Morality is a word that is used all the time for political debate. This cause is moral…that cause is not. We use morality to justify many political decisions and to disaffirm others. Morality is about distinguishing right from wrong. We talk about historical immoralities such as slavery. Slavery is immoral because it is wrong…period. And we talk about the government responsibility for underwriting social needs as a moral necessity. Whether you are on the political left or right, we find ourselves arguing fervently for social needs and citizen rights using the argument that it would be immoral to not “take care of” those needing the support of government. That adding this social service is a moral cause. One result of this thinking and policy enactment is a growing government. Each election cycle brings more government growth as the politician’s secure votes through promises made by a growing government. And morality is the lightning rod that activates the voters.
But is it moral to spend money that we don’t have? How is it that the
fiduciaries of our country are not fiduciaries of our dollars and cents? When
is it “moral” to spend? With no thought or ability to ever pay it back? Wouldn’t
private enterprises and individuals be considered as committing fraud if they
were spending money they don’t have? And doesn’t everyone agree that fraud is
immoral? My basic thought is that “morality” starts with conducting oneself in “moral”
ways. Spending money we don’t have cannot be moral. So, before we talk about all of
the moral needs of society, think about doing that in a moral way and not
spending money we don’t have. Can’t we all agree as citizens that it is immoral
to spend more money than we collect through taxation?
Here's the standard response from the Left…if the rich paid
their fair share, then we would have the budget to spend on all of these moral causes.
Closing the gap between what is spent and what is received would require
confiscating literally all of the top 1% income who by the way currently pay
40% of the individual tax receipts. The result: Socialism. So before going into
a debate regarding the moral platform of standing up for increasing social
causes, think long and hard about the larger moral question of spending money
you don’t have and further recognizing that you have no plan, or intentions, for
ever paying it back. How moral is that? Morality 101 is as basic as that.
