Social Security. Health Care. Education. Three areas where government involvement is nearly endless. Yet none of them have any Constitutional grounding whatsoever. There isn't a single article, section or clause that grants the federal government the power to run a pension program, a medical insurance plan or a school. Don't believe me? Then take it from the "Father of the Constitution" himself:

 

"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents."  -- James Madison

 

"If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions."  -- James Madison

 

Or how about Thomas Jefferson?

 

"Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated." - Thomas Jefferson

 

How has it come to be that we have accepted billions upon billions of dollars being spent (and not at all well, I might add) upon that which is rightfully our own responsibility to handle? We would never open our mailboxes, pull out the bills from within, and then march over to our neighbor, knock on the door, and expect him to pay for our doctor visits, kids' tuition, and retirement fund. Yet so long as government does the dirty shakedown work for us, we're more than happy to let it. Why? Have we all become thieves, comfortable with stealing so long as we all do it about the same amount? Do we really think that so long as the crime is balanced, it cancels out, as if it never happened at all?

 

I fear that Americans have come to so despise responsibility (and embrace phony "victimhood") that we have thrown the principles of liberty, especially as it pertains to private property, out the window with it. We're more than happy to stomp all over our neighbor and even seize a portion of what belongs to him if it makes our own life a little easier. And to top it off, we turn around and whine when we find that our own liberty has been injured as well, when the government we liked when it benefited us suddenly tells us which doctors, schools and pension plans we must or cannot use. (Like that genie was ever going to go back into the bottle once loosed.)

 

We need to regain an appreciation that having the freedom and liberty to choose means taking full and sole responsibility for whatever obligations arise as a result. They are a package deal, bound and inseparable. If I wish to choose my doctor, my children's school and my 401k plan then I alone must pay for the services rendered by the M.D., the teacher and the investment house. For the ability to choose is far more valuable than all those material things, even though it may not be as tangible. We should be willing to bear any financial burden rather than throw away our liberty just to avoid our responsibilities (and maybe stick it to that person of whose success we are a little too jealous), be it to take care of ourselves or to genuinely help our neighbor in need, in true charitable fashion – from oneself, as another free choice.

 

There is also a darker side, as I hinted at two paragraphs above. Once government power is unleashed on as wide a scale as it has been, it will not easily be reduced, much less stopped. It is a self-delusion to think we still control it. In yielding to our own selfishness we have, however inadvertently, unleashed a real world version of Agent Smith from "The Matrix" movie trilogy. Any attempt to restore government to its proper Constitutional role results in a swarm of sunglassed, black suit clad bureaucrats doing their utmost to stop it dead in its tracks. (His favorite weapon is emotional manipulation and exploitation of images of the elderly, sick, and young in order to intimidate. If you take his power away, you're killing Grandma, kids, and the infirm. As if Agent Smith truly values any of them beyond their usefulness to him in keeping power over the Matrix.)

 

And while this may not seem like a big deal, just wait until he targets you, simply because he can. Or because you finally became a threat to him. Just as the creator of the Matrix ultimately needed Neo to save the world because Smith grew too powerful for him, so too will we need to take drastic action in the near future. We've all seen the dire financial projections, with the entire federal budget getting consumed by Social Security and Medicare alone, thanks to the impending tsunami of retiring Baby Boomers. Throw in an utterly insatiable education lobby on top of that, and it doesn't take a mathematician to see that the demographic numbers don't come close to adding up. There just isn't enough money in the entire universe to pay for all that spending. One way or another, this Matrix of ours is not going to last.

 

But there is one thing that can prevent an otherwise certain self-inflicted future bankruptcy--each of us embracing liberty and taking responsibility, accepting the package deal. For the truth is that when we shirk responsibility and casually accept injury of others' liberty, each of us becomes an Agent Smith ourself. We must resist the lure of the liberty-for-financial-security tradeoff. As Benjamin Franklin quite rightly said, he who would accept that exchange deserves neither. And neither is what we will have if we do not soon reclaim that precious package which was ours all along. America – our "Zion" – hangs in the balance.