Caring, compassion, cash and control

By Jim Thompson
HCP columnist

Immediately after the tornadoes in Moore, Okla., likely while innocent drowning children were horrifically gasping their last breaths in the basement of Plaza Towers Elementary School, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), took to the Senate floor to blast his Republican colleagues for denying the theory of anthropogenic (manmade) global warming.

Similarly, Lizz Winstead, co-creator of the “Daily Show”, tweeted: “This tornado is in Oklahoma so clearly it has been ordered to only target conservatives.”

Senator Whitehouse went on to show his true colors: “When cyclones tear up Oklahoma and…wildfires scorch Texas, you come to us, the rest of the country, for billions of dollars to recover…”

Were there any words in his rant about sorrow, suffering, and so forth? No. It was all about the money, as it always is with progressive liberals.

When progressive liberals talk about Caring and Compassion, they do mean two words that begin with the letter “C:” words they dare not speak in public. Yes, for progressive liberals it is all about Cash and Control.

Sen. Whitehouse’s lack of real compassion, as evidenced by his blatantly political speech, indicates children dying in the basement of a far off school in, according to Ms. Winstead, obviously conservative country, is about as valuable as life in the womb.

Real lovers of human life do not spend time defining it, they spend their time defending it, no matter when, no matter where.

Besides Cash and Control, the rest of the progressive liberal agenda can be described simply: stay in power at all costs.

How do you stay in power at all costs? Redistribute the wealth. The formula is easy. Take, say, twenty or thirty million people who have some wealth. Use the tax system to redistribute these people’s assets to one or two hundred million people not so well off.

While you are doing this, do it in the name of “Compassion,” which, of course is a lie. It is all about buying the most votes.

Progressive liberals figured this out 100 years ago when President Wilson saw to it that a Federal Income Tax was made into law. It is instructive to remember Dr. Wilson’s resume. He had been President of Princeton University. Just like today, elite academics of his day thought they knew what was best for all of us.

“Redistribution of wealth” has come on the scene as if it were a recent phenomenon.

Laughable — the entire federal taxing scheme is about redistribution of wealth and always has been (with one tiny exception — paying for defense of the country and its borders).

Proof? If the federal government had great programs, we would all buy them voluntarily. It is only because these programs will elicit no voluntary purchases does the government resort to confiscating our money with the strong arm of the IRS.

Yes, taxes are paid grudgingly because we do not personally see the benefit. Simply, the sales pitch is this: Pay your taxes or we will put you in jail. Most pay up; only the foolish think they can outsmart the IRS.

Progressive liberals (who philosophically “own” the tax system) cajole and abuse the rest of us with talk of the greater good, being stingy, being a scrooge and so forth; but in reality, that has nothing to do with it.

Neither does the idea that the government can do things more efficiently.

A reader of this column recently cited the government extracting onerous interest rates on student loans, thus causing the student loan program to earn a larger profit than any corporation in America last year, as evidence of the government’s efficiency.

Great efficiency, especially for a monopolist — the student loan program.

CBS’s MoneyWatch reported on May 20 that the federal government profit on student loans for each dollar lent is: Subsidized Stafford Loan 12.49 cents; Unsubsidized Stafford Loan 33 cents; Parent PLUS Loan 49 cents; and GradPLUS Loan 54.84 cents.

Using this logic, the government should take over all gasoline sales — they could put John D. Rockefeller to shame as a monopolist.

Thus, Obamacare is not new in this sense — the government has been forcing us to buy things we don’t want for 100 years.

Even Social Security is a redistribution of wealth scam. The idea here is everyone pays in and most die off, leaving the goodies for the “lottery winners” — the ones who had the genes and eating habits to outlast those with the unlucky health card.

The only problem is more awareness and better health care is causing too many to live too long.

(Enter the death panels of Obamacare.)

So, Senator Sheldon, and other progressive liberals, if you want to show us you really care, take off your suits, go to Oklahoma and get your hands dirty.

Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga., following decades of wandering the world, and is a columnist for The Highland County Press.