|
The Issues That Matter |
The Obligation To The NeedyYou may find this section disconcerting or surprising -- especially because I am a conservative. But the government's obligation to the needy wasn't invented by socialists. European civilization traces its obligation to the needy to Jesus Christ. Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England was the single most widely owned law book in Colonial and Revolutionary America. The Framers of the U.S. Constitution knew it intimately. American states were Christian commonwealths (and this is part of why most of them restricted holding office to Christians -- sometimes only to Protestants). Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England recognized that while the law did not require equality, there was an obligation of the community to provide at least the necessities of life: "THE law not only regards life and member, and protects every man in the enjoyment
of them, but also furnishes him with every thing necessary for their support. For
there is no man so indigent or wretched, but he may demand a supply sufficient for
all the necessities of life, from the more opulent part of the community, by means
of the several statutes enacted for the relief of the poor..."
There are certain moral obligations of a Christian commonwealth, and Blackstone captured it well. It was not an unlimited duty; not everything is a necessity. It was not an obligation to take care of those who were capable of caring for themselves; the laws recognized the difference between the deserving and undeserving poor. We have people in Idaho whose poverty is self-induced by drug and alcohol problems, and sometimes by laziness. But we also have many Idahoans whose poverty is the result of bad luck. There are fathers who run off, leaving a mother and children without support. There are people whose physical or mental health deteriorates, and leaves them unable to care for themselves. Ideally, people would take care of the needy in their own communities, one on one. It is more efficient, easier to see who is genuinely needy, and provides more accountability than a bureaucracy. Where I live in Horseshoe Bend, this happens. I suspect that in many of the other small towns of our district, people are helping those in need, either directly, or through churches or other benevolent organizations. As villages become towns, this becomes less and less practical, and the government of necessity must step in and do the job. The government's duty to care for those in genuine need is not an obligation to help those who can work, but will not. Because the government's resources are limited, as your state senator, I will make sure that what assistance the government provides is not too generous. A person receiving the government's assistance should not end up better off than a person who is supporting himself and his family by the sweat of his own brow. |