JOHN LINDER: “I am not certain how many Americans heard well the President's recent speeches, but his comments spoke volumes about his…”

“I am not certain how many Americans heard well the President's recent speeches, but his comments spoke volumes about his views of freedom. It also addressed the great political debate going on in this country today which has been going on since 1994, and it can be summed up on a bumper sticker: ``Who Decides, Washington or You?'' The President, in Buffalo shortly after the State of the Union address, was discussing the surplus, a huge surplus, nearly $5 trillion over the next 15 years, to be collected by the government above and beyond what we need to spend to continue the government, and this is what he said: ``We could give it all back to you and hope you spend it right, but----'' That says volumes. The President then proceeded to imply he really cannot give it back to the American people because government makes wiser choices than they do. He does not trust the American people to make these choices on their own behalf. He has embraced in whole cloth, it seems to me, the theme of the 1958 book by John Kenneth Galbraith entitled, ``The Affluent Society.'' The entire theme of that book is this: It is not that Americans have too little, they have too much, that they make bad choices with their dollars, and it is the obligation of an educated government to tax those dollars from them and make better choices on their behalf. Who decides, Washington or you? That is the debate we are in. That is the debate on taxes.”