Boyne City Gazette column;

I am reposting this, as the first attempt left words running off the page so that you  could not see them......  Self-reliance the key to strengthening Americans - My latest column in the Boyne City Gazette    In these days of deep division, of pitting one American against another in hatred,  and of Presidential words of blame, the following words of William J. H.  Boetcker, a Presbyterian minister, are as true today as when he wrote them in 1943.   "You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift".  For example, our  government actually required mortgage lenders to extend mortgages to those who  could never repay them.     "You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer, nor help the  poor man by destroying the rich."  Corporations taxed at one of the highest rates in  the world, and not given long-term regulations upon which they can depend, keep their  profits and stop hiring and expanding.  Some move jobs overseas or find legal ways  around taxation, as has GE.  Unemployment increases.  Wayne Allen Root, Obama's  classmate at Columbia,  describes the book Atlas Shrugged, wherein “the rich were  going on strike to teach that civilization cannot survive when people are slaves to  government; that without a productive class of innovative business owners willing  to risk their own money and work 16-hour days, weekends and holidays, there are  no jobs and no taxes to pay for government. If you punish the wealthy, the risk-takers,  the innovators, you kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.”  Inciting class hatred does not lead to jobs, rational discussion or compromise.  It surely does not produce net  government revenues.    " You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money."  President Obama  added more to our national debt in his first 19 months than all presidents from  Washington through Reagan – combined.  He is spending at a rate more than 3  times that of President Bush.  Because of Baseline Budgeting mandates, funds  for discretionary spending in government programs increase automatically by 8% per  year with no regard to inflation.  The current baseline is enormously inflated because  of Obama’s Stimulus and various new programs he signed into law in his first two  years. In the recently passed bill, there are only cuts to the automatic 8% increase on t his inflated spending, not on last year’s expenses. Our debt and deficits will continue to go higher.       "You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred."  We must stop name-calling, limiting ourselves to debating issues.  We see in London what  has transpired due to class hatred and an entitlement mentality.    “You cannot build character and courage by destroying men's initiative and  independence."   Welfare life begets continued generations of Americans on welfare, effectively  telling many capable people they are not smart or good enough to take care of themselves.  Welfare has become a way of life for millions.   A recent Presidential order in 3 states including  Michigan, for instance, directs that if 40% of school children in a district qualify for free meals  at school, then all of them shall get it –to “eliminate the stigma of getting a free lunch”, thereby  putting more people on government programs – an effective agenda for bankrupting our government.    President Obama has appointed Cabinet members, heads of many government  departments and panels, and Czars who are “progressive” thinkers displaying beliefs  quite the opposite of Boetcker.  For decades our government has weakened the  weak by not effectively expecting and assisting able citizens in becoming wage earners,  permitting many to continue to receive government funds with no expectations of conduct to qualify for them.  Unwed Mothers in America are empowered by our laws to  receive more government funds for each child they have, and many fathers abandon their children to enable this government income, for instance.  Government continues  to redefine poverty so that higher incomes qualify as the poverty-stricken. For many  decades our country’s anti-poverty spending has not lead to less poverty.       Creative ideas and expectations are required to enable success.  Perhaps those  who are able to should do volunteer work, promote schooling for their children, or  learn to read to qualify for welfare, or as in Florida take a drug test to assure that  our taxes are not simply supporting their habit.  Work ethics, self-assurance and the  drive to excel is not promoted by permanently doing for some what they can and  should do for themselves.                         Creative ideas and expectations are required to enable success.  Perhaps those who are able to should do volunteer work, promote schooling for their children, or learn to read to qualify for welfare, or as in Florida take a drug test to assure that our taxes are not simply supporting their habit.  Work ethics, self-assurance and the drive to excel is not promoted by permanently doing for some what they can and should do for themselves.   . ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo reports, [confirming that conservatives have made our President back down]: Obama on Friday scrapped his administration's controversial plans to tighten smog rules, bowing to the demands of congressional Republicans and some business leaders. Obama overruled the Environmental Protection Agency — and the unanimous opinion of its independent panel of scientific advisers — and directed administrator Lisa Jackson to withdraw the proposed regulation to reduce concentrations of ground-level ozone, smog's main ingredient. The decision rests in part on reducing regulatory burdens and uncertainty for businesses at a time of rampant uncertainty about an unsteady economy. A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, had muted praise for the White House, saying that withdrawal of the smog regulation was a good first step toward removing obstacles that are blocking business growth. http://news.yahoo.com/obama-halts-controversial-epa-regulation-143731156.html  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CNBC reports: It was the first time since World War II that the economy had a net zero jobs created for a month. Economists had been expecting the report to show a net of 75,000 jobs created, an unusually low number considering the US is technically more than two years removed from the end of the last crisis. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/august-jobs-report-released-no-jobs-added/ -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------