The current accumulated total of bailouts initiated by the Bush administration, and now quadrupled down on by the Obama Administration, is a commitment of $11.6 trillion of our tax dollars; of this $3.8 trillion has already been spent over the last six months! We're just not exactly sure where the money has gone; but its a lot of money, surely you understand.
Just to give this some perspective, the combined, inflation adjusted costs for the Civil War, New
Deal, Marshall Plan, Korean War, Vietnam War, and the Iraq War (2003-today) is $3.2 trillion. World War II cost an inflation adjusted $3.6 trillion. In six months we have already paid for one WW II! For the 50% of you wealthy people left paying taxes under the redistribution scheme of the Obama administration, your future, and that of your children and grandkids, has been mortgaged. Michelle Malkin has properly phrased this criminal activity generational theft .
Take a minute to quantify and personalize the impact TARP, the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act" etc will have on your family. If you dare, click quantify to go to the bailout calculator and evaluate this situation for yourself...Warning, this should not be done if you suffer from cardiac, seizure, or anxiety disorders.
In a world in which an innumerable multitude of men incessantly endeavours to procure the petty and paltry pleasures with which they glut their lives, above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power. This power takes upon itself alone to secure their gratification and to watch over their fate. The power is absolute, minute, regular, provident and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent, if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks on the contrary to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing. For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances; what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living.
After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp, and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arms over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rule, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting: such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people till they are reduced to be nothing better than a flock of timid animals of which the government is the shepherd.
The preceding two paragraphs are commentary from Alexis De Tocqueville writing in Democracy in America. Published in 1835, De Tocqueville was commenting on his perception of future threats to the newly formed democracy in America born as an alternative to the traditional European aristocratic regimes. Democracy in America is perhaps the best study of early American society and government ever written, and De Toqueville was prophetic in his analysis.
April 15th 2009 , “Tax Day” for many, is an opportunity for concerned Americans to register their disapproval of the current course being charted for our nation. Federal government spending in the name of "crisis" has now compromised the future of the next two generations of Americans. Tax Freedom Day is the day the average American has earned enough income to pay local, state and federal tax obligations for the year; after that day all money earned is ours to keep. Astoundingly, Tax Freedom Day this year will be April 13th. Four months of working to support the government. Not since 1967 has Tax Freedom Day fallen earlier than April 13th; and the latest Tax Freedom Day has ever fallen was May 6th in 1992. An early Tax Freedom Day this year is a result of the recession and current tax cut provisions which expire in 2011. So April 15th, “Tax Day”, truly marks the end of the tax season for the vast majority this year and possibly next year. It is extremely likely, however, given planned tax increases and despite a faltering economy, that Tax Freedom Day will be occuring at least 1-2 weeks later over coming years to meet our new tax obligations.
In 1773 colonists, protesting the Tea Act, and the monopoly it granted to the East India Tea Company, boarded merchant ships in Boston Harbor and dumped 342 chests of tea into the water. The Boston Tea Party led to other similar protests across the colonies. On Feb 19th, CNBC Reporter Rick Santelli expressed his disgust with the endless stream of “stimulus spending” pouring out of DC.
Just to give this some perspective, the combined, inflation adjusted costs for the Civil War, New
Deal, Marshall Plan, Korean War, Vietnam War, and the Iraq War (2003-today) is $3.2 trillion. World War II cost an inflation adjusted $3.6 trillion. In six months we have already paid for one WW II! For the 50% of you wealthy people left paying taxes under the redistribution scheme of the Obama administration, your future, and that of your children and grandkids, has been mortgaged. Michelle Malkin has properly phrased this criminal activity generational theft .Take a minute to quantify and personalize the impact TARP, the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act" etc will have on your family. If you dare, click quantify to go to the bailout calculator and evaluate this situation for yourself...Warning, this should not be done if you suffer from cardiac, seizure, or anxiety disorders.
In a world in which an innumerable multitude of men incessantly endeavours to procure the petty and paltry pleasures with which they glut their lives, above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power. This power takes upon itself alone to secure their gratification and to watch over their fate. The power is absolute, minute, regular, provident and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent, if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks on the contrary to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing. For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances; what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living.
After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp, and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arms over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rule, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting: such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people till they are reduced to be nothing better than a flock of timid animals of which the government is the shepherd.The preceding two paragraphs are commentary from Alexis De Tocqueville writing in Democracy in America. Published in 1835, De Tocqueville was commenting on his perception of future threats to the newly formed democracy in America born as an alternative to the traditional European aristocratic regimes. Democracy in America is perhaps the best study of early American society and government ever written, and De Toqueville was prophetic in his analysis.
April 15th 2009 , “Tax Day” for many, is an opportunity for concerned Americans to register their disapproval of the current course being charted for our nation. Federal government spending in the name of "crisis" has now compromised the future of the next two generations of Americans. Tax Freedom Day is the day the average American has earned enough income to pay local, state and federal tax obligations for the year; after that day all money earned is ours to keep. Astoundingly, Tax Freedom Day this year will be April 13th. Four months of working to support the government. Not since 1967 has Tax Freedom Day fallen earlier than April 13th; and the latest Tax Freedom Day has ever fallen was May 6th in 1992. An early Tax Freedom Day this year is a result of the recession and current tax cut provisions which expire in 2011. So April 15th, “Tax Day”, truly marks the end of the tax season for the vast majority this year and possibly next year. It is extremely likely, however, given planned tax increases and despite a faltering economy, that Tax Freedom Day will be occuring at least 1-2 weeks later over coming years to meet our new tax obligations.
In 1773 colonists, protesting the Tea Act, and the monopoly it granted to the East India Tea Company, boarded merchant ships in Boston Harbor and dumped 342 chests of tea into the water. The Boston Tea Party led to other similar protests across the colonies. On Feb 19th, CNBC Reporter Rick Santelli expressed his disgust with the endless stream of “stimulus spending” pouring out of DC.
Santelli’s call for a Chicago Tea Party has led Americans, frustrated with an unprecedented centralization of power in DC funded by our tax dollars, to organize grass roots protests nationwide. Many have laready occured, though the mainstream media has had little to say about them. On April 15th Tea Parties will be occurring on a national scale and there will be one in an area near you. Several sites are detailing events nationally and include downloadable suggestions for protest signs and posters.
Over the last seventy five years we have allowed the continuous erosion of liberty given us by
the Founders, and which De Tocqueville feared might be a transient moment of brilliance in world history. The current administration, indistinguishable form an equally liberal legislature, has dramatically quickened the pace of this erosion and we are faced with an avalanche. Politicians committed to statism and “soft” socialism have vilified capitalism and, over years, convinced much of the citizenry that they are incapable of making the decisions required to order their lives. Health care, retirement, housing, education, and the amount of income required to meet the needs of daily living are all decisions now in the hands of government agencies. Discussion of free markets, liberty, individual responsibility, and American exceptionalism are dismissed as quaint but archaic concepts negated by the paternalism exercised by our political leaders.
Previous posts have discussed steps we must consider taking if we as the loyal and patriotic opposition hope to stem this tide. Tea Party Day, April 15th, represents a unique opportunity for Americans to have their voices heard. National news coverage of a number of recent large (15,000) Tea Parties has been scant. Mainstream media, manipulating an increasingly malleable electorate, is in large part responsible for the election of President Obama. Until an opposition movement gains more strength and organization, the communications organ of the Democratic Party will assume this is all passing bluster.
Over the last seventy five years we have allowed the continuous erosion of liberty given us by
the Founders, and which De Tocqueville feared might be a transient moment of brilliance in world history. The current administration, indistinguishable form an equally liberal legislature, has dramatically quickened the pace of this erosion and we are faced with an avalanche. Politicians committed to statism and “soft” socialism have vilified capitalism and, over years, convinced much of the citizenry that they are incapable of making the decisions required to order their lives. Health care, retirement, housing, education, and the amount of income required to meet the needs of daily living are all decisions now in the hands of government agencies. Discussion of free markets, liberty, individual responsibility, and American exceptionalism are dismissed as quaint but archaic concepts negated by the paternalism exercised by our political leaders.Previous posts have discussed steps we must consider taking if we as the loyal and patriotic opposition hope to stem this tide. Tea Party Day, April 15th, represents a unique opportunity for Americans to have their voices heard. National news coverage of a number of recent large (15,000) Tea Parties has been scant. Mainstream media, manipulating an increasingly malleable electorate, is in large part responsible for the election of President Obama. Until an opposition movement gains more strength and organization, the communications organ of the Democratic Party will assume this is all passing bluster.
The local media and the citizen’s media, the blogosphere, however, will be there to report. Make it clear that this movement represents hard working Americans who value liberty, responsibility and the opportunity to succeed (and fail) in a capitalist society. Political leaders will not change course based solely on the events of April 15th. This is a beginning, however.
Many state school systems found reasons to be closed on Inauguration Day. The unspoken subtext was that the initiation of the Obama Presidency was a historic day. Yes it was. April 15th, Tea Party Day, is a day of similar consequence. The impact of a million Americans turning out across the nation to protest the current sprint to socialism would be momentous. Then the hard work begins. Make your coming out on Tea Party Day a sign of your formal commitment to help build a political organization committed to the principles espoused by the Founders, principles which have made this country extraordinary and exceptional .
Quaere Verum
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