America started down the road to socialism on February 3, 1913 when the 16th amendment was ratified. This amendment states:

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

Our federal government has collected income taxes for nearly 100 years. This was one of the first small steps our nation took that has led many of our citizens to believe that socialism is the best -ism for America.

The problem, though, is that these Americans are being led like sheep to a fate they could never imagine, one step at a time. Even our leaders — Democratic AND Republican — have bought into the government-as-our-savior mentality and have apparently been so snookered that they have no idea how close to Karl Marx they really are in their ideologies.

When Florida newscaster Barbara West of WFTV in Orlando asked Joe Biden how Obama’s views on “spreading the wealth” differ from those of Karl Marx, Biden said,

Are you joking?

Then the Obama campaign blacklisted the television station for daring to ask such a question. They are punishing the station by refusing any more interviews.

Why?

It’s a legitimate question and one to which I would very much like to know the answer. What does Senator Obama think about Karl Marx? Karl Marx is the “father” of socialism, and Obama wants to do a great many socialistic wealth-spreading things in our country. Today FoxNews is again reporting on Obama’s affinity for all things Marxist. Among the ‘Marxist’ things Obama wants to achieve are…

• Taking money from the rich and giving it to the poor. Under his tax plan, people who don’t make enough money to pay income taxes will receive money from those who earn more than an arbitrary amount (currently $250K a year, although yesterday Biden said it was $150K a year). If that’s not a form of “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs,” I don’t know what is.
• Providing a free college education to anyone in America who performs a volunteer service. As someone who is still paying off college loans from fifteen years ago, I can see why so many college students support him. Who wouldn’t want a free ride to college? The only thing is, it wouldn’t be free.
  

Obama has proposed paying students $4K a year (which is not nearly enough to cover the cost, but it is something). The US Census Bureau estimates that there are 18 million students enrolled in college in 2008. If Obama succeeds in getting legislation through to provide for that free college education, taxpayers — you and I — would fork over $72,000,000,000 in one year so that these college students could get a free education. (For those of you like me who aren’t used to seeing that many zeros, that number is 72 Billion. In one year.) Of course, these same kids will be doing some volunteer community service work (I like that part of his proposal), but I don’t see how their volunteerism will span the 72 Billion Dollar chasm. That job will fall to taxpayers. If the bail-out bill bothered you like it did me, imagine this…$288 Billion dollars over four years…that’s $576 Billion in eight years, just for college education. That money has to come from someone’s pie!

Do we really even want the feds meddling in higher education? The same people who spend more money per student yet achieve the lowest in math and science among developed nations do not have a handle on what it takes to succeed in school. It’s almost a certainty that there will there be strings attached to that money. Perhaps it will only be available for students who attend certain schools which teach government-approved curriculum. Perhaps students who wish to attend Christian universities will not be able to use the “free tuition” because of that pesky “separation of church and state” ideal. It is conceivable that Obama’s government would deny free tuition for those who wish to attend Christian colleges the same way they deny vouchers for those who want to send their kids to private schools or who want to purchase homeschool curriculum.

Obama has not said whether or not he supports homeschooling. But he has said who he believes are the most important people are in determining a child’s ability to succeed. You’d think it would be the parents, right? Those of us who feed and clothe and teach morals to and discipline these children? Thanks to SpunkyHomeSchool who dug up this quote from Senator Obama to the American Federation of Teachers,

“Real change is finally giving our kids everything they need to have a fighting chance in today’s world. That begins with recognizing that the single most important factor in determining a child’s achievement is not the color of their skin or where they come from; it’s not who their parents are or how much money they have. It’s who their teacher is.“

And again, as he said in Canton, Ohio as part of his “closing argument” for why he should be elected: (thanks again, SpunkyHomeSchool), for the information:

But I do believe that government should do that which we cannot do for ourselves – protect us from harm and provide a decent education for our children;….”

Did you get that? Obama does not believe that apart from the government we can provide a decent education for our children. Excuse me? As a teacher and a homeschool parent, I feel insulted.

Not that Texas law requires me to, but I have standardized tests scores that track my daughter’s progress. She has gone literally OFF THE CHARTS in terms of her achievement level. That jump in achievement is what happens when you get one-on-one teaching. Unless and until public education mimics the homeschool environment in terms of enrichment, in terms of REAL student-teacher ratios, students in America who are schooled by the government will continue to under perform. It’s sheer logic that a student crowded in a class with twenty five others of the same age will not get the same individualized instruction as the one in a class of one, or three, or even eight.

My child’s education is not merely decent. It is exceptional.

Obama went on to say to the teachers about who is the most important in determining a child’s success,

It’s the paraprofessionals and support staff and all of you in this room. It’s those who spend their own money on books and supplies, come early and stay late comparing lesson plans, who devote their lives to our next generation and serve as role models for the children who need one most because you believe that’s what makes the extra difference. And it does.

Hmm. Let’s see. I spend my own money on books and supplies (in addition to providing thousands of dollars a year in property taxes to support the public school my child will never attend). I spend time preparing lessons plans. I devote my life to my daughter’s generation and serve as her role model. And I do it all without the government’s help.

Thanks, but no thanks, Senator. I am doing quite well on my own. If you are elected, though, I wouldn’t object if you sent me a tuition voucher so I could purchase next year’s curriculum or maybe even go on a cross-country trip to see the places we’ve been learning about in our study of the Civil War…we could use it to pay for a trip to the Mayan ruins and then jet on over to Egypt so we can see first-hand and compare the architecture of the pyramids…

…seriously, though, I wouldn’t take a cent because no handout is ever free. If I took a hand-out, someone else would be pulling the strings. I’d rather my string-puller be God than any government on earth, whether John McCain’s or Obama’s.

Philippians 1:
Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ.