Who would have guessed?

By Jan Larimer

Posted May 21, 2010

Jan Larimer is the co-chair of the Republican National Committee.

In the 222 years since our Constitution was ratified, the trajectory of American ingenuity has always been on the rise. It was Americans who through their sweat and toil drove innovation in agriculture and powered the industrial revolution. It was Americans who through their entrepreneurial spirit sparked the technological revolution that gave rise to the internet and the digital era.

Nancy Pelosi made it clear last week that she would bring all of that to an end. Does she think America is not a place for men and women to rise through the virtue of hard work? In Nancy Pelosi's America, work is not much more than an unnecessary distraction. In her view of the American experiment, the primary function of government is to provide welfare benefits—not to serve as a protector of rights endowed by our Creator.
[See which industries donated the most to Pelosi.]
Nancy Pelosi's world view became clear last week as she spoke at an Asian American and Pacific Islander summit about the recently enacted health care legislation. While speaking to the group, she said: "We see (the health care bill) as an entrepreneurial bill, a bill that says to someone, if you want to be creative and be a musician or whatever, you can leave your work, focus on your talent, your skill, your passion, your aspirations because you will have health care. You won't have to be job locked."
One wonders if Pelosi understands the nature of work and the history of America at all. Generations of Americans before us did not grow our nation into a superpower by ignoring their talents, their skills and their passions so that they could toil away in jobs in which they were locked. The great leaps forward that built America came about precisely because inspired Americans pursued their dreams within a system that rewarded innovation. Thomas Edison did not invent the light bulb because he felt locked in his job. He found his passion, focused his talent and applied his skills toward work that would reward him.
The same could be said of the Wright Brothers, Alexander Graham Bell, or Henry Ford. In America, people have the freedom to apply their labor toward work that is personally as well as financially rewarding. That is a powerful combination.