_Nutter_proposes_2-cent-per-ounce_sweet-drink_tax.html[/url]

Two cents per ounce is a pretty steep tax. Who will it hurt the most? The poor and middle class. Who will it help? Politicians. Who will it not affect at all? The wealthy.

When politicians try to do too much too quickly they run into the kind of public outcry the dems are facing now with health care destruction. For example: Had the dems sat down at the beginning and put together a bill to create anything close to what we have now for entitlement programs they would have been run out of town on a rail. But they were smarter than the dems we have now -- they got their foot in the door, then the ankle, then the calf, then the leg. Getting the foot in the door is the hardest part. It gets voters used to the idea and it really isn't that bad when viewed with blinders on. After the foot is in, though, the rest comes easier. How can you oppose the ankle when you have allowed the foot? And isn't the calf a logical next step? I mean, you have already agreed that we should have the foot and ankle ...

Beware the foot, people, because there is always a leg attached and often the body that follows is a big brutish bully that you won't like very much. When considering legislation, we should ALWAYS ask what it is likely to lead to. It is our duty as voters. That foot in the door is the foot of the person who will someday be sitting our kids and grandkids.

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Back in the "good old days" there were towns built around a single industry. Mining towns are a good example. The mining company employed most everyone who lived in the town and they also owned the only store where these people could get the supplies they needed to survive. Families could buy what they needed on credit, of course. It was even encouraged. The end result was families so over their heads in debt to the company store that they were virtual prisoners to the mining company. Quit working and you can't pay your debt. Since there were no other jobs in town you couldn't leave and get another job to pay those bills. Try to skip town without paying and you end up in a jail run by a sheriff owned by the mining company. So they toiled away at backbreaking jobs in dangerous conditions for pennies.

I think it was Tennessee Ernie Ford who sang the lyric: "I owe my soul to the company store."

Our federal government is fast becoming the company store. This isn't an Obama bash because, quite frankly, this started with FDR and has continued under every president since. Obama is fast-tracking it, yes, but he didn't start it.

When did the safety net become, for so many, a way of life? Government is ever on the lookout for a new way to give us something in return for freedom. With freedom, the people has control of government. When we become dependent on the government for our daily bread, government controls the people.

People from all over the planet migrated to North America to escape governments that controlled their daily lives. We are fast becoming what our forefathers risked life and limb to escape.

Ronald Reagan said it best, and I paraphrase: "Government is not the solution -- government is the problem."

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One key failing of President Obama is that he blew into office in full campaign mode expecting to govern with soundbites and campaign slogans. He and his handlers are mostly from Chicago and are products of Chicago's notoriously corrupt political machine. Obama has no executive experience. He has never run a business, a county, or even a state. He was not prepared to be President and he made the mistake of keeping his camp of Chicago politicos intact once he assumed command.

I get the sense he feels entitled -- that he has bought into all the media hype of his "historic" presidency. Everything he does is "historic". Perhaps, once his reign is shaken out by history, the one truly historic thing he did was win a Nobel Prize without actually having to accomplish anything. They awarded the prize before he earned it.

I think that is what he expects us Americans to do when it comes to his policies. He wants us to put our full trust and faith in him before he proves himself.

Whenever you want to judge future performance of someone you need to look at their track record with similiar programs. A good measure of how the federal government will manage a state-run health care system is to look at how they have managed Medicare. If Obama wants to earn our good graces enough to trust him with the health care for every American he should prove himself by reforming Medicare. All of his claims for paying for this monster of a program he proposes revolve around his promise to cut the waste. Well, if he can cut the waste from something as huge as nationalized health care for everyone, certainly he can cut the waste from a much smaller program of the same type. Can't he? So why doesn't he? Why is he not purging the waste from Medicare? Because he can't. It is impossible to remove corruption from a political being. And what happens to the Average taxpayer when nationalized health care proves to be as corrupt as every other political agency? We fail. And don't think the repubicans can or will sweep in and undo the mess if this plan becomes law. No entitlement program has ever been retracted. It won't happen.

So please, Mr. President, prove yourself. Do something small, anything, to earn our trust before you try to conquer the world.

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