Posts Tagged ‘Federal government of the United States’
What is a “fair share?”
“We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes non work.” ~ Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize economist Was Friedman forecasting today’s reality? In one tax year reported in the Statistical Abstract of the United States, millionaires earned 100 times as much as people earning $30,000, but paid 300 times as much tax. The top 20% […]
Does the federal government work for us?
“Politics is the art of making your selfish desires seem like the national interest.” ~ Thomas Sowell, Hoover Institution, Stanford University More than 200 years ago, the states united and wrote a contract, the Constitution, creating an employee, the federal government; and that contract outlined specific tasks the federal government would perform for the states’ […]
Roe v. Wade – Did we get what we wanted?
Recently, parents successfully sued for “wrongful birth” because their child was born with Down syndrome, claiming if it had been accurately diagnosed early in the pregnancy, they would have chosen abortion. With Roe v. Wade, did well-meaning people start us down an unintended path to a child being worthy of birth only if the parents […]
Unlimited power – Part IV
“If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull.” – W. C. Fields Though I hope this quote refers to the following Supreme Court rulings, some might suggest it better refers to my assessment of the rulings. After giving Congress the power to do whatever it determined was for the “general Welfare of […]
The beginning of the end – Part II
Three Supreme Court rulings changed our lives, making our Constitution near irrelevant. One gave the Supreme Court unlimited, unchecked power; the other two gave Congress unlimited power. The first ruling created the concept of judicial review, which is the claimed power by the Supreme Court to have the final voice in all issues concerning the […]
The path to socialism – Part I
“We do not have socialism. We have regulated capitalism.” – ISJ reader comment Is that true? Is it all or none? Or is the path to socialism a process so slow that each individual step is logical, masking the eventual outcome and encouraging inattention and indifference until it’s too late? More important, if we are […]
Sanctuary cities and Arizona
Among the limited powers of the federal government are matters of immigration and border security. However, the government seems unable to carry out these constitutional responsibilities, seemingly incapable of doing what the Constitution mandates. The federal government has ignored illegal aliens for decades, President’s Hoover, Truman and Eisenhower the only presidents who seriously tried to […]
Football and government
The federal government could learn a lot from professional football – teams competing with each other, each team doing all it can to win, referees ensuring they follow the rules, together part of a league whose owners have the final say on the rules and how the league works. Our league is the United States […]
Another price of ignoring our borders
Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said Arizona’s treatment of illegal aliens “violates inalienable human rights.” And Mexico’s president, Felipe Calderon, recently rebuked the United States Congress, saying Arizona’s illegal alien law is a “threat to civil rights and democracy.” When did living in a country illegally become an inalienable human right, a civil right? Further, while chastising […]
Racism or common sense?
Reading about Arizona’s new law dealing with illegal aliens, I got the impression that Arizona had done something radical by requiring non-citizens to carry documents proving their legal status in our country. Not so. The new Arizona law only enforces existing federal law, the Alien Registration Act passed by Congress in 1940. Arizona is only […]
It’s our choice
“The real problem is in the hearts and minds of men. It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man.” Albert Einstein Larry Echohawk, the assistant secretary for Indian Affairs at the U.S. Department of Interior, recently commented on the mistreatment of the “first Americans” by the United States government. […]
Who really has the power?
“The United States Constitution has proved itself the most marvelously elastic compilation of rules of government ever written.” –President Franklin Roosevelt Did the founding fathers create a “marvelously elastic” Constitution as Roosevelt suggested? No, they created the antithesis, granting their new government limited powers, enumerated to prevent it from evolving into another all […]
Who has the power – government or “we the people”
“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.” –James Madison, 4th U.S. President father of the United States Constitution How does Congress constitutionally justify spending money on anything it chooses? […]
How to finance the U.S.S.A.
What did the Founding Fathers design our government to provide? Did they design a limited federal government to provide safety, freedom and opportunity? Or did they design a socialist welfare government to take care of our every need with unending entitlement programs? The Constitution of the United States calls for a limited, subservient federal government, […]
Is the government the new “company store?”
How well does the government manage our money? Do our elected leaders spend it responsibly and frugally, as they should? Sen. Charles Schumer answered these questions saying, “Let me say this to all the chattering class that so much focuses on those little, tiny, yes, porky amendments: ‘the American people really don’t care.’” He was […]
Who are the ‘real’ terrorists?
The editorial page cartoon in the April 27, 2009, USA Today showed Uncle Sam saying, “Will you ever stop torturing me,” while he is whipping a helpless terrorist strapped on a table. Just last week the oppressed, benevolent Taliban beheaded three more people in Pakistan. On Sept. 11, 2001, they intentionally targeted and murdered over 3,000 […]
Socialism or democracy – we choose
Who should pay taxes and how much of their income should they pay in taxes? What is fair? Should everyone pay the same percentage of their income in taxes, or should the percentage increase as their income increases? If everyone paid the same percentage of their income in taxes, the more you earned the more […]
Who should pay to rebuild following natural disasters?
Did our Founding Fathers intend for the government to take care of us when a disaster strikes? Is the federal government the correct resource for disasters? Is managing the aftermath of disasters a Constitutional responsibility of the federal government? Do individuals or local communities have any responsibility? Is the government the most efficient and cost […]
We need to return to a citizen government
Our Founding Fathers believed serving as President or in Congress was a duty to country, a sacrifice for country, a calling. They did not anticipate Congress becoming a career choice with members subservient to the power of the incumbency and the money it attracts. Rather, the Founding Fathers intended a weak federal government, subservient to much […]
Civility in presidential politics
Will civility ever return to presidential campaigns? Is it reasonable to hope for respectful debating? Or, are we obliged to accept the mudslinging as a given in politics? What would our founding fathers think if they were to witness one of today’s presidential campaigns? Would they be impressed or would they be embarrassed? Can we […]