Social Welfare is OK, if it results in Lessening the Number of Those in Need

I think many conservatives would have less of a problem with social Welfare if these programs reduced the number of people in need of support.

That said, why is it that it seems that there is a constant growth in the number of people that these programs support? Nobody ever gets off these programs and those receiving support appear to breed more people destinehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifd to require/receive support. I would say that the mere fact that half of all Americans pay no taxes is evidence of this.

The UK has an even more substantial benefits system and appears that the problems that result are even greater as the riots demonstrate. Take the story of this one benefit recipient's mother:

She is on benefits, does not live with the boy's father and has 10 other children, the court heard. - Mother of 13-year-old who smashed up shop blames government - The Telegraph, UK

AND

But the woman also suggested her son was not entirely at fault, when asked who she blamed for the looting.

''The government,'' she replied, her son by her side, adding: ''There is f*** all for them to do.'' - The Telegraph, UK

Her 13 year old son caused well over $20,000 in damage during the riot and all the mother can do is blame the Government for not finding something more productive for her 11 children to do. This is madness. Let the father(s) of the eleven children support them. People already have to support their own families, why do they have to chip in and support her's as well?

Also, I always found it strange that the UK is supporting this huge families, where the parents have not worked in years, in houses in expensive areas. Why not just ship them out of the cities and house them more cheaply in the countryside?

This brings up another pet peeve of mine. If I am being forced to support others, why can't I get a say in how they are using this support? For all this talk of 'shared sacrifice', it always seems that the tax-payers are always being asked to sacrifice more, but others on the receiving end are not asked to sacrifice at all. Not exactly fair, is it.

So, social welfare programs that over time reduce the number of those in need = Good

Social welfare programs that we (and the UK) currently have = Bad

All we are doing is growing the ranks of the poor. This support needs to come with an expiration date for those who are of working age.

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Liberals Fleeing (and Spreading) Broken Liberal Agenda

The following comments posted on Instapundit struck a cord with me:

"The ideas and beliefs that have decimated California, are in fact, shared by huge swathes of the populace. In spite of their suffering in the world they helped create, when many of these business owners and workers move to other places they bring their dumb ideas with them. Trust me, they may be economic refugees, but they will be the first to start kvetching about the refineries down the road." - Instapundit Commenter

And this:

"Just read your postings about the attitudes that California refugees bring with them. You might note that the same problem has happened in New England. New Hampshire used to be a pretty conservative place – no state income tax, ‘live free or die’ on the license plates, etc. A flood of refugees from Taxachusetts over the past 20 years has changed that. And just as you described, the newcomers seem to have no clue that the policies they support are the very same ones that ruined the state they fled.” - Instapundit commenter

I have had similar thoughts for a while, but didn't really connect the California refugees to it. I had been thinking this about the legal and illegal aliens coming to America from both around the world, Mexico and central and South America. Many of these migrants are fleeing bad conditions in their home country. And still, they want to bring all these bad habits and practices with them. And oddly enough, they find an ally in the Liberals of this country who are also fleeing the utopias they have demanded be created here. Each group looking to the other to support their goals of legal permanent residency and redistribution of wealth through socialist programs.

The trick is stopping this spread of bad ideas. For starters, one can ask these refugees if their beliefs were so great, why is it that they left a place where they already had such benefits?

Update: An example of pushing their agenda on the rest of us, take the push for acceptance of Spanish in the US as a default second language. Americans are being shamed for not knowing Spanish as a second language and Spanish is showing up on all sorts of products. But the shame of knowing only one language only applies to Americans. There is no push for those coming to America to learn English, even though they too only know one language. Only we are being pushed to better accommodate people who are coming here, many of them illegally.

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ObamaCare and Blood Donations

I passed by a blood drive in the area on Saturday. I was asked if I wanted to donate and the first thing that passed into my mind was Obamacare. It was a cynical thought of whether ObamaCare required blood donation. This is how bitter I feel about the crap that is ObamaCare.

You see, when the Government steps in and demands to run the show on anything, like healthcare, then they can go find the blood. As it is, they were out in an area of tax-payers. Why not go and stick needles in the half of the population that does not pay any taxes? Really, if they are not contributing tax revenue, they can contribute in other ways, like giving blood. Of course they won't, unless they get paid to do it. And this is the joke of the whole system and the Democrats pushing it. They repeatedly call for the better (revenue-earning) half of the population to do their 'fair share' and pay more taxes. And yet, there is a huge portion of the population that pays no share towards the common good. They only consume. Even when the contribute, they won't, unless there is something in it for them. Where is the fairness in that.

The only confidence I have is that the unfairness of this system will be it's doom.
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P.S. No, I didn't donate blood. I do however vow that I will donate once ObamaCare is repealed. At that point I leave it to the nurse to get a full pint out of me. My body stops giving after about a half pint.

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So What Does Obama Plan To Use Gov't Revenue On If the Dept Limit Is Not Raised?

President Obama and his team have been making a number of threats during the discussion on how or whether to raise the US debt limit. These threats included defaulting on debt payments as well as not paying out Social Security benefits.

Now given that Government Revenue (taxes and fees that the Government is receiving each month) exceeds the amount needed to pay for Social Security, Medicaid, Defense and debt obligations, just what does he plan to use that money for if he is not going to use it to pay these items?

Also, it is nice to see questions regarding the $2+ trillion Social Security Trust Fund. As I pointed out last year:

So on the one hand, Social Security has a surplus of over $2 Trillion to meet it's needs. On the other hand, all of that money was traded for Government bonds. The bonds are a promise from the Government to repay Social Security.

The Government took the money and spent it. The Government now either needs to pay that money back to Social Security, and with running a deficit, would need to borrow that money to repay the bonds. That could be a serious problem given that the Government already needs to borrow to cover the current year's spending deficits. And that is a problem with the idea of selling the bonds held by Social Security. Doing so increases the amount that needs to be sold into the market, and the Government is already having trouble selling the bonds it needs to need to cover current-year deficit spending.

Of course they could just print more money. I am not sure exactly how that would work out.

So remember, no matter how the politicians try to claim that Social Security has no problem, keep in mind that these same politicians turned the Social Security Trust Fund of $2 Trillion and turned it into added Government debt. - Link

Once the debt issue is over, the Conservatives in Congress should go back and tackle Social Security reform. The defense that there is no problem was just busted by the Democrats.

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Pirunvuori - Devil's Mountain - Finland

So here I am at my in-laws and even after 10 years of coming here (to what is basically the middle of nowhere), they are still finding new places to take me. This time it was to the Devil's Mountain to see a stone house built by a Finnish painter just over 100 years ago.

It was a nice day trip with the bonus of discovering that the blueberries in the forest are already ripe for the picking.

Pirunvuori (Devil's mountain)

Mythical magic, soughing of the forest and rugged Finnish scenery!

This nature reserve has always been an inspiration for storytellers and poets. By hiking up Pirunvuori everybody can enjoy a trip to the past and be impressed by an untouched nature. In the beginning of the 20th century, the Finnish artist, painter Emil Danielsson built his stone castle on the peak of the mountain as his studio for more than 60 years. Nowadays this castle can be visited by tourists, giving a good impression of the spirit of that time.

Pirunvuori can be reached by walking over a path of about 2km from the hotel. - Link

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Ignoring the Debt Ceiling vs Passing a Budget

News reports are suggesting that President Obama and his Democrat allies in Congress are setting the stage for the possibility of simply ignoring the country's debt limit by declaring it unconstitutional. This option does not seem so far fetched given the lack of action from the White House to come to some sort of deal in getting the debt limit raised, as well as White House recognition of the simple fact that even substantial tax increases would not be able to effect the massive spending deficit that the Government is committing itself to pay. Regardless of the issue that Republicans are refusing to consider any tax increases. Even if Republicans would be willing to raise taxes, President Obama would only be able to raise taxes on the highest earners, and not on the middle class where the most tax revenue could be collected.

So, in comes the possibility of an end run around Congress to keep the spending going regardless of any debt limit. It is an interesting solution and if done just might help push the US into bankruptcy that much faster.

But Congress does have a weapon to fight against this. Next year's budget. There are a couple options here, from refusing to pass a budget, prompting a Government shutdown, or passing a budget that only spends incoming revenue. Another option would be to pass a budget (Or better yet only propose a budget) that takes into account all spending needs and proposes across-the-board tax increases so that Americans are made aware of the actual bill for the Government services that they are demanding. At a minimum, Congress needs to start speaking up against the Democrat's proposed option of trashing the debt limit.

One more thought. A good portion of our upcoming debt increase and deficit problems are related to promises made to seniors by the politicians that they elected. These politicians failed to tax and save for these seniors. Instead, these seniors and politicians are planning to stick us children and grandchildren with the bill. So I am starting to come to the opinion that part of the solution is to break the promises made to these seniors. The promises that were made to them were in exchange for their votes. In reality, they were little more than lies. Their votes were in effect in exchange for lies. Worse, the money that should have been saved to fulfill these promises were instead stolen by these same politicians to make even more promises. So I think it is time to take a second look at what was promised and what we can afford to keep.

The Democrats will portray this as pushing grandma off the a cliff. However, there is another side to Grandma's story and it involves giving the bill to support grandma to her grandchildren and great grandchildren. That is not exactly fair. Not only that, is this what Grandma wants? I doubt it. This is why the Democrats are being dishonest in suggesting that everything can be paid for by taxing the richest a little more. This however is nowhere near enough. Future generations need to pay more. Lots more.

Now keep in mind the following when judging my comments above - Medicare is going to go bankrupt well before I can take advantage of it and Social Security is going to run out of money about the time that I will be eligible to collect from it. That is a pretty raw deal after having paid into it so far into my working life.

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Mannerheim Statue 'Tampere'

I have mentioned the Tampere Mannerheim Statue on this blog before here 'Europe's Lingering Scar of Communism'

You see, Tampere was a hotbed of communists during the Finnish Civel War and Mannerheim was the leader of the 'White' forces and routed the communists from the city. So, back in the 1950's when a statue was going to be erected in his honor, the city leaders stuck it in the forest, nowhere near the city itself.

So for the last couple trips here I had been meaning to visit the statue. I finally got the chance today.

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Darts In The Forest

My father in law finally got a dart board.


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Helsinki Tram Accident - 1999

Here is a photo from a tram accident in Helsinki back in 1999.

I was on the tram and saw the car crossing in front and knew when I saw it coming that there was no way it was going to make it. It hit hard enough to spin the car around.

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Illegal Alien Impact - Severe School Overcrowding

I live in Fairfax County Virginia. The local High School, Annandale High School has been suffering from overcrowding for a while. The Country is now shopping around 4 main options in dealing with the problem (link).

I had gone to a presentation back in December on the issue and the issue of illegal aliens came up. The response was that the school District was not allowed to investigate the impact of illegal aliens on school overcrowding and that they are prohibited from asking anyone about their legal status.

This is what happens when you mix politics into situations that need a clear understanding of the facts. Overcrowding is not the only issue Fairfax County Public Schools has to deal with concerning immigrants, including illegal aliens, as the county also has a problem with keeping white and black students in certain district schools that are being overrun with an unnatural influx of immigrants. you see, parents are going to believe politicians for only so long. During WWI, the Japanese knew that they were losing the war because the 'Great Victories' the Japanese were winning were ever closer to the homeland. Eventually people do figure out that they don't like what is going on. Constant school overcrowding is a definite warning sign.

Our politicians, especially our Democrat leaning ones, want to tell you that illegal aliens are not an issue and should be formally legalized and brought into our society. However, they are negatively impacting our communities in many small ways, both draining resources and packing our schools. These same politicians then pass laws requiring Government to ignore the problems created. We the people then suffer.

Our Congressman is Democrat Gerry Connolly. He is a direct contributing factor to this problem.

I don't know what else to say. It just seems that all our politicians are working overtime to wreck our neighborhoods. I am ready to fight back, and guess it is time to get more involved.

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Spotted in Bermuda - Dan Mitchell, Brian Garst

Last night returning to my hotel I ran into Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute and Brian Garst of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity and Big Government.

They were working on a press release concerning events they were following here and I will add it once it comes out.

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