The Big Daddy candidate

You undecided voters need to get a grip and decide whether you want a president or a daddy. Perhaps you haven’t noticed, but our “Big Brother” government has been replaced by “Big Daddy.” In this election, John Kerry clearly is the Big Daddy candidate. He’s promising to take care of you.

George Bush is simply running for president. He is promising to get government out of the way so it will be easier for you to take care of yourself.

Look at Social Security. Bush thinks it’s a bad idea for the government to take 12.4 percent of your salary and, when you reach retirement age, give you back pennies on the dollar. That’s why he wants to give younger workers the option of investing some of that money themselves.

John Kerry doesn’t trust you with your money or perhaps – just perhaps – he doesn’t want you to be out from under the thumb of Big Daddy.

Look at health care. John Kerry is promising everyone low-cost health care, but he wants to keep it tied to your employer or the government (Little Daddy or Big Daddy). With his plan, the only way to keep costs down is with price controls and rationing.

George Bush wants to cut the umbilical cord and make it possible for individuals to set up health savings accounts on their own. The beauty of the health savings account is that you could put the money you are now paying for your outrageously high health-care premiums in a tax-free savings account, and take out a low-cost catastrophic policy that picks up the major medical expenses that one occurs with an accident, operation or serious illness.

With a health savings account, you would be in control of what is paid for routine doctor visits and minor medical expenses because you will pay for them out of your medical savings account and, anything that is left over at the end of the end of the year, you get to keep or roll over. You become a responsible, careful shopper, which also drives health-care costs down. Furthermore, the deals are between you and your doctors, not your doctors and the insurance company. You cut out the middle-man.

Now, look at tax cuts. George Bush wants to make his 2001 and 2003 across-the-board tax cuts permanent. John Kerry wants to raise taxes on the “rich,” everyone making over $200,000 a year. However, 54 percent of all “individual” income taxes now are paid by small-business entrepreneurs. That means the very folks who are creating the most jobs are going to get a kick in the stomach. Therefore, his plan to soak the rich will end up soaking the poor.

Also, Kerry’s plan relies on targeted tax cuts. Big Daddy will tell you how to run your business and, if you do things Big Daddy’s way, whether or not it’s in your best interest or the best interest of your employees, you will get a reward.

In this election, the question voters are being asked to decide is: Do you value the security promised by John Kerry over freedom?

We fought a war with the British to gain freedom. Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death,” speech was the rallying cry of the colonists who were willing to die in order to break free from the “security” offered by the mother country because it came with a heavy price.

The hallmark of freedom in this country is the ability to control a fair portion of what you earn and the ability to own and control property (real estate). Check out the ratings given to John Kerry and John Edwards by two non-partisan watchdog groups, the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, and the American Land Rights Association. Both received an average grade of “F” for their votes in the Senate from the National Taxpayers Union, and both were rated an “enemy” of private property rights by the American Land Rights Association.

Our founding fathers never could have imagined we would become so complacent that we would allow this government to take a third of what we earn – half if you add in cost of all the hidden taxes and fees and the cost of regulations. They never could have imagined a day when we allow this new government to overpower us, to control us.

Our system of government isn’t perfect, but it has provided the highest standard of living of any country in the world.

Are you willing to trade more of our freedom that remains for the empty promises of Big Daddy?