Selfishness and Neighborliness in Obama's World

"John McCain and Sarah Palin, they call this socialistic," You know I don’t know when, when they decided they wanted to make a virtue out of selfishness."

-Barack Obama in Sarasota, Florida, Thursday in defense of his so-called “spread the wealth” tax policies.


Hold on there, Mr Obama. You are making a fundamental error here when you are describing the selfishness of people vis-a-vis your term of "neighborliness".

The American people are not selfish, Mr Obama. We are the most generous people on the face of the earth. When disasters like Katrina or the tsunami in Indonesia occur, we are there before anybody. Our troops were on the ground in Indonesia distributing supplies while the useless UN was holding staff meetings in Tokyo trying to figure out what to do. The American public donated food and money-even while some bureaucrat at the UN was calling us selfish too.

But more to the point. When it comes to charitable giving, we have nothing to be ashamed of. The disclosure of your and Joe Biden's charitable giving, on the other hand, seems modest even when compared to everyday people. You have also said that, "I am my brother's keeper." Yet, you have a half-brother living in poverty in Kenya and now we learn of one of your aunts living in poverty in Boston. What have you done for them, Sir? (Yes, it's true. The woman, Zeituni Onyango, the half-sister of Obama's father, is living in public housing in Boston-even though she is in the country illegally and was ordered to leave the country 4 years ago.)

But to the main point. Charity to others should be a private concern. Why does the government have to mandate our assistance to others through higher taxes and "spreading the wealth around", to use your own words? We are perfectly prepared to having our government render assistance to others in time of disaster. But we resent being called "selfish" when we expect to keep a little more of our hard-earned money rather than see government take it and distribute it to others who have not earned it.

Americans are the most neighborly people in the world. However, if you think that means the government should take charge and ensure our neighborliness, then you are talking about something entirely different.

And what you are talking about may very well cost you the election.