The Truth in Obama's Speech

“The debate over budgets and deficits is … about the kind of country we believe in.” 

After eliminating all his political campaign rhetoric, bullying and shameful comments directed toward Republicans, that truly defines what President Obama’s 4/13 speech was all about.

He claims that “we have put our faith in free markets and free enterprise as the engine of America’s wealth and prosperity” and that “we are rugged individualists, a self-reliant people with a healthy skepticism of too much government.” He is clearly not one of those people, as he continually shows that he does not trust the free markets and is a thorough collectivist/Statist. He only argues for what we can do together, as a nation, not what we can do for ourselves.

He quotes Lincoln: “we should do together what we cannot do as well for ourselves.” Lincoln was referring to the protection of individual rights (e.g. defense, police, justice system). But Obama means personal security with the broadest possible definition; e.g. education (public schools), health care (Medicare/Medicaid), transportation (railroads and highways), research, environmental protection (clean energy, food/air/water safety), basic income (Social Security) and unemployment insurance. In other words, all government “investments” that he mistakenly believes have made it possible for us to be such a prosperous country and are now necessary to create jobs and further recover from recession. He fully follows the Statist creed.

Thus government must continue to grow and taxes must cover everything he deems necessary. Then, of course, he appeals to “fairness” when demanding that the rich shoulder the bulk of the responsibility for providing for everyone else. “Those who have benefited most from our way of life can afford to (meaning should) give a bit more back.” Never mind that the top 2% of wage earners - his target - already pay half of all taxes while the bottom 50% pay only 3% of the total. And never mind that they are the very people who are the entrepreneurs and creators of wealth and jobs, enabling our economy to grow.

Only because the debt has grown to serious levels and the Republicans are pushing hard to reduce it does he finally concede that the U.S. has to start borrowing less and saving more to prepare for the retirement of the baby boom generation. But again, his only solution is “shared responsibility and sacrifice” which means eliminating prior tax cuts for the “rich.” He lies when he argues that this is the only way to “protect the recovery” and government “investments”, just as he did when he claimed that the gigantic and highly bureaucratic health care plan would save a trillion dollars!

He properly implies that we can’t ask for all that government offers and fight government growth at the same time. But he is wrong in concluding that government should force a redistribution of wealth for the purpose of providing for all those wants.

He viewed China, S. Korea and Brazil as more appropriately progressive than the U.S. But that is due to his extreme Statist view that some mysterious (and non-existent) “social compact” takes priority over all individual rights. He mistakenly believes that all major successes in this country would not have been possible without government “leadership.”

He properly says that our country “prizes our individual freedom” - but he does not. And he incorrectly says we have “obligations to one another”; we have “obligations” only to ourselves and desires to help others. To “think about the country first” is Nazism; but he calls that “patriotism.” So did Hitler!

He also lied as he put a nearly anti-American spin on everything intended by Ryan’s plan. E.g., it does not keep promises made to seniors and children, as if proposed budget cuts will cause the latter to go hungry, lose their health insurance and die. Or it places tax breaks for the wealthy over all needs of all other people, as if spending isn’t the real issue and “need” is (or should ever be) our standard of morality. Just as environmentalists absurdly assume that “nature” has a right and that trumps individual rights, Obama absurdly assumes that “need” trumps rights.

To add insult to injury, he lied when claiming that he matched Ryan’s budget cuts. An analysis shows that his $4T of cuts in 12 years equates to less than $3T in 10 years. Add in the $1T that came from tax increases and his true cuts are less than half of Ryan’s.

Ryan’s plan attempts to make individuals responsible for themselves - just as we were a century ago. Obama believes in making everyone more dependent on government to meet their needs, knowing full well that the most successful and prosperous individuals have to be seriously sacrificed in the process. His goal is not to truly cut our national debt; he simply wants “social equality” - never addressed in our Constitution or Declaration of Independence - at all cost! He uses immoral means to achieve a destructive end. Americans have to wake up to this fact.

The Right Form of Government

Fundamentally, there are only 2 types of government (social/economic systems): Capitalism and Statism. Statism is any system where government relies on the use of force to achieve its ends. Man’s life is assumed, to some extent, to be controlled by the State. It is based on a morality of self-sacrifice. Common forms of Statism are Socialism, Fascism and Communism; the difference between them is merely a matter of degree and method of government ownership and control.

One of its essential characteristics is the denial of individual property rights: the right to (the use and disposal of) property is vested in society as a whole - the collective - with production and distribution controlled by government. Individual rights are sacrificed for the “common good.” The result is a totally subjective redistribution of wealth.

All systems that sacrifice the individual to society are morally wrong; and they have all essentially failed to achieve their ends. The more free the people are, the more prosperous the economy. Europe is finally discovering that fact; unfortunately, President Obama is not.

Capitalism (in true laissez-faire form) is the only system that fully recognizes the principle of individual rights. It is based on the morality of rational self-interest. Government’s role is restricted to the protection of said rights, and the initiation of force against others - either by individuals or government - is banned.

Obama and most on the Left falsely believe that Capitalism is only for the rich and large corporations. They have simply usurped the definition of Capitalism and created an environment of “crony-Capitalism” that incentivizes businessmen to sacrifice their Capitalist principles in order to make compromising (but profitable) deals with government.

We began our history with the purest form of Capitalism that ever existed, and became “exceptional” as a result. But at least since Woodrow Wilson (1913), we have incorporated many significant Statist policies yielding a mixed, less free and less productive system. Most politicians in both parties fail to consistently defend individual rights and freedom; that is why I am an Independent. They simply need to more objectively evaluate their actions and legislation based on how well the latter defend those rights and freedom.

It should not be difficult to choose individual freedom over collectivism, independence over dependence, productive/private over non-productive/public economic activity, and ultimately a just/moral government over an unjust/immoral one.