You Can Afford It

One of the most offensive things that a politician can say to you is that it's OK for government to take what's yours because "you can afford it." Obama's used that exact language, and it's, in simplest and most direct term, decisively anti-liberty.

How could they know what you can afford? It's quite conceivable that the people who make more than $250,000, or even $2.5 million, a year -- that Obama wants to raise taxes on -- cannot afford to pay more taxes, because they are already using all their money. Maybe it's on investing in businesses, maybe it's on a nice house for your family, maybe it's on a hobby you love, maybe it's just buying as much gold as possible because you think the dollar-based economy is going to completely collapse.

Oh, you reply, but they are spending their money on things they "don't need." But in a free country, who are you to authoritatively tell anyone what they don't need? Why should your opinion that I don't need something have any effect on me at all? If I think I need to spend all my spare money on gold, who are you to tell me I am wrong?

On what objective basis can you assert that I can afford to not use my money how I want to use it?

There isn't one, of course. In order to make the claim you have to either claim that there is no private ownership of anything, and give government the ultimate power to decide what everyone should have, or else draw a completely arbitrary line based on your subjective (and often religiously motivated) belief that there's more important things to use my money for than what I want to use my money for, and that you can force that belief on me.

Obama and Biden say they don't want to force their religion on people when it comes to abortion, but when it comes to "charity," they will force whatever they can on whomever they can. Neither hypocrisy nor assaults on liberty are new in politics.