A Las Vegas Sun story reports today that proposed budget cuts would eliminate a program of providing free, taxpayer-funded eye-glasses.
When did it become the proper role of government and taxpayers to be subsidizing purchases from Lenscrafters and Pearle Vision?
In the story, liberal Sen. Sheila Leslie declared that “It’s a fantasy to think that charity will cover glasses for 7,833 people” currently covered under the taxpayer-funded program. But the real fantasy is the notion that government, rather than charities, should be in the charity business at all.
I guess Sen. Leslie missed American history class on the day they taught what Founding Father James “Jimmy” Madison, co-author of the Federalist Papers and Father of the United States Constitution, said in a speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1794: “Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.”
What a cold-hearted, right-wing extremist, huh?
She might also want to click here to read what Congressman Davey Crockett had to say on this subject in “Not Yours to Give.”