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The editorial in today’s Denver Post laments some state legislators’ hesitation to submit to federal requirements in order to obtain money to implement the Affordable Care Act. The Post headline declares “ It’s foolish to stall federal aid.”
I will tell what is really foolish: A system of federal government that takes money from individuals throughout the country, takes a cut off the top (you know, for “expenses”), then dangles some of that money in front of states that must agree to jump through whatever ridiculous hoops the policy makers in the District of Columbia have deemed necessary in order for the state to get back a small portion of the money taken from it when the process began.
Lewis Carroll would have had a hard time imagining such absurdity.
“Federal aid” is Newspeak. It is no “aid” to get back your own money. “Federal aid” is simply extortion. The feds say they’ll return some of the state’s money if the state does what it is “asked” to do. Organized crime figures say they will let you keep your business and your knee caps if you do what you are “asked” to do.
It’s an offer we can’t refuse.
Luckily, legislators like Rep. Jim Kerr, who is quoted in the Post editorial, are at least mulling it over before accepting the offer.
The Post goes on to say that state legislators are entitled to their opinion about Obamacare but “they also need to accept the reality that it’s the law of the land.”
Applying that misguided logic, the Post would tell a battered spouse that she should just accept the reality that she is in an abusive relationship. You will only make it worse if you resist, right? Accept the abuse. It is the reality.
No. No more.
It is time for Colorado, and other states that are tired of submissively accepting unlawful federal expansion of power, to stand up to the unlawful usurpation of power exercised by the federal government. It is time to assert the Tenth Amendment. It is time to resurrect these dead letters:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
There is no constitutional authority for the feds to tell any state that it must implement a system to facilitate the mandatory purchase of a private product. If the United States Supreme Court says otherwise, that there is such authority within the commerce clause, they might as well say that the sun is the moon and that black is white. It will be just as true.
It is time to listen to Thomas Jefferson, who, in the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, wrote:
… where powers are assumed [by the federal government] which have not been delegated [to it by the Constitution], a nullification of the act is the rightful remedy: that every State has a natural right in cases not within the compact, (casus non fœderis) to nullify of their own authority all assumptions of power by others within their limits
Nullify now.
She concludes with this question:
What’s wrong with soaking the rich for their fair share of tax revenue when they have all made their fortunes on the backs of the working poor?
[facepalm]
I’m afraid Ms. Altenhofen is beyond hope. Nevertheless, there are many others who may well be saved from such ignorance. For those that can still be saved, keep citing F. A. Hayek, Henry Hazlitt, Thomas Jefferson, Frederic Bastiat and others. Cite those who, unlike the hopeless Ms. Altenhofen, understand it is the government that decides what is a “fair share” and uses guns to extract it; that without the “rich” there would be no job jobs for the “working poor;” that taking money from one group to give to another is not “compassion;” and that wanting to keep one’s own money earned from voluntary exchange is not “greed.”
I ran across a great quote from Thomas Jefferson and I wanted to post it so I didn’t forget it. Each day, I want to ask myself the question: what am I doing to stop this imminent “..wretchedness and oppression…” that will come from our public debt problem? And I urge you to do the same. [...]
It is the time of year when several unwanted, large phone books covered with refrigerator magnets start arriving on our door steps.
Some say the government needs to step in and stop the waste of the unwanted delivery of phone books. You may have heard the indignant refrain: “There oughtta be a law! We need to BAN the delivery of these unwanted and wasteful phone books!”
Surprisingly enough, however, no government action is required.
As the ad salesmen for the phone books continue to pitch their delivery numbers when they call on local business owners, the potential ad buyers will say:
“Yeah, you deliver a gazillion phone books, but none of these people you deliver to actually LOOK at the books. Most just throw them away the same day you deliver them. (The more environmentally-minded will, of course, recycle them). In any event, they ain’t being read. They ain’t bein’ looked at. I’m not going to spend my ad budget on your soon-to-be-extinct, useless paper phone books. I’m sorry, but I have an appointment with a Search Engine Optimization guy, followed by a Google Ads and Facebook advertising expert coming over now. Please excuse me.”
The paper phone book will soon be in the same category as the eight-track tape.
Until then, I’ll deal with throwing them away. I do not want the government banning them or mandating some “opt out” process overseen and administered by the Department of Unwanted Phone Books, with accompanying regulators and a schedule of fines and penalties for those that try to skirt the ban or regulatory scheme.
Picking them up off our front porch and throwing them away is annoying. It is inconvenient.
Surprisingly enough, Thomas Jefferson had something to say on the topic of unwanted phone books. He said, “I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.”
As usual, he was right.
Postscript: A Facebook commenter noted that she did not want people leaving litter on her property. Fair point. I responded thusly:
“Fair enough. Trespassing and littering laws already exist. It is up to you if it’s worth the hassle of enforcing the existing laws.”
“If the American people ever allow the banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers occupied. The issuing power of money should be taken from the banks and restored to Congress and the people to whom it belongs.”
We’ve all heard the phrase before. We must vote for the “lesser of two evils” each election season. That’s all we can do.
It is my humble opinion that this way of thinking is what has gotten us into the mess we are in today. The mess that involves massive amounts of government spending, regulation, debt [...]
“The strongest reason for the people to retain their right to keep and bear arms is a last resort to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”
–Thomas Jefferson
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