Gratitude Begins Where My Sense of Entitlement Ends by Susan Stamper Brown

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Susan Stamper Brown

Dec

2010

Gratitude Begins Where My Sense of Entitlement Ends

An apropos saying, “Gratitude begins where my sense of entitlement ends” was recently tweeted across the cyber world of Twitter, but apparently the message did not connect with entitlement-loving Democratic Party Progressives currently unhinged over the recent proposal to extend Bush tax cuts.

Cartoon by John Darkow - Columbia Daily Tribune (click to reprint)

In a rare moment of self-mutilation, the Democrats have begun to eat their own in their condemning of Obama’s Tax compromise rather than indulging in their usual and most boring anything-Palin diet – and to that I respond with a hearty, “Bon Appetite.” Their temper tantrum exposes that Progressives don’t want what’s best for America and, hell or high water, they will do anything to get what they want – which involves creating a fiscally unsustainable nanny state that will catapult America into the mayhem presently experienced in Europe. Rather than compromise and extend the tax cuts to give the economy a boost, Progressives did what they do best and filled the proposed bill with earmarks.

In his book, The New Road to Serfdom, a Letter of Warning to America, British politician Daniel Hannon makes an appeal to Americans to refuse to take another step down the Progressive road toward a supranational or European Union style social democracy that led to the protests, strikes and riots over reduced benefits, increased retirement age and higher college tuition rates. Further argument for the “benefits” of a European style social democracy seemed to dissolve the day the world witnessed spoiled UK students attacking the British Royal family’s car. This pandemonium highlighted the fact that government dependence always ends bad.

A telling Associated Press article ‘Gloom and anger spreads as European economies teeter’, underscores the toxicity just below the surface of a people accustomed to government handouts. Speaking to the recent pension cuts, a Lisbon train commuter said, “People have to fight for their rights” and a British college student angered by increased tuition said, “only those who can pay” will receive higher education.

Both statements are rooted in the dangerous premise that government should be in the business of handing out handouts – and very much like America’s Progressive Democrats, they do not understand that entitlements are like a cancer that feeds off healthy body cells until there are no healthy cells left to consume. Entitlement funding only lasts until the money runs out.

Considering that in 2009, 47 percent of Americans did not pay federal income tax, and entitlement spending and unemployment have been on the rise since 2008, it is illogical to think that having these two freight trains on the same track towards each other would end in anything less than a disaster which we all would have to clean up?

The Heritage Foundation calculates that entitlements will consume all U.S. tax revenues by 2052 ““ at a current cost of over $200,000 per person – leaving America’s children a legacy of debt unless we reject the Progressives’ incessant misinterpretation of the definition of rights as entitlements deemed within our Constitution.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Reach Susan at susan@susanstamperbrown.com, her website www.susanstamperbrown.com and Facebook