Rule Number One on modern governments is that they will always take measures to defend itself. Government is not your friend. In modern life, government’s heavy hand is seen throughout our lives. In the last 50 years modern government has attempted to insert itself into every facet of our lives.
It wasn’t always the case in the United States. Throughout most of our history government was more of an enabler of American progress. The government allowed American industry to become the most successful in the world. It allowed American farmers to become the most efficient on the planet. It allowed private industry to develop our abundant natural resources for the benefit of our citizens.
The first changes took place during the Great Depression and the too-long presidency of Franklin Roosevelt. The Democrats under Roosevelt meddled in the American economy and set up institutions whose effects are still felt today. They began the process of rules and regulations to govern every facet of our lives.
Now some of these institutions were beneficial to America, such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Others such as the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Rural Electrification Administration had early benefits but like most government programs cannot be killed. Some morph into new roles and identities while others continue unaffected by the clamor for their abolishment.
Barack Obama has become the personification of the overbearing presence of modern government. His administration has attempted to tax and spend our way out the current economic decline of the United States.
Understand, we still have all of the natural and human resources that we had ten, twenty or thirty years ago but the smothering effect of big government has denied their use for our benefit.
Americans are being bound by a system of rules and regulations that are governing every facet of our lives. We have been educated by the notion that government is the final arbiter of our lives.
Need financial help. The government has a wide array of programs to assist you. From Social Security Disability, food stamps and unemployment insurance, government is there. They have usurped the role that churches, synagogues and private charities once filled. Today, almost 50 million Americans are on food stamps, 23 million are either unemployed or underemployed. Millions more get free cell phones from our government.
The FDA recently announced 1,200 pages of new regulations for growers of fruit and nuts. This government has put in place regulations on toilets, light bulbs and washing machines, all in the name of the environment. THe EPA even wanted to regulate dust on farms!
In the area of healthcare, the massive and costly Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, is the 800 lb. gorilla in the room. Right now it seems that it’s more like a bull in a china shop (continuing the animal analogies). Obamacare and its children Medicare and Medicaid could bankrupt this country, all while destroying the finest healthcare system in the world.
We now have two diametrically opposing political philosophies. One puts forward the idea that government is the answer to all of our problems. The other says that government is the problem. The fate of the nation depends on the outcome of this battle.
Remember Rule Number One on modern governments is that they will always take measures to defend itself. The fight will be long and hard. If government wins we, its citizens, will lose our liberties forever.
