I wish I’d written that!

Rarely does something appear in the paper that makes me smile, but I was pleasantly surprised to see the article “Responsible People Shouldn’t Pay for Bad Choices of Others,”, written by Albuquerque resident Marsha Thole, in the Albuquerque Journal on Sunday morning. The article was a simple but thorough rebuttal of a previous column that had urged expanded government programs to cover for a variety of personal mistakes.

Writes Thole “The role of government is to provide for the safety and security of its citizens. Somehow it got off track and now supports the lifestyles of the irresponsible. We who have saved are seeing that money go toward higher taxes to pay for jerks who think they are entitled to welfare because they made poor choices.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Later in her article, Thole delivers the coup de grace:

Contrary to what the writer says, the building blocks of a healthy life are not numerous social programs, but teenagers who stay in school, don’t skip classes, graduate, don’t take drugs, don’t get pregnant; people who save, who don’t gamble away their welfare checks and families who do not have more children than they can support on their income.

And no, we are not all in this boat together, as she suggests. Irresponsible people are on a leaking ship, expecting taxpayers to appear in lifeboats full of money to save them.

Thank you Ms. Thole for delivering the message!