What Thomas Jefferson would have to say about our problems today!

I just thought I'd quote some of Thomas Jefferson since the Democrats love to quote him themselves. Conveniently for them, they don't quote everything he says, just those things they like, so... I'm going to do the same thing and give my own commentary to go with it.

"[With the decline of society] begins, indeed, the bellum omnium in omnia [war of all against all], which some philosophers observing to be so general in this world, have mistaken it for the natural, instead of the abusive state of man. And the fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816.
So, public debt leads to taxation to pay it off which leads to wretchedness and oppression. I couldn't agree more!

"I sincerely believe... that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale." --Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 1816.
So, if we spend money today and expect our children and our children's children to pay it off, then we are nothing more than thieves, that's what he's saying here. Again, I couldn't agree more. Think any Democrats would agree?

"Then I say, the earth belongs to each of these generations during its course, fully and in its own right. The second generation receives it clear of the debts and incumbrances of the first, the third of the second, and so on. For if the first could charge it with a debt, then the earth would belong to the dead and not to the living generation. Then, no generation can contract debts greater than may be paid during the course of its own existence." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1789.

"The conclusion then, is, that neither the representatives of a nation, nor the whole nation itself assembled, can validly engage debts beyond what they may pay in their own time." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1789.
These two go together and say all one can say, do they not? If you can't pay off a debt in your lifetime, it isn't a debt you can morally justify. Period. Seems pretty clear. Hmmm...if it is so clear then, how can we really justify the paygo system of social security which places a burden on our children to pay for the needs of the previous generations? I don't think we can. I wonder why do our political parties ignore Jefferson so much? They don't really, they just pick and choose and this one is inconvenient.

"We believe--or we act as if we believed--that although an individual father cannot alienate the labor of his son, the aggregate body of fathers may alienate the labor of all their sons, of their posterity, in the aggregate, and oblige them to pay for all the enterprises, just or unjust, profitable or ruinous, into which our vices, our passions or our personal interests may lead us. But I trust that this proposition needs only to be looked at by an American to be seen in its true point of view, and that we shall all consider ourselves unauthorized to saddle posterity with our debts, and morally bound to pay them ourselves; and consequently within what may be deemed the period of a generation, or the life of the majority." --Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 1813.
He is still speaking of the government here and is reiterating years later that it is morally unacceptable to saddle our children with debt.

"It is a wise rule and should be fundamental in a government disposed to cherish its credit and at the same time to restrain the use of it within the limits of its faculties, "never to borrow a dollar without laying a tax in the same instant for paying the interest annually and the principal within a given term; and to consider that tax as pledged to the creditors on the public faith." On such a pledge as this, sacredly observed, a government may always command, on a reasonable interest, all the lendable money of their citizens, while the necessity of an equivalent tax is a salutary warning to them and their constituents against oppressions, bankruptcy, and its inevitable consequence, revolution." --Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 1813.
What is he saying here? Is he contradicting the earlier quotes? Absolutely not! He is saying that it is wise of a government to have good credit (a good credit score if you will) which up until recently the U.S. has always managed to have. He goes on to say that you should never borrow money without raising taxes or creating a tax to pay it off which is consistent with his not wanting to pass debt on to our children. However, he talks about public faith and goes on to say that the government should be warned. By requiring a tax to pay for things, the government is hindered by the public faith (the faith of the people) since unwise use of the monies raised by said tax would eventually lead to revolution. Ouch!

"I deem [this one of] the essential principles of our government and consequently [one] which ought to shape its administration:... The honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith. " --Thomas Jefferson: 1st Inaugural, 1801.
Only by being honest and paying our debts can we preserve the public faith. Anyone really think the public faith is currently being preserved or, like me, do you feel it is being damaged.

"I consider the fortunes of our republic as depending in an eminent degree on the extinguishment of the public debt before we engage in any war; because that done, we shall have revenue enough to improve our country in peace and defend it in war without recurring either to new taxes or loans. But if the debt should once more be swelled to a formidable size, its entire discharge will be despaired of, and we shall be committed to the English career of debt, corruption and rottenness, closing with revolution. The discharge of public debt, therefore, is vital to the destinies of our government." --Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, 1809.
Don't carry a debt and you can do what you want! This is largely what he is saying here. For gosh sakes, if we didn't owe so much money, do you think a 700 billion dollar stimulus would look awful? No! We'd do it in a heartbeat knowing we could pay it off in a few years and be done with it. That's not what is happening though!

"There [is a measure] which if not taken we are undone...[It is] to cease borrowing money and to pay off the national debt. If this cannot be done without dismissing the army and putting the ships out of commission, haul them up high and dry and reduce the army to the lowest point at which it was ever established. There does not exist an engine so corruptive of the government and so demoralizing of the nation as a public debt. It will bring on us more ruin at home than all the enemies from abroad against whom this army and navy are to protect us." --Thomas Jefferson to Nathaniel Macon, 1821.
Ooh, if you can't pay your debt, then you shouldn't have a standing army. I wonder what that says for our military which is 16 percent of the federal budget?

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
This is a great one, because it condemns almost all forms of welfare. Notice however that he doesn't condemn helping those who cannot help themselves. He only says it is immoral to take from those who work and give to those who won't. That is a huge difference from those who can't. So, I'd say the majority of welfare programs therefore would be morally unjustifiable to Jefferson.

"To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."
Wow! Our "leaders" really don't get it do they! Abortion is morally reprehensible to some so Jefferson argues it shouldn't be funded by taxes at all. Is there really anything that could be justified based on the argument Jefferson gives here? The answer might be no, in which case, we'd have a much smaller budget.

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."
Finally, one of the most important. A government that fears the people will guarantee the rights and liberties of those people because they fear them, but a government that doesn't fear the people is nothing more than tyranny. So ask yourself, does your political party fear you? Do your "leaders" fear you? Does the federal government fear the people at all? I answer these questions with a negative and therefore conclude that we are becoming the tyranny Jefferson spoke of.