I'm thinking of putting my family on food stamps because Nancy Pelosi, in her wisdom, has assured us that doing so will help the economy, and as a concerned American, I want to do my part.
I wish I'd been aware of this years ago. I could have stopped working and lived on the dole, and I would have avoided years of a lot of just-plain drudgery.
Just think, back in those lean years when I was driving back and forth every day between Los Angeles and San Diego to broadcast to the only two stations carrying my radio show for what amounted to a small pittance — baseball caps.
It got so onerous I begged my mother, Jane Wyman, for help. She said, "Shut up and keep driving." So that's what I did.
Now I wonder why. I could have gotten on the welfare gravy train years ago and lived a life of ease.
An old board game known as known as "Public Assistance — Why Bother Working for a Living?" was banned back in the '80s, I guess for being politically incorrect. Anyway, it's now been revived. It acts as a guide for getting on the dole, for boarding the welfare gravy train.
It's been rechristened "Obozo's America: Why Bother Working For A Living?"
According to its makers it features 50 Welfare Benefit Cards and 50 Working Person's Cards, all "based on the preposterous notion that a Marxist clown, running on the vague and shaky platform of hope and change, could become President of The United States."
It doesn't say whether or not there's a Nancy Pelosi card.
It sounds like fun — something I can do to wile away all that free time I'll have when I stop working.
According to its makers: "Get your initial $1,000 cash grant at the First of the Month, then maneuver along Obozo's Welfare Promenade."
Maybe Pelosi might recommend providing a free copy of the game as another welfare benefit.
Seriously. There is a great danger here. What she's talking about is right out of Karl Marx's socialist playbook. Allegedly a devout Catholic who somehow manages to get around the church's stand on baby killing via legalized abortion, she has ignored the warnings of numerous popes about socialism.
Here, for example, is what Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) had to say about socialism (Encyclical Quod ApostoliciMuneris, Dec. 28, 1878, n. 1):
We speak of that sect of men who, under various and almost barbarous names, are called socialists, communists, or nihilists, and who, spread over all the world, and bound together by the closest ties in a wicked confederacy, no longer seek the shelter of secret meetings, but, openly and boldly marching forth in the light of day, strive to bring to a head what they have long been planning — the overthrow of all civil society whatsoever. Surely, these are they who, as the sacred Scriptures testify, "Defile the flesh, despise dominion and blaspheme majesty." (Jud. 8).
Here's what the present Pope, Benedict XVI says (Encyclical Deus Caritas Est, Dec. 25, 2005, n. 28):
We do not need a State which regulates and controls everything.
The State which would provide everything, absorbing everything into itself, would ultimately become a mere bureaucracy incapable of guaranteeing the very thing which the suffering person — every person — needs: namely, loving personal concern. We do not need a State which regulates and controls everything, but a State which, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, generously acknowledges and supports initiatives arising from the different social forces and combines spontaneity with closeness to those in need.
In the end, the claim that just social structures would make works of charity superfluous masks a materialist conception of man: the mistaken notion that man can live "by bread alone" (Mt 4:4; cf. Dt 8:3) — a conviction that demeans man and ultimately disregards all that is specifically human.
On second thought, I guess I'll just keep working and earning a living.
Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan and a political consultant. He is the founder and chairman of The Reagan Group and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Look for Mike's books and other information at Reagan.com.
© Mike Reagan