“When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.” – Ben Franklin

A spokesperson for the Housing and Urban Development Office went on the record on CNN’s “State of the Union” program and announced that President Obama plans to offer refinancing aid and loans for jobless homeowners. I’m all for helping those in need, but are we completely giving up on personal responsibility?

Am I the only one with a problem shifting all the power of both government and business to Washington?

Most of my friends disagree with me on this and think that corporate America is just a pile of greed dressed up in an Armani suit. Their arguments are always centered around unregulated industries stepping on their employees and abusing the little guy along the way to print money for the stockholders and C-level executives. I don’t disagree that much of the damage for Wall Street has been self-inflicted.

Here’s my question: What makes the President or Congress any different? Why are they morally superior to these shyster business execs? George W. Bush started the trend of bailing out industries and the slippery slope has turned into bailing out every group or industry in trouble. Slowly but surely, we’re shifting more and more power to a handful of decision makers in Washington. Need help? Lobby Congress. They’ll give you money.

At what point do we just vote to print our own?

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President Obama’s judicial nominees have made it clear: the Founding Fathers got it wrong. Unless you stop them, here are just a few of the interpretations they may make of the Constitution.

The White House issued a press release yesterday documenting that 1.3 million people watched President Barack Obama deliver the annual State of the Union address via a live stream on Whitehouse.gov.

Many GOP and press websites were doing live blogging during the event and engaging users to participate in the discussion, in real-time.

Congressman Joe Wilson used Facebook to issue a video rebuttal minutes after the conclusion of the event.

Quite a contrast to the same event just 20 years ago.

State of the Union – 2010

State of the Union – 1990

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