American Revolution Two

On this Halloween weekend, when Americans enjoy a little scary fun, I thought it would be fitting for us to take a look at some truly frightening realities of the behemoth that our federal government has now become. 

Consider the following:

• At the time of our nation’s founding, the govt. cost each person $20 in today’s dollars. (1)
• For nearly 150 years, our elected leaders did a pretty good job of keeping our government in line with the enumerated powers of Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. And as a result, we stayed pretty level in our spending all the way through the 1930s, with government never costing more than a few hundred dollars per person.(1)
• That all changed in the 1930’s with FDR’s Raw, Ahem…I mean, New Deal. He socialized (gave the govt. control of) a large portion of our society – and here’s the key – EVERY administration since has added programs and grown government.
• As a result, government now costs each citizen an average of $10,000 a year.

So, why is this so frightening? 
(How about 1.42 trillion reasons?)

• $1,420,000,000,000 OR one trillion, four hundred twenty billion dollars. This is a gigantic number and it happens to be our country’s federal budget deficit for 2009. So from Oct. 1, 2008 through Sept. 30, 2009 the federal govt. spent $1.42 trillion more than it took in. (2)

Let’s try to add some context and perspective so we can get our minds around this number:

• Last year’s deficit was $459 billion – still a colossal number, but less than half the deficit for 2009. (2)
• 1.42 trillion is more than the entire economy of India and enough to give every living person in the United States $4,700. (2)
• A trillion = a million million, or a thousand billion.
• A trillion dollar bills laid end to end would reach the sun (4)
• With a trillion dollars you could spend a dollar per second for 32,000 years (4)
• For an excellent visual of what a trillion dollars looks like, watch this: Trillion.

And yet, what might be the most frightening of these actualizations is this one:

• A trillion dollars is enough to run the U.S. federal government for 103 days.

SAY WHAT? How could this be?

Just as frightening are these two mind numbing facts:

• Our current national debt total is $9.1 trillion, and climbing every day.
• The Congressional Budget Office has projected that, under President Obama’s spending plans, our national debt will rise to $17.1 trillion by the year 2019.

WHAT? Have we lost our collective minds? Think about these numbers for a moment. Do you think enough Americans realize just how frighteningly ginormous and out of control our federal government has become? Do any of us truly comprehend the sheer monstrosity and complexity of the bureaucracy now before us?

 Most importantly, I wonder if we realize how grotesque and disfigured the current state of our government is compared to the original constitutional republic of delimited powers  that was established under God. And how easily we forget that it was the states who created the federal govt., not the other way around.

To me, this is the most frightening aspect of this analysis: the distance traveled – in a little more than 200 years – from the original system so painstakingly created for us by our founders. It is hardly recognizable, in fact, and has truly become our own Frankenstein monster!

Arrgghhhh!!!! I’m from the government and I’m here to help…(RUN, RUN, RUN for your life!!!)

Resources:
(1) John Stossel, Give Me a Break
(2) Congressman Frank Lucas
(3) Jeff Walker, editorial columnist
(4) Mint.com

If you haven’t thought of our Social Security system in this way, I invite you to take a closer look. In light of the Obama Administration’s recent call to Congress to shell out payments of $250 to every Social Security recipient (click link for background), it is fitting that we analyze the social security system itself. I believe what you’ll read in this week’s post will be very insightful, interesting, and eye opening. It will bring a great deal of understanding, not only to the reality of what’s happening with our Social Security system, but in a larger sense it will reveal some very foundational truths about the nature of our government and how it works – or rather how it very often doesn’t work the way it was originally designed.

So this week I’m excited to present to you this well researched and resourced white paper on our Social Security system authored by Guy D. Waggoner, II, a friend of mine who is a very successful Certified Financial Planner. He is an MBA graduate of Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Western Kentucky University in 1997 and has since become a professional of great intelligence and ability in his field of wealth and retirement solutions. As the author of this white paper, he has done an excellent job of bringing to light the true nature of our Social Security system, its problems, and some concrete ideas on how to fix it.

Click here to download the PDF: America’s Largest Ponzi Scheme

What do you think? Can you offer up any additional ideas on what we need to do to address the problems of Social Security? Ideas on how to fix it? Let us know what you think on this important issue…

As Congress moves ever closer to passing a bill on healthcare reform, every American should insist that their representatives in Congress answer these key questions:

1. If there truly is a healthcare crisis in this country, why is the current health care plan not scheduled to start implementation till 2013 (conveniently AFTER the 2012 presidential election)?
2. If the healthcare plan is such a great solution, why are you and most of your fellow members of Congress refusing to participate in it in lieu of your own, private healthcare plan? (Democrats continue to reject amendments that require their participation). Click to here to read about Rep. John Fleming’s efforts on this.
3. If you really believe in the merits of this plan, and truly believe its passage is critical to improving our healthcare system, why are you scheming, back room dealing, and using every political trick in the book to get it passed? Can the bill not stand on its own? Why must it be in ‘vapor form’ to get past the CBO? (Click here to read about the scheme they have devised to pass this bill)
4. If government run healthcare is really the answer, why does history, and the failed socialized medicine systems of the world, prove otherwise? Click here to download a PDF copy of the book “Shattered Lives: One hundred victims of government run healthcare” and why not send to your rep?
5. In poll after poll a majority of the American people have expressed their firm opposition to government run healthcare. A recent ABC News/USA Today/Kaiser Family Foundation survey reveals that 89 percent of Americans are satisfied with their current health care plan. Why are you prepared to fundamentally alter the relationship between the federal government and its citizens by taking over 1/6 of our nation’s economy to help 11 percent of Americans get the health coverage they seek? Are there not other common sense healthcare reforms we should try first, before throwing the baby out with the bath water?

Please take a few minutes to call your or write your representative to ask them these important questions.

As a bonus question, how about asking them why they haven’t stopped the following from happening?
Watch this video. How can they expect us to take them seriously when these types of things are going on?

What do you think? What other important questions should members of Congress answer about this issue?

On September 11, 2001, we were awoken to the harsh reality that war had been declared on us by Islamo-fascists. Much has been learned about the threat we face and the nature of our enemy. But far too many still know too little. The threat is more gravely serious and dangerous than most of us care to acknowledge or accept. Mass education on a grass roots level is vital to the survival of our nation and ACT! for America is a leader in this effort.

ACT! for America is a grassroots, pro-America educational and political-action organization dedicated to stopping Islamic Jihad, terror and intimidation. The organization was founded by Brigette Gabriel, a Lebanese immigrant who came to the U.S. after losing her country of birth to a takeover by militant Muslim fundamentalists during the Lebanese civil war.

Now an American citizen, Gabriel founded ACT! for America to provide concerned Americans with a collective voice and political action network to defend the democratic values of Western Civilization against the supremacist ideology of political Islam.

With over 280 chapters in America and chapters forming throughout the world, the organization now has over 60,000 members. Since its founding 2008, ACT! for America has quickly become the largest, fastest-growing and most effective anti-Jihad organization in the world! They are one of many groups in a world-wide anti-Jihad coalition that rejects political correctness and the tolerance of the intolerant ideology of political Islam. ACT! is rising in defense of America’s security, liberty and values.

There is no greater cause to be a part of right now. If we are to survive, thrive and prosper, America must acknowledge and properly deal with the harsh reality of what we face. Too many people are unaware of just how dangerous our situation has become. Consider the following:

• Did you know that Shariah law (the written rules of radical Islam) is infiltrating our country today? One of the most dangerous  ways is through Shariah Financing which is funding Jihad through an alarming number of our very own companies (i.e: Citibank, USB, AIG). Click here to view an important video about this deceptive operation. (actforamerica.com)
  
• Did you know that the UN determines who comes to America and that Muslims have gone from 0%, late 90s, to 40% of the immigrants today, and climbing? (politicalIslam.com)
• Did you know that no state university teaches about the Islamic basis of slavery? They don’t teach how 1 million Europeans were made slaves, as well. (politicalislam.com)
• Did you know that there is not a known Christian minister or rabbi in Tennessee who understands the Koran? (Center for the Study of Political Islam)
• “The doctrine of Universal Jihad has a clear global goal: the supremacy of Islam everywhere in the world. It demands theological, political, and cultural supremacy-Islamic Imperialism-over the entire world. There is no room for political pluralism,” writes Vijay Kumar in his must-read piece “Universal Jihad: Radical Islam’s Worldwide war on liberal democracies.“ (If you read nothing else this week, please read Vijay’s gripping and eye-opening article.)

Having attended a recent ACT! for America meeting, I can tell you the seriousness of this situation cannot be overstated.  My eyes have been opened to just how long, far and deep this battle goes. No matter what you’re involved in with life right now, I guarantee you that this trumps it. At stake are the hard fought for freedoms we take for granted, and our way of life – from football games to dinners out with friends, to working where we choose, to attending church without fear of persecution. None of what we enjoy now will be possible if we do not boldly confront and stop this insidious, evil conquest that has been waging for 1,400 years. The consequences of our inaction are unthinkable. As the great Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Get involved now. Our future, our freedom, our very lives depend on it…

“We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die: Our won Country’s Honor, all call upon us for vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the Cause, and the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands Victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble Actions.”
–George Washington, General Orders, 1776

Like many Americans this week, I’m deeply disturbed about the continued indecision of our Commander in Chief at a time of great consequence. America is at war with a global enemy. We stand at a crossroads in one of the main theaters of this long war. Our enemies are gaining ground and momentum in Afghanistan. General McChrystal, the top commander of US and NATO forces there, has made a vital request for 40,000 more troops.

Obama’s response so far? Equivocation and mixed signals after having sent an additional 21,000 troops shortly after his inauguration, a strategy change in March, and making numerous statements about the necessity of this war and his commitment to defeat Al-Qaeda.

In July, President Obama told ABC News, “I’m always worried about using the word ‘victory,’ because, you know, it invokes this notion of Emperor Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur.” What are the American people to think when their Commander in Chief is not comfortable with the notion of victory in a war he proclaimed should be our focus? During the campaign, he said that Afghanistan is the war we need to fight, not Iraq.

Should the lives of our brave men and woman fighting for our freedom not be his top priority? His actions tell us otherwise, having only spoken with Gen. McChrystal once in the last 70 days (according to McChrystal) and his decision to fly to Copenhagen to secure an Olympic bid for Chicago – an unprecedented action by an American president. Americans ought to be outraged at the huge taxpayer expense to conduct non-state business at a time when so much is at stake here and abroad. Even more offensive is Michelle Obama’s assertion that it was a “sacrifice for them” to fly over there to do this when we have American troops making the ultimate sacrifice for us in Afghanistan.

President Reagan’s response when asked about his vision for the Cold War was simply, “We win. They lose.” Winston Churchill, in the darkest days of WWII, said, “Our policy is victory. Victory at all costs.” In light of his anti-war political base, is political expediency trumping this kind of bold leadership?

President Obama, our future and millions of lives are at stake. Our fighting brave have put their lives on 
the line. Commit to victory. Send the needed troops. Give them the confidence they need to win. 
Remember the lessons of the past. ‘War is Hell’ and will never come without cost. We either win, or we 
lose, and the dangerous consequences of accepting defeat in Afghanistan are unthinkable when we 
have a blood thirsty enemy scheming to kill and defeat us at all costs. Victory or defeat, what’s it going 
to be?