Yesterday would-be vice president Congressman Ryan said the following in Cleveland:

"Look at the road we are on, with trillion-dollar deficits every year. Debt on this scale is destructive in so many ways, and one of them is that it crowds out civil society by drawing resources away from private giving."

I find it astonishing that people would believe that government support of all social programs, including Medicare, should be withdrawn--and that the poor and needy, the sick and handicapped, would be taken care of by private donations.

A review of history says otherwise. It says that the rich hoard their wealth; the most generous donors to non-profits are middle- and low-income families.

Didn't Jesus exhort his followers to 'sell all you have and give to the poor'? His followers were not the rich, but working men like himself. He knew better than to ask the wealthy, the moneychangers in the Temple.

And to add to the hypocrisy, both GOP candidates themselves (and/or their families) used benefits provided by government agencies to get started or assisted on the way up. Government assistance was fine, for them, but destructive of civil society when applied to anyone else.

I'm completely baffled by the polls showing Dems and Repugs in a dead heat.