The rich do pay their fair share and more - they reinforce the American dream

According to Barack Obama's* vision of 'recreating America,' I am one who will benefit significantly. Considering my current financial status, I'll probably receive free health care somehow and the wealthy will bear the burden of paying my share of taxes. So, why am I vehemently opposed to his programs? Well, to put it simply, because I'm an American.

I'm not a Greek who has grown so dependent on the government that, if I hear they may cut back on my entitlements, I'll riot in the streets. I'm not an Iranian who knows better than to voice my opposition to the government. I'm not a Chinaman with an existence that is all but cast in stone and chiseled to specifications set by some bureaucrat in Beijing. I'm not even an English student who joins protesters because the government's response to prior fiscal irresponsibility is to ask me to pay for my own school books.

I - AM - AN - AMERICAN! Do you hear that, Obama*? The American dream is not predicated on government handouts. The dream is not even a guarantee of success. The guarantee is that I have an opportunity to create my own existence. To a great degree, though I have to abide by the realities of the times, and to a level unheard of prior to the American Revolution, I get to decide who and what I will be.

If I don't like my job, I can quit. If I don't want to live somewhere I can move somewhere else. If I'm not happy with my income, I can work harder and more creatively to increase my income.

Of course, what's the point of working harder to increase my income if the government is rife with liberal nitwits who resent opportunity in favor of entitlement and, as a result, cast an envious eye at the rewards of my efforts? Why should I strive for the American dream after Obama* and his ilk have loped off the head of American exceptionalism?

There are people in America who, I believe, live lives that are little different than a Chinaman in a suburb of Beijing. They feel trapped in their jobs in a barren cell bereft of hope or opportunity. No wonder they respond so enthusiastically to an Obama* telling them about "Hope and Change."

For someone who doesn't understand or believe in the American dream, Obama's* vision of hope and change is the only way out of their dilemma. But, instead of giving them entitlements, we need to give them the one thing to which they are truly entitled - opportunity. Tell them about the American dream. Tell them how they have a God given right to recast their lives if and how they choose.

But, of course, that's a difficult thing to tell them when we have educators, the media, progressives, liberals and Democrats telling them they have a right to demand that which we tell them they have a right to pursue. The problem for the proponents of entitlements is that those who have achieved the American dream stand as an object lesson in its possibilities. How can the Left push their vision of entitlement in the face of entrepreneurial and individual achievement?

Obama' has to attack the wealthy - it's the only argument that gives his programs any credence. But, Obama's program is based on a choice. We, as individual Americans, get to choose the course we take in life, just as America, as a whole, makes the same choice.

In reality, we all choose. If someone chooses to grudgingly accept a life they resent, they've made that choice. If we, as a nation, choose to abandon the American dream, we've also made a choice.

For me, I choose "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." I choose opportunity - Obama can keep his entitlements. I choose not to jealously determine 'the fair share' of one's financial contribution to that disaster we call an unbalanced national budget. I won't begrudge the government taking what it needs but I'll be damned if I stand by quietly while they take what they want.

* Please note that in deference to the complaints of Rahm Emmanuel, I seldom use the word 'president' in connection with Obama's name.