An e-mail from Senator Mel Martinez contained these statements:

Senator Martinez called for more assistance to the aerospace industry in response to NASA’s estimate of job losses at Kennedy Space Center. “The aerospace industry is critical for our state and our country,” said Senator Martinez. “There is no simple fix to this problem, but we know where to focus our efforts. We need to accelerate the Orion and Ares programs, we need to foster a competitive environment for commercial space operations, and we need to assist the individuals and businesses affected by the transition. The aerospace industry is critical for our state and our country. This is more than a huge economic threat to our region; there is the real potential for a larger loss of human capital for our country at a time when we can’t afford to lose those who’ve dedicated their lives to specializing in engineering and science.”

Notice that he called for more assistance, implying that the aerospace industry is already being subsidized by the government. I know that a large segment of the aerospace industry derives most, if not all, its revenue from the government through defense and space programs, but I was not aware of direct subsidies.

If a supposedly conservative senator believes that engineers and scientists are in need of welfare he must have little confidence in them or our country. I say let the aerospace industry survive or fail on its own. If it fails the scientists and engineers can find or start another industry. Such resources should flow toward current needs, not be artificially sustained in an industry for which there is weakening or no demand.

If we continue down this slippery slope of propping up every troubled industry and individual who has made bad decisions, the last vestiges of our free market will vanish and we will be left with a socialized government and economy. This is a stated goal of Senator Obama but I wouldn’t expect it from a Republican senator.

The following was forwarded to me by a nephew who is a fireman in Tennessee:

Like a lot of folks in this country, I have a job. I work, they pay me. I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as they see fit. In order to get that paycheck some employers require employees to pass a random urine test, which I have no problem with. What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don’t have to pass a urine test. Don’t you think they should have to pass a urine test to get a welfare check? After all, I have to pass one to earn it for them?

Please understand. I have no problem with helping people get back on their feet. I do, on the other hand, have a problem with someone sitting on his or her ass and buying dope and booze with my hard earned money. Can you imagine how much money the government would save if people had to pass a urine test to get a public assistance check?

Sounds good to me. Often simple logic makes more sense than anything the ‘intellectual elite’ can come up with. Sometimes even bumper stickers trump the output of the elite:

• If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.
• Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that the Amish in Ohio won’t be pushed to accept food stamps”:

“The state is eliminating one of the toughest jobs in the food stamp program: Pitching it to the Amish. Food stamp enrollment goals will be adjusted for counties with Amish populations to reflect the group’s philosophical opposition to accepting public assistance, according to the Ohio Department of Job & Family Services.”

When I read a story like this I tend to think that the reporter missed the real story. Why are they pitching food stamps to anyone?!! They have enrollment goals?!! They have bureaucrats whose job it is to convince people they need food stamps?!! What’s wrong with just providing them to people who ask for them, after verifying that their need is real? Do the counties in Ohio compete to see who can give away the most food stamps (tax-payer dollars)?

On the other hand, if the reporter, John Horton, had overtly criticized the food stamp program’s policies he would have been editorializing instead of just reporting the news. In that light, it might have been a cleverly written news story. He presented the facts and let us notice the elephant in the living room.

“The Amish typically refuse to take government handouts; the insular community prefers to help itself from within.”

We need more communities like the Amish communities. And demented little creeps need to resist their subhuman urges to harm the Amish children. (Insular communities tend to help themselves from within better than outsular communities. Perhaps Horton isn’t all that clever after all.)

“Tim Taylor, who oversees Geauga’s Department of Job & Family Services, applauded the state for taking the “common-sense approach” and changing the policy. We want to focus on the people who want and need our help,” Taylor said. “There’s plenty to keep us busy enough.”

Taylor is a bureaucrat after my own heart. But he probably doesn’t have a bright future in the welfare business.

(via Florida Cracker)