Does the U.S. govt believe it works for the citizens?

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Does the U.S. govt believe it works for the citizens?
They believe they work for us. We are the boss, they are the employees. 9%  9%  [ 1 ]
They believe they work with us. We are equal partners who have equal power to veto each other's suggestions. 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
They believe we work for them. That we naturally owe them large amounts of our hard-earned money, for them to spend as they wish. 91%  91%  [ 10 ]
Total votes : 11

Ragtime
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16 Apr 2009, 12:02 pm

This is a simple question, and the most important political question that can be asked. What is the Obama administration's view of the relationship between the federal government and the citizens of the United States?

Does the Obama administration believe it works with U.S. citizens, or for them?
And what does the Constitution say about this, about the role of government?

The first step in political sanity is for all parties involved to recognize the nature of how they properly relate to each other.

Think of having a personal accountant. You pay him to manage your money, and as such you give him authority to put you on a budget he sees fit with the insight of his financial expertise. He manages your money, and tells you what you can and can't spend, and on what you shouldn't spend. But who works for whom? If he does a bad job over a lengthy amount of time, he's out, and you either find a new accountant or go back to managing your own money. You may even like the guy, and not want to see him put out of the job, but if he consistently runs you into the poorhouse due to sloppy oversight and general fiscal incompentence, what choice do you have? You'll eventually have to part ways with him professionally.

Government has slowly but quite surely become our bad accountants.


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Last edited by Ragtime on 16 Apr 2009, 12:20 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Glencannon
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16 Apr 2009, 12:13 pm

Well, this definitely isn't just an Obama thing, most politicians think that it is the governments job to take care of us rather than letting us take care of ourselves.

For me I believe what our founders believe, the governments only job is to protect our liberty.



Sand
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16 Apr 2009, 12:51 pm

Glencannon wrote:
Well, this definitely isn't just an Obama thing, most politicians think that it is the governments job to take care of us rather than letting us take care of ourselves.

For me I believe what our founders believe, the governments only job is to protect our liberty.


Therefore it is right in the true American spirit that the financial institutions scammed the public into get into fraudulent mortgages which undercut the entire financial system because the government cut back its oversight of what kind of nefarious activity was going on. If the American people are too stupid to protect themselves from confusing agreements, tough.



Glencannon
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16 Apr 2009, 1:20 pm

Sand wrote:
Therefore it is right in the true American spirit that the financial institutions scammed the public into get into fraudulent mortgages which undercut the entire financial system because the government cut back its oversight of what kind of nefarious activity was going on. If the American people are too stupid to protect themselves from confusing agreements, tough.


I agree with you, however I think it is important to add that because the Government was guaranteeing those fraudulent mortgages, they distorted the natural and inherent regulator of the free market, which is risk. If the Government had not made that guarantee on those mortgages the financial institutions would have never loaned to people who did not have the financial ability to pay them back. Which is what created the housing bubble and the economic mess we are currently in.



androo4salez
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16 Apr 2009, 1:27 pm

The governments job is to protect our liberty, and give us a working transportation system, and the like. But they have been doing things outside of their job description for the past decade or more..

The government doesn't give a s**t about us.



monty
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16 Apr 2009, 4:24 pm

Glencannon wrote:

For me I believe what our founders believe, the governments only job is to protect our liberty.


Stop cartooning it - the picture you present is inaccurate. Thomas Jefferson said "I am conscious that an equal division of property is impracticable. But the consequences of this enormous inequality producing so much misery to the bulk of mankind, legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property.… Whenever there is in any country, uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right."



richardbenson
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16 Apr 2009, 4:47 pm

i love how all the conservatives jump on the fiscal responsibility bandwagon all of the sudden, i mean my goodness where was that for the last 8 years? :roll: and i believe the governmet looks out for #1 wich is itself. they do alot of terrible things to innocent people most of wich is kept quiet



Glencannon
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16 Apr 2009, 6:02 pm

richardbenson wrote:
i love how all the conservatives jump on the fiscal responsibility bandwagon all of the sudden, i mean my goodness where was that for the last 8 years? :roll: and i believe the governmet looks out for #1 wich is itself. they do alot of terrible things to innocent people most of wich is kept quiet


Believe it or not there are some conservatives who have been just as critical of Bush as they have been of Obama. There are even some conservatives who are anti-war, gasp!



claire-333
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16 Apr 2009, 6:34 pm

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Last edited by claire-333 on 21 Apr 2009, 6:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

richardbenson
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16 Apr 2009, 6:35 pm

yeah well what im saying is its popular to nitpick over what the current presidents agenda is especially when its the other party in office. maybe if the most of republicans actually practiced what they preach they would still be in power LOL