

Letter: End business of entitlements

6:33 PM, Nov. 18, 2013  |  Comments
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When someone is elected to a governmental office, such as U.S. representative, they are expected to finish their term in office, if possible. Granted, there are many we would like to see resign before their term ends, but that is beside the point of this letter.

When a representative doesn't finish his or her term of office, a special election must be called. Every time we vote on issues or candidates, our tax money is being spent.

According to PEW Research Center and the Louisiana Department of State Elections Division, there were 32 special elections in Louisiana between 2005 and 2010, costing taxpayers more than $1 million. This may seem like a small amount when we have become accustomed to hearing government spending figures in billions and trillions, and when divided among the taxpayers of Louisiana, this election cost is small. However, small amounts add up to large amounts. More importantly is the principle of the matter: the taking of people's money in the form of taxes is a weighty matter, the seriousness of which seems to be lost on most of the nation and especially on those in government who spend our money.

It is never right to take from one and give to another, but this is normal practice in our country. Money is forcibly taken, literally at gunpoint - if you don't pay your taxes, you are arrested - and the majority of this money is used to pay for the wants and needs of others (entitlements), not to pay the necessary and constitutionally allowed expenditures of our country.

One example of this is the government cellphone give-away program, which takes money from some to buy cellphones for others. There are many examples of such usurpation by our federal government. According to Business Insider and other sources, more than half of U.S. tax dollars are funneled into entitlement programs.

There is a story that tells about Davy Crockett during his term as a U.S. congressman, when he voted for a bill that allowed tax funds to be given to some who had lost their homes and possessions in a fire. Later, as he rode through his district hoping to garner votes for his reelection, he came upon a man who knew of his vote for the bill that allocated funds for the fire victims. To his surprise, the man informed him that because of his vote on that particular issue, he would not be casting his vote in Crockett's favor. He proceeded to enlighten Crockett on the unconstitutionality of taking the taxpayer's money from the U.S. treasury and giving it in the form of charity, and while it would be good and proper for him and others to give their own money to help those in need, this money was not his to give.

This is the problem we have today. Most of those in Congress and most voters apparently do not see the grave error in giving away other people's money. We, through our government in the form of entitlements, are giving what is not ours to give. It is not the place of government to judge who is in need. This should be left to individuals who would have much to give if the government did not give their money for them.

When government is in the charity business, it keeps people dependent on charity. When people give of their own free will, they generally help people to become independent.

Our government has been in the charity business for a long time now and has many dependent on its generous giving of our money. When tax payments are cut in half by eliminating entitlements, jobs will be created and true charity will flourish.

There will be no need for entitlements. It is past time to begin phasing out entitlement programs so that our government can be about the business of governing and not about the business of giving what it has no right to give.

Danny Bolden

Mer Rouge

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