New Year ideal time to restore integrity in government
INTEGRITY, (noun) – “(The) quality of being honest and morally upright. (2) The state of being whole or unified. (3) Soundness of construction” — Oxford English Dictionary.
As the New Year dawns, it seems to me that in making our obligatory resolutions, we should carefully consider restoring “integrity” in American life. We can start with our own lives. We need to once again understand that honesty and morality are the foundations of a safe and sound society.
And, we must demand that those who rule our society also reestablish integrity in our government. Our leaders must once again understand “the state of being whole or unified” and not divided by political agendas, special interests, political correctness, greed or thirst for power. We must demand “soundness of construction” of our way of life.
The Congress of the United States has lost all semblance of the concept of “Integrity.” It appears that this group of individuals is incapable of operating within the bounds of honest, unified or sound judgment. And the amateur administration now in charge, operating within a framework of smoke and mirrors, is in my opinion also devoid of notions of honesty, unity and sound judgment. I cannot recall a single occasion in my lifetime when such a degree of strong-arm politics has been so prevalent.
You don’t have to look any further than the morning newspaper or the television screen to conclude that we are being led by individuals dedicated to the unraveling of American life as we have always known it.
Point in question: Most of the politicians have only one thing in mind – winning the next election – for themselves and their party. Most often this holds true for both sides of the political aisle. And, they will go to almost any extreme to do so. Couple this with the fact that most of them seem to have sought office in the first place in selfish attempts to gain power and oft time fortune. Once in office, their stripes begin to show.
The American people have lost faith in government and not without just cause. These self-appointed solons of society and government have assumed the mantle of “savior” and have convinced a huge portion of American humanity that government is the solution to all of our problems. Truth does not support their position.
We are in the midst of a terrible economic crisis. Untold trillions of dollars are being spent in an attempt to solve our economic problems but, thus far, to no avail. Over ten percent of Americans still cannot find meaningful employment. Truth be told, that number may be as high as twenty percent if you count those who have given up trying to find a job and those who are “under-employed.”
Things in American economic life are not good but, instead of offering solutions without regard to political gain, we are being led by a group claiming to do things they cannot possibly do!
If we believe these pied pipers, we will be led to conclude that government can create wealth. This is simply not possible. Only free people can produce wealth. Government can only redistribute wealth — it cannot create wealth or much of anything else except bureaucracy which only gets in the way of the accumulation of national wealth.
Only one thing can create material wealth in a free society and that is allowing individuals to enjoy the fruits of their own labor. We know it as the Free Enterprise system. America has had a glorious history of economic growth – both individually and collectively under this system. Why are we tampering with success?
I contend that it is because government has tried in recent years to elevate everyone to the same economic level regardless of individual effort. Government encouraged and even enforced the lending of money for homes, etc. without the slightest possibility of many individuals possessing the wherewithal to pay back mortgages they obtained under pressure generated by government.
Add to that, a government guided by politics rather than reason and we have a body of ruling elite that honestly believes they can make water run uphill!
We are witnessing the most rapid and ill-advised attempt ever devised in our free society to take over every aspect of American life. The world’s finest health system is threatened by so-called reform that will suck the economic and health futures of our kids and grandchildren. Is there a rational person anywhere who believes that we can insure tens of millions of additional people, including illegal aliens, and at the same time reduce costs? The measure got through the Senate only by offering sweetheart deals, made in secret in the middle of the night, in order to get the last few Senators on board to reach the necessary sixty votes. Where is the integrity in that?
Alas! We are throwing the baby out with the bath water.
There are inequities in our healthcare system and a lot of fraud and waste. But why must we add more bureaucratic injury via a bigger and more powerful government. Let’s do the sensible think by “fixing” the malfunctions and not destroying our healthcare wellbeing by “inventing” something that is certain to be even worse. Congress has prepared a “cure” that is more deadly than the “illness.” We are doing so because a majority of Congressional members will yield to politics and special interests in an attempt for reelection.
Indeed, where is the integrity in that?