By Nathan Barton

Having just visited with a number of friends, business associates, and clients on their current challenges, it was appropriate that I received a neat collection of quotes from a relative. Many of their challenges have to do WITH government or are a problem BECAUSE of government. (My thoughts are in parentheses after the quote and author.)

In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a government. John Adams (So, we clearly have at least 543 excess people in DC (535 in Congress, 2 in the White House, 9 in the SCOTUS, minus John Adams’ three.)

If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed. Mark Twain (And mind you, he wrote this BEFORE radio and television! Even before talkies!)

No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session. Mark Twain (1866) (Notice it was not just Congress – but ANY legislature: from the town’s common council and the county board of commissioners to the statehouse and on to DC.)

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of government. But then I repeat myself. Mark Twain (If you were not when you got elected or hired on, you will be soon!)

I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. Winston Churchill (I believe that it was another prime minister, later, who said “The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money” (Margaret Thatcher).)

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. George Bernard Shaw (The problem today is that too many Peters ALSO seem to support government, even while it robs them. Of course, they’ve been taught that taxation is NOT theft. And you thought 1984 was fiction.)

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other. Voltaire (1764) (And of course, keeping them from getting upset about it and going out and tearing out the throats of the politicians, the bureaucrats and the tax collectors.)

Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. Frederic Bastiat, French economist (1801-1850) (And he certainly lived through enough different kinds of government to understand this applied no matter WHAT kind of government was in power. This is precisely why so few Peters object to being robbed.)

Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University (To say nothing of not being able to figure out when subsidizing foreign regimes becomes paying tribute to them, instead. This IS, of course, just a small part of the stupid things that government does with its stolen money.)

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. P.J. O’Rourke (Amen and amen! Worse, giving it to 546 of them at once. As the above quotes point out, they do stupid things with money AND power – not just giving it to people but in such a way that it creates more misery, suffering, and death.)

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free! P.J. O’Rourke (He said this some time ago, and Medicaid, Medicare, ObummerCare, and so much more is proving him true already.)

I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. Will Rogers (If only government were JUST a joke! And this was back in the 1920s and 1930s!)

Talk is cheap…except when government does it. Anonymous (Nothing is cheap when you aren’t spending your own money, of course. But this quote has a deeper meaning, as well: talk is cheap usually means that it is one thing to talk about doing something, but something quite different to actually go do it. Fits government, no?)

If your government is big enough to give you everything you want, it is big enough to take away from you everything you have. Gerald Ford (1954) (Often mistakenly attributed to Thomas Jefferson. Gerald Ford, with 30+ years in DC, certainly knew whereof he spoke – but I’m not sure if he really thought this meant it was a bad idea. Most politicians do not.)

The government is like a baby’s alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. Ronald Reagan (A pithy comment: pity he did not treat government appropriately.)

What this country needs are more unemployed politicians. Edward Langley, Artist (1928-1995) (Amen and amen. NOT dead ones – those become martyrs (Lincoln, Kennedy, even (to some people) Hitler). Given their skills and proclivities, I suspect that unemployed politicians would do very well as panhandlers on street corners. But they wouldn’t be honest hobos. And heaven forbid we let them sell used cars.)

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground. Thomas Jefferson (At least until people decide to stop “doing the natural thing” and recognize and act on a moral and spiritual basis to restore liberty.)

Which brings me to the end – and to this point. Given all the evil that IS government and is the RESULT of government, it is past time to STOP letting things progress “naturally.”

Mama’s Note: Actually, it’s gone far past the point of theft and irresponsibility with other people’s money. The entire world is attempting to operate on inflation of fiat currency and DEBT. That house of cards is getting close to the point of no return. Things like blockchain and other private “money” will fill the gaps for people who accept them now, but a very large part of the world and market are in for destruction. That destruction will kill and damage the lives of billions of people around the globe. And there doesn’t seem to be any way to get around that now. Hopefully, the survivors will consider the real “natural” things in life, starting with individual integrity and self ownership.