Barack Obama & Benjamin Franklin

"He that is good at making excuses is seldom good for anything else."
Benjamin Franklin

And I didn't know that Franklin ever met BHO...

A dollar printed is a dollar earned?

Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man Obamacare healthy, foodstamp wealthy, and unemployment wise.

The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. Sitting around in Federally subsidized housing, yacking on your Obama Phone, eating food purchased with food stamps, while waiting for your Welfare check to come in the mail is hardly what I would call a pursuit of happiness.

Happiness is relative, your scenario may be happiness to someone where the alternative is homeless, living on the streets, begging for food with their young children by their side.

archer wrote: Happiness is relative, your scenario may be happiness to someone where the alternative is homeless, living on the streets, begging for food with their young children by their side.

Talk about black and white. rofllol

“I am for doing good to the poor, but...I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. I observed...that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.”

- Ben Franklin

otisptoadwater wrote: “I am for doing good to the poor, but...I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. I observed...that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.”

- Ben Franklin

I agree with Ben....the whole purpose of welfare, food stamps, unemployment, etc should be to provide for the short term so those using that assistance can move towards providing for themselves for the long term. I believe there are times in many peoples lives where circumstances, health, lack of education, leave them with no resources. Nothing is gained if we just feed, house and clothe them if we don't also give them the skills and the opportunities to provide for themselves. Unfortunately, our federal programs provide for the immediate needs, but don't have either the resources or the ability to provide opportunity. That has always been a failing of the welfare system. Education.....training.....skills development.....job placement...child care, all would be of great benefit to those who are living on welfare with no real way out.....you can't tell a single mother of 3 that she needs to get off her butt and get a job if she has no way to care for her children....no skills to get a decent job, and no idea of where to even start the process.

Sure, it's easy to sit back and say....hey...I made it on my own, from poor parents and got myself the education and made a success out of life.....and many people do. But as many do not...often because of low IQ's, or disability, or poor education, or just a lot of crappy things happening to them that left them overwhelmed. I do not believe in telling them that this country doesn't care about them....that we will just cut them off and let them, their children, their spouses get lost in the system. If we invest in the least of our citizens....if we provide the opportunities, the training, the tools to get off welfare, we all win, and the country prospers.

It is peculiar, I have friends who some on the right would regard as totally brain dead liberals who would agree with the below. Yet when we talk politics it totally breaks down.

I have some thoughts on that but I think it would go into the usual rat hole..

Anyway, ignore or nibble, I have to work.

otisptoadwater wrote: “I am for doing good to the poor, but...I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. I observed...that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.”

- Ben Franklin

yeah, well talking politics tends to bring out the extremes in all of us....in order to make our point we go to the far right or left just so we won't be accused of being too centrist or fraternizing with the enemy.