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Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality
Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America
Oct. 29, 2009
Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity?
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland
JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure?
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost
Oct. 15, 2009
Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process'
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Feb. 12, 2009 / 18 Shevat 5769

The other Indiana

By Cal Thomas


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | When President Obama visited Elkhart, Ind., on Monday to flog his economic stimulus plan (aka more government spending), he saw a struggling town in the midst of a relatively prosperous state. Had he taken the time to visit Indianapolis and met with Republican Governor Mitch Daniels, he would have seen a different picture.


Indiana has a $1.3 million surplus and a "rainy day fund" made up of contributions that come from a unique concept these days: government spending less than it receives from taxpayers, without raiding its cash reserves.


Among several things that troubled me about President Obama's appearance in Elkhart and his news conference that night was the absence of any call for individual initiative to help get us out of our economic funk. The president and the congressional majority party appear to believe that when one gets a job, he should hold that job all his life and retire with a good pension. Furthermore, that person should never be expected to move (migrate) in the pursuit of better opportunities — and the federal government must address anything that interferes with that scenario.


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Opportunities remain in Indiana, despite the difficulties in Elkhart, for those with the vision and initiative to seize them. According to the governor's office, since January 2005, 647 businesses have committed to creating 80,043 jobs and to investing $18.8 billion in their Indiana operations. In an online search of the Indianapolis Star newspaper on Tuesday, I found links to 2,398 jobs in, or within a 30-mile radius of Indianapolis. There are even help wanted postings in the Elkhart newspaper.


Have we become so indolent, so used to others doing for us, that we have lost the initiative so many of our forebears had, initiative that built and sustained this country through much harder times than this? I suspect many of them would have gladly traded their real hard times for what we have now, which is prosperity squared compared to apple selling, dust bowls and the shanties in which many of them lived.


Because Governor Daniels doesn't see government as a first resource, he has enough revenue to do what government should do — build and repair roads, encourage telecommunication reform, promote research and development, stimulate the manufacture of goods that others outside the state and country wish to buy. (In 2007, Indiana exported to foreign countries a record $25.9 billion worth of goods, up more than 14 percent from the previous year.)


The state ranks first in the Midwest for its business climate (and fifth in the nation), reports Site Selection magazine, Nov. 2008. According to Forbes magazine, Indiana has the lowest business cost index in the Midwest and sixth lowest in the country. And most important of all in this "government knows best" climate, Indiana ranks first in the Midwest and 14th nationally in the Tax Foundation's 2009 Business Tax Climate Index. Other states, like New York, New Jersey, California and Michigan are driving businesses away because of heavy taxation to support expanding government and increasingly oppressive and counterproductive regulations.


Indiana can balance its budget without tax hikes because Governor Daniels doesn't see government as primary, but somewhere down the list behind initiative, risk-taking, personal responsibility and accountability. While all may not start out the same in life, many can overcome whatever handicaps they might have, if they subscribe to certain principles known to every generation. Politicians that tell us we can't succeed without them and, if we do, they will grab increasing amounts of our prosperity, have replaced the stories of those who have overcome.


One of the questioners at the president's press conference expressed concern that he might be "talking down" the economy and causing people to lose faith in themselves and the country. The president brushed off the question, repeating that these are, in fact, tough times.


Where is the "we can do this together" spirit of yesteryear? Maybe everyone should be required to watch the film "Hoosiers" about a high school basketball team beset by conflict on and off the court. With a new coach, the players catch the vision, start to believe in themselves, and manage to win the state championship. Where's our Hoosier spirit?

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JWR contributor Cal Thomas is co-author with Bob Beckel, a liberal Democratic Party strategist, of "Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That is Destroying America". Comment by clicking here.

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