OPINION:
It is interesting that Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan describes President Obama’s health care legislation as a “gift” from the federal government (“Supreme Court split over scrapping entire health care law,” Web, Wednesday).
Unbeknownst to Justice Kagan, with this characterization, she hit upon the flawed thinking that permeates all of Washington, where politicians and bureaucrats alike look upon all government activity as an unselfish act of gifting.
While politicians may see their legislative efforts as a genuine sacrificial act, the taxpayer sees those “gifts” as strangely similar to the taxes taken out of their paycheck. In fact, to taxpayers the government is doing nothing more than “regifting” the taxpayers own money back to them.
As more people like Justice Kagan confuse the government’s regifting as a genuine and unselfish act of giving, they’ll never understand why the taxpayer becomes so angry when they see their own money handed back to them, encased in a politician’s vain, self-aggrandizing rhetoric.
Taxpayer anger is only heightened when public officials fantasize that all government money comes from a magic boatload of cash.
MATTHEW R. POWENSKI
Buffalo, New York
Please read our comment policy before commenting.