In the president’s State of the Union Address on Feb. 24, Barack Obama promised yet more government spending, growth and entitlement programs. Obama said, “I reject the view that says our problems will simply take care of themselves, that says government has no role in laying the foundation for our common prosperity.” Obviously, Obama views government as the solution to all our problems, proposing universal health care coverage, universal college tuition and a projected budget in 2009 which will result in an incredible deficit of $1.75 trillion, the largest since 1945 and World War II. He is asking for another $750 billion to again “bail out” failing banks and a 10-year, $645 billion reserve fund for his government health care “reforms.”
While President Reagan saw the federal government as the problem and tried to trim it, Obama views it as our only hope and wants to fatten it to historic proportions. But a recent Rasmussen poll found that 59 percent of U.S. voters agreed with Reagan: that “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
As millions of Americans apathetically watch our beloved republic move toward socialism and increased power of the federal government to control our lives, some are not content to sit idly by and do nothing. In response to the unconstitutional spending spree by our liberal president and Congress, governors and state legislators across the nation have decided to take action. Eight states have introduced legislative resolutions asserting state sovereignty under the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to our Constitution. The Tenth Amendment solemnly reminds us that “The powers not delegated to the United States [federal government] by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”
On Feb. 18, the Oklahoma House of Representatives became the first legislative body to pass such a state resolution, specifically warning the federal government “to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers.” A dozen other states are expected to follow in its footsteps.
Also, several state governors say that they may reject some or even all of the “stimulus” money because it would end up actually hurting their state in the long run. Govs. Bobby Jindal, R-La.; Haley Barbour, R-Miss.; Sonny Perdue, R-Ga.; Phil Bredesen, D-Tenn.; and Mark Sanford, R-S.C., have spoken out against the federal government’s attempts to control their states by offering money with onerous strings attached.
For example, several governors have complained about money offered for expanded unemployment insurance benefits because changes in unemployment laws would leave the state high and dry when the federal money is gone. Ultimately the state would be left to suffer the consequences of expanded state programs without the funds to continue to operate them.
But the real problem is who will eventually be required to pay for this lavish expenditure of taxpayer money? Gov. Jindal warned, “What [Obama’s proposals] will do is grow the government, increase our taxes down the line, and saddle future generations with debt. Who among us would ask our children for a loan, so we could spend money we do not have, on things we do not need?”
French economist and statesmen Frédéric Bastiat once wrote, “Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state lives at the expense of everyone.” It is easy for Obama to print more money and distribute it like candy, but in the end someone must pay for the increased indebtedness. Our first president, George Washington, urged those who followed him to avoid the accumulation of long-term debt lest we “ungenerously [throw] upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear.”
When our leadership in Washington ignores our Constitution, disregards our Bill of Rights and refutes common sense, it is our right, indeed our duty, to take a stand. Our only real hope is in God and the constitutional form of government left by our forefathers, which limited the power of the federal government.
Barack Obama, like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, is leading many astray with promises of hope, change and economic recovery. Our children and grandchildren will pay dearly if we continue to march to Obama’s tune. Thankfully, not everyone has been hypnotized by his music, and many who have been are beginning to return to their senses.
