Go on ...you know you wanna sing it.

Because we learned that song in elementary school, we just thought it was a fun song to sing and harmonize to and entertain our parents with at “SongFest” night.

Little did any of our tiny pea-sized brains realize that it was a song about socialism. I ain’t lyin. I mean, it’s still a fun song to sing that’s reminiscent of the hippie days when it was all “flower power” and “peace, love, and rock ‘n roll.”

I’m surprised that Barry the Beloved isn’t using it as his theme song, given that no one was ever successful without the “helping hand” of a favorite teacher or some mentor ... or better yet ... the government.

Sure, many folks got their start in business by way of borrowed money from the family, or the bank, or maybe by investors.

But don’t forget ... you didn’t build that business. Someone else did that for you. And you have the government to thank for that.

Well, of course! It’s the government’s job to build roads and bridges and all other types of infrastructure, but the line has to be drawn somewhere.

You cannot tell my brother in-law that someone else built his successful cabinet making business. He started out of his garage, building beautiful pieces of furniture and making cabinets, and slowly put his money into a shop. He’s brought two of his kids into the business, who have also learned to make beautiful pieces of furniture and cabinets. Yes, they are getting a helping hand because they are learning a trade that can last them a lifetime. But it’s not something they have to thank the government for. Except maybe the roads that they travel on to get their goods back and forth.

Again. Not a miracle of divine government intervention. Merely the government doing what it’s supposed to do.

Build roads and bridges.

I don’t know exactly what Barry the Benevolent Brother was trying to say when he gave that speech in Roanoke last Friday, but the sheer audacity of taking credit where credit was certainly never due was just eye-popping!

“If you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own!”

Really?

I think all Americans understand what it takes to be successful in this country, and how important it is to have things in place to get you where you want to be.

I think his choice of wording was totally inappropriate, no matter how you look at it.

My father in-law didn’t stand out in the hot sun for hours at a time doing surveying jobs because the government sent him an engraved invitation to do it. Yes, he got experience through working with the local gas company, but when he retired, he started his own surveying business. With no help from anyone. Just on his own good merit.

Hubs was working hard as a handyman, because he learned how to fix things early on and liked doing it.

He put an ad in the paper — I guess the government helped because it allowed a paper to be available to do it — and with the tools he bought with his own money, set out on a government-provided road and went across some government-provided bridges and did some work for people who had some left over money that the government didn’t take.

Thomas Edison didn’t invent the lightbulb.

The government did.

Benjamin Franklin didn’t discover electricity.

The government did.

Oh, and the Internet was not a result of some geniuses putting their heads together and devising the system back in the late ’60s. Nope. That was the government.

Al Gore didn’t invent the Internet, even though he’s reportedly been taking credit for it. He did, however, coin the phrase “information superhighway.”

Brilliant. Must have been a “green” bulb that went off over his head for that one.

Now, having said all that, why was our dear POTUS spouting off about all of that success that you didn’t create? Because he feels we all need to contribute. To give back. To reach down and pull up those who don’t have with those who do.

Ummmm ... don’t we already do that by paying taxes? We pay taxes at the federal, state and local levels.

And guess what?

We’ll be paying even more of those taxes in another year or two.

And your Big Brother will be so grateful that you are helping out and giving back.

Everyone will be closer to being on that level playing field.

Except that, as we all know, there will always be people who do not pay taxes for one reason or another. The middle class will yet again be the donkey that carries all of the burden.

Courtesy of the U.S. Government.

Thanks.

For nuthin’.