It's from Ben, not the Bible

It's not scandalous, but neither is it Scriptural (via Yahoo!):

President Barack Obama Wednesday said even God wanted to put Americans back to work, invoking divine blessing for his joust with Republicans over measures designed to slice into high unemployment.

Obama also taunted his foes with historic arguments in favor of repairing vital infrastructure once made by conservative icon Ronald Reagan, as he stumped for a $60 billion infrastructure bill being taken up by the Senate.

The president rebuked the House of Representatives for passing a bill reaffirming the US motto "In God We Trust" rather than getting to work on his stalled $447 billion jobs program.

"That's not putting people back to work. I trust in God, but God wants to see us help ourselves by putting people back to work," the president said.

Obama's spokesman Jay Carney denied that Obama had perhaps gone too far by dragging the Almighty into a fierce political spat.

"I believe that the phrase from the Bible is 'the Lord helps those who help themselves,'" Carney said.

Actually, that saying is from the 1736 edition of Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard’s Almanack: "God helps them that help themselves." It's compatibility with Scripture and good theology is debatable, and depends in large part on what, exactly, they are helping themselves to.

Here's another interesting one from Franklin: "He that sells upon trust, loses many friends, and always wants money." Maybe that can be employed at the next White House press conference.

Comments

[macbeth]

See Aesop--rather older than Ben. http://www.aesops-fables.org.uk/aesop-fable-hercules-and-the-waggoner.htm