Dream Big, But Not Too Big

The moment that cemented my political ideology as conservative was while listening to the post-passage Obamacare speeches in March of 2010, during which Senator Max Baucus said, “…[Obamacare] is also an income shift…the wealthy are getting way, way too wealthy…this legislation will have the effect of addressing that mal-distribution of income…”

When I heard that statement, I was shattered.

You see, I run my own business. I like running my own business, it’s very rewarding, but it can also be very demanding. I have big dreams for my business. Will I reach them? I don’t know. I hope so. But it is those dreams that compel me to do the hard work necessary for a business to excel.

So there I was diving home, tired, but happy that I had spent the day promoting my business and meeting some great people. Then I heard Max Baucus.

What Max Baucus essentially said to me was, “Hey. You can dream. Just don’t dream too big.” Who was Max Baucus to tell me how big to dream? Who decided someone was too wealthy? And what exactly was too wealthy? And what the hell does healthcare have to do with being too wealthy? What if someday I was “too wealthy?” I didn’t get that money by accident or take it by force. I earned that money. Every penny of it.

So in a few wags of his tongue, Max Baucus shattered my incentive to dream, my incentive to work. He placed a limit on my dreams. He told me that I could work as hard as I wanted to, but at some point I would have enough, and someone out there would take what they thought I didn’t need. I found that disgusting. What a terrible thing to shatter the desire to succeed, to make something great, to be the best, to be a champion, a leader.

Well, Max Baucus, I won’t let you limit my dreams and I won’t let you take whatever excess you think my dreams create. For those of you who don’t have a problem with what Max Baucus said, think about how disgusting it is for one man to arbitrarily determine when someone has “too much” and to take that “too much” by force.

I’ll dream however big I damn well please Mr. Baucus. And if my dreams result in me having “too much”, I’ll be keeping that as well.