“As a matter of fact and law, the governing rights of the States are all of those which have not been
surrendered to the National Government by the Constitution or its amendments. Wisely or unwisely,
people know that under the Eighteenth Amendment Congress has been given the right to legislate on this particular subject, but this is not the case in the matter of a great number of other vital problems of government, such as the conduct of public utilities, of banks, of insurance, of business, of agriculture, of education, of social welfare and of a dozen other important features. In these, Washington must not be encouraged to interfere.”Franklin Delano Roosevelt speech on the Volstead Act, March 3, 1930, New York Times. Two years before becoming President and taking the opposite view.
Category Archives: Constitution
The great corrupter of the American constitutional republic is government ignoring its Constitutional bounds
Mort Zuckerman makes some good points in his USNews commentary, but misses the boat with his comments on money in politics.
Money is a tool. The problem occurs when the government is everywhere, then politics is everywhere. When politics is everywhere, the fight for political power becomes crucial. With no limits on their power, politicians in Washington become power-hungry. The Founders understood this which was why the created a government of limited, enumerated powers. Once the concept of enumerated powers was lost, freedom began down the long road of decline.
When politics and government are everywhere instead of individuals making their own decisions based in their freedom to do so, the freedom of the individual is lost. Every election becomes about someone wanting to control someone else. Every election will be more polarized than the last because many people do not want someone else making their decisions for them. Polarization is good when one side wants to control and the other side wants freedom. Compromise with your destroyers still results in you being destroyed, just slower than out-right surrender.
In short, MONEY is NOT the great corrupter of “American democracy,” but merely a symptom. The great corrupter of the American constitutional republic is government ignoring its Constitutional bounds which allows power-hungry politicians the opening they need to take as much power as they can.
Compromising on Liberty is a loss for everyone, like taking a little poison.
Compromising on liberty is a loss for everyone. Compromising on freedom is like saying “no” to taking a dose poison, but then deciding to take just a little poison each time compromise is required. The poison will kill you eventually, it will just take more time than one full dose to start. Poisoning the tree of liberty will kill freedom, just slower than an ax.
Everything becomes political when the government is everywhere.
When the government is everywhere, everything is political. When the government is everywhere, politics is everywhere. In short, everything becomes political when the government is everywhere.
Instead of individuals making decisions for themselves – from what to eat to where to smoke – a majority (or not) of the population does so by vote. It is the opposite of freedom. It is fascism, socialism, communism or some other form of totalitarianism.
Warren Buffett, the hypocrite of Omaha, says taxes are too low
“But I think that people at the high end — people like myself — should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we’ve ever had it.” Warren Buffett, November 21, 2010
The Hypocrite of Omaha spoke out again today, arguing that he isn’t paying enough in taxes, but still using shelters and other techniques to shield his income. As in June 2007 and October 2007, Buffett complains he should be paying higher taxes. Warren, instead of complaining about, do it. Send 10% of your assets to the Federal Government. Put your money where your mouth is.
The “Naked Scanner” will be required, the fondling by the TSA makes the Patriot Act look tame.
1. It will not be long until the “naked-scanner” is required. Even the naked scanners won’t detect bombs that have been swallowed or in some prosthetics, so even more intrusive scanners will be required.
2. It will not be long until the airlines begin to feel the financial impact of the long lines which will provide an excuse for a Federal Government bailout.
3. It will not be long until all video recording of TSA officers and airports is illegal. This will prevent widespread criticism.
The fondling by the TSA makes the Patriot Act look tame.
Sen Jay Rockefeller get the FCC to say to FOX and to MSNBC: ‘Out. Off. End. Goodbye.’
“There’s a little bug inside of me which wants to get the FCC to say to FOX and to MSNBC: ‘Out. Off. End. Goodbye.’ It would be a big favor to political discourse; our ability to do our work here in Congress, and to the American people, to be able to talk with each other and have some faith in their government and more importantly, in their future.” Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)
1. FoxNews and MSNBC are not on the airwaves, consequently the FCC has no jurisdiction.
2. Senator Jay Rockefeller must have missed at least part of the First Amendment to the Constitution, not to mention the entire Constitution itself.
What are the people of West Virginia thinking electing a clown like Rockefeller? He is right, without a press that is able to publish the truth, the Federal Government’s big-government, power-hungry politicians, would be able to ‘get away’ with a lot more. The First Amendment protects the country against the likes of Rockefeller.
Krugman- “a combination of death panels and sales taxes. “
“Some years down the pike, we’re going to get the real solution, which is going to be a combination of death panels and sales taxes. It’s going to be that we’re actually going to take Medicare under control, and we’re going to have to get some additional revenue, probably from a VAT.” Democrat Paul Krugman, November 14, 2010 on ABC’s This Week with Christiane Amanpour
Krugman admits that Sarah Palin was right. The only way to save money with a monopolistic Federal government approach is through rationing care with no escape valve.
Update with video link here, Krugman makes the statement starting at about 1:17:
Social Security is bankrupt and is a Ponzi scheme-Perry
“I want people to be afraid not to talk about that Social Security is bankrupt and is a Ponzi scheme and if you’ve got a young 20-something-year-old, they know for a fact that they’re not ever going to see that,. So let’s fix it.” Texas Gov. Rick Perry, November 9, 2010
It is great to see someone talking about the true nature of Social Security. When you have been forced to contribute around 15% of your income* for your entire life to a scam where you have no property rights to the benefits, and politicians in Washington keep selling Social Security as a good thing, you should be expecting to get nothing or living in poverty if you have not planned for your own retirement.
The Social Security “Trust Fund” is a farce. It is like you handing me $20 to my right hand. Then I take the twenty dollars and put it in my left hand and give the right hand an IOU while my left hand spends the money on dinner and a movie. All that is left is an IOU. There is no trust fund. Anyone who says there is a Social Security Trust Fund is either gravely misinformed or purposefully trying to mislead.
It is not “Social Security” it is “Social Insecurity.” We will not see a dime, or if we do, the value of what we will see will have been eaten by inflation.
* 15% of your income because you are really paying both the employee and employer side of the taxes through lower wages. It is a political slight of hand to ensure that people are unaware of the true taxes going to pay for Social Insecurity.
Only a fool cooperates with his own destroyers.
“Simply saying ‘no,’ as we’ve had this past Congress … won’t bring jobs back.” Senator Harry Reid, November 3, 2010
Senator Reid, only a fool cooperates with his own destroyers. A pro-freedom agenda based on saying “NO” to a statist, anti-freedom, anti-Constitution, socialist agenda is what the election was about. Politicians who care more about their own power than freedom, should be an endangered species with no 1973 Endangered Species Act to protect them. When the choice is freedom v.s. control, compromising your freedom away slowly is no more sane than doing it all at once. Being statist democrat-lite will not only be bad for the Republicans, but for the Republic.
Would you compromise with a robber who wants to rob you? Of course not. Likewise, the host can not compromise with the parasites feeding off of her.
Saying “NO” to more big government, debt increasing policies is the way to create jobs because government does not create jobs, people do.