Terminus

I have had enough.

The progression that has driven the original, relatively constrained welfare system of the United States to its present, cradle-to-grave assurances of absolute support for whatever form of Taking or Faking one chooses to pursue has taken quite a lot of Americans, including this one, to a completely different destination.

Here's a sample of the fuel that's propelled us:

“I believe that in a society as wealthy as ours, we should have a commitment to our seniors and to the disabled,” Obama said. “That’s not a sign of weakness. That’s not socialism.”

Obama called “the basic American compact” the promises of a job with a “living wage,” college education and health care “if you work hard, if you’re responsible, if you’re looking after your family.”

He hit the standard “change” notes about the Lilly Ledbetter equal pay act, the auto bailout, fuel-efficiency standards, and the end of the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays serving openly in the military.

“And we are going to insure another 30 million people in this country, and we are making sure if you’ve got health insurance that they can’t drop you when you get sick — the strongest patient protection bill that we’ve ever seen when it comes to health care,” Obama told the donors. “That all happened because of you. That’s what change is.”

Promises to raid the earnings of the self-reliant and property rights of the industrious. Promises to tie the medical-insurance industry in webs of law and regulation that will force it into bankruptcy within a decade. Promises to bail out milked and mismanaged corporations, and firms that have been systematically looted by unions they can't get rid of. Promises to perpetuate demographically doomed pyramid schemes that are already in a negative cash flow status and speeding toward collapse.

To whom are the benefits promised? Why, to the communities of interest that traditionally vote for Democrats: special-interest groups, welfare recipients, government employees, unions, retirees, and assorted persons who refuse to pay for what they want or need. Oh, never fear: there'll be some swag for Obama's favored crony capitalists, too. Just make sure you get the donation check date-stamped.

Obama called Paul Ryan's "Path to Prosperity" budget proposal, which contemplates only modest alterations to existing redistributive and entitlement programs and would leave the federal government in deficit for at least another decade, "nothing but thinly veiled social Darwinism."

But wait: there's more! Obama's supposed opponents agree with him in principle. They've demonstrated it in positive ways -- i.e., the Bush II prescription-drug bill, No Child Left Behind, and the financial-firms bailout at the end of 2008 -- and in negative ones -- i.e., refusing to address the inherent unsustainability of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, which cannot be sustained without a steadily increasing population of net taxpayers.

In commenting on the lamentably weak presidential candidacy of Robert Dole, a wag whose name I've forgotten remarked that if the Democrats were to propose a law mandating the immediate execution of all white males, Dole would suggest that it be phased in over a five-year period. As funny as the remark was, it perfectly expressed the principle-free mindset of the man Newt Gingrich called "the tax collector for the welfare state." But that's not the bad news, this is: Dole's willingness to compromise with evil wasn't exceptional among Republican officeholders and candidates. Nor is it today.

If you disagree, ask Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich if they'd entertain Constitutional objections to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, or TANF (the federal welfare system). Ask Mitch McConnell if he'd support repeal bills aimed at those programs. Ask John Boehner if he'd permit such bills to be voted on in an open session of Congress.

There is neither courage nor principle in the GOP any longer. If these are America's champions, we are doomed to destruction.

Enough. Either it stops, or America stops.

They have called us "social Darwinists," because we hew to the Constitution. They have styled us as "selfish," "heartless," and "toadies to big business," because we call for individual responsibility and respect for property rights. They claim we care nothing about children, the elderly, or the disabled, because we argue that you cannot forever consume more than you produce. Very well. I embrace their slanders. I will show them the terminus they've steered us toward.

The old libertarian slogan "Help Starve a Feeding Bureacrat" didn't go far enough. Mine is the Let 'Em All Starve, Hero (LEASH) approach to budgeting -- and I mean it exactly that way. Herewith, the Porretto program for federal budget reform:

• Abolish all federal cabinet departments except Defense, Justice, Treasury, and Interior. (Make Veterans Affairs an office under Defense.) Fire all the employees of the abolished departments, without exception.
• Rescind with prejudice all regulations promulgated by Executive Branch agencies under the notion of delegated authority. There shall be no laws nor regulations other than those that have been passed in all particulars by both houses of Congress and signed into law by the president.
• Enact a Constitutional Amendment that forbids Congress to borrow money except:
  • During time of explicitly, Congressionally declared war,
  • From American lenders,
  • And only upon proffering sufficient security in federally owned land.
• Reinstitute the definition of the American dollar as a specific weight of gold or silver, and mandate the redemption of any Federal Reserve-issued currency in that medium, at the holder's request.
• Enact a statute that makes a public official's violation of his oath to the Constitution of the United States a capital crime, triable before a jury of private citizens and a duly appointed federal judge.

Why do I endorse a program guaranteed to cause so much short-term privation and suffering? Because it's necessary. Because it's the last step we can take before accepting inevitable collapse, chaos, and more suffering than anyone could possibly imagine. And not least, because I'm sick to death of political adventurers like Barack Hussein Obama trying to "guilt" us into allowing him and his lieutenants to plunder what remains of what was once the freest, richest nation that ever graced this ball of rock.

To those pleading for "compassion for the less well off," "concern for the elderly," "respect for the environment," "think of the children," or "not a handout, just a hand," we now know how that eventuates. Earn your keep, shoulder your own responsibilities, provide for your own futures, and perform what charities you please from your own resources. It's that or go under.

Before you ask: Yes, I actively want anyone who subscribes to Obama's ideals, or who latched onto a government teat rather than work for a living, to suffer. Badly. Before they can re-elect the Marxist-In-Chief to an office he's never been fit to hold. I'll make no pretense to the contrary. It's all the satisfaction we'll ever get from those who have ruined the country I love...who have bled America dry.

(Why, yes: I am a heartless capitalist bastard. However did you guess?)