"It's not the government's money, it's the people's money."

[kentuck]

Hmmmm...where have I heard that before??

Oh, yeah, that was what George W Bush said when he was pushing thru his trillion dollar taxcuts and starting two wars without paying for them.

Rep. Walden, from Oregon, said the same thing this morning on C-SPAN. How do you counter such an argument?

"We, the People", are the government. Supposedly, we elect representatives like Rep Walden to represent us in the Congress of the United States. We expect them to pay for the programs that the people want. Since the people did not want the trillion dollar taxcuts or the wars in the Mid East, I guess it was OK not to pay for those?

So, what is the people's money and what is the government's money? Is there a difference?

[Spider Jerusalem]

1. Right-wingers have issues with the whole idea of the social contract...

and the idea that payment of tax is an obligation of citizenship in return for the provision of services by the government including but not limited to common defence, maintenance of infrastructure, and provision of some degree of social safety net.

[Lasher]

2. The people are the government.

The government is representatives of the people. Same thing.

[dkf]

3. If you believe that your money belongs to the government then there is no difference.

If you believe in private property then there is a difference.

[kentuck]

4. If you believe that government is some entity other than the people...

then you may be a conservative?

[Spider Jerusalem]

5. See reply number one.

The idea of private property and obligations incumbent upon citizens are not incompatible.

[DrDan]

6. "We expect them to pay for the programs that the people want."

This is exactly why I have always found those politicians suspect who claim to not be driven by polls.

Don't polls let the politicians know what we want? Why not listen to them and react to them? Why is it a good thing for politicans to claim to ignore them and do what they feel is right? It do not necessarily trust their moral compasses.

[earthside]

7. Three things.

First, a lot of it nowadays is money borrowed from the Chinese. So, it is just not accurate to say that "It's not the government's money, it's the people's money."

Second, the assumption that the government belongs to 'us' is not true anymore. The government belongs to the corporatist plutocrats.

But, third, another example of Repuglicans out-messaging Democrats. Frankly, that is the kind of motto that Democrats should be using and reminding themselves of -- especially when the super rich are not paying their share and the middle class is getting socked. I wish Obama would think about that concept next time he thinks about appointing another Goldman Sachs employee to work for us in the executive branch.