"The Road to Ruin"

By Brooke Adams

We can't continue searching for the deep pockets of successful individuals or companies engaged in legal enterprise, and pile on more taxes to solve our systemic revenue problem. I will overhaul our current tax system.

But while I abhor smoking, we can't just add another tax on cigarettes to raise revenue. Enough is enough! We can't continue searching for the deep pockets of successful individuals or companies engaged in legal enterprise, and pile on more taxes to solve our systemic revenue problem.

To save our state and save our future we must live within our means. And that means we must reduce the services that government provides to our citizens, including those who are not legally entitled to be here. Government cannot be all things to all people. It's that simple. Our Founding Fathers never intended that federal and state governments to become caretakers to society. Thank goodness they had the common sense to recognize that doing so would stunt the development of this great nation.

I wonder where we would be today as a nation and as a state if we had the types of government programs in 1850 that we have today. Instead of the Gold Rush to California, people would have stayed in St. Louis demanding their "right" to free healthcare, free legal services, free this and free that. Why would they suffer a wagon train through the desert heat if Abe Lincoln was writing government checks to "protect" the disadvantage?

Necessity is the mother of invention. It was true in 1850 and it's true today. I ask, "What will become of us if we continue to deprive our citizens of the challenges of life?" I shudder to think of where we are headed as a state if we continue the destructive notion that we can just find another tax or fee to support bailouts, handouts and other bloated government programs.

The road to ruin is paved with good intentions. That statement was never truer than today.