About Events Topics Resources

About Events Topics Resources
State of the Union: The Government is Here to do Stuff for You
Acton Institute Powerblog

State of the Union: The Government is Here to do Stuff for You

by Elise Hilton • February 14, 2013

There is always much to discuss after a State of the Union address, and Tuesday’s speech is no different. Sam Gregg, Director of Research at the Acton Institute, shared his thoughts:

“The overall theme of the address is that government is there to do stuff for you,” he said.  “He starts out making remarks about America being a country that values free enterprise and rewards individual initiative…and yet he offers proposals for government intervention after intervention after intervention,… and there’s not much there at all about freeing up the labor market or trying to do things like reducing America’s absurdly high level of corporate tax.”

Specifically, Gregg wanted to view the speech through a Catholic lens, using the Church’s teaching on subsidiarity:

Obama, he said, “basically seems to think the government, and specifically the federal government, should be intervening all over the place in the economy. He talks about the administration partnering with a certain number of communities throughout the U.S. You have to say, ‘Well, why does he think the federal government needs to be involved in these situations?’”

Obama said, for example, that his administration will “begin to partner with 20 of the hardest-hit [economically] towns in America to get these communities back on their feet.”

“Subsidiarity would suggest that surely one should be looking at other communities both in terms of local and state government,” said Gregg, “but also the actual communities themselves, if we’re serious about dealing with some of these problems.”

Read “A Catholic’s Take on Obama’s State of the Union Address” at Aleteia.org.

Sam Gregg is author of “Becoming Europe: Economic Decline, Culture and How American Can Avoid a European Future”.

Elise Hilton

Elise Hilton

Communications Specialist at Acton Institute. M.A. in World Religions.

Posted in News and EventsTagged barack obama, catholic social teaching, government, politics, Sam Gregg, state of the union, subsidiarity

Related posts

  • Samuel Gregg: An Alternate Reality State of the Union Address
  • Samuel Gregg: Obama SOTU full of ‘hot air, populism, contradictory promises’
  • Why is the State of the Union Always ‘Strong’?
  • Why is the State of the Union Always ‘Strong’?

About

Our Mission & Core Principles Awards, Scholarships, and Grants Acton Research Our Team Careers News Internships

Events

Events Calendar Conference Series Lecture Series Acton University

Publications

Acton Commentary Acton Notes Religion & Liberty Religion & Liberty Transatlantic Journal of Markets & Morality International Public Policy

Multimedia

Videos Audio Radio Free Acton Curricula Films Mobile Apps

Shop

Donate

Contact Us

  • Italiano
  • Español
  • Deutsch
  • Français
  • Português
  • 简体中文
  • لعربية
© 2017 Acton Institute | Privacy Policy