Giving the Government More Power Is Not the Remedy for What Ails Us
Why do we feel like the remedy for every social ill is to give the government more power? If public education system is failing to adequately educate our children, we want to give the government more power. If unemployment is rising and poverty is growing, we want to give the government more power. If health care costs are rising, we want to give the government more power. If the planet is warming and the polar caps are melting, we want to give the government more power. Has it ever occurred to us that one of main reasons for many of problems that plague us is that government bureaucracies have grown too self-serving and powerful?
Increasing taxes to resolve a social ill is to give the government more power. When government bureaucrats force you to surrender your money - upon pain of fine, imprisonment, or property confiscation - for causes to which you would not give willingly, then you lose the freedom to do as you wish with your own money. Ohio has one of the highest bankruptcy and foreclosure rates in the nation, has the 2nd highest business tax burden in the nation and the 5th highest personal tax burden in the nation - and the beneficiaries of the bureaucracies want to put a guilt trip on us because we turn down a school levy?! It's our money and they're our children!
One can wish that children be better educated and yet not wish to give the government more power to do it. Perhaps "school choice" and a separation of school and state would produce a better outcome at less expense. The cost of private education in Ohio is thousands of dollars less per child per year than the cost of public education. Not only do the majority of our property taxes go to the government educational monopoly, but two-thirds of the state budget does as well. If free parents controlled the cost and the content of the curriculum instead of the unions and bureaucracies, the expense would go down and the quality would dramatically improve. Parents could even choose a school to send their money and their kids that offered teacher-led prayer and allowed Creation to be taught in school - all without a threat of an A.C.L.U. suit - if the state just butted out and stuck to constitutionally authorized obligations.
One can wish that the poor be better cared for and yet not want the state to do it. Too many addicts are funding their sins courtesy of the American taxpayer through welfare, social security disability, and bankruptcy. I have had several couples with children admit that they cannot marry because they'd lose their welfare checks; the state, in essence, pays them to shack up. The Bible says that if any would not work, they should not eat. According to Proverbs, hunger has a way of making an unproductive man more productive and an ignorant man more dedicated to learning. Charity for the poor is a Christian mandate, but charity should be voluntary and is compatible with accountability. We should learn from the example set by the U.S.S.R. - government aid for the poor encourages laziness, ignorance, and inefficiency. The promise of more milk from the government teats might get a careless politician re-elected by covetous constituents, but its not going to better the poor nor secure freedom for our posterity. Free Ohioans can do a much, much better job at caring for the poor responsibly than a government bureaucracy that consumes a third of the state budget and that profits off of poverty.
The beneficiaries of the bureaucracies plead - "it's for the children" or "it's for the environment" or "it's for the poor." I trust free Ohioans and loving parents to spend their money on causes they prefer with better stewardship than bureaucrats who take a huge chunk of every dollar. We need leadership who will put an end to the coveting of other people's money that unfortunately fuels politics and protect our God-given liberties.
While the opportunity to fail is the price of freedom, I am convinced that free Ohioans can educate their children in the school of their choice, care for the poor, provide for their own needs without suckling the government's teats from the cradle to the grave. Don't you long for the adventure of liberty more than the security of a socialist state? Let us put our faith in God to meet our needs, not in the state. On Capitol Hill, we will find broken promises, and corruption; on Calvary's Hill, we find freedom from sin, fear, and tyranny - but only if we have the courage to believe.