While writing a weekly column, I am sometimes confronted with whether I am going to conceptualize a piece around an upcoming holiday. This is somewhat akin to the sitcom or drama that has the episode about Thanksgiving or Christmas. Then there is the thought about just ignoring the holiday and soldiering on. Since July 4th is my favorite holiday, it is difficult not to write something centered on it. But I wish I had happier news about our country.
The American people made a serious mistake in electing Barack Obama as President and they are quickly coming to that realization. He has enabled his left-wing friends in Congress to unleash a torrid of regulations, expenditures and tax increases (coming soon) that are crippling the private sector and suffocating our economy.
In addition, we have suffering foreign relations except apparently with the Russians, but they seem to be quite bold about playing us for fools as they make nice-nice with Obama on one hand and develop a spy network with the other. We have an environmental disaster which the Obama Administration may not be the cause of, but certainly they were negligent in stopping the leaking oil from reaching land by poor incident management and unwillingness to utilize all tools available to effectively manage the crisis due to the inordinate commitment to their union bosses. Last, we have a war that is out of control because Obama’s hand-picked Democratic General was at odds with his civilian team and apparently his frontline troops due to misguided rules of engagement.
Despite the multitude of challenges dropped in the lap of the American people by their confused and arrogant elected officials, some ordinary citizens have broken out of their shell to wring the levers of government back from professional hack politicians and demand that common Americans start running our government.
This entire movement has been identified as the Tea Party. The elite have attempted to brand these ordinary Americans as racist, extreme, unknowledgeable or just plain yahoos. From afar, these new-borne activists appeared to be focused on bread-and-butter issues. They have an inherent understanding why this country has become so successful and has provided the highest quality of living for the greatest amount of people. Expansive government controlling vast amounts of our lives that reaches into miniscule corners of our existence will serve only to stifle and ultimately destroy the American dream.
The Tea Partiers have convulsed at the approval of an omnibus Health Care Reform bill that as yet no one quite knows what is in the bill or what the full ramifications of the bill will be. It appears that the Tea Partiers’ raison d’être is rejecting the Democrats, but their true impetus for forming and becoming involved is lackadaisical Republicans.
The Finance Bill now stalled in the Senate provides a perfect example of why the Republicans have not yet regained their trust since losing that confidence during the early part of the past decade. Common sense indicates no respectable supporter of limited government should vote for this bill yet three house Republicans found some perverse rationale to just that. The question becomes whether any Senators will join them.
Scott Brown, the national sensation from Massachusetts, had said he would not vote for it because a $19 billion tax was added at the last minute. Mr. Brown should have 2,000 reasons to vote against this bill, as should every Republican and anyone who does not support our ever-encroaching government. There are pages of this bill on which (again) no one has complete understanding and/or realizes what the ramification of such a law would do to our financial system.
Let’s focus on three appalling rules established as part of the law. First, lenders must verify a borrower’s ability to repay a mortgage before issuing the loan. No one would argue that loan qualification has been ridiculously easy. However, this new requirement could definitively freeze out many qualified borrowers as lenders establish stringent rules to meet this new nebulous standard which cannot be met to avoid the wrath of government regulators.
Then there are the two new rules regarding credit cards. The bill states retailers can now charge a different price if you pay with cash or with a credit card. It also states retailers can now tell customers they cannot use their charge card for purchases under $10. Why in the world our federal government would be establishing rules about such matters is flabbergasting. This is nanny-state government at its finest. These kinds of rules display the desire of our federal officials to control all parts of our lives.
The expansion of government was creeping and now it is galloping. The Tea Partiers woke up to the devastation of our personal freedoms. They came out of their quiet lives to erupt onto the political scene. Their ranks may not grow under the flag of the Tea Party, but more and more Americans realize this geometric growth of government cannot continue.
As we celebrate this 4th of July, we need to remember why this country was formed. It certainly was not to create a debt-burdened, manipulative, invasive government 224 years later. We must remind our elected officials who runs the show. If they do not get the message today, they need to hear it on November 2nd. The future of America as we have known it is at stake.
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