Has the Tea [Party] become diluted?

When the Tea Party was established it was in the name of freedoms and liberty. It was used to spread the message that the federal government was outreaching its boundaries; that it was intruding into matters it did not have power to be in. The premise of the Tea Party was a true grassroots movement, made up mostly of what society at large called the fringe group, the conspiracy theorists, those who did not trust government’s ways and means of business, the activists that wanted to be able to live life as they saw fit, with the freedom to choose and the right to prosperity quickly joined the ranks. But what has it become now, where has that fringe group gone? My experience with the Tea Party has been of followers of the party line ignoring their personal principles. When you follow blindly the cliff will not be seen until it’s too late.

The Tea party was a grassroots gathering of individuals set on restoring the glory and values to America, what has wound up happening though is a party affiliation party who will only vote for the candidates that the party picks. Why should we follow our own values when someone else can pick for us? What happens when the party favorite isn’t your favorite?  When the party pick does something that goes against your beliefs or when they sign legislation that doesn’t match your beliefs. What can be gained by following?  A sense of belonging to a group that is blinded? What can be lost from it? Your morals can be in question and your beliefs could be challenged. What has happened to the American spirit of resistance to tyranny, what has happened to those fighting for independence?  What has happened to our patriots? The party mentality is one that I do not endorse.  I cannot follow blindly in the shadows of the group to be slaughtered on an altar made of bad choices and apathy.

The standard bearer and originator of modern day small government, audit the federal reserve, end the wars, and personal responsibility ideals has in the past two election cycles endorsed the big government, continue to devaluation of our currency, progress the wars and start new ones, and a government that can and will take care of all, candidates. It baffles the mind to think that a once great meaning movement has fallen to the levels of our politicians and have left their values at the wayside. We know that this movement was intended for greater purposes but sadly couldn’t bear the responsibility.  It is sad to see the declination of principles for personal and financial gain. So where has the Tea Party gone and how can we steer it back in the right direction? I do not think we should try to move this party back to course; it should be the responsibility of those involved with the party to evaluate their ideal and morals, it is their responsibility to steer their party in whatever direction they choose. We that know the liberty message will watch to see where they will take it and what they plan to do.

As we move forward we shall choose our battles based upon our principles, we will stand up for what is right and we will fight what is wrong. We will be there, the small tireless minority pushing against the mindless wandering masses of people who claim to be Tea Party Patriots.

How welfare hurts us.

     This is not about if welfare is right or wrong, moral or immoral, good or bad. This is about the facts of the system that we have in America and its effects on society. Dependency on any financial aid can produce very differing effects; some will use this handout to better themselves, gaining employment, gaining an education or work skill. Others may use this as a substitute for bettering themselves. They use the system and expect everyone to be ok with it. What I want to cover is the dependency issue, the number of recipients  and the tax burden of those who do not collect from the system but add to it through taxation. I also want to explain corporate welfare and the way fortune 500 companies have added a burden to society by taking government handouts. I want to show the very real fraud with the current system and try to explain some substitutes.

     The lessons of history, confirmed by evidence immediately before me, show conclusively that continued dependence on relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit. It is inimical to the dictates of sound policy. It is a violation of the traditions of America - Franklin D Roosevelt.

Now this being said from the President who pretty much created the current social security scam and a more broad welfare state of affairs in America, he warned us that if we became dependent upon aid that we would be forever dependent on it. Now there are past presidents and our current one that have used this dependency issue to be elected or re-elected. The main issue with dependency in the receipt of financial aid is that some will use this as an excuse not to seek employment or not to acuire a skill set to use in the job market, they have what they need and are content taking aid. Another issue with this is when the only burden is on the people paying into the system but not drawing from it, it is very unusual to have a recipient pay into his own aid. Now there are many types of aid and all have their reason for being, food stamps are to be used for the purchase of foods, health and beauty, and general grocery store items. Supplemental security income (SSI)  was signed into law by President Nixon, there were laws on the books held by each state that took care of this but Nixon felt it should be a federal issue and he took it on. SSI is a way for impared adults or senior citizens to have a standard of living expense paid for them by the federal government, housing, food and general assistance. This is a needed benifit for those people who are too impaired to work or at an age that makes it impossible to work. It is needed but it needs to be reformed as well as not to come from the federal government. Each state should be able to take care of their own.

     The total number of recipients of monetary aid in 2011 was 15,000,000 people. The total amount distributed was 131.9 billion dollars. 131 billion dollars taken from tax money to be redistributed to others. The statistical information can be found at this link;http://www.statisticbrain.com/welfare-statistics/.

     Corporate welfare is not welfare at all but this being a topic of entitlement programs I though it fitting in here. Corporate welfare is actually subsidies paid to major companies, most commonly Fortune 500 companies. Every year billions of taxpayer dollars are funneled into and out of the US corporate welfare system. Technological advances, research and development, and similar ventures are not inexpensive. In fact, many of the projects funded by corporate welfare can be extremely expensive, and some may even require millions of dollars in annual funding.Corporate welfare provides capitalization and assistance for a number of beneficial programs in the US. One such program is the incredibly popular Advanced Technology Program (AFT), which is intended to promote technological research that has great economic benefits for the nation. Many recipients of this federal funding are Fortune 500 companies, including General Motors, IBM, Lucent Technologies, Texas Instruments, 3M, Raytheon, Dow Chemical, and Xerox. AFT support allows these highly successful companies the means to turn some of their more costly ideas into innovative and cutting-edge products.The amount of money being spent on corporate welfare is disturbing. $100 billion of taxpayer dollars should never be spent on pet projects like Solyndra. Doing so in the middle of a debt crisis is simply irresponsible. Cutting corporate welfare would not be a silver bullet (there is no getting around the need for serious entitlement reform) but it needs to happen. The Keynesian philosophy behind this corporate welfare is a bigger problem than the $100 billion handed out to businesses in FY 2012.

Reform of this system is a area of confusion and frustration for most people. You don't believe in the handing of your hard earned money to those who do not try to work, but then you feel sorry for those who can not work. At the same time you see a need to change the system but can't figure out how. Why not go back to the states responsibility to aid their residents and care for their citizens, then as a state we could come up with what works on a smaller scale. When the Federal Government took control of the welfare of all citizens they bit off more than they could chew, I feel that on a small state wide scale the well being of the citizens can be easily undertaken. I do not think it needs to stop there though, I believe that the re-education of the masses has to take place.The people have to learn that hard work and dirty hands is the right way, living on handouts and dirty knees is not the way to gain prosperity. I do believe that at sometimes every man needs a hand-up but with pride in yourself and a little hard work you should never need a handout.

      But as I said before this isn't about right or wrong this is all my opinion of why the welfare system that we have is hurting the growth of prosperity.

http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj16n1-1.html