Republic Roots

It's a Tough Four Years Ahead

2013-01-26T20:00:00.000-08:00

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. ~ Thomas Jefferson

America, we are in for a tough four years. As evidenced in President Barack Obama’s inaugural address, he is an unabashed ideologue and he is determined to drive his liberal agenda – social justice, climate change, green energy, immigration reform, gay marriage and gun control.

As the total opposite of Ronald Reagan, who declared that “government is the problem,” or Bill Clinton, who said, “the era of big government is over,” this president believes that government is the solution, and the bigger the better. Folks, the era of a small and limited government envisioned by our Founders is definitely over with this president.

He is determined to rewrite our Declaration of Independence and Constitution and replace these with an interpretation that was never envisioned by our Founders. He quoted from the Declaration …”We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” But he went on the say that he wants to “bridge the meaning of those words with the realities of our time.” He doesn’t believe in equal opportunity. His version of America is that we should have equal outcomes.

Everyone in America, no matter what their station in life has the opportunity to raise themselves up and achieve anything they wish to. He ignores the fact that people have raised themselves up from extreme poverty to become great successes in life. But his view of the world is that people don’t accomplish success on their own. “We do not believe that in this country freedom is reserved for the lucky or happiness for the few.” He believes that people have success through luck and the help of the government. “You didn’t build that,” he has said many times. He thinks government, by building infrastructure, etc., makes business people successful. He doesn’t believe that people succeed through their own inventiveness and hard work. He believes government should give people his perceived version of happiness, taking from one group of citizens and giving to the other through taxation and redistribution.

He obviously grew up in that generation where everyone received a trophy even if they lost, for he went on to say, ”A nation that rewards the effort and determination of every single American, that is what this moment requires. That is what will give real meaning to our creed.” So it’s obvious that he believes that pursuit of happiness is guaranteeing the same outcome and reward even if one’s effort, determination and results fall short.

Obama truly believes in a nanny state, saying, “Together we resolve that a great nation must care for the vulnerable and protect its people from life’s worst hazards and misfortune.” Mr. President, a great nation gives its people a hand up, not a hand out, and people learn from their mistakes and failures. You can’t and shouldn’t be there as a nanny state to protect everyone from hazard and misfortune – that is part of life and part of learning from failure. There isn’t enough money in this world to guarantee a perfect outcome for everyone. The nation Obama envisions would be mediocre at best because his nanny state methods will kill the drive to succeed and strive for success. As he takes more from those who succeed to give to those who have failed, those who would be destined to succeed will say, “why bother?” As Margaret Thatcher said, “Socialism works until you run out of other people’s money.”

The theme throughout his speech deemphasized the individual in favor of the “collective.” His beliefs are deeply rooted in Marxism and Socialism. So many get offended or nervous when you compare his views to Marxism, but it’s plain and simple, Karl Marx’s creed was, “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his need.” That is Obama’s redistribution of wealth theme.

Since Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty and the Great Society, we have been doling out money for over 50 years and the poverty rate has grown even higher. Previous redistribution didn’t work.

Don’t misunderstand. Republic Roots is all for helping those truly in need. The plan should not be continuous handouts, but job training and other ways to help people gain self-sufficiency. And these programs are best handled through local communities, charitable organizations and churches – those closest to those in need. Obama seems content with developing a larger group of government dependents as he has greatly expanded welfare. In contrast to his rhetoric, his actions show he prefers a permanent underclass dependent upon him for food, shelter and cell phones.

We can expect Obama to continue his same failed green energy policies. After wasting billions of our dollars on green energy companies – most of which went bankrupt – he says, “The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition. We must lead it.” He plans on opening up our wallets to waste even billions more as he did on Solyndra and so many failed companies.

He also reiterated his soft stance on war and to face our enemies. “We will show the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully. Not because we are naive about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear.” That sounds so nice, but how well has that worked? Egypt, Libya and Mali are falling apart and back into the hands of radical Muslims and Al Qaeda. This president is naïve about the dangers we face. He previously said, Al Qaeda was on the run. Tell that to the Ambassador and four Navy Seals that were killed in Libya. Or to the three Americans who lost their lives in Algeria, killed by Al Qaeda with weapons from Libya. As Obama continues to live in his fantasy world and guts the military, we will be less safe.

It’s highly disturbing that in this inaugural address, Obama gave no emphasis to solving the real problems of our time – jobs and the economy. He is severely out of touch with the American people because Americans are more concerned about employment and the out of control spending by government.

With this president’s plans to continue on the same path as the last four years, we are in for a world of hurt and damage to this country. Obama’s policies are doing more to hurt than help those truly in need. With his stagnant economy that he now owns and he and Ben Bernanke continuing to print money, this causes deeper inflation and rising food costs.

Get ready for mountains of red tape and over-regulation to be administered during this second unbridled Obama term. In his first term there have already been more than 3,500 regulations. God only knows what will be uncovered in those. It’s guaranteed we’ll find many burdensome bombs in the regulations already and being written as we’ve discovered in Obamacare.

Republic Roots predicts that Americans will rue the day they elected this petulant, liberal tyrant twice. But we’ll get through this and survive, just as we survived the damaging policies of Roosevelt, Johnson, Carter and many others. People will finally wake up and vote for someone with leadership and sanity like Reagan. Let’s spend the next four years looking for that Reaganesque candidate for 2016. We will need someone with his wisdom and fortitude to dig us out of the mess that Obama will leave behind.

I, however, place economy among the first and most important Republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers to be feared. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt ... I am for government rigorously frugal and simple. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Obama: A Jimmy Carter Clone

2012-09-16T22:30:00.001-07:00

The chaos today across the Middle East is eerily reminiscent of the Jimmy Carter years in the White House. In 1979, supposed Iranian students attacked the U.S. embassy in Tehran and captured 52 hostages and held them for 444 days. This all transpired after President Jimmy Carter facilitated the overthrow of Iran's Shah by Islamic radicals just as Obama facilitated the scenario for the killing of Libya’s Gaddafi and the overthrow of Egypt’s Mubarak. The Shah, Gaddafi and Mubarak were certainly unsavory characters who oppressed their people, but the new regime in Iran hasn’t proven much better, if not worse, and Libya and Egypt are not shaping up so far to be much better, with Libya appearing to be largely in the hands of Al Qaeda.

Carter didn’t succeed in winning favor with the radicals in Iran in 1979 and neither has Obama succeeded in Egypt and Libya, even after Obama’s famous Cairo Speech in June 2009. Carter and Obama both used a foreign policy of appeasement and apology to no avail. The radicals, in both cases, despise the U.S. and have no regard for the U.S. in helping them rise to power. The scenario in 1979 began in February with the American ambassador in neighboring Afghanistan being killed by Muslim extremists. On September 4, 1979, the American embassy in Tehran was invaded and our diplomats were taken hostage as a mob shouted "Death to America." It resulted in eight American servicemen being killed in a failed attempt to rescue the hostages. Fearing retaliation by the new American President, the Iranians released the hostages on January 20, 1981, the day of Ronald Reagan’s inauguration.

Today, the mobs in Cairo and Libya are shouting the same chant as was heard in Iran in 1979. Attackers in Libya shouted “Death to America” as they gathered after the murders of our ambassador and three other diplomats just days ago.

Our government responded first to the attack on the Cairo U.S. Embassy with what amounted to an apology and condemnation of the maker of an anti-Muslim YouTube video rather than condemning the attackers. “The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims… Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.” Excuse me, but we don’t apologize for our Constitution.

The apology fanned the flames in Libya resulting in the assassination of our four diplomats. After outrage was expressed in America over the apologies, the White House tried to walk it back, but they since have doubled down on blaming the video.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney has said the murders and attacks were “not a response to the United States or policy,” but to the film. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the film was to blame several times. The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said, the attacks were an “outrageous response to an offensive video” and “this is not an expression of hostility in the broadest sense toward the United States or U.S. policy. It’s approximately a reaction to this video.” What? Apparently they think if they say it enough, we will start to believe it. They have called these spontaneous attacks, but their comments don’t hold water since the rebels had rocket-propelled grenades and other combat weapons. Libyan President Mohammed Magarief has publicly stated that the attacks were “preplanned.”

A bigger question is why our embassies weren’t better protected on Sept. 11, and it’s being reported that a letter appeared in the Jerusalem Post stating that attacks were expected on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.

After four years of “pre-emptive concessions,” as Ronald Reagan said, our embassies are being attacked and our people killed. But as the famous quotation goes, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” And this White House is set upon that path.

In 2007, during the campaign, Obama said, he was “uniquely qualified to bring stability to America's relationships in the Muslim world” because he lived in an Islamic country during his youth and his half-sister is Muslim. Well, Obama, how well has that worked out for you? Just about as well as your Cairo speech.

Obama has proven to be a foreign policy novice and narcissist. He thought he only needed to press a reset button and speak nicely and they would love him and love us. If we learned nothing else from 1979, it was that the Middle East respects and fears power. Weakness emboldens our enemies.

It’s obvious Obama doesn’t have a clue about Muslim radicals and that they hate us and want to kill us. We are up against years of indoctrination against the U.S., as well as the internal tribal, cultural, economic and religious differences in these Middle Eastern countries. And he still doesn’t get it after the massive killings on Sept. 11, 2001 and Sept. 11, 2012 or with the repeated chants of “Death to America” and signs spray painted across the Middle East, “Go to Hell U.S.”

Obama and Joe Biden fanned the flames of Middle East hostilities with their campaign victory laps for killing Bin Laden and Biden’s idiotic statement, “GM’s alive and Bin Laden is dead.” And the Muslim radicals in Libya and Egypt verified this by chanting, “Obama, Obama, we are all Osama.”

There is a clear lack of leadership and no clarity about our Middle East policy. Even Obama stumbled around last week during an interview not knowing whether to call Egypt our ally or enemy. The State Department covered for him by quickly coming out with statements that Egypt is our ally.

But what is our Middle East policy? No one knows. And our allies no longer trust us and our enemies no longer fear us.

Our greatest Middle East ally, Israel, has been continuously snubbed and insulted by Obama and he is refusing to meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu. His priority is to go on the David Letterman Show instead. While the Middle East burns, Obama will be yukking it up on Letterman.

Obama not only has an economic crisis on his hands, but a Middle East crisis, just as Carter did on the eve of his reelection campaign. Carter paved the way for radical Muslims to take over Iran and Obama is paving the way for a nuclear Iran and whatever awaits us with the current Middle East uprisings.

In September 1980, Carter led Reagan by four points in the polls. American voters wised up and realized that Carter’s economic and foreign policies were weakening the country. Reagan handily beat Carter. Let’s ensure that Obama has a similar fate and loses big time in November.

Obama: The Divider in Chief

2012-08-18T23:43:00.000-07:00

George Washington warned in his Farewell Address, 1796: "Disorders and miseries...gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an Individual...[who] turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public...and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism."

President Barack Obama is the very kind of person that Washington issued his warning about. The miseries of the Great Recession prompted people in 2008 to believe the propaganda of hope and change that Obama was spouting. He turned the misery of the nation into his advantage to rise to the presidency. Believing in the snake oil that Obama was selling, the people elected this inexperienced neophyte to the highest office in our Republic. And Obama has used it to "fundamentally change" our nation and government. He, through his numerous executive orders and regulations, is creating real despotism.

Power and winning re-election is more important to Obama than the economic stability of this nation or the preservation of our fundamental freedoms for future generations. He has tried in every way to divide our nation for his own ends. Remember that Obama's main occupation was community organizer and what does a community organizer do? He incites and agitates people with messages of hatred and division.

Obama studied well and has applied the teachings of Saul Alinsky. Alinsky, in his book, Rules for Radicals, offered that a successful community organizer should be “an abrasive agent to rub raw the resentments of the people of the community; to fan latent hostilities of many of the people to the point of overt expressions.” This is why Obama has attacked the rich and encouraged divisiveness. He endorsed the Occupy Movement, but he's since pulled back due to their highly radical activities in order to protect his desire for a second term.

Obama has been very busy trying to divide and "community organize" America. Here are examples:

Seniors: Obama and his supporters continually mislead the public saying that Republicans want to "end Medicare as we know it." The truth is, Medicare will end anyway if nothing is done to preserve it and Obama actually raided Medicare to the tune of $716 billion to pay for Obamacare.

Women: He says there is a war on women and created the ficticious issue that women were being denied access to birth control. Truth is, there are plenty of social programs available for women in need to obtain birth control and birth control pills are inexpensive at many discount pharmacies.

Catholics: The Obama administration issued a mandate requiring faith-based employers to include birth control and other reproductive services in their health care coverage. This was an extreme overreach of power and encroaches on freedom of religion.

Class warfare: Obama constantly advocates class envy talking about rich "fat cats" and harping on the need for them to pay their fair share of taxes. The reality is that the richest 20 percent pay 68 percent of the federal taxes and the bottom 20 percent of American workers pay just three-tenths of a percent, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The rich are paying more than their fair share.

Partisanship: Obama set the tone of partisanship early in his administration at the Healthcare Summit with Republicans. He was rude, talked down to them, admonished them and ridiculed Rep. Eric Cantor for bringing a copy of the healthcare bill to the meeting. At one point, he snidely dressed down Sen. John McCain and said "John, The campaign is over." Since that time he's continued his partisanship and unwillingness to compromise with Repuplicans. He's even accused Republicans of the very things he is guilty of.

Military: Ohio extended the deadline for active military to submit election ballots. Obama's Justice Department answered that with a lawsuit. He's succeeded in alienating active service men and women as well as veteran's groups over this issue.

Business: Obama said in a recent speech, “If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen.” When he attacks business and entrepreneurs in this way, it emphasizes his lack and ignorance of leadership. Business leaders provide jobs and help others to rise. Government doesn't do that. All government does, particularly with welfare handouts, is keep people down at their current level.

Obama and his minions have even tried to divide America against the Tea Party and now Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Paul Ryan, calling him and these good Americans, who believe in spending within one's means and small government, extremists. In their liberal view, then, George Washngton, Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson would be extremists.

As Paul Ryan so aptly said recently, "Obama's hope and change is now attack attack and blame."

Obama is not a leader. Leaders bring people together. They don't divide people. They work to find common ground. Obama is the great divider.

This man who said at the 2004 Democratic Convention there is “not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America” was all talk and rhetoric.

Obama is the Divider in Chief. But let's not let him divide us.

Let's stand together and remember the words of Benjamin Franklin: United we stand, divided we fall.

Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power. ~ James Madison

Obama rudely ridicules Rep. Cantor for bringing the healthcare bill as a "prop" to the healthcare summit.

Obama states that if you're a successful businessperson, "You didn't build that."

Obama is Today's King George

2012-07-04T17:48:00.000-07:00

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse. ~ James Madison

Today we celebrate our independence. But since the Declaration of Independence and the later writing of our Constitution, our freedoms have slowly been whittled away. So it is fitting today to take a look at the Declaration of Independence and make some comparisons to current events.

In the Declaration, our founders said, “Government derives its power from the consent of the governed … whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it … as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security.”

Fellow American citizens, it is time to throw off that government that has not been operating with our consent and provide new guards for our security by electing people who will stand by our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution.

In examining the Declaration of Independence, to relate it to today, one can simply just take out the name King George and insert Obama. Republic Roots offers below the words from the Declaration and comparisons to today’s events.

The history of the present King of Great Britain (President of the United States) is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let the facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good! (Obama refuses to enforce border and immigration laws leaving border states to fend for themselves, resulting in lives and property being lost).

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation til his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. (Again, border laws are unenforced and Obama constantly defies states that pass laws to remedy the situation. He also refuses to enforce voter laws – the Black Panthers who intimidated voters in 2008 went free – and he and Attorney General Holder are vilifying Florida for passing simple laws to require i.ds be shown at the polls. We all must show i.d. for the very basic things in life and it’s considered wrong to require this at election polls? Ridiculous!!)

He has dissolved representative Houses repeatedly for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. (Obama has repeatedly bypassed Congress and to date has signed 129 executive orders. He bypassed the Senate to install three members of the National Labor Relations Board and a director for the controversial Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He bypassed Congress and current U.S. Immigration laws with executive orders to provide for backdoor amnesty for illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. before age 16 and are now no older than 30, stopping their deportation and providing a temporary permit so they can live and work in the U.S. legally. Congress was preparing a similar law, but Obama decided to do it on his own. These are only a few examples. Obama consistently upsets the balance and separation of power when he ignores federal law. The White House maintains that executive orders are necessary because Congress refuses to give the president what he wants. Excuse me? Mr. Obama, there are three equal branches of government and established rules for passing laws, but you have become a self-appointed king!)

He has erected a multitude of new offices and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. (Obama has appointed more than 30 czars, the number of federal employees has increased by 58,000 and the IRS will be hiring more than 1,000 new employees to enforce Obamacare. He has insured that we will soon have no control over our very life due to Obamacare. A vast new bureaucracy including 150 new boards has been given power over health care markets. Individual liberty and the freedom to decide with your doctor the course of your medical care will now be in the hands of an unelected panel of 15 who will have the power to decide what health care all U.S. citizens are permitted to receive. The burden of government regulations and government workers to enforce these continues to expand).

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution. (Obama is seeking to join with the U.N. in treaties to usurp our sovereignty, including establishment of an international criminal court, a Law of the Sea treaty that would require the United States to pay an international body half of its royalties from offshore drilling, small arms control that could evolve into a backdoor way to require national registration of all guns and to assert federal regulation over firearms and an Outer Space Code of Conduct that would stop debris from accumulating in outer space and could prohibit the United States from deploying missile defense platforms in space that counter missile threats from the likes of Iran and North Korea).

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments. (As outlined previously, Obama has consistently ignored the Constitution and existing laws. He repeatedly said in his campaign he would “fundamentally change” America. He is assuredly altering the forms of our governments through his rule by fiat and executive order).

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. (Can you say, immigration laws and Arizona?)

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us. (Obama sided with the Occupy movement and continues to divide us by instigating class warfare and further divide us through race, gender and sexual preference issues).

Obama has proven himself to be in the words of our founders “a Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.”

To maintain our freedom, we need to reject our current entitlement society and throw off the shackles that government is now trying to impose upon us. For too long, we have traded our freedom only taking on more threats to our liberties on a path to again become serfs of a king or slaves of a plantation master. When we hand over our liberty to a government, we are becoming serfs and slaves to that government.

President John Kennedy said, “Every time that we try to lift a problem from our own shoulders, and shift that problem to the hands of the government, to the same extent we are sacrificing the liberties of our people.”

On this day, we must pledge again, as our founders did, to pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. Our country’s survival and our basic freedoms and liberty are at stake. Instead of defeating a King George through war, we must defeat Obama and his minions this fall at the ballot box.

Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power. ~ James Madison

If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Obama tells La Raza he can’t change laws on his own, but then he does. See video below.

“God Save Arizona” – Ray Stevens

Obama Threatens Court, Constitution

2012-04-04T23:02:00.001-07:00

In questions of power, then let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Earlier this week, President Barack Obama made stunning statements about the Supreme Court concerning the upcoming decision regarding Obamacare and its constitutionality.

His words:

“Ultimately, I am confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress.

“And I’d just remind conservative commentators that, for years, what we have heard is, the biggest problem on the bench was judicial activism, or a lack of judicial restraint, that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law.”

These statements are outrageous.

First of all, Obamacare wasn’t passed by a strong majority – it passed by only seven votes (219 to 212) and that was through coercion, intimidation and outright bribery of members of Congress. Remember the cornhusker kickback and the Louisiana purchase?

Second, the Supreme Court overturning a law is not unprecedented nor an extraordinary step. Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution provides judicial power to decide whether a law is unconstitutional. Further, precedent was set with the Marbury v. Madison case of 1803, authorizing the federal judiciary to review laws enacted by Congress and the president and to invalidate those that violate the Constitution.

Third, Mr. President, the Supreme Court making a decision on whether your Obamacare is unconstitutional is not judicial activism. Judicial activism is making laws from the bench. The Supreme Court is reviewing your awful law to determine once and for all its constitutionality. And that is well within their duties.

The President should know this. After all, he went to Harvard Law School, was editor of the Law Review and even taught Constitutional law at the University of Chicago.

And people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, right? Mr. Obama, what about your unelected czars and government bureaucrats who have been so busy during your administration writing rules and issuing edicts?

Bravo to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jerry Smith ordering the Department of Justice to provide three single-spaced pages by noon Thursday, April 5, discussing whether or not the president believes the courts have the right to rule acts of Congress unconstitutional. Finally, someone is standing up to one of the many misrepresentations of truth and disregard for the Constitution by this President, who duly swore to uphold it. He’s circumvented Congress, trampled on the Constitution and has totally disregarded the equal power of the three branches of government.

Obama is acting more like America’s first dictator. What he has said this week is outrageous and should alarm every American. He deserves no one’s vote in November.

The power under the Constitution will always be in the people. It is entrusted for certain defined purposes, and for a certain limited period, to representatives of their own choosing; and whenever it is executed contrary to their interest, or not agreeable to their wishes, their servants can, and undoubtedly will, be recalled.

~ George Washington

Clueless Commander in Chief

2011-10-08T15:40:00.000-07:00

The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale. -Thomas Jefferson

President Obama is clueless when it comes to the economy. He’s a Clueless Commander in Chief.

The U.S. received a body blow on Aug. 5 with Standard & Poor’s downgrading our credit rating to AA+ from AAA for the first time in history. President Obama owns this downgrade, but he’s not man enough to take that responsibility. All he can do is blame former President Bush, the Republicans and the Tea Party.

But when President Bush left office the national debt was 40.3 percent of GDP. With Obama’s added spending in 2009 it jumped to 53.5 percent, in 2010 to 62.2 percent and is estimated to rise to 72 percent of GDP in 2011. With the stimulus, cash for clunkers and more, Obama has increased the national debt by $4 trillion in just three years.

Everything President Obama does is based on his ideology and politics. With the Stimulus, which was an utter failure, Obama said "we've got to spend money to improve the economy." Yes, dear reader, I bet that's exactly what you do when you're broke. You go out and spend more money and then ask the bank to increase your credit card limit like the Obama administration did with the increase in the debt ceiling. It just makes no sense.

Obama also has blamed S&P. Granted, S&P has missed the mark on its ratings of the housing market in past years, but no one can disagree with them on stating that our government is spending more than it has.

S&P was just holding up the mirror. Obama needs to reflect upon his own hand in this mess and own up to it. He needs to stop the crazy Keynesian economics of spend, spend, spend. But he wants to continue the same insanity with his Jobs bill, which is simply Stimulus II with the same short-term construction jobs and favors for all the unions that was contained in Stimulus I, which failed miserably.

Obama likes to use the metaphor of “Bush drove the car into the ditch.” Well, Obama stepped on the accelerator and dug the car in deeper – so deep that that car is buried up to its rear axle. Mr. President – have you ever seen the Cadillac Ranch in Texas? Well, look at the photo below. That’s what you’ve done to our economy. Drove it deeper in the ditch, stalled it and buried it. And this Jobs bill is more of the same, but in reality it’s a political ploy you’re using for your campaign to beat up on Republicans. It’s all you have when you have such a dismal record.

Providing Happiness Isn't Government Role

2011-01-22T09:58:00.000-08:00

The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. ~ Benjamin Franklin

The House of Representatives made a valiant effort this week in repealing the atrocious Obamacare. But Sen. Harry Reid has now vowed not to bring up the repeal in the Senate. So much for government of the people, by the people and for the people, since the majority of the people favor repeal of Obamacare.

But let’s be clear, Obamacare is not healthcare, it’s health insurance and it mandates that taxpayers subsidize health insurance for all. Many who don’t have insurance made that choice. Republic Roots has friends who made the choice of not buying health insurance in favor of buying a luxury car and a bigger house. That’s their choice, so why should the rest of us be burdened to help pay for their insurance? Granted some people are in need, but that was already provided for through Medicaid and hundreds of charitable programs.

Many in Congress have pontificated that healthcare or health insurance is a right. Healthcare and health insurance are goods and it’s a personal responsibility to provide that for yourself. It’s not government’s responsibility to provide. Government’s role should be to create the environment for lower healthcare costs and reasonable health insurance premiums through fewer and smarter regulations, such as competition across state lines and tort reform. Health insurance is a good. And with Obamacare, government is mandating that everyone buy it and that we subsidize it for everyone, so next you know we’ll be having to pay to provide everyone with a flat screen television or a swimming pool because wouldn’t that be a right, too, as defined by some members of Congress?

Congressman John Lewis (D-GA) stated this week that healthcare is a right and constitutional. Lewis erroneously cited several amendments to the Constitution as well as saying healthcare falls within the pursuit of happiness guaranteed in the preamble. His ignorance of the Constitution he swore to uphold is stunning. Congressman Lewis, pursuit of happiness is mentioned in the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution, and it is something granted by our Creator, not by government. Providing happiness for every citizen is not the role of government. Government’s role is to provide the environment for individuals to pursue their own happiness and purchase their own goods.

Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Bring Back Self-Sufficiency and Personal Responsibility

2010-11-14T10:26:00.000-08:00

The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. ~ Benjamin Franklin

Thomas Jefferson said, “I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.” What has happened in America when almost 50 percent are receiving some entitlement from the government? This is more than in any time in history. Granted, more have needed assistance during these uncertain times, but people becoming dependent upon the government has been an upward trend for many years. While that trend has continued, at the same time, the number of Americans not paying federal income taxes has grown to almost 45 percent in 2010, up from 39 percent in 2005, according to the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan research organization.

Jefferson also said, “The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.” Is that the point we have come to? The end of our democracy?

Our founding fathers created this country and stated in the Constitution that we were given by our creator inalienable rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but this has been enormously expanded and misinterpreted into endless rights to food, shelter and healthcare provided by the government. As James Madison said, “With respect to the words general welfare, I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.”

Our ancestors came to this country to forge a new life, escaping oppressive governments in other lands. They took risks and responsibility. Where has that gone? What happened to pursuing dreams and becoming anything you wanted to be? What has happened to personal responsibility?

This downhill slide began with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his creation of Social Security in 1935. What was meant to help destitute elderly citizens has evolved into a retirement system for all. This dependency continued and was raised to new heights with President Lyndon Baines Johnson and the institution of Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps and Welfare. His Great Society meant a dependent society. Again, what was established to help those truly in need evolved into something way beyond the original intent.

That was only the beginning and now President Barack Hussein Obama has added healthcare for all. Although we already had Medicaid, which helps those in need with healthcare, Obama is heading us down the road of everyone being dependent on the government for medical care, so now we’ll be dependent on the government for our life. We’ve evolved into a society that expects handouts rather than the hand up. Unfortunately, we’re becoming dependent on government for our very life, liberty and happiness. This is very dangerous indeed.

Ben Franklin said, "I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it.” This is evidenced in the inspiring story of Star Parker, who was a single welfare mother, but pulled herself out of it, went to college, has since run several businesses and become successful and independent.

As Parker puts it, dependency on government is the modern day slavery. Redistribution of wealth does not work and relies on the pretense that others can’t succeed on their own and pursue their own happiness.

Churches, individuals and non-profit organizations should be the sources of charity, not government. Americans are the most charitable people on earth. And charity should be temporary. We need to return to the principles of self-sufficiency and helping people to help themselves.

There is example after example where socialistically-inspired society does not work. In Jamestown, no one was allowed to own property for the first four years. The work was communal and the harvest was centralized in a single storehouse. There was no reward for hard work, so no one did. According to historical records, after four years, no crops were planted, houses fell apart, and the prime occupation of the men was bowling in the streets. Jamestown settlers nearly starved themselves to extinction under this experiment in socialism, but then survived and prospered after the institution of private property. Private enterprise and land ownership (along with voting rights and enjoying the fruits of one’s labor) combined to help Jamestown prosper.

Equal outcomes fail to motivate people or provide inspiration to do any more than the minimum. Entitlements or social insurance must be transformed from subsidized benefits for everyone regardless of need, to real insurance where the government creates an environment for free enterprise and competition that reduces cost risk and protects people against unexpected and devastating occurrences. An environment of competition in health plans across state lines and tort reform can lower costs. Individuals must also assume a greater role for their foreseeable retirement and medical needs through personal savings and insurance.

Socialism and perpetual social programs are idealistic theories. On the surface, such a utopia sounds great, but there is no substitute for the motivation and incentive of individual success. History has proven time and again that when people have the ability for self-betterment, they achieve and prosper. That is what has made America great.

The class of citizens, who provide at once their own food and their own raiment, may be viewed as the most truly independent and happy. ~ James Madison

The Economy and the Blame Game

2010-08-21T16:09:00.000-07:00

The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. ~ James Madison

President Barack Obama and liberal members of Congress continue to blame former President George Bush for the current problems with our economy and we’re likely to hear that more and more as the mid-term elections draw near. But frankly, both sides are to blame. And Barack Obama helped in the effort as well by representing ACORN in lawsuits against banks to force them to comply with the easy loans for people who couldn’t afford the houses they were buying, enabling the mortgage meltdown that began this financial crisis.

The saga goes back to the Carter administration and the Community Reinvestment Act that had the well-intentioned goal to reduce discriminatory loan practices in low-income neighborhoods. However, what started our economy on the downhill path was the Clinton administration that wanted home ownership for everyone and pushed for less restrictive credit and lower down payments to qualify for mortgage loans. Banks were pressured to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit was generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. President Bill Clinton’s Secretary for Housing and Urban Development, Andrew Cuomo, helped lead the way for the mortgage meltdown by ratcheting up federal affordable-housing mandates. Cuomo and the Department of Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD) forced the Federal National Mortgage Association ("Fannie Mae") and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation ("Freddie Mac") to buy more sub-prime mortgages, as part of Cuomo’s efforts to increase the number of minority home owners. Strict regulations forced lenders into high-risk areas with lower lending standards. These high-risk loans forced banks to abandon sound business practices. They had to make the loans or face stiff government penalties.

So President Clinton’s acceleration of the Community Redevelopment Act and Cuomo’s help in implementation created the market for the risky subprime loans that Democrats now decry as greedy and predatory – it was all the fault of those big, bad bankers … and Bush!

Adding fuel to the fire were Freddie and Fannie, both of which underwrote a plethora of risky home mortgages to buyers who couldn’t repay them.

Barney Frank and Chris Dodd were also knee deep in the middle of this fiasco. To initiate controls over Fannie and Freddie, then-Rep. Richard Baker proposed a bill in 2000 to reform Fannie and Freddie's oversight. Rep. Frank of Massachusetts, who is the House Banking Committee chairman, opposed this legislation to provide oversight in 2000 (when Clinton was still president), saying the legislation and concern about Fannie and Freddie was "overblown."

Of note is that even the Government Accountability Office recommended reform of Freddie and Fannie in a 2004 report.

In 2005, Sen. Chuck Hagel introduced the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005 (S.190), designed to establish a single, independent regulatory body with jurisdiction over Fannie and Freddie. Sen. John McCain became a cosponsor of S.190 in 2006, but Democrats blocked these reforms, too. At the time, Barney Frank said that Fannie and Freddie posed no risk to taxpayers.

Senator Christopher Dodd, who heads the Senate Banking Committee, along with Frank, consistently blocked efforts to rein in Fannie and Freddie. Dodd also got preferential treatment from Countrywide, one of the largest subprime loan providers, on two mortgages. Both Dodd and Frank also received campaign contributions from Fannie and Freddie.

According to OpenSecrets.com, from 1989 to 2008, Dodd was the number one recipient of Fannie and Freddie campaign contributions at $165,400, followed by Barack Obama, who received $126,349 in contributions after being elected to the Senate in 2004.

In addition to those mentioned above, there are plenty of others to blame for the crisis. The Federal Reserve cut interest rates after the dot-com meltdown, consumers obliged themselves of the easy loans and bought homes way beyond their means, real estate agents saw higher commissions and encouraged buyers to get into those more expensive homes, mortgage brokers offered the subprime adjustable rate loans with low initial payments, Wall Street firms bundled the risky loans into mortgage-backed securities, ACORN intimidated banks to give risky mortgages and Barack Obama represented ACORN in lawsuits against banks to force them to lower credit standards.

While President Bush foresaw the dangers posed by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and called as early as 2002 for greater regulation of the two, he could have done more to curb excesses in the housing market, more to police Wall Street and more to roll back the Clinton easy mortgage measures.

The saga continued as Bush signed into law the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) that allowed the United States Department of the Treasury to purchase or insure up to $700 Billion of "troubled assets” to address the subprime mortgage crisis. In doing so, he said, “I’ve abandoned free market principles to save the free market system.” Oh, our founders were surely turning in their graves!

To make matters worse, the TARP fund has become a perpetual piggy bank for the Obama administration and Congress, and the program was a no-strings-attached windfall that was used by financial institutions to pay down debt, acquire other businesses or invest for the future or in overseas interests rather than in jobs and programs to help our economy. TARP emboldened Obama and Congress to keep up the spending spree with the porkulus $800 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and other bills that have now pushed U.S. debt over $13 trillion.

All of this and the continuing failed policies of the Obama administration have just made the economic situation worse and postponed the inevitable bottoming out of the economy stopping the market from correcting itself. Government intervention started this whole mess back in the Carter administration and has continued to make it worse. Our founders based this nation on a free market and every time throughout history that government has intervened rather than let the free market prevail, it has made the situation worse and prolonged the pain.

The lesson in all this is that we have ventured away from our founding principles of limited government and we desperately need to return to those principles. Further, we shouldn’t believe the campaign rhetoric on either side. Listen, but verify. Do your research on what all politicians stand for and look at the record of their actions. If there is no record, don’t fall for the hope and change message or imprint your own hopes and dreams on them. Get to the bottom of their true ideology and beliefs. Be an educated voter.

A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government. ~Thomas Jefferson

The following are some interesting videos featuring some of the cast of characters who facilitated the meltdown.

America is a Republic

2010-08-08T15:04:00.000-07:00

There’s a reason that Article IV Section 4 of the Constitution states: "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican form of Government, ….

There’s a reason that our Pledge of Allegiance says, “and to the Republic for which it stands.”

Our founding fathers set forth our government as a Republic and they were very deliberate in their efforts to not put the word democracy in the Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution.

For posterity, they gave us also the Federalist Papers to explain their actions in crafting our founding documents. James Madison, known as the father of our Constitution, wrote in The Federalist Papers, No. 10, "Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property, and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths". He went on to explain that a republic was the cure that they were seeking, a cure from the tyranny of a king as the Declaration charged, "… has abdicated government here ... He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns and destroyed the lives of our people.”

Many people falsely believe that our form of government is a democracy or a representative democracy. For the past 100 years or so, there are those who have tried to rewrite history and would have people believe that America was created as a democracy. Our founders were fearful of a democracy and wanted neither this nor a monarchy.

The government in a democracy is by the people or a rule of the majority. The power resides with the people and can be exercised by them either directly or indirectly. In a republic, the ultimate power rests in the citizens, but it is exercised by a body of elected representatives. The governance in a republic is according to the laws of the land. However, in a democracy, the will of the majority prevails and it can be based upon deliberation or governed by passions, prejudices, impulses or special interests with no restraints or consideration of the consequences.

It is only fitting that the first installment of the Republic Roots blog explains that America was founded as a republic. In the header of this blog, we include the quote from Benjamin Franklin, – the famous response he gave to a woman who asked as he exited the Constitutional Convention, “What have you given us?” “A republic if you can keep it,” Franklin replied.

Franklin knew that people, often in well-funded organizations or who are personal power seekers, would put their own interests above republican processes. The danger comes when people no longer know their history and founding principles.

Sadly, America has strayed from its republic roots. Congress and Presidents have repeatedly overstepped their bounds and assumed powers way beyond their constitutional limits.

Our founding fathers brilliantly set forth checks and balances in government that established it as a republic. Each branch can prevent the other from taking on too much authority. Another balance was states’ rights as expressed in the Tenth Amendment: “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.”

In our republic, of the three branches of our government - legislative, executive and judicial - only the legislative branch (the House of Representatives and Senate) is appointed by direct election. As originally outlined in the Constitution, members of the Senate were appointed by the state legislatures, a check and balance on the House that also provided for the interests of the states and a safeguard against demagoguery. That safeguard was overturned by the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, due to the misguided Progressive movement.

So here we are today with a legislature that rushes pork-laden bills through without even reading them. We have a House and Senate that ignore the will of the people, a President that has abused his executive powers rendering Congress irrelevant and activist judges that legislate from the bench.

America, we are at a crossroads again of deciding whether we want to maintain our liberty or acquiesce to a tyrannical government. Our best defense is to reaffirm ourselves to the brilliant governing documents written by our founders, educate ourselves about the processes and actions of government, watch our politicians like hawks and hold them accountable at the ballot box.

The words of our father of the Constitution, James Madison, still ring true today:

“A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.”

“Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.”

“The happy Union of these States is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world.”

Let us maintain our happy union, preserve our constitutional miracle and remain that beacon of hope and liberty for the world.