Bailout? Congress Needs Parenting Classes

Our nation is in trouble. Big trouble.

No, I don’t mean we are threatened by the failure of the financial industry or automobile manufacturers.

We are in trouble, because the government has assumed the role of a clueless parent.

The “kids” have been irresponsible and spent money foolishly and extravagantly. Now “Mommy and Daddy” want to rescue them from having to suffer the consequences of their actions.

This is bad for the kids -- especially bad because learning from poor choices is a critical element in the maturing process. Reaping and sowing is part of life. Depriving children of opportunities to mature is not compassionate -- it is unwise -- even mean.

Good parenting teaches children to take responsibility for themselves and their own actions. When Mommy and Daddy pay for Junior’s broken windows, clean up his messes, replace his lost toys, and pay his parking tickets, he grows up thinking that someone else is obligated to rescue him from his mistakes. Although he is only the “victim” of his own poor choices, he develops a “victim” worldview and thinks those who take risks must be rescued from the natural consequences they incur.

Sadly, too many Americans have grown up with this perspective, so now they expect their government “parents” to come to the rescue of the financial industry, automobile manufacturers, and any other corporation with a booboo. After all, they would want to be rescued if they got themselves in trouble.

Congress typifies this worldview. They are behaving like bad parents who think it is compassionate to rescue children from the consequences of their irresponsible choices. They must stop such nonsense!

Were these companies little toddlers who didn’t know any better, then YES -- pick them up out of the hole in which they have fallen. But they are not itty bitty kiddies -- they are full grown adults who took risks and should be prepared to reap what they have sown.

As a general rule -- bad parenting is bad government. Conversely, good parenting is good government.

Congress should read my book Born Liberal Raised Right, and start getting our national family in order.

Bestselling Author Reb Bradley is not a political expert; he is a parenting specialist. As a counselor, Reb has diagnosed and helped thousands of parents transform their lives and those of their children. In 1998 Reb took note of the disintegrating moral fiber of our nation and decided to apply his diagnostic skills to find a cure for what ails our society. In his book Born Liberal Raised Right: How to Rescue America from Moral Decline - One Family at a Time, Reb reveals how American society has grown out of control, because its members were not taught self-control as children. In fact, in his research he discovered that a liberal worldview is a direct outgrowth of various parenting styles. Go here to see Reb on Fox News Channel's Fox & Friends.