To Give or Not to Give
Consider the following in light of the proposal to give citizens money for housing and education which would entail a step toward national bankruptcy.
Following is a speech by Davy Crockett (House of Representatives 1827-1831, and 1833-1835) regarding giving government relief to the widow of a Naval officer. He said in part the following.
“Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the right to give as much of our own money as we please. I am the poorest man on this floor. I cannot vote for this bill, but I will give one week’s pay to the object, and if every member of Congress will do the same, it will amount to more than the bill asks.”
“I will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. We have the right, as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public money.”
“There are in that House many very wealthy men—men who think nothing of spending a week’s pay, or a dozen of them, for a dinner or a wine party when they have something to accomplish by it. Some of those same men made beautiful speeches upon the great debt of gratitude which the country owed the deceased—a debt which could not be paid by money—and the insignificance and worthlessness of money, particularly so insignificant a sum as $10,000, when weighed against the honor of the nation. Yet not one of them responded to my proposition. Money with them is nothing but trash when it is to come out of the people. But it is the one great thing for which most of them are striving, and many of them sacrifice honor, integrity, and justice to obtain it.”
The gist of the speech is it is not the job of Congress to appropriate funds for personal interest. Yet today members running for office are proposing such charities. There is consideration being given to give first time home buyers $25,000. Another is to give $6,000 to every person entering college.
In a different era Alexander Fraser Tytler gave the following speech. “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.”
Such is the depiction of a society spiraling out of control. A sure way to continue this decline is to propose to give gifts out of the public treasury. The recipients are sure to vote for those who will promise to give them gifts.
There is a choice and the time is right to make it.