And you sound like a shit-stirrer, not a thoughtful respondent. It was Thomas Paine who wrote, in Common Sense, "That government is best that governs least", which was also attributed to Henry Daivd Thoreau in Civil Disobedience. I'll say it again, the less that the government does, the better off we all are. Keeping us safe from enemies, foreign and domestic, keeping the parks clean and maintained are the things that government does well. When the government tries to introduce social engineering or confiscate your wealth, that's when it's time to kiss your liberties good-bye.
Originally Posted by fritz3552
Oh, I guess you didn't really mean
least when you excluded the $664 Billion per year defense budget.
I'm guessing the "social engineering" part is Social Security for old people so they don't die while begging in the street. Go tell the Greatest Generation you want to get rid of their Cadillac plan. Talk about your death panels...geez.
Is "confiscate your wealth" just plain taxes? It sounds like taxes. I know you guys hate taxes. You know the 16th Amendment allows Congress to "confiscate your wealth" as taxes, right? Why do you hate the Constitution of the United States?
Oh, and I checked out the Paine quote. He didn't say that and it wasn't in Common Sense. Nice try! Ahhh...summer soldiers and sunshine patriots...
Even if you just stand by the Thoreau quote, you've got to admit that we've come a long way since 1849. Heck! That 16th Amendment wasn't around until 1913. It's almost like the government has gotten better...
"I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government"– the direction of this improvement aims at anarchism"
I HEARTILY ACCEPT the motto, — "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe, — "That government is best which governs not at all"; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.
That's the full quote. You'll note that it is progressive and conditional. It sort of sickens me that you twisted a quote about civil disobedience around like that. Civil disobedience is what Democrats are doing in Wisconsin. Yet your (mis)use of the quote makes it a tool for the Tea Party counter-protestors in Wisconsin. Tsk, tsk!