Bondage to Spiritual Faith
Spiritual Faith to Courage
Courage to Freedom
Freedom to Abundance
Abundance to Selfishness
Selfishness to Complacency
Complacency to Apathy
Apathy to Fear
Fear to Dependency
Dependency to Bondage

This cycle is often attributed to Alexander Tytler, but most likely belongs to an Industrialist named Henning Webb Prentis, Jr from a speech called "Industrial Management in a Republic." Regardless of the source, it really does seem to fit into history.

What Alexander Tytler probably did write though, is a bit similar in nature:

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.

Which of course sounds an awful lot like a quote attributed to Ben Franklin,

When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.

Lots of great advice all pointing towards fiscal responsibility and the need for limited federal government. Two concepts which cower in the face of both S-1and HR-1. But let's set aside the fear of dependency our earlier generations and conservatives all seem to share. Let's just talk about the voting-money-to-ourselves part.

Take a look at the stimulus bill. A real look, not a partisan look and not just what the majority party is willing to show you. 600 million for a nature trail that will only contribute 60 new, yet temporary, jobs? And this isn't "Pork?" The ROI on that project isn't worth the interest. And that's just one of many, many examples. (How about a brand new indoor soccer facility in NY? Sure, why not.) [edit: it was pointed out that these are proposals, which I understand. I guess my greater point is that this shows the problem with handing out blank checks, which you'd think we would have learned our lesson on. Without definition of how to spend the money, this is the de facto reality. Worse yet, check out the Chicago Mayor's approach. ]

Then again, President Obama claims it's not a big deal because all the pork adds up to only 1% of the total. Right. 1% of a trillion dollars that belongs to my future grand kids, before interest. What kind of business are we running here?

Don't get me wrong. Hardly anyone will make an argument for no stimulus of any kind. That's not the discussion. There's even a Libertarian plan floating around. And putting on my bi-partisan cap for second, spending programs, when implemented properly, can garner wide spread support. It's hard to argue against the highway system for instance, an ambitious federal program pushed for by a Republican president. In the same vein, it's worth pointing out that tax cuts were a critical component of JFK's platform. There is plenty of room for compromise to create an effective bill.

What won't work is strong arming conservatives in the name of faux compromise with legislation filled with broken window spending, pork barrel projects and political grand standing. If it's such an urgency, we should be cutting every debatable program to get something out the door. If the majority party were really interested in bi-partisanship instead of earning a political win, this would have been done already.

Call or e-mail your Representative and Senators. Let them know this thing needs a fresh start. A new bill that's actually legitimate is what this country deserves.

If you live in Florida, here's the link to Sen Bill Nelson's contact form and Sen. Mel Martinez's.