DEATH OF DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA
by Bill Keith
The “We the People” in the Preamble to the U. S. Constitution sets the stage for a democracy in this land that, as Abraham Lincoln affirmed is “of the people, by the people and for the people.”
But the term “We the People” has become a big joke to those in Washington where many of our leaders believe it should read, “We the Politicians.” What we have in this land is freedom for our government and excessive rules, regulations and taxation for the people. Every day a little more of our freedom is being stolen from us by those in Washington who say they want to take care of us.
Historians have documented that there is a strong relationship between government and individual freedoms for as government grows, human freedom and happiness declines. Bestselling author Dennis Prager puts it this way: “The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen.” This has been true in Europe for decades and today is becoming ever more evident in the United States.
Today in Washington we have an administration and congress that are masters of the Shell Game on the Potomac. They dance to the Potomac Two-Step or the Beltway Boogie but won’t admit that our land is in financial jeopardy because of runaway spending and, hence, have no desire to fix it. Under their leadership, the American Dream has become the American Nightmare. They assume they can dictate to We the People while ignoring our wishes. Hence, the death of democracy in America. (Continued at end of Report)
BIG NEWS FOR ALL READERS OF THE BILL KEITH REPORT
Ray Mossholder, my friend and mentor from Fort Worth, Texas, has opened the door for the Bill Keith Report to be made available to readers in 41 states and 40 foreign countries. Previously, we had readers in only 23 states, four foreign countries and the District of Columbia. Ray, a prodigious writer and editor, has placed the Report on his very informative website reachmorenow.com. I encourage everyone to read his daily news reports written from a Christian perspective. He also has four YouTube channels.
Our Readers Write
“Another mind-numbing editorial, Bill! I was horror stricken when I first heard the news about the U.S. returning troop size to pre-WWII levels. Have the American People such short memories they can’t recall how ill prepared we were in 1942? It was only because of “the greatest generation” that we enjoy the (now vanishing) liberties we enjoy, and that we continue to speak English instead of German or Japanese. It’s scary. And the nerve of those politicians to take away military benefits, the ONLY government spending program that seems never to have been abused!” M. M. in Tyler, Texas
“You may be partially correct regarding why homosexual men become priests. The greater likelihood is that seminaries and the priesthood are places where homosexual men can remain single without people inquiring about it. Further, single men can be around other single men and no one thinks anything about it. Knowledgeable people know pedophilia — men attracted to children — is a different matter. But homosexual priests hitting on adolescent altar boys is not pedophilia. It is inevitable that some gay priests will become bishops and perhaps even cardinals, where they continue to ‘look out’ after other gays. The church suffers enormously as a result of this assault from within, but yes, the issue is with the individual, not the church. Incidentally, homosexuality among clergy is found in Protestant churches too, and also the teaching profession, in percentages that are not that different from the Catholic priesthood. ~~ Anonymous
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One Tough Mama. You don’t want to mess with this mom!
A Detroit woman surprised a trio of armed teen thugs when they came to try and rob her house. Instead of sitting back and watching them steal her valuables, she locked and loaded her rifle and shot at them as they ran out of the house as fast as they could run.
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Lest We Forget
We idolized, memorialized and loved singer Whitney Houston, whose story was all over the news yet we looked the other way concerning her well-known substance abuse that took her life.
Actor Charlie Sheen is 45 and his story is all over the news because he is a substance abuser, sexually promiscuous and obnoxious.
Actress Lindsay Lohan is 24 and her story is all over the news because she is a celebrity substance abuser and convicted thief.
But you probably have never heard the following names for they no doubt received only a two-paragraph article in their local newspapers:
Justin Allen, 23; Brett Linley, 29; Matthew Weikert, 29; Justus Bartett, 27; Dave Santos 21; Jesse Reed, 26; Matthew Johnson, 21; Zachary Fisher, 24; Brandon King, 23; Christopher Goeke, 23; and Sheldon Tate, 27.
All of these young men were U. S. Marines who died in Afghanistan last month, sent by our government to protect the freedom of the Afghan people and fight terrorism.
Who’s in Charge in Washington?
The District of Columbia’s Tuition Assistance Grant (TAG) program has failed to account for millions of taxpayer dollars, according to Patriot Update. An audit reveals the District received $240 million but can only account for $10 million. TAG provides up to $50,000 a year to help students and families pay for college.
Congress has allotted at least $30 million annually since 2006. But apparently D.C. officials have no documentation of how the remaining $230 million was spent.
Comment: Same song, second verse — There is little to no accountability in Washington as to how We the People’s tax money is being spent. It’s obvious that there is fraud in this case but no one in Washington seems to care and nothing is ever done about it. And taxpayers continue their “sleep walk” and say, “Oh, that’s just Washington and nothing can be done about it.” Really?
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Efforts to overhaul California’s public pension system are getting a boost as taxpayers voice outrage over a former sheriff who asked a court for $75,000 more a year in retirement pay — on top of his current annual pension of $276,000.
Comment: Could this be one of the reasons California has perennial financial problems even with one of the highest tax rates in America, especially on businesses?
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Crooks robbed a pizza delivery driver at gunpoint, stole his cash and his car. They next day the driver was fired.
U. S. spent $3.7 trillion on welfare the past five years.
Welfare in the United States is one of the most divisive programs in our culture. Liberals/progressives say we need more. Conservatives say less.
Here are some facts that hopefully will dispel the recurring myths about welfare. I am well aware that whenever anyone talks or writes about welfare reform, critics immediately say, “You want to starve grandma who is already eating dog food,” or “You want to take milk away from little babies.”
Let’s take a closer look. There are 126 active federal anti-poverty programs today, according to Forbes Magazine. U. S. taxpayers spent $3.7 trillion on welfare the past five years.
“Things had gotten so bad that a Democratic presidential candidate, Bill Clinton, campaigned in 1992 on a platform to ‘end welfare as we know it, to make welfare a second chance, not a way of life,’” Forbes noted. “In 1996, Clinton signed into law a landmark welfare-reform bill called the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, which, among other things, required recipients of cash welfare payments to seek work, or lose their benefits.”
Of course last year, President Barack Obama cancelled the requirement that welfare recipients seek work or lose their benefits.
Forbes pointed to a new study by the Cato Institute that in 2013, welfare recipients received the equivalent of more than $10 an hour in 33 states.
Hawaii had the highest welfare benefits equivalent payments of $60,590 per year since said payments are tax free. That adds up to $29.13 per hour of work for the welfare family.
According to Forbes, Washington D. C. welfare recipients received $50,820 or $24.43 per hour; Massachusetts $50,540 or $24.30; Connecticut $44,370 or $21.33; and New York $43,700 or $21.01. All other states paid less, and some much less.
There is a new book entitled Understanding Poverty in the United States –Surprising Facts About America’s Poor by Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield. Here are some surprises for us all as reported by Patriot Update
Eighty percent of poor households in the U. S. have air conditioning.
Almost 75 percent of poor households have a car or truck and more than 30 percent have more than one car or truck.
More than 60 percent of poor households have either cable or satellite television;
Forty-two percent of poor households own their homes.
The poor in America on average have larger homes than the middle and upper class people in France, Great Britain and Sweden.
“Liberal politicians have redefined poverty in America and now provide so many entitlements for those who are called poor that for many poverty is no longer an unwanted circumstance to overcome but a way of life to perpetuate,” Patriot Update points out. “The bulk of poverty in America can be traced back to several predictable factors including drugs, high school dropout rates, illiteracy, illegitimacy, violence, and crime, all of which involve bad choices. In other words, for many people living in poverty, the condition is a self-inflicted wound.”
However, as Patriot Update points out, politicians — both democrats and republicans “continue to throw good money after bad to support people who perpetually live destructive lives, people who not only refuse to do anything positive to work their way out of poverty but who have no desire to. They are comfortable with their circumstances, a fact for which we can thank the federal government and both parties in Congress.”
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Remember the California couple that discovered $10 million worth of gold coins in their back yard last year? The first reports indicated they would have to pay nearly half that amount in federal and state income tax, regardless of whether they sell the coins. Now it appears the feds want it all claiming the coins originally were stolen from a federal mint.
Comment: Are there no statutes of limitations on anything anymore?
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Death of Democracy –a Commentary, continued. Most of our states — with the exception of New England and the West Coast — have tried to get rid of pornography. But federal judges say the Constitution guarantees a man’s right to publish or read anything he desires. When any of us speak out against this perversion, the TV anchors and editorial writers in the major newspapers call us extremists and bigots. Hence, the judges win, the majority of the people lose.
There is supposed to be a remedy for oppressive, intrusive federal government. It’s known as the Tenth Amendment whereby sovereign states are aligned with, but not controlled by, the federal government. I believe this is what the original framers of the Constitution had in mind when they debated the delegation of authority, some to the government, but most to the states. Now it’s turned upside down and Washington controls nearly everything we do and makes us pay a terrible price through taxation and hundreds of laws created to control our lives.
For instance, let’s look at the subject of Amnesty for the 11 million (some believe 20 million) illegal aliens in this land. A majority of the American people oppose such amnesty. But that doesn’t seem to matter to those in Washington who want to force amnesty on us whether we like it or not.
What about healthcare? Again, a large majority of the American people want to keep healthcare as it is. We the people are more intelligent than those in Washington think we are. For instance, Social Security and Medicare are broke and racing toward bankruptcy. Those in charge of Medicare report they lose $50 billion a year but they don’t even know where the money is going. So millions of Americans now are asking: “If the federal government can’t run Social Security or Medicare, why on earth would we want to trust them to run anything?” Perhaps that is why a solid majority of Americans opposed the national healthcare law.
Also, consider the issue of same-sex marriage. The people of 36 states have passed referendums defining marriage as between one man and one woman. Just this week a federal judge struck down the Texas law saying it is unconstitutional. So the people lose again.
The Congress (with only a 12 percent approval rating with the American people) and the White House have burdened us with unsustainable national debt and our government is literally drowning in red ink. The American people overwhelmingly favor a balanced budget whereby government lives within the framework of the $250 billion the American people send them in taxes each month. President Clinton balanced the budget years ago. Why can’t we do it today?
Certain groups are working night and day to find a way to take our guns away from us. But again the vast majority of the people believe in the Second Amendment and decry government’s efforts to take our guns away. Remember that King George of England once tried that and it cost him his fat butt.
The tragedy is not that we have a President and congressmen who are indifferent to the will of the majority of American people but that the American people are asleep. We relinquish the mandate of “We the People” to the politicians and they continue to get reelected by people who refuse to write a letter, send an email, make a phone call or vote to get rid of the politician who acts like he/she is a member of the ruling class rather than the serving class.
We are tired of runaway spending.
Tired of government trampling on the First Amendment rights of religion.
Tired of government at the highest level accepting perversion.
Tired of NSA spying on the news media; Benghazi; and gun-running to drug cartels in Mexico.
Tired of paying for welfare and food stamps for millions of illegals in this land.
Tired of business owners being told they must provide abortion-inducing drugs for their employees.
Tired of government waste that CBO says is $100 billion a year.
But I think that perhaps we have been asleep too long.
THE BILL KEITH REPORT AND COMMENTARY – March 7, 2014