I’m Entitled!

How many times have you heard that expression, “I’m entitled”, especially from the self-appointed advocates of the poor, sometimes called the “poverty pimps” (Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson etc., etc.)? For whatever “sins”, we as a country have committed in the past, these “entitlement advocates” use those perceived “sins”, of our forefathers, to arouse the “low information” voters and citizens to have them demand that they are due something from the government, most likely in the form of a government handout, as reparations. If you argue against that, you are then vilified as being a bigot, a racist, and a person without compassion (among other epithets). That’s what the left-wing liberals (mostly Democrats) call Republicans, Conservatives, and Tea Party supporters, led by leaders like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and the Congressional Black Caucus.

Well, look around us today, we have approx. 47 million people getting food stamps (up 40% in the last 5 years), our poverty rate is approx. 50 million, we have able-bodied people getting subsidized housing (Section 8 housing), free cell phones, reduced college tuition, home mortgages with little or no down payment etc., etc. In many cases, it doesn’t pay for the people receiving these “freebies” to get off their butts to find a job or to contribute something (or anything) to our society. They are the “takers”, not the “makers”, and they are a financial burden on all of us taxpayers, and to the country as a whole.

In fact, 33 states and the District of Columbia pay welfare benefits over and above the prevailing minimum wage in their states. Number 1 on the list is the State of Hawaii, where a person on “welfare” can receive approx. $60,600 (or $29.13 per hour) in benefits (yes, the cost of living in Hawaii is the highest in the U.S., but isn’t $29.13 per hour just a little outrageous?). Following right behind Hawaii is the District of Columbia ($50,800), Massachusetts ($50,500), Connecticut ($44,400), New York ($43,700), New Jersey ($43,400), all the way down to number 34, So. Carolina ($21,900). The other 17 states have welfare benefits below what a welfare recipient can receive by working at the minimum wage. Isn’t this government largesse a disincentive to go out and work on a job and to be a productive citizen? By the way, most of those 33 states (and the District of Columbia) are “Blue states”, governed by Democrats, either by their governor or their state legislatures. A very poignant comment about getting government handouts instead of working, was stated in an op-ed editorial in the Daily Oklahoman back in 1951 by a Elmer T. Peterson. This prescient observation really has meaning, even to this day.

He said; “A democracy can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largesse out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship and then a monarchy”. Is some of what he said happening in our country today? Has our “entitlements” society gotten out of control? Is the phrase, “I’m Entitled” become the rule rather than the exception? Do politicians pander to those people who receive government handouts (which also include those government workers who rely on politicians to keep and expand their jobs) in order to get their votes, come election time? Your answer should be the same as if you asked someone if the Pope is Catholic (of course). We are slowly morphing into a semblance of modern day Europe, we might become what some might call the United States of Europe. Hello, Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal, move over, here we come. May God bless America!

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann