Charity

Charity

Noun
1. Benevolent goodwill toward or love of humanity
2. Generosity and helpfulness especially toward the needy or suffering ; also : aid given to those in need
3. A gift for public benevolent purposes

The common sense value of charity is so far distorted that it's important to remind people that charity does not come from the government. President Obama is trying to convince you of that, and Joe Biden tells us that paying taxes is patriotic, but how many people feel charitable on tax day? How many people donate extra money to the government? True charity comes from the people giving on their own accord - not when government takes their money and does whatever they want with it.
-Glenn Beck

The United States of America is the world’s most charitable country.1 Why is that? Well I think it’s because American’s understand that you need to help people in need. It’s not a law in this country. We’re not REQUIRED to give to charitable organizations. We just do. If you look at the top 10 countries in terms of charity not one of them is a socialist country. They are all democratic, or parliamentary forms of government. People, if given the opportunity, will donate towards helping those less fortunate than them. It’s human nature to want to help people.

If you look at the definition of charity above those are all voluntary words. They mean the giver felt it was necessary to help someone that couldn’t help themselves. If you force people to give money to help others it no longer can be considered charity. It becomes something else altogether. Socialism. Socialism comes from the government deciding that you don’t need everything you’ve probably worked hard to get. You make too much and you should take some of that money and give it to someone else because they need it.

The President wants to raise the taxes of people who make more than $250,000 a year to go towards programs to help those who can’t “help themselves” and to bailout industries that are failing, ie. Banks and automakers. I say, it’s not really the governments place to be a “charitable organization” or to do those things. Charitable organizations already exist to help people who need it. Whether it’s to help pay a mortgage or to keep your utilities on while you’re looking for work.

People will tell you that the Constitution states it is the job of the government to promote the “General Welfare” of the people. Well, they forget that the rest of the document contains the powers that the Federal Government has. Article I Section 8 of the Constitution lays out these powers.

“The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.”

It then goes on to list those duties, imposts and excises.

1. To borrow money on the credit of the United States.
2. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states and Indian tribes.
3. To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States.
4. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and the standard of weights and measures.
5. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States.
6. To establish post offices and post roads.
7. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.
8. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court
9. To define and punish piracies and felonies commited on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations.
10. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water.
11. To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years.
12. To provide and maintain a navy.
13. To make rules for the government and regulation of land and naval forces.
14. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasion
15. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.
16. To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding then miles square) as may, be cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings
17. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or office thereof

The 10th Amendment of the Bill or Rights goes on to state:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Those are the powers that the Constitution gives to the Federal Government. Charitable donations, universal healthcare, government bailouts are not among those powers. It could be argued that the charitable issues the government is dealing with is Unconstitutional.

You can draw a direct comparison to the size of charitable donations to how much money a person has. If they have more money they generally give more to charity. If they have less, they can’t give as much.

When it comes down to it providing healthcare for families, or paying their mortgage is a charitable contribution. It’s not the government’s job to do this. There are free healthcare clinics that provide services to people who can’t pay. Many of those are run on charitable contributions from the general public, along with aid from the Federal Government. Utility companies have programs in place to help people who are struggling with their bills to make payments.

Charity is not a bad thing. It’s a wonderful thing that everyone SHOULD do. Not something they MUST do because the government says so.