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Been wanting to get to this but time has been getting shorter and shorter lately ...

Last week ... or at least I think it was last week ... I heard a sound clip on the news while driving to work and almost drove off the road. Osama, er Barack Obama's daily rip of President Bush was that we, as in the grand U.S. of A., have been ignoring the plight in Africa and that if he were president, he'd double the amount of aid we send to the continent.

This is one of the best illustrations of the differences that exist between our two major parties. Whether it be welfare, education, social security, health care or foreign affairs, the Democrats' answer is always give them more money! Government money!

Perish the thought that we should attempt to fix a problem along the way so the answer doesn't lie in writing a bigger check. Because let's be honest, people. When exactly has more money been the answer?

It took a conservative movement in the 1990s to enact welfare reform, which the Libs fought tooth and nail until it was basically shoved down their throats. Instead of simply handing over a check to millions of people every month, we took a large percentage of those people off welfare rolls by offering them job training, by improving the economy so businesses big and small could afford to hire more workers, etc., etc., etc. And the result has been that a great percentage of those people now live much better than before and have severed their generational trek to a government office in order to eat.

Education has problems? For God's sake, let's not look at changing a system that's not working! Let's write a bigger check! (And here in Texas, we still have an unspent surplus that numbers in the billions while Libs continue their whining about how we're "abannnnnndoning our chilllllldren!")

Social security? HA! I hope all of you below the age of 50 aren't counting on that little check when you retire, cause if you are, I strongly urge you to begin practicing the lines "Welcome to Walmart" or "Do you want fries with that?" There does not exist anyone, anywhere who knows what they're talking about, who disputes the notion that social security will be bankrupt before we all reach retirement. And for his entire first term in office, President Bush tried to pull this country off its collective rear end to do something about it. Libs wanted no part of it, though. They didn't even want to talk about it ... except, of course, to blatantly lie to retirees and near-retirees that "Bush wants to steal your money! You'll be eating dog food!" Their answer to the problem? Well, you have to dig to find the Libs' answer to anything, since they rarely admit to their tax-and-spend mantra ... and the media won't ever point that out. But doubling, at a minimum, the amount we pay in is the starting point of their "plan" if they have to have one.

Health care, of course, would be another bottomless pit if the Libs had their way. Let's nationalize health care, they say, which is a pretty way of saying let's put in place a system, which will cost hundreds of billions of tax dollars, that closely parallels something that has failed miserably everywhere else on earth.

And then there's Africa. The saddest part of what's going on in that part of the world ... at least to me ... is that our aid over the last, oh, 20 years or so, has probably eclipsed $1 trillion yet the plight of those people worsens by the day.

Just look at what's gone on in New Orleans the last 18 months and you'll see a microcosm of a failed overall philosophy. The amount of money, both from government and the private sector, that has poured into southern Louisiana is grotesque.

There obviously are different dynamics at play in New Orleans and in Africa, but there's an underlying reason so many people in both places remain mired in squalor and suffering despite enormous piles of cash heaped in both directions.

It's because money alone will never be the answer. Systemic failures left unchecked promise only continued deterioration no matter how many zeros are placed behind the dollar sign.

(Imported from April 25, 2007)