In writing this book, I have attempted to give every American the benefit of the doubt.  I want to believe that we are all fighting for what we truly believe is right.  I want to believe that every idea I hear in this sickening culture war is at least an honest idea presented in a way that is not disingenuous.  We are all just trying to change the world to make it the kind of place we would like to live in, right?

But I can’t help thinking that there are people out there who are willing to use any kind of political argument only to make us believe one thing while they are getting away with another.  So I think it would be wise for the otherwise innocent and well-meaning among us to be careful, to look out for ourselves a bit.  I’m just saying…I know you exist.  Next time I see you on TV with your “government is the problem” message, next time I hear you saying that you want to cut spending on social programs, that you don’t believe in social justice, that you want to cut programs that don’t work, I only hope, for your sake, that at some point you get very specific.  I don’t want to hear anything as vague as “eliminating wasteful spending”.  Either that or I would suggest booking lots and lots of interviews quickly because your window of opportunity is closing.  People are going to start catching on.  You might eventually have to look for a new job, like so many other Americans do these days. 

I know there are a lot of you out there making lots of money and getting lots of exposure with this anti-government message.  I can’t keep track of all of you, but most likely you are working for someone with a lot of power who is trying to carry out some sort of hidden agenda (more about that agenda in a moment).  Maybe you’re one of the honest few who believe your own anti-government, libertarian message for pure reasons.  I’ll take you on your word if you say so, but unfortunately there are a lot people out there who are spreading the anti-government message for all the wrong reasons.  Come to think of it, the only way to know which side you are on is to ask you about your support for the Total Freedom Act.  I hope this question starts to come up during your appearances.  Maybe it already has, and that’s why you’re reading this book.

Let me explain this in a very simple way.  If you do not support the Total Freedom Act, if you talk about eliminating government in our lives and yet still want us to pay taxes into government, I can only conclude that you just want your hands on our money.  I get it.  These days your employers, sponsors, and handlers are quite satisfied because they are watching the vast majority of our tax money end up right in the hands of private industry.  They argue that private business works better than government and, using that reasoning, turn our tax money over to private companies to run nearly every function that the government should be doing.  Private security companies like Xe Services LLC (formerly Blackwater) are doing what the US Military should be doing in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Private prison facilities like Correctional Services Corporation are imprisoning Americans for a profit and then making them work while in prison so they can earn even more profit.  Private health insurance companies like Blue Cross Blue Shield are making a profit by performing a function that government arguably should be doing.  You even want charter schools and for-profit universities to make a profit doing what public schools and state universities should be doing.  I’m just getting started.  The government also hands over our tax money, in the form of farm subsidies, to enormous corporations like Monsanto (there aren’t many small farmers anymore).  The examples of corporate hand-outs are endless, and all of it is justified with the logic that “government is bad”.  The simple problem here is that a very large portion of my tax money goes directly to corporations (and then right to rich executives as bonuses and to investors as profit).  That doesn’t seem right…not when the middle class is sliding into poverty.

You talk a good game about the free market, but where is the free market in this exactly?  If you actually understood the free market, you’d know that it has to do with how capitalists (not tax-payers) willingly invest money into businesses.  Companies then deliver a product or service to the market and consumers (not taxpayers) buy it if they want it.  I don’t remember Adam Smith talking about how the government was supposed to take our money through taxes and give it directly to businesses.  That has nothing to do with the free market and to argue that it does is a complete distortion.

If this is your game, I suppose it does bother you when a portion of our tax money does, indeed, continue to go into programs that only end up benefiting the people directly (with no profit to you).  Any dollar that goes into Welfare, Unemployment, Social Security, Medicare, or Public Education is a dollar that can’t be funneled to your people.  I get your game.  You use some good ideas (free market economic theory) to try to convince me to let you get your hands on my tax money.  I do admire your effort, but unfortunately for you I see through it.

I see how you guys finance political campaigns in return for favors.  I see how you guys pay expensive lobbyists to keep politicians under control when they are in office.  Naturally, you have to make sure the government is responsive to your contributions just as you attempt to keep us, the taxpayer, in line with your dishonest and disingenuous arguments.  How else would you be able to swindle us out of our money on such a massive scale?  But this is a question you will not be able to keep dodging forever.  If you truly support freedom, as you say you do, if you truly believe that government is bad, if you truly believe in the free market, then you will support the Total Freedom Act.  And you know what?  Tell your boss or your sponsor or whoever the hell gave you your script that, if they want my money, they will have to earn it in the marketplace by delivering a product or service that I actually want.  I hope your business skills are as good as your skills as propagandist.  I want you to succeed, so I’ll give you a tip: I hear flying cars will be hot next year.