Social safety nets would bankrupt middle class
Whether or not our troops should get out of Iraq will be debated for a long time, but several comments reader Rob Moir said in a letter published in the Sept. 19 edition of the Sentinel were quite alarming.

Mr. Moir prefers that all of the money we spend on our troops and the war effort be spent on social programs instead. He claims, "The standard of living is falling for six out 10 Americans, many of whom lack minimal health insurance." He also says that "Our financial resources should be used to uphold the standard of living of the American people."

Mr. Moir speaks of feeding and housing the poor. If he is sincere and does that with his own money, God bless him. If someone in America is poor because he or she is old, in dire circumstances, or simply cannot work, I pity them and we as Americans should donate money and/or time to charities. And if someone is in such bad shape, government programs should be made available - but not the blind, runaway, entitlement spending Mr. Moir proposes.

Who is really, truly poor in this country? My guess is, not nearly as many people as you might think. That is why government should stay clear away from blindly helping people who claim to be poor. Lyndon Baines Johnson began the Great Society project to "wipe out poverty" by raising taxes and redistributing wealth in the 1960s. The cost was 1 trillion dollars to the American taxpayer.

Guess what? It was a gigantic waste of money. Some people who truly needed it were helped, and that is a good thing. But a lot of people, instead of working, have fallen back on public assistance rather than working and improving themselves.

If truth be told, a lot of politicians - most of them liberal Democrats - aren't taking pity on those needing assistance. They don't think any of the poor are intelligent enough or have the work ethic to succeed in a country where opportunity abounds for everyone who wants to work for it. And come election time, those same Democrats might as well say to those same people, "Let me give you a hand. You need me!"

Who is truly poor or not comes into question, which is why this socialist welfare mentality - the one Mr. Moir proposes - is one reason why our taxes are so sky-high.

I sincerely doubt whether a lot of these people who claim to be poor really are so bad off. Go to the slums of India or Peru, where people have sewage running through their streets, have no running water and have no idea where their next meal is coming from. Now, that's poverty.

But a lot of the so-called poor in this country think they are poor but are clearly not.

A lot of the "poor" in America:

Own a gas-guzzling SUV, when a smaller, cheaper car would suffice, own a satellite television, digital or even basic cable, when a regular television would do, own several televisions in their home, drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes, eat out several times per week, rather than plan their meals.

If a lot of these so-called poor people would make some of these sacrifices, they might be able to afford their own health coverage. They then wouldn't need Mr. Moir's next Big Government goal: nationalized health care.

When Democrats talk about health care for all, watch your wallet. They may say they'll raise taxes on the rich, but this program will end up costing billions. Where will that money come from? The middle class, many of whom scrimp and save to pay for their homes, put their kids through school, etc.

There is no free lunch, no matter how often Democrats portray this health care scam. The U.S. health care system isn't perfect, but our government is too big and far out of control as it is to add yet another layer of bureaucracy that the middle class would be stuck paying for. Many countries from all over the world have the nationalized health care Mr. Moir and socialist Democrats would love, but why do people from all over the world come to America for their health care? Because our treatment is the best!

Mr. Moir's logic is completely flawed. He cites one reason we should get out of Iraq is a BBC poll, which says that 61 percent of U.S. citizens want all U.S. troops withdrawn from Iraq in one year.

But if there were a poll asking average Americans if they want their taxes to skyrocket in order to support the government spending programs that Mr. Moir proposes, the answer would be an overwhelming NO. I wonder if Mr. Moir would go along with the polling then? My guess is, he wouldn't.

Joe Hofmann

Colonia