Blissful lie #3:  Canada and France rule.  America should learn from them.

Truth be told, America rules. Canada and France stink.

Lately, world affairs and the people who opine about them seem to be putting America in a bad light.  That’s a shame, because world affairs and the people who opine about them often comprise a rabid combination of the ridiculous and the unscrupulous.

Canada and France have led an emotional charge against U.S. foreign policy and its use of its military power.  They would be well-advised, however, to keep their sanctimonious yaps shut.

Had it not been for America’s military, the world would be quite a different place today.  It’s too easy today to dismiss the evils of yesteryear as interesting notations in history books.  But it is not an overstatement by any means, when you consider Hitler and the Nazis, the starvation, oppression, and nuclear arsenal of the U.S.S.R.’s murderous Communism, and Saddam Hussein’s evil blood thirst for control over the rich resources of the Middle East, to say that America has saved the world, time and again.  Is that a bit smarmy and overly-patriotic sounding?  Perhaps, but it is most certainly true.

Popular world opinion says (always beware of what’s coming when you hear that) it’s our fault that we need a strong, active military, because our policies make people mad at us.  That is an ill-considered attitude that is completely ignorant of world affairs, both now and in the past century. 

Our very status as the world’s only militaristic and economic superpower lends itself to making enemies.  That is not America’s fault, that’s just a byproduct of a world where human beings reign and desperately crave power.

It is true that America needs a military, but it’s also true that the world needs America to have a military. 

Canada brags in a very self-righteous manner about their lack of necessity for a military (they actually DO have a military, it just has fewer people than their SkyDome can hold - seriously).  But rarely is it mentioned why that is.  The fact that the U.S. maintains the power to police the bad guys and stabilize the global economy gives Canada the luxury of basking in the sun, knowing we’ll be there to keep putting sun-block lotion on them.  I perceive Canada much the same as I would a 37-year-old ne’er-do-well, who still hasn’t moved away from home, and who has all his worldly responsibilities taken care of by his parents, marveling and bragging about how good he is at living an unproblematic life.

Canada’s lack of spending on their military allows government expenditures to be diverted to their so-called “free” health-care – the only free part of which is the self-congratulatory manner in which they do so.  There is no magic in their system; the money comes from their tax revenue (thus, it’s not free), and that money is barely keeping alive a health care system that is overburdened and broke.  And it would be worse if Canada actually had to maintain a military.

So, I will not apologize to Canada if we can’t provide free health care to 300 million people to the legendary standards they do for their fine citizens.  Citizens who, by the way, visit our country in large numbers every year to take advantage of our health care and avoid the long lines of their own broken system.

Canada and France look down upon our recent tax relief legislation.  Well, socialism may be the flavor of the month in other parts of the world, but America was founded on freedom of the individual, not a giant intrusive government that plays the role of Robin Hood.  Yes, we have an economic lower class – just like every other nation does.  And their situation is regrettable and unenviable, no question about that.  But in a country where a higher percentage of the lower-class own things like a car, color TV, DVD player, microwave, and dishwasher, than do the middle-class of most European countries, and where health care is required to by given to those in need of it regardless of whether they can pay for it (or are even documented residents of the country), and where the Earned Income Tax Credit completely eliminates the tax burden, I ask you: In the unfortunate circumstance of being in the lower economic class, in what other country would you prefer to live?

Every day, thousands of people from other countries risk everything to improve their social status by moving to the U.S.  Not many people (Johnny Depp aside) seem very eager to leave.



Blissful lie #4:  I don’t mind paying taxes, because the money helps people.  People who have more money than I do are rich, and should pay more.

Truth be told, your tax dollars are wasted.  People who have less money than you think you are rich, and you should pay more.

Yes, give me tax cuts.  I don’t feel guilty.  Congress will find enough money to waste without more of my help.  Nobody should feel guilty about getting tax relief.  Whether you get $20 or $20,000 of tax relief, no family is going to starve because you have that money and the government doesn’t.  Give it to a charity.  It will be much better used than if the government had it.

The argument can be made that the tax cuts should be coupled with reduced government spending, in order to balance the federal budget.  That hasn’t happened, and it’s quite obvious that President Bush does not care.  But then again, why should we? Bill Clinton didn’t care either: he ran with a deficit most of his tenure, and that tenure saw a huge economic boom.  The pundits argue that this just isn’t the right time for tax cuts, given the weak economy.  That would be fine, except that the economic surge of the nineties was apparently not the right time for tax cuts either.  So, when is the right time for tax cuts?  When President Godot gets into office?

No economic expert can safely predict the true long-term effects of deficit spending.  Perhaps the doomsayers are right, and we will pay the price down the road.  If that’s the case, then it will likely be the people who are government-dependent that will be hurt the most.  Lesson: Don’t allow yourself to become government-dependent.

We, meaning both the general population and each of us as individuals, must retain the power to be independent of our government.  You want government-controlled health care?  Imagine a day where a visit to the doctor’s office is like a visit today to the DMV.  Comforting?  This is the same institution that can’t break-even delivering the mail, and you want them to provide your medication?  Government is not our father or our caretaker.  It will never suffice as such.

If you are free of government-dependence, then for all you should care, let Congress flush their tax revenue down one of those million-dollar toilets with the rainbow hologram underneath the seat. 

We need look no further than California to see how the tax-and-spend philosophy works.  Their state government has spent the better part of the last couple of decades taxing businesses and corporations to death, encouraged to do so by the more liberal-minded folks who view corporations as inherently wicked.  Now, the businesses have left, the state is broke, and that same populace is wondering why they can’t find jobs.

And we’ll never know if Gary Coleman had the answer.

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