Patriots! Arm yourself with information and don't let this enslaving legislation pass. It is a dagger pointed at the heart of our liberty. I couldn't agree more with Lori's conclusion:
"The health care bill must die now. We can’t chance that anyone will have the fortitude or the ability to repeal it once it is in place. It will be too late. If we don’t, the once Shining City on the Hill will, tragically, lose its luster when it becomes the “Government approved Shine” only. We must ensure that The Shining City on the Hill will remain full of luster and not be irrevocably tarnished by a Government willing to suppress the rights of its people."
“America was built on the principle of faith in God, self reliance, the profit motive, individual action and voluntary charity. It was built by those who believed that the surest helping hand at was at the end of their own sleeves. These forefathers of ours shared one thing in common, an unshakeable faith in God and a faith in themselves. There are indications that America is moving away from the philosophy that made her the most prosperous nation in the world.” – Ezra Taft Benson
“…no true American can be a socialist or a communist or support programs leading in that direction.” -- Ezra Taft Benson, American Heritage of Freedom
In my recent blog, "Socialism: The Core of the Health Care Debate", I discussed how the unconstitutional principle of re-distribution of wealth is the selling point of a nationalized health care system, naively accepted by some well meaning individuals and embraced by the greedy. I also mentioned that many politicians champion health care reform to increase their political power by making the citizenry increasingly more reliant on government solutions and increasingly less reliant on themselves. I read an article today by Roger Hedgcock with a title I may well have used for my blog, "Health Reform is Spelled F-O-R-C-E". The article reminded me of additional reasons to eschew national health care.
If America socializes our health care, public costs will drive health care decisions, not individual choices or desires.
The government will eventually determine when “end of life” medical care is cost prohibitive, or wasteful and pointless. (See video where President Obama implies that individuals are incapable of making good “end of life” decisions; that government must save them from evil medical practitioners who will milk them dry by loading their elderly parents up with needless tests.)
Health care costs will cause Federal regulation to expand into a broader range of activities since nearly everything affects health in some way or another. For example, it is conceivable that the Federal Governement will try to regulate the likes of McDonalds out of business for nutritional reasons. It is conceivable that they will force doctors to perform abortions and euthanasia on demand.
“When you cut through the different bills working their way through Congress, cut through all the speeches, all the charges and counter charges raging in the debate on health insurance "Reform"---at the bottom line is governmental force. A shift of power and money and choice from the citizen, taxpayer, and patient to Government.…
…The same mentality that led President Clinton to blurt out that taxes were good because "we know better how to spend your money than you do" is evident today in the arrogant attitude that only this behemoth increase in government power can save us from our inability to provide health care to ourselves and our loved ones.”
Brian Mecham of Latter-Day Conservatives.Com brought a wonderful speech to my attention. In 1966, Elder Howard W. Hunter brilliantly exposed many fallacies of socialist theory through the light of the Law of the Harvest. Liberty was under assault in 1966 and still is today. I highly recommend that all defenders of liberty read "Law of the Harvest: As a Man Sows, So Shall He Reap". The speech is full of truths to inject into our modern day debates on the proper role of government.
I’ve chosen just a few choice quotes to leave on this blog. The full speech is available HERE.
“… there appears to me to be a trend to shift responsibility for life and its processes from the individual to the state. In this shift there is a basic violation of the Law of the Harvest, or the law of justice. The attitude of “something for nothing” is encouraged. The government is often looked to as the source of wealth. There is the feeling that the government should step in and take care of one’s needs, one’s emergencies, and one’s future.
“…as my friend…became a slave to his own ignorance and bad habits by refusing to accept the responsibility for his own education and moral growth, so, also, can an entire people be imperceptibly transferred from individuals, families, and communities to the Federal Government.”
“If you deprive a man of his right to fail in the righteous use of his property, you also deprive him of his right to succeed. If you remove from a man his right to “go to hell,” you likewise remove his free agency to go to heaven. Satan’s entire philosphy is based on a “something for nothing” philosophy: salvation without effort – a free gift…”
“In a very real sense, the true Law of the Harvest was restored – the law of justice, the law of mercy, the law of love. It was restored in a free country under the influence of a God-inspired Constitution which created a climate of freedom, opportunity and prosperity. The basic virtues of thrift, self-reliance, independence, enterprise, diligence, integrity, morality, faith in God and in His Son, Jesus Christ, were the principles upon which this, the greatest nation in the world, has been built. We must not sell this priceless, divine heritage which was largely paid for by the blood of patriots and prophets for a mess of pottage, for a counterfeit, a false doctrine parading under the cloak of love and compassion, of humanitarianism, even of Christianity.”
“What can you do here and now? First, resolve to live the Law of the Harvest and realize that this will involve a price, and with some that price will be very, very heavy. Then go to work, resisting temptation, overcoming bad habits, and developing the good habits of an upright character, …
“Like the light set on a hill, like the leaven of a loaf, you will influence for good our entire country and help preserve this great Republic and its inspired Constitution and its great climate of freedom.”
Being stationed overseas sometimes makes it challenging to keep abreast of the latest political and social debates and developments back home. I spent some time this Labor Day weekend catching up on the health care debate in congress. It appears that the proponents of nationalized health care are on the ropes, so patriots need to maintain the momentum and defeat their cause. There are many well meaning citizens in our country that support nationalized health care because no one has yet laid bare the real issues and exposed the fallacies in the health care debate. Nationalized health care is not charitable, is calculated to increase dependency on government, and significantly erodes the freedom established by our Founding Fathers, furthering our nation’s decline towards the absolute despotism of a socialist government.
The prophet Ether wrote, “…when ye shall see these things come among you …awake to a sense of your awful situation, for it cometh to pass that whoso buildeth it up seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries; and it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people, for it is built up by the devil, who is the father of all lies;" (Ether 8:24-25).
The big fallacy, I mean lie, perpetrated in the health care debate is that since it is good to take care of the poor and needy, a public health care system must be good. This is the same argument used in the War in Heaven – Satan’s position was that he could bring to pass a great good if no one had free agency and he forced them to keep the commandments. Satan spoke of lofty goals, but power and control were his real goals.
Nationalized health care is about force and control – granting more power to the government to forcibly take the fruit of one person’s labor, and control it’s disposition. This is not charity. Jesus commands men to follow his example and be charitable, but allows them the freedom to choose.
Watch the following clip and think about the main points that Milton Friedman attempts to teach Phil Donahue’s audience:
Clip Summary:
There is a difference between greed and self interest.
Socialism has failed to deliver on its promise to eliminate poverty to every nation who embraced it.
More people rise out of poverty when societies are free and citizens rely on their own industry instead of government doles.
There are no “angels” in our government we should trust any more control or power to than our constitution grants them.
The prophet Ether warned that, “… whatsoever nation shall uphold such secret combinations, to get power and gain, until they shall spread over the nation, behold, they shall be destroyed;” (Ether 8:22).
Some of our citizens support the idea of nationalized health care because they haven’t adequately considered the Christian implications of forced charity. Others do so because they want power and gain – power over someone else’s money for their gain. Many ignore the commonsense realities of the law of the harvest and desire to get something for nothing, or more for less. Many that are currently on the government dole desire to stay on it, and not earn their own way. Many politicians want to increase their political power by making the citizenry increasingly more reliant on government solutions and increasingly less reliant on themselves. Most disturbing to me are the many that desire to divorce their aging parents with their health care problems and force society to pay for them. This in turn creates many who realize that they have not provided for their own future healthcare needs, cannot rely on their own offspring to tend to them in their waning years, and therefore desire that government forcibly take money from others in society to pay for what they and their thankless children cannot or will not.
Patriots should ensure that the debate on nationalized health care is centered on our national decline towards the despotism of socialism. The core of the issue has always been about greed, lusting for control over the fruit of another's labor; in a word, socialism. Wherever this greed exists, we should expose it and not allow someone to camouflage it with altruistic platitudes.
Increasingly often, I run across individuals who mistakenly believe that the underpinnings of socialism are the Christian values of love and charity, i.e. taking care of the poor and needy. Invariably, they are good, well-intentioned individuals and it almost pains me to burst their bubble. I don’t know what percentage of people who support liberal agendas do so misguidedly, but a concerted effort by conservatives to educate and convert them is in order. The underpinnings of socialism are the non-Christian values of greed and control.
“But, didn’t Jesus teach that we should give to the poor?” Yes, here is what he taught:
Matt. 5:42 Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
Furthermore, he taught that giving to the poor should be a personal and private act.
Matt 6:2 Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet …3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: 4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
Alms by definition are voluntary contributions. At no time did Jesus suggest that anyone should be compelled to give to the poor, or that his followers should forcibly take from one person in order to provide for someone less fortunate. Rather, voluntary acts of charity are to spring from love -- love towards God, and love towards neighbors. Note again in the following passage that Jesus gives no hint of coercion or force:
Matt. 25:34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom… 35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36 Naked, and ye clothed me…
37 Then shall [they] answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?...
40 And the King shall answer … Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Jesus’ ideal of giving to the poor is very different from the socialist doctrine of taking from the haves and giving to the have-nots. One doesn’t have to be a Christian to appreciate the differences. Furthermore, socialism is not only antithetical to Christian values, it is also incompatible with the principles of our Constitution. The following is one of the best descriptions of socialism that I’ve ever read and highlights the underpinning values of greed and control:
"Socialism... is the theory and practice of coercive collectivism. It is the evil fruit of greed for other men's possessions and greed for control over other men's labor.
"This greed for goods and power is as old as man and as widespread as the human race. It goes by many names, disguised in many forms, as men think up many excuses for robbing and ruling their fellows.
"Socialist theory is a modern excuse, an elaborate rationalization for this greed and for the organized looting and despotism it seeks to achieve. But its materialism, its collectivist point of view, its reliance on violence and coercion, even most of its economics, are as old and as common as sin.
"It holds out to men the hope that they may reap where they have not sown. It teaches that man is the creature of his environment, and that he may be happy and good if he gets enough wealth, regardless of how or where. All that is needed, says the Socialist Tempter, is to bow down and worship the Socialist State, turning over to it authority and power to take wealth where it finds it and to direct labor as it wills. Just a little class hatred, a little lying propaganda, a little violence on the picket lines, a little suppression of adverse critics, and a few generations of compulsory education in Socialistic thought, then surely we shall see the bright new day of equality, peace, brotherhood, and freedom! So says the Socialist." - Dr. V. Orval Watts, Political Economist, quoted by Ezra T. Benson, December 10, 1963, BYU Speeches of the Year
Socialism is about greed and control, not love and charity. We need to get the word out and set the misguided straight. We must aggressively counter what I perceive to be a growing trend to accept the principle of re-distribution of wealth.
Education: BA CJ, Army ROTC Graduate; Branch: Aviation; Political Party: None; Other: Family First, Practicing Mormon, Eagle Scout, Fly Fisherman, Hunter, Gun Owner, NRA Life Member, Water Skier, Chess Player, Ford Owner. Follow me on Twitter @akhardys.
The views expressed on this BLOG are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, the U.S. Government, or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
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