The Declaration of Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms (July 6, 1775) by Thomas Jefferson, though wordy, explains the feelings of the times.
“We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery. Honor, justice, and humanity forbid us tamely to sur-render that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them if we basely entail hereditary bondage upon them. With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers which our beneficent Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have been compelled by our enemies to assume we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverance, employ for the preservation of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves.”
I’m not calling for revolution, I’m pointing out Jefferson’s passion against tyranny. Ask yourself what is important to you, and your children. You can have free health care, free college tuition, save the planet from carbon dioxide and all the things the Democrats are offering, but this will cause a crushing debt you will not be able to ever pay off. Your children will be born indentured servants, not free men. Your good intentions to make things ‘fair’ will directly affect your children and their children. Remember, “no good deed goes unpunished.” Our children shouldn’t be enslaved to our selfishness. This is not hyperbole, it is the logical conclusion to the massive spending our present government votes for (including Bush and the former Republican Congress). George Washington said “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force.Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”
Fire is a wonderful tool when controlled, but out of control it is a horribly destructive force of nature. There is a forest fire of government spending that has jumped the firebreak that is the U.S. Constitution. It took decades of small decisions to get here. We, taxpayers, have been shoveling more and more of our money into the government blast furnace and it is never enough.
The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research group, calculates “Tax Freedom Day” (http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxfreedomday/). That is the day Americans are finished paying local, state and federal taxes and start earning their own money. Their report shows the national Tax Freedom Day for 2009 is April 13 (Tennessee unyokes April 5). As for the national average, the Tax Foundation says, “This is eight days earlier than in 2008, and a full two weeks earlier than in 2007, for two reasons: (1) the recession has reduced tax collections even faster than it has reduced income, and (2) the stimulus package includes large temporary tax cuts for 2009 and 2010. Nevertheless, Americans will pay more in taxes than they will spend on food, clothing and housing combined.”
This doesn’t include the National Debt. You are always happy with the return of your own money come tax time, but do you ever look at how much the federal withholding is on your paycheck? The government loves to skim their portion off the top and leave you the remainder. If you had to write a check or pay cash to cover your taxes every payday you would have a different opinion of government. We need taxation in moderation. The problem is outrageous spending. We cannot survive as free people if we are tied to enormous debt. We become like draught horses yoked to a grindstone endlessly walking in circles like our peasant ancestors, and our children will be at our side.

Author