"Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness." George Washington

When President Obama passed into law the Stimulus Bill it started us and our economy on a downward spiral. You probably have realized that I am not a fan of this bill and I really think it is a bad idea. With that being said I wanted to explain why I think that this bill is the pre-cursor to our demise as a society.

First of all, this bill if you have read the fine print, will not help our economy. By bailing out banks and companies that have been financially irresponsible in the past and continue to do so will not help us. It is, as my father would say, we are just throwing good money after bad. It is a mistake to bail out banks and companies that knowingly, willingly made bad financial decisions. As a tax payer I am outraged that my family and I have to pay for someones bad money management.

The bottom line on this issue is that we are responsible for our actions not the government. The companies like AIG, Ford, GMC, Bank of America etc. all knew or should of known that their greed would catch up to them in the long run. They made their choices they now have to deal with the consequences. Unfortunatley, 1000's of innocent people are hurt in the process. In my ever humble opinion, that if the government wants to get involved, they should not give our hard earned money to these companies. But the executives that allowed the bad loans, and financial decisions should be required to give back their bonuses, give up their million dollar salaries, and if they are fired they should not receive their golden parachutes. That money should be reinvested into the companies. It wouldn't solve the problem completely but it would sure help. Not to mention the fact that some faith would be restored.

The mortgage crisis, this falls under bailing out the banks. It is horrible that people are losing their homes. Yet, the government bailing out people who bought homes that made them house rich and cash poor falls on the heads of the banks who granted these ARM loans and the people who applied for them. Granted, some banks were strong armed by groups like ACORN who in exchange for votes, pressured the banks into giving loans to people who were not qualified, but still it is not our responsibility as a society to bail them out. We are ultimately responsible for our financial choices. I would love to go out and buy a brand new top of the line tricked out Suburban. However, just because the prices and interest rates are low, and I can get a loan doesn't mean I can pay for it. This is what a lot of people who are losing their homes did, and the banks should be held responsible for allowing people to buy homes that they (banks and homeowners) knew that when interest rates went up they couldn't pay for it. That is not the responsibility of the government to pay for our mistakes.

This bill is also so full of pork and funding for things that could wait. For example money to the National Endowment of the Arts, how is that going to help us and the economy. The money for new government cars, sure some car company is going to receive a big check but it isn't enough to turn things around for them or to save jobs. Money for the Smithsonian, I love the Smithsonian, however the money that they are going to get from the stimulus bill won't create any new jobs. Sod for the National Mall, that won't generate any more jobs it will just make the National Mall look pretty in the Spring, but after the Fourth of July crowds descend we will need another 21 million dollars to fix it next year. These may or not may be things that need to be done, that I honestly don't know. But one thing I am pretty certain about is that they can wait.

All I can say is that the road to hell is paved with the best of intentions. I think that this whole stimulus bill is a prime example of that. I think in a weird way the powers that be in Washington really think that they are trying to help. Yet in their eagerness to help they are hurting us.

However, by allowing the government to fix this for us a society we are slowly giving up our rights. By not taking responsibility for our mistakes and actions, and allowing the government to provide us with band-aids for boo-boos that are in many cases self inflicted we are making a slow march into the realm of Socialism and dependency not self sufficiency. Which is horrible because that is the thing that makes America and Americans great. If you listen to the news you will hear talk about the government Nationalizing the Banks, Public Service Announcements promoting Marriages, the Fairness Doctrine. With the advent of the Stimulus Package and the talk of all these other things it seems that Washington is creeping more and more into to our personal lives.

This makes me very nervous and very sad that as a society we have somewhere taken a left turn from what we are about. That we are no longer willing to stand up and take responsibility, that we are willing to take a hand out and pass on the bill to our future generations. That we would rather have the government take care of us like wayward children than work hard. For me this is what this bill means. The giving up of our way of life and socialism taking over.