Is Atlas shrugging?

President Obama and the Democrats in Congress appear to intent on rewriting the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution. Currently, our supreme law of the land reads, "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

The version Democrats seem to prefer reads, "We the people, require membership in unions, demand social justice, politicize the common defense, promote welfare and all entitlements, and secure the blessings of liberty by insulting others' prosperity and taking their property..."

Days after Obama announced to American business owners that "you didn't build that" in promoting his collectivist agenda to the rights of communal benefits, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer supported the notion that the economy will do best when more people are on the dole.

Responding during a Congressional briefing to a question regarding the proposed tax increases at the year's end and their dramatically negative effect on America's fragile economy, Hoyer remarked, "...there are two things that are most stimulative that you can do -- one's unemployment insurance, the other's food stamps..."

So, according to the political party controlling the White House and half of the Congress, the American Dream presents two possible outcomes. One is to risk your own capital, create a business with your own efforts of sweat, tears, time and toil, then turn your earnings over to a government that legally plunders in the name of social fairness and egalitarianism...you know, "equality."

The second option is to live as a dependent upon the US government for your housing, your food, and your state-awarded rights.

Doubt that America's being led into a death spiral of dependency by those who are rejecting individual rights and success?

Investor's Business Daily (IBD) published an article, "Disability Ranks Outpace New Jobs in Obama Recovery" revealing that "More workers joined the federal government's disability program in June than got new jobs, according to two new government reports." IBD noted that, "[w]hile the economy has created 2.6 million jobs since June 2009, fully 3.1 million workers signed up for disability benefits."

Answer this: Using the Democrats' Preamble, who works? Who provides the tax revenue to the government that is spent for social services? Who creates the jobs when the government runs out of money?

The novel, "Atlas Shrugged," by Ayn Rand exposed "a dystopian United States where many of society's most productive citizens refuse to be exploited by increasing taxation and government regulations... The refusal evokes the imagery of what would happen if the mythological Atlas refused to continue to hold up the world."

Is Atlas shrugging?

Yes.

Will hundreds of millions of individual Atlases continue to hold up the world if government keeps weighing them down with more taxes, more regulations, more bureaucracy and less incentive to keep working?

Sadly, it seems unlikely.

Upcoming Events