Dakota Beacon

The very liberty Americans cherish by which they live free from the burden of oppressive government continues to erode at an alarming rate.

It is axiomatic that the larger the size of government the more liberty is at risk. “Big government” and freedom are not compatible; they are mutually exclusive.

Expanded authority, control and power define bigger government. Mandates, rules and regulations written and enforced by unionized, non-elected bureaucrats accentuate the Obama administration’s power grab. Bigger government means less liberty for all. Obama has done nothing to expand individual liberty and freedom and everything to expand government.

The rapidly increasing power of bureaucrats controlling our lives should scare the bejesus out of Americans. The good news is that more people are coming to recognize the assault by government on their liberty. The bad news is that some of these same people keep electing the same congressmen, senators and president that perpetuate the abuse. Apparently some voters don’t have a problem with expansive government programs. Nor do they have a problem with government confiscating wealth and bureaucrats redistributing it.

Erosion of liberty takes many forms.

Example: IRS blatantly strong-arms selected groups who oppose an overreaching government.

Example: EPA both writes rules with the force of law and then enforces its own rules which has effectively killed the coal industry and is threatening the oil industry.

Example: NSA spies liberally on the American people and then lies that it hasn’t.

Example: Health and Human Services mandates that every person must buy health insurance whether they want to or not. Period.

Example: TSA commits grievous infringements on personal liberties every day based on rules TSA writes and enforces. Terrorists caught – zero. Americans humiliated – tens of thousands.

Conventional wisdom holds that “big is bad.” Big pharma is bad; big business is bad; big banks are bad; big medicine is bad. But we never hear criticism of big federal government in all its forms. Maybe it is assumed that departments of the federal government are competent. But what if the departments hold power and exercise it incompetently? When big government is fraught with so much waste, fraud and abuse, why are so many so silent in their praise of small, local government?

Big government could be reduced in any session of Congress by defunding departments through sequestration. Unfortunately, only the Defense Department was hit with a 50% reduction in funding and placing our national security at risk. To shrink the federal government, all departments should forfeit their fair share: Education 50%, Agriculture 50%, Health and Human Services 50%, Justice 50%, Treasury 50% and so forth.

Obama’s executive branch is not alone in the blame for an expanded government. Congress, too, shares blame. First, congress compiles two thousand to three thousand page bills that congressmen and senators pass without reading. Second, congress absolves itself of responsibility by deferring specific rule-writing to cabinet heads and their departments. Executive branch departments (Agriculture, Environmental Protection Agency, Treasury, Education, Justice, etc.) readily accept the buck congress passed to them and write and enforce the rules. Our elected representatives have abdicated.

The Obama administration power grab, with Senate complicity, continues unabated. These power grabs are not inadvertent. They are deliberate and premeditated intended to fundamentally change America. Over 300 House-passed bills have been sent to the Senate, but the Senate will not act on them. October 1^st is the start of a new fiscal year. Chances are good that the Senate will not adopt a budget and America will again operate under a series of continuing resolutions with the president threatening to shut down the government if he doesn’t get his way.

It is the shared observation of many that Obama’s plan to grow government control over the American people is wildly successful.

Is everyone feeling comfortable – or losing faith in government? That is the question.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at P. O. Box 337, Stanley, ND 58784 or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).