Michelle! You Already 'Took' my Money

I keep seeing Michelle Obama on TV asking for $10 donations to Haiti relief. May I suggest this woman is not the best spokesperson for this cause?

Don't get me wrong. I'm doing my part for Haiti relief. It's a very worthy effort. Seldom in my lifetime have I been confronted with such a disaster. The people of Haiti need our help. In fact, they needed it before the earthquake.

But Michelle Obama? She doesn't make me want to give. Her husband has already announced a U.S. government plan to send $1 billion to Haiti relief. He didn't ask. He took.

I didn't get to donate it. I didn't get to decide which charity got my money. I didn't get to determine how the money would best be spent. Barack Obama, in all his wisdom, gets to make all those choices for me. He and Michelle are acting like saints for taking my money and your money and giving it away to a worthy cause. It's nice work if you can get it. It's also fundamentally illegal and immoral.

We sometimes forget about such massive and coercive redistributions of wealth in times like this. It's easy to understand when you see the suffering in Haiti. But, nevertheless, if we still care at all about such little details, it's unconstitutional.

I'm sorry, but there is just no way to justify coercive wealth transfers by Washington. I know we do them all the time. I know we do them for admittedly rotten reasons and causes. And I know it will be extremely unpopular to suggest we should suddenly stop this misguided practice when a seemingly noble cause arises.

But I would be remiss in not pointing this out. It's not a technicality. It's part of the very essence of what defines the American experiment in freedom. We must never forget that the federal government has strictly limited powers. If we forget it, all our liberty is lost. We will have no one to blame but ourselves for allowing this to happen.

Lately, Americans have been rediscovering their constitutional heritage. That's what the tea party movement is all about. We are feeling ripped off and like we're living under the government's thumb — because we are.

This is no time to sweep this issue under the rug.

The question America should be asking is "Why?" Why should Americans in all 50 states — some who have faced smaller personal disasters in their own lives without a bailout — be forced to pay for the needs of those suffering in Haiti?

The answer is: They shouldn't be forced. They should be asked. But the Obama family is doing both — at once holding a gun to our heads and shaking us down and, on the other hand, asking us to kick in another $10. That's why Michelle is the wrong person to make me feel compassionate.

There's another practical reason why government shouldn't be running this relief effort. Government is inefficient and wasteful. Private charities give much more bang for the buck.

What Americans ought to remember is that such benevolent and utopian thinking about government generally leads to one of three destinations — serfdom, slavery or extermination. Because when it comes to sheer terror, force and fury, government is the biggest natural disaster of all.

This is not compassion. This is coercion. And it points out a fundamental problem with the way Americans see their government.

Government is not Santa Claus. Government is government. It has clearly delineated powers and responsibilities — and clearly delineated areas of non-responsibility.

Government is not supposed to make decisions from the heart of someone in the White House. It is supposed to make decisions based on the will of the people — but only under the authority and scope of the Constitution.

There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that would remotely authorize such a wealth transfer. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

When government takes over the responsibility of charity, it undermines charity. It undermines our willingness — and ability — as a people to help our neighbors, our families, our friends.

By all means, each of us should do everything in our power to relieve the suffering in Haiti. World Net Daily has even adopted a noble charity effort I highly recommend for that purpose — the Jeremiah Denton Foundation.

But there's nothing compassionate about government's role in this endeavor. And Michelle Obama is a lousy and unfit spokeswoman for mobilizing action.

To find out more about Joseph Farah and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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