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Wednesday, September 14, 2016

DENNIS PATRICK: FEARING THE GOVERNMENT OF THE COUNTRY YOU LOVE

“I love my country. It is the government I fear.” An old Army friend includes this phrase as his e-mail signature block.

The history of governments from the beginning of time until the founding of the American Republic was one of kings, despots and tyrants. Today, the very liberty Americans cherish and by which they live free from the burden of oppressive federal government erodes at an alarming rate.

It is axiomatic that the larger the size of government the more personal freedom is at risk. “Big government” and liberty 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 increased compliance enforced by a larger bureaucracy and less liberty for all. Obama has done nothing to expand individual liberty and freedom and everything to expand government control. Since he took office in 2009 he has imposed 20,642 new regulations at a cost of $22 billion a year in regulatory costs.

The rapidly increasing power of bureaucrats controlling our lives should scare the dickens 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 looking to government to solve their problems. They 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 for bureaucrats to redistribute.

Erosion of liberty takes many forms.

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

            Example: FBI favoritism granted to the politically well connected.

            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 on the American people and then says that it hasn’t.

            Example: Health and Human Services, with the help of the US Supreme Court, mandates that every person must buy health insurance whether they want to or not.

            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 the 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 smaller 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 thus 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 (including the IRS) 50% and so forth.

Obama’s executive branch is not alone in the blame for an expanded government. Congress also 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 passes to them and writes and enforces the rules with the power of law. 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 intending to fundamentally transform America just as Obama promised. The first and foremost concern of the American Founders was not education, climate change or health care. It was fear of the concentration of power in the hands of a strong centralized government.

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

“I love my country. It is the government I fear.” A growing number share my friend’s sentiment.

 

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

 

Click here to email your elected representatives.

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