Yesterday's Meet the Press...

I don't usually bother with these MSM "news"/opinion shows, but I did happen to watch a rerun of NBC's Meet the Press last night. On the show were Michael Chertoff, Mary Matalin (Bush/Cheney spin doctor), Maureen Dowd (left-wing columnist), David Gregory (NBC White House reporter), and Paul Gigot (WSJ editorial page editor). I heard many interesting words spoken, here are some:

I think my responsibility is to try to fix the department. - Michael Chertoff

Fix a brand new department? Are all government departments and agencies broken at the point of inception? How much time to broken by design government agencies require before they are "fixed"? Does any government agency work efficiently and effectively, or all they all continuous work-in-progress with a ready-made defense against criticism?

People are entitled by law to receive a certain amount of compensation, money for food, and—and clothing and shelter. Inevitably, some people are going do misuse that. And unless we move to a voucher system, which would be a very cumbersome system, we have to try to balance the urgency of getting people some money so they’re not literally left starving and without clothing against the fact that there will always be some scoundrels who will misuse the money or try to defraud us. - Michael Chertoff

Couple things here. First, nobody is entitled to cash payments by any LEGITIMATE law. It is possible that some Congressional act or executive branch directive establishes this welfare scheme, but it is unconstitutional on its face. The federal government does not exist to take money from me in order to give it to the victim of a terrorist attack, a natural disaster, or any other hardship due to circumstances within or beyond that individual's control.

Second, notice who Chertoff claims as the victim of the fraud in this case. The American people? The taxpayer?? No, the victims are "us", meaning the government.

Simply put, this scenario points out why government spending scams like this one that only apply to some Americans don't work. Government policies are legitimate so long as they apply to everyone. In other words, if they want to give $2000 to residents of New Orleans who "need it", then everyone else must also get the money. Want to pay farmers who DON'T grow certain crops, then EVERYONE who doesn't grow those crops must receive the "benefit".

So long as We the People are played against one another for a seat at the federal feeding table, our government is winning battles in the war for the future of America.

Because you don’t want to put something that’s fixed, that’s a mobile home, in a place that’s going to flood again. We originally hoped that at least some significant number would be placed in other parts of Louisiana and Mississippi. It’s turned out that some communities don’t want to have that happen, and some people don’t want to have that happen. And we’re not going to force them to take these mobile homes. - Michael Chertoff

So, it's okay to confiscate money from individual Americans in order to hand out debit cards, and to fund hotel rooms for the welfare class, but when it comes time to set up trailer communities for the "victims", the government must ask permission and abide by the responses given?

Did the government ever ask whether or not I wanted to contribute to the charity effort operated on behalf of the welfare crowd in New Orleans?

[Discussing the sale of US port control to a UAE based company]Without getting into classified information, what we typically do if there are concerns is we build in certain conditions, or requirements, that the company has to agree to to make sure we address the national security concerns. - Michael Chertoff

So, we're all set so long as we ask the company not to smuggle in contraband and they agree?

[Matalin discussing the Cheney shooting]Have Katharine be able to share with other witnesses, and she could be an eyewitness. - Mary Matalin

Well, was she a witness, or was she conveniently converted into one whose accounts now go unquestioned because nobody will come forward and admit that she did not witness the shooting?