Entitlement programs (such as Social Security and Medicare) and other subsidies for the "poor" (and for corporations) are destroying America. Yet they are just a surface symptom of the underlying problem.

Americans want something for nothing, and they are willing to use the guns of government to get it.

Politicians get votes by telling voters that voters are "entitled" to just about everything they could want -- high-paying jobs, miraculous high-tech medical care, prestigious university degrees, and endless retirement -- and politicians promise to use the violence of government to get voters everything they want.

The U.S. is Bankrupt

Politicians have promised over $222 TRILLION in benefits which cannot be paid for under current rates of taxation. The Government will default on its promises.

Foreign investors will be disgruntled.

But how will America's welfare class react when the welfare checks stop coming? How will millions of people who have been deprived of virtue and "religion, morality, and knowledge," all of which are "necessary for good government and the happiness of mankind" conduct themselves when their "entitlements" are cut off?

I predict riots.

I predict economic meltdown that makes the Great Depression look like a picnic.

The original Hebrew word for "salvation" includes the concepts of "health," "welfare," "prosperity," "peace," "victory," "security," and "wholeness." Politicians, in their attempt to be as gods, have promised salvation by creating government departments of health, welfare, and security.

Samuel Adams, and all other American Founders, would say America's problem is idolatry.

Repenting of idolatry means repudiating entitlement programs. Refusing to do so is both moral and financial bankruptcy.

• Social Security: Disrepecting our Elders
• Medicare: Bankrupt Snake Oil
• Welfare for the Rich