As I write these columns about what government has done to us, I haven’t the slightest problem with going back to 1776 and my favorite Tom Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. Mother England had in fact done exactly what government has done to us, as England did to the Colonists 239 years ago, and that is, to quote a part of the Declaration, "He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their Substance." I spent a lot of time on Google, trying to find out just how many federal agencies, bureaucracies, etc there are, and gave it all up. I found a May, 2013 column on "The Daily Caller," whose headline read, "The government has no idea how many agencies it has." The article tried to find out, but found it was impossible. Questioning the OMB (Office of management and budget), they referred it to the GAO ( government accountability office), who referred them back to the OMB. It has been "estimated" that the federal government has 2.73 million employees, but this doesn’t count the employees of the hundreds if not thousands of individual contractors who have multitudes of employees directly working for the federal government. Three million? Four million? Who knows?. In the website "ushistory.org", under section 8B titled "The organization of the bureaucracy," says at its very beginning, "Even the experts can’t agree on the total number of government agencies, commissions, and departments. Most estimates suggest that there are probably more than 2,000 of these."
As the Declaration said, "…to harass our People and eat out their Substance." An article in the "Bilzerian Report’ in answer to the question of "What exactly do we need the federal government for?" began its answer with a quote from Thomas Jefferson, which says, "A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have." The article begins with, "In the days of the American nanny state, in which almost half of the population receives some government benefit, Americans have totally lost grasp of one of the most important principles upon which the nation was founded, and that is individualism." Enough quotes. Lets get to the point. We need 98% of the federal government like we need a hole in the head. We have been robbed of our incentives, individualism, strength, education, prosperity, and hard earned dollars. Since the second Federal Reserve was placed around our collective necks like an albatross, Our dollars have lost 99% of their value. The first Federal Reserve was canned by a veto of President Andrew Jackson. (If the Democrats would find another ’Old Hickory’ to run in 2016, I’d vote for him, as would most Americans I believe).
The list of federal bureaucracies is endless, pointless, and useless. It is impossible to get out of bed in the morning, and not be controlled licensed, or permitted, by some federal bureaucracy. Be it toothpaste, water, a toilet, light bulb, electricity, tile on the floor, towels, soap, hot water heater, pipes, wire, electrical sockets and outlets, or anything you might use or need during your day at home or at work, a federal bureaucrat has made an unconstitutional rule or regulation, with government regulating and permitting everything in your life. These bureaucracies which regulate everything, are themselves totally unregulated, costly, inefficient, unnecessary, and are parasites on our lives and prosperity. The Tenth Amendment says, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Simple huh? In other words, we’re having our life giving blood sucked out of us by federal leaches, who thrive and prosper at our expense.
Remember! A federal agency or bureaucracy can, and always does, increase its size, at will, with no permission or congressional vote. All it needs to do is to discover a new "need" or "problem." It can start a new division anytime it chooses, hire more people to fill new positions, have more offices, buildings, telephones, paperwork, and write rules, and regulations which have the force of law, even though they are not law, have not been voted as a law by congress, and all at the expense of us taxpayers who watch our dollar values wilt as an ice cube on a July sidewalk. Not only are new bureaucracies created at will, but the new employees are under the direction of the old ones or the ones who formed the new agency or bureaucracy, placing the old ones in a higher pay scale. Like the Avon Lady getting more sellers under her. The more she gets, as in any multi-level situation, the more she makes on each sale, and the more a bureaucrat makes when he forms a new bureaucracy, with him at the top, of course. That’s how we got into the mess we are now in, and it is history repeating itself. Rome fell the same way! Government, out of control, is killing us
We’re being taxed so much, and on every single thing we buy or use, and the taxes on everything are so hidden, that we don’t even realize that we’re being choked to death like the frog placed in a tub if water which is gradually being heated. It happens so gradually, that he is dead before he even knows what happened to him. Likewise Americans. Of the millions of patents issued and inventions created by Americans over the last 200 years, government had NOTHING to do with them, and invented NOTHING. It merely stood in the way, taxed, harassed, regulated, and made life ever so difficult for creative Americans. Thomas Edison was so enthralled by D.C. current, that he tried to light New York city with D.C. current; and it was hopeless, because D.C. simply will not carry long distances. Tesla pointed out the inefficiency of Edison’s direct current, invented A.C. or alternating current, which can be transmitted thousands of miles. Westinghouse bought him out, and powered a mine not far from where I live with A.C. power, and started a worldwide electrical revolution. Government had absolutely nothing to do with it or any other invention. Henry Ford invented the mass production line, doubled his worker’s wages so they could, and did buy his Model T cars. Millions of ’flivers’ were sold, many to those who built them. Government had nothing to do with inventions, businesses, manufacturing, efficiency, mining, agriculture, or any other field, yet we pay through our collective nostrils for all the unconstitutional regulations, rules, and harassment.
Are Republicans the answer? Maybe Wisconsin Governor Scott, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, or other Tea Party candidate, but most others have gone hand in hand with Democrats in forming ever more regulatory, confiscatory bureaucracies. Republicans have voted to go to wars, as have Democrats. Is there any way to stop our slow demolition? Maybe. Work and contribute to good candidates, and as John Paul Jones said, "I have not begun to fight!" Unfortunately, people who are on the dole won’t vote for someone to take them off it it. Politicians love their fancy jobs, power, adulation, and offices. They are the ones, all 535 of them, who have destroyed America. All anyone can do is protect themselves as best as they can, and I don’t think leaving America is an answer. In spite of our degraded situation, which has gotten far worse under Obama and his crew, it is still the best place in the world, and the most stable. I love my Colorado Mountains, small town, and relative freedom. Work for a good candidate, save in silver and gold, and as Daniel Webster said in 1850, "I was born an American: I will live as an American: I shall die as an American."
P.S. I really do believe that Putin is attempting to resurrect the Soviet Union, which fell due to bankruptcy. Putin would love to do to Latvia, Bulgaria, Estonia, and Moldova, what he is attempting to do in the Ukraine. All of these nations still have large sectors of Russian speaking people. Russia is skating on thin ice now with low oil prices and economic pressures from the west, but Russia is a brutal nation, as witness her unprovoked invading Finland in 1939, and Stalin’s murdering over 30 million. We will see.