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Jewish World Review May 31, 2012/ 10 Sivan, 5772 The Dangers of Government's Creeping Incrementalism By Ron Hart
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
"There are more instances of the abridgment of freedoms of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. " James Madison
After celebrating another Memorial Day and reflecting on the freedoms our brave soldiers have died for, I fear the creeping incrementalism of government is eroding our liberties.
Many brave souls have answered the call of duty. Unfortunately, those in power in Washington view the Constitution as if it's the video game "Call of Duty" -- they just go around blowing it up.
Our next important stand against government's ever-increasing intrusion is the impending Supreme Court decision on the individual mandate portion of that massive government overreach (or, better said, reach-around) called ObamaCare. Aside from making us all buy the insurance the feds decide we should have, we could be arrested for not doing so.
If centralized government control, like socialism and communism, is so good, why has it always had to be enforced with a bayonet? Why has it never lasted? Why do the citizens end up so poor, like in Cuba, North Korea or Venezuela, where capitalism is vilified and businesses leave?
Most of the usurpations of our liberties come from a Washington D.C. mindset that government must always do something:
1. Nineteen mostly Saudi members of al Qaeda attacked us on 9/11. Government had to do something, so we launched a war of choice in Iraq, (which had nothing to do with the attacks). We invaded Afghanistan and are now stuck in another quagmire. The tab so far: more than $1 trillion, more than 6500 Americans killed and more than 45,000 injured.
The defense budget has more than doubled since 2000; do you feel twice as safe?
2. As a result of 9/11, Congress passed the anything-but-patriotic Patriot Act. We gave up freedoms to the costly, endless, unnecessary, inefficient, daily annoyance that is the TSA.
3. Some three out of 20,000 public companies cooked their books (Enron, HealthSouth and MCI WorldCom), so Congress tripled the SEC budget and invoked the enormous Sarbanes-Oxley and now Dodd-Frank bills.
If our administration imposed the same economic sanctions on Iran as it has on American businesses, we could crush them without having to use military force. We could make them "cry Uncle" Sam.
Capitalism is risky. Failure is an option. We have an administration that believes in evolution but not in economic Darwinism, which sorts out the best from the bad in the free markets -- for free.
Bad "do something" decision-making has cost us dearly in the past. The Great Depression began in October of 1929 just 8 months after Republican Herbert Hoover became President (narrowly defeating Ron Paul). Congress did then what it is trying to do now; it raised top marginal tax rates for individuals from 25% to 63% for the next 4 years. Roosevelt was then elected and twelve years of more government intervention ensued.
While liberal historians praise Roosevelt for "lifting us out of" the Great Depression, many economists agree that his actions actually postponed the recovery. Obama is following Roosevelt's expansion-of-government template. Class warfare and his misguided policies have deepened and prolonged the current recession. Our economy is an amazing, self-correcting vehicle to prosperity, so long as politicians stay out of the way.
4. ObamaCare, that most nefarious overreach of government, exemplifies the hubris associated with a bill that nationalizes one-seventh of our economy.
Good for the Catholic Church for fighting back on the contraception coverage mandate of ObamaCare. Unless some groups brush the government back from the plate with an inside fast ball on occasion, it will continue to erode our choices and freedoms with impunity. Obama's administration is the New Orleans Saints of government: they not only play the game to win -- for them --- but they try to inflict pain on their enemies.
The consequences of creeping incrementalism extend well beyond each seemingly benign act. We must be eternally vigilant to any expansion of government.
America has always been the beacon of freedom for people in other countries. The blind Chinese dissident who fought the Communist Central Party dictate of one child per family fled to the freedom he perceived to be the USA. Now he is in a country that might send him to prison for not buying government-mandated insurance. I am not sure that he is heading to the country with the right trajectory of freedoms and liberties.
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© 2010 Ron Hart
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Arnold Ahlert | ||||||||||||||||||
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