What Does the Government Control? More of Almost Everything
Moving into the less quantifiable but still obvious, who can doubt that the entire financial sector is virtually under the thumb of the government? What else would you call it when the country’s treasury secretary can pull bank CEOs into a meeting and figuratively “put a gun to their heads,” thereby forcing them to “accept” government investment regardless of whether they wanted or needed it? This sad turning point in capitalism occurred even before the current administration took charge, shortly after the elites of both parties defied overwhelming public opposition to pass the October 2008 financial bailout bill.
If what is being called “financial reform” in Washington becomes law, there will no longer be any real doubt as to who controls financial services. The owners of supposedly private financial institutions will live in 24-7 fear that the bill’s new “Financial Services Oversight Council” will unilaterally fabricate a reason to take them over. The legislation’s authors have deliberately drafted it to give the council’s victims no meaningful legal recourse. The SEIU’s “purple people beaters” will then be able to move on to other targets, as their “services” in the cause of intimidating bankers with illegal, police-escorted “protests” will no longer be necessary.
On the horizon, barring repeal, there’s ObamaCare, the de facto government takeover of the health care sector’s one-sixth of the economy. Beyond that, if it becomes law, there’s the intense government micromanagement inherent in cap and trade. If both of these aren’t stopped, we will soon be in a place where no one attempting to do anything productive will be able to ply his or her trade without the government dictating the terms under which he or she can do business.
It’s not only about business; it’s also about day-to-day life. It may not even matter if cap and trade is stopped, as the government’s Environmental Protection Agency sees its court-sanctioned authority to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant as carte blanche to impose lifestyle-affecting mandates on everyone in every energy-consuming decision, personal or professional.
With intrusion comes confiscation. What they can’t confiscate, they pass on to future generations, unless the Federal Reserve chooses to inflate its way out of the problem — an action I would not rule out.
Last Wednesday, President Obama’s “bipartisan fiscal commission” informed the White House and Congress — as if it was news — that the nation’s debt load is near a growth-stifling 90% of gross domestic product. They’re not listening. Intense lobbying has apparently begun for yet another bailout, this time of financially insolvent multi-employer (read: union) pension plans.
Stopping and reversing the statist steamroller will take a lot more than voting in November 2010. It will require a level of consistent engagement and activism by the sensible, constitutional center-right never previously seen in American history. Whether we’re up to it is an open question.
The new political divide in the USA is Constitutional Capitalist Ecologists vs. Authoritarian Socialist Environmentalists. We all must choose the side we will be on. Those of us who are Constitutional Capitalist Ecologists must hold our coalition together no matter what. While there are many differences of opinion on our side we can’t divide ourselves in the face of our opposition. Remember in November.
Now our socialists overlords are buying UPS and the Teamsters Union.
http://www.brownbailout.com/videos/#yqqTKQhBsSs
Our Federal Government also ‘owns” 700,000 barrels of crude oil in the salt domes of the south . It has paid oil drilling contractors to fill the “reserve “. It was filled in 2006 and the Us government is selling off some of the reserve to refiners so it can expand the reserve to a million barrels.
I would love to know how much of the Deep Horizon production was going into the Reserve but we’ll never know since government figures are somewhat dubious.
Deepwater Horizon was not a production well yet. The explosion happened as they were getting it ready for production.
The government owns nothing it did not steal from its people.
All the best should be in private hands.
“Stopping and reversing the statist steamroller will take a lot more than voting in November 2010. ”
While this should be obvious to even a fifth-grader (“are you smarter than a fifth grader?”), the author’s suggested remedy is not going to work. I am assuming that by “consistent activism” he means the kind of activism that HAS been tried and failed. Such barking in the wild has had NO effect on the intentions and actions of the ‘steamroller’ that the author mentions. Nor is there ANY reason to believe that the circumstance will change in the future—near or far.
On the other hand, even the emphasis on wasting energy, and more importantly, time, on ‘winning Nov’ is totally out of place. We are not dealing with business-as-usual Democrats of Carter genre.
(1) First of all, judging from the steamroller’s demeanor, words, AND actions of past 16 months, it is VERY doubful it is anticipating any problems down the road in terms of elections. It is well-known that if elections are held today, Dems will loose big-time. Why is the steamroller not at all worried, then? There are two reasons:
(2)Even if republicans win every seat in NOV, they can’t have a veto-proof majority. That means they can not roll-back any of the actions of the congress of past 16 months. (+ six more months till nov).
(3) Even if by some miracle, republicans manage to pass some corrective measures, and if obama’s vetos get overturned, obama has already prepared a way—he has actually told everyone what he will do if the congress does not go his way—he will use executive orders and/or promulgate ‘rules’ through his mostly runaway feeral agencies—and there are 1300 of those. Example—activities of EPA, FCC, FEC (federal elections commission), FTC (federal trade commission), on and on and on, of past 16 months. Also the fact that most of the ‘takeovers’ would be a fait accompli by the time republicans win anything in Nov.
It seems to me that catastrophies (economic, national security, foreign poli y, and globalist UN-like) are being orchestrated by the steamroller which will converge around the time of Nov elections, ena bling it to actually suspend indefinitely all elections under the guise of “National Emergency”. Besides the obvious electoral stop-gap, it saves the steamroller a lot of proceadural hassels, saving both time AND political energy, to even MORE accelerate the steamroller. If i was the leader of a totalitarian cabal, that is exactly what i would do. Why? Just because i can.
Dear gullible americans, we need to wake up to the reality on the ground and stop wasting our time on ‘activism’ and ‘protests’ and on electing ‘conservative’ candidates (who may or may not immediately jump the ship and aid the enemy destroy this country), writing letters to senators, and keep bickering on the bloggosphere and on twitter (the most useless invention during peace-time). There is only one way to stop the steamroller—blast it with the metaphorical dynamite stick. We must stop wasting and time and energies on futile activities.
We, the Right leaning individuals are in an overwhelming majority in the current population—only 20 some percent identify themselves as ‘liberals’, 60 some indentify themselves as conservatives—and the rest are ‘independants’ who have been running to the Right en masse in past 16 months. Even if we count 70 % of the population, we are talking about some 250 million people. Not sure about how many of them are able-bodied adults (sans children and the very old), but i am guessing at least 150 million. Even if 5% of those warm bodies show up in DC one fine morning, we can take back our country—with peaceful means, to boot. Overwhelming numbers of american citizens just showing up at the doorsteps of barn where they keep the steamrollers will make it pee.
If there is any other REALISTIC way of stoping the beast, i would want to know. Until then, this is the only thing i can come up with. Something that we CAN do. Legally. With the blessings of the Constitution. And without relying on the (nonexistent) compassion and fairness of the enemy.
Mr. Blumer, I think at this point most people know we are in deep sh.t.
“Intrusion” is neo-con code for “black.” You are a racist bigot.
Alice, racist bigot is ad hominem used when you’re such a lazy thinker that you can’t cogitate on an issue sufficient to profer an intelligent, well-reasoned reply. In short, you’re a lazy thinker who happens also to be obnoxious. You did much for your cause: not!
I am so sick of being called a racist. Alice, if you are walking down the street and you see a gang of young black men coming at you, are you afraid? If not you are a fool. If you decide you need to cross the street to maintain your physical safety, is that racist or self-preservation based on statistics? When will you liberals wake up to the absurdity of your ideas? Unions have ruined our industries. Billions transferred to unproductive people for the past 50 years have entrenched, not eliminated poverty. It is wrong to demonize conservative thinking. We genuinely want to help people be prosperous, not keep them down. It is democrats keeping people dow; depending on handouts.
The feds own 50% of the land west of the Mississippi River. Let them sell that to pay their debt instead of taxing us to death. Literally, many wealthy people will die this year if the estate tax is allowed to revert to 55%. They will be murdered by their heirs or commit suicide. The destruction of businesses and farms to pay the taxes will be a crushing blow to the economy.
You forgot to count among the assets under government control anywhere between 25% and 75% of the total land in western states. Imagine how it would be if the federal government owned 75% of the state of New York. People would be going crazy over that.
American Eagle @5 is close, but, sir, you’re deluding yourself if you think this will be peaceful.