Another Government Ponzi Scheme

During the State of the Union speech, the President floated the idea that Americans should invest their retirement savings in the Government of the United States presumably to remove their savings from the ravages of market forces.  This is the MyRA program.

Does anyone think that the Government can do anything better than the private market?  May I refer you to the Healthcare.gov debacle, and you can fully understand my skepticism.

Let’s face it – the government of the United States is broke.  Otherwise, why is the debt limit being raised without much resistance from either party?  The can continues to be kicked down the road, but that road will eventually run out.  Sooner or later, financial institutions will refuse to loan the United States Government any more money, and that is when the fertilizer will strike the rotating air moving device.

What will most likely happen is something similar to what I wrote 11 months ago in the post “Cyprus in the US?”.

The Government of Cyprus has decided a one-time tax (i.e., legalized confiscation) of funds from any account over 100,000 Euros is necessary to raise funding to secure a 10-Billion Euro bailout package from the European Union.

Of course, many of you will poo-poo the idea of our government seizing our assets to pay off the national debt like what Cyprus is doing.  Folks, I will tell you right now that I believe that the groundwork is being laid to do just that.  Consider the following:

The ObamaCare legislation authorizes the IRS to confiscate funds directly from your accounts if you do not have a health plan that meets the requirements of the ObamaCare mandate.  This has been upheld by the Supreme Court because ObamaCare is now classified as a tax.

The Supreme Court has already heard cases concerning Eminent Domain which state that private property can be seized and used for the public use.  I can fully see where these laws & decisions could be used and extended to bail the government out of the financial mess that generations of irresponsible Congresscritters have put us in.  After all, the government is for the public good, right?

And what property would that be?  Our 401Ks, Regular & Roth IRAs, and any investments that we would have.  I have it on good authority that the politicians are salivating at the billions of dollars tied up in the tax-deferred savings accounts, and would love nothing more to get their hands on that money to fund whatever special project they have.

A post over at Joe the Plumber’s website Joe for America also describes that our savings are at risk.  It states that the model that EU regulators used to confiscate American’s retirement savings as reported by Reuters is being considered by our Government:

In a nutshell, and in Reuters’ own words, “the savings of the European Union’s 500 million citizens could be used to fund long-term investments to boost the economy and help plug the gap left by banks since the financial crisis, an EU document says.”

…

The solution? “The Commission will ask the bloc’s insurance watchdog in the second half of this year for advice on a possible draft law “to mobilize more personal pension savings for long-term financing”, the document said.”

Mobilize, once again, is a more palatable word than, say, confiscate.

And it goes on to state that Congress has been considering these actions since 2010 and as recently as 2012!  Follow the links in the post for more information than what I could possibly write about in this post.

I can fully believe that our Government will grasp at the apple of promise of more money.  After all, over the objections of multiple citizens at multiple townhalls, the Affordable Healthcare Act was passed with the promise that Government knows best.  As we all are finding out by personal or reported experiences, it’s not all that it was promised and sold to the American people.

As stated in the following paragraphs:

A few years ago the government of the United States of America nationalized nearly 1/6th of our economy when they took over the health care system with forced mandates. In the process they essentially took control of $1.6 trillion in yearly industry revenues.

But that’s nothing compared to private savings. The total amount of retirement assets in America, including 401k, IRA and savings accounts is around $21 trillion. With our national debt coincidentally approaching the same, the government sees big money and potentially a way out of our country’s fiscal disaster.

This will start voluntarily with the MyRA and other state-sponsored programs. But when not enough Americans are making it their patriotic duty to turn over their funds to their government, they’ll mandate compliance with the stroke of a pen just as they did with the Patient Affordable Care Act.

And just like Obamacare it will be enforced by the barrel of a gun. Failure to comply will mean confiscation without recourse and prison time.

Be afraid, my friends, very afraid… 

Look at what our Executive Branch is doing by Executive Orders, and Congress is doing with legislation, and it becomes rapidly apparent that our Government is out of control.  We The People must elect leaders that will restore this country to the Freedoms that our Founders envisioned!!

Otherwise, you had better figure out what your Plan B is, and that’s going to become your Plan A.

Is This A Nation…

…of laws, or a nation of men?  Specifically, is this nation governed by the laws of the land, or by the whims of a person or persons?  This, my friends, is a question that Robert and I have frequently written about in various ways, and the answer scares the Hell out of both of us.  To whit:

“…we are not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we’re providing Americans the kind of help that they need.  I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone.  I can use that pen to sign Executive Orders and take Executive Actions and Administrative Actions that move the ball forward….

This is how far our fair Republic has gone the way of so many other countries – we have a person in charge that thumbs his nose at the Constitution, and rules by Executive Order.  The part that is frustrating is that the other elected legislative bodies of our government are doing nothing to stop this breach of law.

Diana West of Townhall.com published an article entitled “A Nation of Laws, Not Men, Must Impeach Obama.”  The following are excerpts from that article:

For many Americans, living through the Obama era day-by-day, executive order by executive order, 100 regulations by 100 regulations (there were 80,000 pages of new regulations in 2013 alone), our nation’s transformation becomes so much enveloping static. Yes, there are shrieks and screams (over Obamacare’s rollout, for instance), but mostly people seem to shut out the background noise of an aggressively collectivizing government doing business. Outrages against the Constitution clank and sputter — What? The executive branch can’t write legislation! — but they never really backfire on Obama. His poll numbers dip, yes. White noise ensues.

Barack Obama, the government’s chief executive, is seizing powers that belong to the legislative branch. He’s not the first president to do so; not by a long shot. That’s also part of the ambivalence problem. Obama fits an accepted historical mode of abuse exemplified, for example, by the even more dictatorial FDR. Meanwhile, as Obama’s defenders correctly note, Obama, having issued 168 “decrees,” ranks on the low end among modern presidents. What distinguishes Obama’s fiats in our time, however, as Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, told CNSNews.com, is that Obama “has repeatedly made use of executive orders to change statute, to change law, to change legislation enacted by Congress.”

A president can’t do that. The crisis exists because the legislative branch is letting him.

The crisis is compounded because most of the media supports these seizures of power. The New York Times’ take on the State of the Union address (Rush Limbaugh calls it the “State of the Coup,”) is typical: “Taking the offensive by veering around Congress isn’t new for the administration, but it is more important than ever.”

“Veering around Congress” is a neat phrase for serial abuse of power. During a December hearing before a House Judiciary subcommittee on “The President’s Constitutional Duty to Faithfully Execute the Laws,” liberal law professor (and onetime Obama voter) Jonathan Turley stated: “The problem with what the president is doing is that he’s not simply posing a danger to the constitutional system. He’s becoming the very danger the Constitution was designed to avoid.”

The president is quite open about his intentions. “Wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation … that’s what I’m going to do,” Obama declared in his State of the Union. The line received vigorous applause from Democrats in the House chamber. Yes, they support the president’s agenda, but weren’t they also applauding their own superfluity?

That’s what I thought before I heard Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, say that writing executive orders for the president to sign — not writing legislation for Congress to vote on, mind you — should be “our No. 1 agenda.” The 10-term congresswoman, while launching the new and Soviet-sounding “Full Employment Caucus” at a recent press conference, promised to “give President Obama a number of executive orders that he can sign with pride and strength.”

This is the formula for one-party rule. As such, it is outrageous, but it is just more static.

What to do with a president who rewrites his own laws, enacts legislation that has failed (repeatedly) to pass into law, and creates legislation through executive agency regulation?

The boldest proposition on the table so far — not moving, I will add — is for Congress to stop funding executive orders that upset the Constitution’s “balance of powers.” This is an obvious “check” to restore “balance.” Fine. Yes. Go for it.

But Obama’s systematic assaults on constitutional governance require more than defunding, and more than static. They require, first and most urgently, a full airing. Impeachment, which may begin with an impeachment inquiry, is the means the Constitution provided us. It offers the way “forward,” as the president might say, to re-establish that America is a nation of laws, not men.

Otherwise, it’s not.

Our government is dysfunctional because the people in it like Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee haven’t a clue much less the intelligence to understand the laws of the land and the responsibility that they have as part of the government.  We The People have let it happen without much protest in the past, and We The People are finally waking up to the fact that We The People are being shafted by the very people that we elected.

It’s time to take the government back.  Elect people based on character and principles, not a party affiliation, that will return this nation back to to the greatness and stature it once had in the world.

Otherwise, we’re fast on the road to being a banana republic…without the bananas.

Our Un-Constitutional President

What a turn-around…From this:

To this just a few weeks ago:

“…we are not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we’re providing Americans the kind of help that they need.  I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone.  I can use that pen to sign Executive Orders and take Executive Actions and Administrative Actions that move the ball forward….”

Commentary from Necessary and Proper Government:

You understand that the Constitution specifies the Executive Branch’s role is to execute and administer the carefully-enacted laws and spending appropriations of the Legislative branch.  Its role is NOT to take the ball into its own hands and move an agenda forward, ahead of the Legislative branch.

As a Conservative, you recognize that what this President openly said he’s going to do is unconstitutional.  Thank goodness the Constitution provides methods of checks and balances, allowing a naturally self-protective Legislative Branch to restrain an imperial president via the impeachment process.

You’re confident that if President Obama actually says anything like this directly to Congress – during a State of the Union speech for example – then Congress will surely be offended by such a display of intent for Executive overreach.

Apparently not – he received a 15-second standing ovation from most of the Congress-critters in response to the announcement that he, as President, would ignore the Constitution and bypass Congress!

Reminds me of the follow quotes and sequence from the movies:

“In order to ensure our security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire, for a safe and secure society, which I assure you will last for ten thousand years.” – Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, Star Wars Episode III

“So this is how liberty dies… with thunderous applause.”  – Senator Padme Amidala, Star Wars Episode III

“The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us. I have just received word from Coruscant that The Emperor has dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away forever.” – Grand Moff Tarkin, Star Wars Episode IV

If the President is now claiming that he has the unchallenged authority to bypass the duly elected legislative body of the American people, have We the People elected a President or a Dictator?  It would seem the latter.  For instance:

• Obama has directed law enforcement not to enforce immigration laws (Dream Act).
• Obama has directed the alteration of the ACA’s laws and mandates at least 15 times.
• Obama has granted ACA waivers to various employers and politically connected groups.
• Obama has directed that appointed three members of the National Labor Relations Board, as well as the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, while the Senate was still in session.
• Obama directed violations of established bankruptcy laws in the cases of GM and Chrysler, costing creditors, retirement funds, and the American people millions of dollars.
• A pending Obama Executive order would require businesses with federal contracts to disclose independent expenditures on federal elections (political speech independent of candidates and parties) which would undermine the Citizens United ruling by the Supreme Court and the First Amendment.

All of the above actions are violations of various laws established long before President Obama came on the scene.  And yet any challenges are met with charges of racism, obstructionism, hate speech, fear-mongering, etc., that is if any challenges are made at all.

To which I must quote one of President Obama’s colleagues:

“We need to stand up and say we’re Americans, and we have the right to debate and disagree with any administration.” – Hillary Clinton

I would like to take this opportunity to remind President Obama of his Oath, of which he has made twice:

“I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help me God.” – Presidential oath of office (per Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution)

Does anyone reading the above believe that President Obama is living up to his Oath of Office or the Presidency?

I don’t…and it’s not because our President is black.  It’s because he is incompetent, has an incompetent staff, and is destroying this Country through his actions and agenda.  Our Congress, Media, and even those among us refuse to hold him and his Administration accountable for their actions. 

So let’s stop and have a reality check:

Friends and readers of this post – you have a choice this next election cycle.  Vote in people that will work to restore this country’s principles, or vote in the next crop of people that will continue the path to destruction.  It’s that simple, and that critical.