President Obama wants more government "help" in order that government can take appropriate actions to "save" America's middle class. That's his solution for what ails our great country --- more collective action from government and less individual freedom for We the People.
And he couldn't be more wrong about that.
Thirty five years ago, President Ronald Reagan didn't believe that the Obama approach made any sense. My, how things have changed. By the way, Reagan was right.
Notable & Quotable quotes from Reagan's second inaugural address in 1985:
"When I took this oath four years ago, I did so in a time of economic stress. Voices were raised saying we had to look to our past for the greatness and glory. But we, the present-day Americans, are not given to looking backward. In this blessed land, there is always a better tomorrow.
Four years ago, I spoke to you of a new beginning and we have accomplished that. But in another sense, our new beginning is a continuation of that beginning created two centuries ago when, for the first time in history, government, the people said, was not our master, it is our servant; its only power that which we the people allow it to have.
That system has never failed us, but, for a time, we failed the system. We asked things of government that government was not equipped to give. We yielded authority to the National Government that properly belonged to States or to local governments or to the people themselves. We allowed taxes and inflation to rob us of our earnings and savings and watched the great industrial machine that had made us the most productive people on Earth slow down and the number of unemployed increase.
By 1980, we knew it was time to renew our faith, to strive with all our strength toward the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with an orderly society.
We believed then and now there are no limits to growth and human progress when men and women are free to follow their dreams.
And we were right to believe that. Tax rates have been reduced, inflation cut dramatically, and more people are employed than ever before in our history.
We are creating a nation once again vibrant, robust, and alive. But there are many mountains yet to climb. We will not rest until every American enjoys the fullness of freedom, dignity, and opportunity as our birthright. It is our birthright as citizens of this great Republic, and we'll meet this challenge.
These will be years when Americans have restored their confidence and tradition of progress; when our values of faith, family, work, and neighborhood were restated for a modern age; when our economy was finally freed from government's grip; when we made sincere efforts at meaningful arms reduction, rebuilding our defenses, our economy, and developing new technologies, and helped preserve peace in a troubled world; when Americans courageously supported the struggle for liberty, self-government, and free enterprise throughout the world, and turned the tide of history away from totalitarian darkness and into the warm sunlight of human freedom.
My fellow citizens, our Nation is poised for greatness. We must do what we know is right and do it with all our might. Let history say of us, "These were golden years—when the American Revolution was reborn, when freedom gained new life, when America reached for her best."
Yesterday Barack Obama said pretty much the exact opposite of what Ronald Reagan said in 1985. Obama's Inaugural Intentions puts it this way:
"President Obama wants more government. In his second inaugural address, he masked the message with phrases like "collective action" and doing "things together." But these were stand-ins—euphemisms, really—for a bigger and more ambitious federal government. That's the unmistakable goal of his second term, and his inaugural address was devoted to his determination to achieve it.
Mr. Obama paid lip service to reducing "the size of our deficit." This was followed by a crucial "but" as he went on to defend a series of programs he is unwilling to cut, including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. "These things do not sap our initiative," he declared. "They strengthen us."
In effect, Mr. Obama endorsed the entire liberal agenda as the guiding star of his next four years in the White House. . . .
So there won't be a "grand bargain" in Mr. Obama's second term. As for the looming debt crisis, the president didn't give it so much as an anxious nod. His mind was on growing government. . . .
The highly partisan theme was a departure from recent second inaugural addresses. In 2005, George W. Bush talked about spreading freedom and touched on national unity and healing. In 1997, Bill Clinton called for "a government that is smaller, lives within its means, and does more with less." In 1973, Richard Nixon emphasized peace. In 1985, Ronald Reagan advocated "steps to permanently control government's power to tax and spend." (See Notable & Quotable nearby.)
If there is a model for Mr. Obama's speech, it is FDR's famous inaugural address in 1937, when he unabashedly extolled government. "Democratic government has the innate capacity to protect its people against disasters once considered inevitable, to solve problems once considered unsolvable," FDR declared. Mr. Obama was less explicit, but his emphasis was on the virtues of government."
Summing Up
More government means less freedom. Period.
Reagan stood for freedom. Obama advocates government as the solution to our problems.
Get ready for four more years.
Thanks. Bob.
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