Ask Not What ....

I was watching Bill Moyers being interviewed last night and found him charming and insightful about the world of politics, the history and future of our great country and his laments about the directions this country is taking. He believes we very well may be headed "down the tubes" if we don't correct ourselves and become more "progressive." He believes Obama must use his skills of oratory to inspire citizens to take action to make The United States and the world a better place.

Mr. Moyers even quoted John F. Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." What a great, inspiring speech that was.

But it got me to wondering: What does "Ask Not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country" mean?

It seems that politicians today are all about telling "the people" what government can do for THEM. They are not conserving anything. They are spending, spending, spending; and telling the common citizen that the federal government will take care of them.

Is John Kennedy turning 0ver in his grave? How about a little sacrificing? What about balancing the budget by reducing expenditures, rather than escalating our deficit to $11 trillion? Current policy seems to be "cash for clunkers," "healthcare for everyone," "fight the 'right war,'" (not the wrong one), "bail-out money for auto companies and banks," increasing taxes on those bastard businesses that turn a profit and contribute to society -- and oh, by the way, preparing those lower income tax payers that eventuallly they will be taxed more because of all the great things the government is going to "give them."

Federal taxes will go up. North Carolina and other state taxes are going up. Let's have more lotteries and approve more gambling...

Ayn Rand was far from perfect in her theories of how governments destroy the incentives to be productive, but it sure seems we are headed in that direction.

If "Ask Not..." was a real call to action, let's as citizens call on our governments to conserve -- not spend like there is not tomorrow.