When the citizens become complacent in their lives the citizens become in danger of losing control of their lives. It doesn’t matter if it’s an individual, town, city, or nation. The threat we face today is not a new one. Rulers of nations have been playing the same game on their citizens since the beginning of time. The game is to acquire power, convince the citizens to give up more power, and finally consolidate control over the power. There is only one way to acquire power, war or the threat of war. However, there are two very important ways to stay in power and also grow more powerful. First, whoever is in power must give the citizens something of value, either real or perceived. Second, there must be an effort to centralize control of essential services and industry. The brave citizens of America won their independence from tyranny in the 18^th century but our fight was far from over.  

Government Give-Away:

Let’s begin with, “give the citizens something of value, either real or perceived.” First of all, nineteenth-century America was the closest thing to capitalism the world has ever seen. There was no central bank, no welfare state, and almost no deficit spending. There were also no federal regulatory agencies, no income tax laws, and no antitrust laws until the latter part of the century. This lack of government intervention led to the freest, most innovative, and wealthiest nation in history.

That’s the good news. Unfortunately, this near laissez-faire politico-economic system which laid the foundation for the most successful and powerful nation would soon be under attack by the powerful liberal-elite class through a government proxy. The citizens of America grew entirely too wealthy, independent and self-sufficient which directly challenged the power and control of the big-government liberal-elite class. Up to this point in history Americans had only known oppression through dictatorship or elite radical religious zealots. Americans probably didn’t realize the clandestine threat they were about to face in the twentieth-century. I heard a quote once from whom I can’t recall, so I will paraphrase, ”If I can control the money supply of a nation then who cares which political party writes the laws.” I can’t think of a more dangerous statement which threatens the citizens of a freedom-loving society. However, I recently heard one which comes close by white house chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel and I quote, ”You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” Both statements identify a deep-rooted hatred and cynicism for the vast majority of the citizens of our great nation. It’s the same mentality shared by many in the big-government liberal-elite class whose sole intention is to control the rest of us.

The twentieth-century has saddled Americans with more government control, regulations, and debt while stripping us of more personal liberties than at any time in the history of this great nation. At least up until the end of 2008 and all of 2009, but the last twelve months or so is another conversation. With that said, let’s discuss the government entitlement programs which have stripped this great nation of its wealth, respect, and most notably its sovereignty.

This can best be summed up by a paragraph from an article I read recently and I quote, “Since the beginning of the 20th century capitalism and freedom have been undermined by an explosion in the size and power of government: Total government spending has increased from 6.61 percent of GDP in 1907 to a projected 45.19 percent of GDP in 2009; the dollar has lost more than 95 percent of its value due to the Federal Reserve’s inflationary policies; top marginal income tax rates have been as high as 94 percent; entitlement programs now constitute more than half of the federal budget; and businesses are hampered and hog-tied by more than eighty thousand pages of regulations in the Federal Register.”  

 Does anyone think this government intrusion was an accident? Do you think the former, freedom-loving citizens of America, just casually relinquished their rights and freedoms and allowed the government to tax over half their income in the process for the fun of it? The answer is more appalling than no. It was and still is a synchronized effort modeled after a centuries-old scheme to suppress any effort by the masses to build a true republic. How in the world could so few corrupt individuals stop the rest of us from accomplishing our true Republic? Unfortunately, the answer is very simple and can be found in most all aspects of government regulation.

The Federal Government enacted laws, amended the constitution, and created new government agencies which allowed it to grow at a pace which gave it unprecedented powers. Government dependency programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are all fundamentally flawed and destined for bankruptcy. The IRS and the post office are neither efficient nor effective and are budget-busters in their own right. Don’t think for a second that the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and the 16^th Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1913 was a coincidence. Since the Federal Reserve Act created the Federal Reserve System which was now in control of America’s monetary system, it needed Congress to pass the 16^th Amendment to enable the Federal Government to levy an income tax on us which was needed to pay the interest on debt that the Federal Reserve was now able to collect from the federal Government, meaning us. Did you get all that! Well, it’s the reason why America is burdened by such a massive Federal Deficit. The latest estimate in the summer of 2009 was 500 Million Dollars per day in interest charges alone. Oh, and the fact that FDR ended the gold standard with the first “New Deal,” in 1933.

Centralize Control:

As I opined earlier, the second way for the big-government liberal-elite to grow their power and influence is to centralize control of essential services and industry. We don’t have to reach too far back in history to see this happening. In fact, it’s happening right in front of our very eyes. The government has taken controlling interest in America’s car companies, banks, and insurance companies. The current administration is also trying to dictate the compensation structure of these industries as well as other industries in which they do not have controlling interest. Again, just another example of the big-government liberal-elite’s using our money to gain more power for themselves and promote their own agenda. The current atrocities by the federal government are simply the results of many decades and centuries of smaller and less obvious abuses of power by the government. 

Let’s start with tax breaks provided to employers for providing insurance to employees in which the same tax breaks are not provided to individuals who buy insurance on their own. The fact that individuals can’t buy competitive insurance across state lines makes it almost impossible to afford an individual policy and creates an artificial reliance on employer based policies which in turn keeps rates artificially inflated. This employer based insurance entitlement was implemented near the conclusion of WWII as a subsidy for working Americans during the wage freeze. However, the wage freeze was just an excuse to create another dependency on big government policy by Americans. Fast forward to 1979 and the establishment of the United States Department of Education. Former President Carter signed the Dept of Education into law as a cabinet-level department in 1979 and it became law in 1980. Unfortunately, President Reagan was unable to keep his campaign promise to dismantle the Dept of Education with a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives. Many Presidents and presidential candidates have expressed opposition to the Dept of Education but to no avail. Government education, as I refer to it, has precipitously declined in America since 1979. A bunch of lazy bureaucrats in D.C. decide the curriculum, text books, and administration policies for all of the students in America. It’s no wonder that American children have fallen so far behind the rest of the world in all aspects of academics. If it was about efficiency and effectiveness, the Dept of Education would have been abolished long ago. It’s just one more aspect in our lives for the big government liberal-elites to control. We always hear politicians and union leaders expressing their concerns about our education system in America. All they say is that they need more money for schools, administration, and salaries. America spends more money per student than any other country yet we continue to fall behind other countries in almost every subject. The answer is obviously not to continue to throw money at the Dept of Education. We must abolish it and return the responsibility of our children’s education to the states where it belongs. Can you imagine a country where each state competes with all of the others on who provides the best education for our children? I guarantee that no matter what system the States choose to track their progress or grade their students efforts, the State that comes in last place out of 50 will have students who are far more advanced academically than those who currently study under the guidelines of the Dept of Education. This improvement would undoubtedly occur in the first year or two. Again, this is just another example of how difficult it is to get rid of or even reform a government program once it has been implemented. We also know that budgets at the state level must be balanced annually which would force legislation to be responsible when dealing with our children’s education and stop throwing good money after bad money at problems without having an actual plan to fix the problem.

Why do the big government liberals and the Mafia equally favor the Unions? You guessed it, centralized control over a large block of citizens whom they can greatly influence and abuse to advance their own agenda. Both the Mafia and the big-government liberal-elites care less about the industries which employ the Union workers or the Union workers themselves for that matter, as long as their radical agendas are supported. This is painfully obvious as the Unions have destroyed some of the greatest companies in America such as the airlines and automobile manufacturers. America has permanently lost jobs to foreign competitors abroad because of corrupt Union policies and a lazy Union work ethic based on expected entitlements rather than hard work. Unions support liberals, who support government policies which actually hurt Union workers, who then blame the rest of us for their job losses. It sounds unbelievable but it’s unfortunately the truth.

Finally, the latest attempt to centralize power is by the current administration and congress. The current Health Care Reform legislation proposed by congress and the president is by far the most aggressive attempt by the big-government liberal-elites to strip all Americans of their liberties and control roughly 1/6 of our GDP. Whether it happens in 2009 or under the cloak of smaller legislation over a period of time, the groundwork has been laid and it must be defeated. The current administration’s goal is to establish a single-payer health care system similar to other country’s failed systems, which would be controlled exclusively by the Federal Government. This would eradicate the private insurance industry in America, destroy millions of jobs, and strip all Americans of their individual rights and freedoms regarding their own health care. The ramifications of a government take-over of health care would deteriorate the very fabric of our society. We would no longer be free to conduct our lives as we have since our brave forefathers declared independence from England. The government would then have the power to control who gets care and why. The government would determine who lives and dies, would control what we eat and drink, and would ration care. Free health care for Americans who pay nothing into the system would create poor health care for all of us, and would be paid for entirely by the rest of us. How long do you think it will take for the group who pays nothing to increase in size and the group who pays for everything to decrease in size? I would say immediately. The system would be bankrupt from the beginning and impossible to replace or even reform because the majority of the voters would now depend on the new government entitlement and never vote to decrease it. This is the ultimate goal of the big-spending liberals in government. This is happening in the United Kingdom as we speak. The worst part about this health care plan is that it would raise costs, lower accessibility, and lower quality for all Americans. Remember, when the big government liberals use the word reform, they really mean, let’s destroy a portion of the private sector and create a government controlled version of what they just destroyed.

What is the most sacred blessing we have been given on this earth? I think the answer is free will. When did it become unpopular or better yet politically incorrect, for someone to live their life as they wish and take responsibility for their own actions? I don’t know the answer to this question but it appears to be happening in America as we speak. As I said earlier, throughout the history of civilization nations have risen and fallen many times. However, it seems like every time the citizens of any great nation in history fail to recognize or stop those who wish to control them, the sovereignty of each nation is lost and the once great nation crumbles. It took thousands of years for the human race to finally establish a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people. Free will is what gives life to our great nation and it’s the very reason why America is the greatest nation the earth has ever known. Unfortunately, free will is under attack once again and it’s every Americans responsibility to recognize it and destroy any attempt by the big-government liberal-elites to deny any of us our god-given right of free will.