I’m baffled every time I hear Barack Obama and other Democratic leaders cite that John McCain will be “more of the same,” attempting to connect him to George W. Bush and his policies of the past 7 years. I’ve always seen McCain as more of a thorn in Bush’s flesh than anything, really, and I truly don’t get how it is “more of the same.” The more I hear it, the more I keep thinking, “What’s he talking about!?” So I guess we must examine some negatives that have happened in the past seven years:
1. Unprecedented government spending. This equals inflation, devaluing of the dollar, and more reliance on the federal government for our needs. It also sets up the American people to expect the government to bail the people out when they are in trouble.
2. Wasteful government spending. Do I need to describe this?
3. Fewer choices for retirement. Social Security still prohibits the people from doing what they want with their own money. It still remains a negative return on investment, and it is going bankrupt (yet another example of government not managing my money properly).
4. Fewer choices for education. Parents are still forced to send their children to a school dictated by the government, rather than where they want to send them. Children are still “stuck” in underfunded schools rather than being in schools of their own choice because apparently government is only pro-choice with abortion. Unless you have money/wealth, you have no choice but to send your kids to failing schools.
What is becoming clear to me is that Obama-Biden will be more of the same: bigger government, fewer choices, and wasteful energy spent with the people’s money and at their expense. Not that John McCain and Sarah Palin have offered us the opposite, but they have not campaigned on a big-government-promises-to-give-you-everything-you-need platform.
I don’t want a messiah. I want to live my life on my own so I can love my neighbor. I do want to give you my money so you can pay yourself to help my neighbor in ways that I disagree with, or in ineffective ways. I want the ability to save my money for my children’s education, and choose to send them to the school of my choice without needing to be wealthy.
What Barack Obama really means when he said that the old way isn’t working is this: “Government being in most of your life isn’t really working for America. But we’re going to change that. Government will take care of you, and will work for you, and will provide you all you need so you can provide for yourself all the things you want. Leave it to us. We know best.”
Not sure I really want that.
