My wife is a multi-talented woman with charms that still captivate me after twenty-six years of marriage. But of all my bride’s enchantments none is more irresistible than her white chocolate chip cookies. In fact, I have a confession to make. If she bakes them I will eat.

You can safely infer two things from the above: First, the goodies are indeed good! Second, my resolute resistance is, well, pretty much irresolute. Don’t laugh…you couldn’t resist either! But if we fail to resist baked goodies with frightening regularity, what about governmental goodies?

Our system of Representative government was established to safeguard our political, economic and personal freedom. That’s the way it was designed to function. But now we send men and women to Congress to “get our fair share of the pie.” Completely understandable given the existence of such a “pie” but that’s just the problem.

It Should Not Exist!

“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.” – Alexis de Tocqueville.

Do you and I have the courage to follow truth to logical conclusions? Certainly the politicians don’t. And we can’t really blame them for doing what we ask them to do, that is, getting our “fair share” of pork and entitlements. Such waste of money is absolutely shocking! (In someone else’s state.) The real issue is the pie. If it’s there we will eat it.

The stated goals of many governmental initiatives are good and desirable, at least to someone. But these goals must be philanthropic rather than governmental or they degenerate into political tools. The existence of the pie changes everything including motives and behavior. The pie causes us to lose sight of the long term best in favor of the short term good. The pie makes us believe we really can have something for nothing.

The conclusions are inescapable. The Federal government must stop all programs not specifically mandated (enumerated) by the Constitution. Yes, that means social security too. See what I mean about courage? The only alternative is slavery and tyranny just as de Tocqueville (and so many others) predicted.

Let’s have the courage to at least start the conversation and conduct it in civility.

Thanks for reading.