During the 2008 Presidential campaign, Future-President Obama was asked about his small business tax policy by Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher. When asked about raising taxes on small businessmen Barack Obama infamously stated to “Joe The Plumber” that we have to “Spread the wealth around.”

In other words, the President was saying that Federal Government should pillage more money from those people who have more to redistribute to those who don’t have as much. To put it in another way – we have to rob Peter to give to Paul.

There is no problem with “Spreading the wealth around” but it should not be the Imperial Federal Government doing the deed. because, frankly, they are doing a very poor job. All the Government is doing is making more and more people dependent on Government and fostering the welfare state.  When Peter is robbed to pay Paul, both people are stolen from.  While Peter is being robbed of his hard-earned money – Paul is being robbed of his dignity, independence, and most importantly  his opportunity to realize the American dream

Instead, we should be spreading our own wealth around. It’s an American tradition. In fact we were doing just this one century ago. American citizens were taking care of our must vulnerable in our own communities through churches, civic organizations, and just plain neighbors helping their neighbors.

What changed over the past century? First of all, was the adoption of the 16th Amendment and the Income Tax. Then we began ceding more and more responsibility to the Feds during the Great Depression and increasingly so during and after LBJ’s “Great Society” in the 1960′s. Presently there are even churches and organizations that shirk their responsibility and advocate for more and more Government taxing and spending in the name of assisting the poor and infirm.

Recently, I was traveling in Iowa during its recent budget impasse. A public budget hearing was held and Iowa citizens showed up and testified on behalf of a more responsible budget. Meanwhile countless organizations testified on why their public funding shouldn’t be taken away. Radio station WHO 1040 AM recorded the testimonies and played sound bites around the clock.

One of those sound bites was the most appealing to me. The soundbite came from an advocate representing Prevent Blindness Iowa. She was begging the State Legislature fore more money to fund vision screenings for children. Her intentions are good but why is this appalling? There is already an organization dedicated to prevent blindness nationwide. It’s called the Lions Club (an organization of which I am a proud member) and it is PRIVATELY funded.

As Americans we should be spreading our own wealth around. If allowed to keep more of our money we will not just stimulate the economy but we will be able to open up our hearts by dropping extra money in the church collection plate each Sunday or the red Salvation Army kettles at Christmastime. When tragedy strikes places like Joplin, Missouri, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Japan, or wherever we can better fund relief efforts to help our local, national, or International neighbors.

For exampl, last week, my local talk radio station, WSB held its annual “Care-A-Thon”, benefiting the AFLAC Children’s Cancer Center.  in 37 hours nearly #1.3 Million was raised, despite the rough economy and much uncertainty in the stock market.  Can you imagine how much more could have been raised if folks were not taxed to death and allowed to keep more of their money in their pockets to open their hearts with?

It is not enough to demand lower taxes and spending cuts. Because we (Churches, civic organizations, and all of us) have given more and more responsibility to the Government we have given them an excuse to take more of our money, and spend us into oblivion by throwing our money down rat holes. Yes, we have a right to be angry, but the current partisan battles over budgets and the raising of the debt ceiling (let alone the resulting downgrade of our National credit rating) wouldn’t even be necessary if we hadn’t given the responsibility of taking care of our own, in our own communities, to the State and Federal Government.

Due to our shirk of responsibility Government has gotten so large it is about to decide who receives health care and eventually which pregnancies are viable. Shame on us for allowing this to happen but we can’t just throw up our hands and accept the current reality. Let’s DO something about it

The time has come to stop giving the Government an excuse to pillage more money from us, throw it down rat holes, and shackle more people to the chains of Government dependence. Let’s man up to our responsibility to our fellow citizens, our future generations, but more important to God. “For everyone to whom much is given, of him shall much be required.” — Luke 12:48

It’s time to roll up our sleeves, get active in our churches and civic organizations and just be good neighbors. Let’s spread our own wealth around and serve our communities, states, Nation,and especially the Lord!  If we don’t we are only paying lip service to fiscal responsibility.  Let’s walk the walk instead of just talking the talk.