WOW. Our Countries Leaders Sure Have Come A Long Way
At a million-dollar San Francisco fundraiser today, President Obama warned his recession-battered supporters that if he loses the 2012 election it could herald a new, painful era of self-reliance in America.
“The one thing that we absolutely know for sure is that if we don’t work even harder than we did in 2008, then we’re going to have a government that tells the American people, ‘you are on your own,’” Obama told a crowd of 200 donors over lunch at the W Hotel.
At least he is making the choice clear.
Judge Fredd:
Oh, no. ANYTHING but self reliance!!!
October 26, 2011, 7:47 amMJ:
I, for one, welcome this new, painful era of self-reliance.
October 26, 2011, 8:21 amTed Rado:
The more government handouts there are, the more we are seduced into being a nation of deadbeats. Nobody has figured out how to help people without encouraging them to behave irresponsibly with their hand out. Human nature always triumphs.
October 26, 2011, 8:37 amPat:
Telling the children that if they don't shape up, daddy's leaving. Kind of abusive if you ask me.
October 26, 2011, 10:56 amDrTorch:
I'd like to comment, but I can't possibly add anything to what the O just said there.
October 26, 2011, 11:02 amBram:
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
- Thomas Jefferson
If an American is to amount to anything he must rely upon himself, and not upon the State; he must take pride in his own work, instead of sitting idle to envy the luck of others. He must face life with resolute courage, win victory if he can, and accept defeat if he must, without seeking to place on his fellow man a responsibility which is not theirs.
October 26, 2011, 11:13 am- Theodore Roosevelt
Sean:
Obama speaks like someone who has not yet come to realize that Americans fear the government more than they fear the bumps and jolts the government allegedly protects us from.
October 26, 2011, 11:27 amMaximum Liberty:
If this is a "million-dollar San Francisco fundraiser," just how "recession-battered" are his supporters?
Max
October 26, 2011, 11:41 amDan:
So, I suppose all of you plan to turn down Medicare when you reach the age it takes effect, since obviously no one needs government help and everyone is self reliant.
October 26, 2011, 11:52 amJim Collins:
Sure Dan. I will, as soon as they stop taking my money for it.
October 26, 2011, 12:09 pmjohn:
turn down Medicare
You have to be kidding. Those of us who would turn it down are rare, but I would... however, I don't plan to do so for two reasons:
1. You can't. In my ignorance I tried to help my grandmother to do just that since she had a very nice retirement funded insurance plan. No can do. I don't really know why, but you can't.
2. There is no, and I mean zero, chance there will be any such thing by the time I'm eligible for it.
No Medicare, no problem. But I'll still be out the money.... I don't think people who accept it can be much blamed. I'm sure they couldn't get out of it if they tried, and if they did, they'd be letting their involuntary "contributions" go entirely to waste. This way maybe they get a little something back.
Do you think Madoff's victims should turn down whatever compensation they manage to get because Madoff was a criminal? If they do accept some restitution, does it make him any less a criminal?
October 26, 2011, 12:21 pmReed Coray:
Dan (11:52 am 26 Oct 2011),
If I had all the money I've contributed to medicare/social security over my professional life, you're damn right I wouldn't need government help with the "services" medicare/social security provide and I wouldn't ask for "government" help. BTW, the government doesn't produce (provide) anything. People do. Those people must be paid. In the sense of helping me via medicare, all the government does is take money I contributed in the past to pay for services I need now. Since someone must run the bureauracracies that administer the government programs and the employees of those bureauracracies must be paid, by inserting the government into the mix efficiency is decreased because a no-value-added overhead cost has been added. Thus when you say "government help" what you really mean is "community/neighbor help--as in, you my stupid neighbor are paying for my care; isn't that wonderful". I wish people would stop saying "the government is paying for XYZ"; and instead say "my clueless neighbors are paying for XYZ." Maybe by doing that, people would correctly stop believing the government is some kind of a "benevolent fairy godmother with infinite resources" who exists to take care of you in your hour of need.
October 26, 2011, 12:31 pmcaseyboy:
Dan, if the government paid me back everything thing they took in the form of social security, medicaid and medicare, I'd gladly opt out. I'd also like the matching tax paid by employers paid to me in salary.
Maximum Liberty, Obama's supporters still have money to give his campaign because Obama gives most of them taxpayer money out of the stimulus program and other government initiatives. Nice little money laundering scheme they've got going on.
October 26, 2011, 1:22 pmMe:
IF the republican candidate is breathing I'm voting for them. The breathing part is negotiable.
October 26, 2011, 2:37 pmMJ:
If this is a “million-dollar San Francisco fundraiser,” just how “recession-battered” are his supporters?
You're so heartless. Their trust funds have obviously taken a huge hit since 2008.
October 26, 2011, 3:37 pmReds:
Dan
October 26, 2011, 4:44 pmAs a small business owner I've been paying both matching portions of my FICA, as well as my employees portion, for quite a few years. Why would I not except it? If I got just the portion I've paid into FICA for myself back, as a few commentators have said, yes I would, as I'd have enough money to fund a 'Cadillac Plan' for myself and my family for the rest of my years. If I believed that would happen I'd probably be willing to by a nice bridge in the desert.
Smock Puppet, Piloting The Economic Seas Betwixt Scilla and Charybdis:
The last GREAT President? Grover Cleveland. It would be Teddy but unfortunately, the genesis of a lot of current problems has its seedcorn in his Administration. Teddy did feel that a Great America required a government that did Great Things for the people.
To justify the above claim for the Great Mr. Cleveland, I cite his veto of the Texas Seed Bill (1887):
After a drought had ruined crops in several Texas counties, Congress appropriated $10,000 to purchase seed grain for farmers there. Cleveland vetoed the expenditure. In his veto message, he espoused a theory of limited government:
I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and duty of the general government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit. A prevalent tendency to disregard the limited mission of this power and duty should, I think, be steadfastly resisted, to the end that the lesson should be constantly enforced that, though the people support the government, the government should not support the people. The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow-citizens in misfortune. This has been repeatedly and quite lately demonstrated. Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood.
October 26, 2011, 5:24 pm(above from the Wiki)
Reds:
Props to you Smocks! Great research that unfortunately have the time to do. Some how my time is spent having to deal w/ bureaucrats from whatever level stopping in and expecting my time-NOW! Their time is too important, not mine and my employees.
October 26, 2011, 5:40 pmLTMG:
Over the course of over 14 years I worked in a total of 5 countries in Europe and Asia. This in addition to over 16 years in the US. To me, the definining charactersitic of many North Americans that distinguishes us from other cultures I've observed is our self reliance.
A combination of nannystatism, mollycoddeling of various sorts, government regulation of many kinds, and a growing expectation of entitlement is seriously eroding our ability to be self reliant. The consequence is that North Americans are less well psychologically equipped to deal with adversity. Our mental toughness is eroding. Our "can do" attitude is increasingly shifting towards "can't do" and even abjectly towards apathetic "won't try".
So, yes, let's recover our self reliance. I look forward to the Federal government telling us that we are indeed on our own. Necessity being the mother of invention, we will persevere just as our forebears did, and ours will be the stronger country for it.
October 26, 2011, 6:34 pmCapn Rusty:
"You're on your own" is a succinct definition of freedom.
October 26, 2011, 8:33 pmXmas:
As someone else pointed out, while the fundraiser was going on, 10 miles away the Oakland police began a violent crackdown on the Occupy Oakland encampment.
Totally unrelated, but still pretty ironic.
October 27, 2011, 2:27 amDon:
John: You couldn't get her off medicare because, by law, any physician that participates in medicare, MUST use medicare for payments by any person who is eligible.
In other words, the Government doesn't like competition.
The solution is to go to doctors, and such which do not accept medicare.
October 27, 2011, 10:29 amTed Rado:
Some of the comments suggest that people actually believe the government "gives" us something. We pay taxes from which the USG squanders much, uses some for buying votes, and passes some out to the rest of us. Pray tell: where is the "free" money?
In order to fix the problems they themselves have caused, the USG reduces interest rates to almost zero. My loss in investment income is greater than my social security and medicare part D benefits. Noone will convince me that the USG is doing me any favors. What they don't waste, they screw up (ethanol subsidies).
October 27, 2011, 12:29 pmSmock Puppet, Piloting The Economic Seas Betwixt Scilla and Charybdis:
.
.
"There is no week, nor day, nor hour, when tyranny may not enter upon this
country, if the people lose their supreme confidence in themselves - and lose
their roughness and spirit of defiance."
- Walt Whitman -
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October 27, 2011, 8:24 pmcomputer science final year projects in Chennai:
very interesting articles keep it up,share more information
October 27, 2011, 10:21 pmruralcounsel:
Actually, being on your own wouldn't be too bad, if it means we can get rid of "friends" like Obama's nanny-state government.
Unfortunately, we'll never be left on our own. That would require removing the burdens of the social engineering ruins foisted on us since Woodrow Wilson. We'll always be handicapped with the weight of those past failures and all the subsequent ones created by those "best and brightest".
November 1, 2011, 8:55 am