Thomas J. Basile:
When you analyze the public response to the State of the Union and the latest polling data, it’s clear that the President has lost a tremendous amount of credibility with the American public. I scarcely think he cares at this point. A tired, graying Barack Obama stood before Congress this week as a political figure, party leader, and progressive activist to make sure the Members understood one thing – he doesn’t need them. In fact, he hasn’t needed them in quite some time. After all, in his mind, it’s his government. True, the speech wasn’t as “in your face” as conservative pundits predicted. To have done so would have been even less Presidential than we are used to from this White House.
Everyone in the House Chamber knew something that the American people have yet to fully grasp and Republicans have yet to demonstrate an ability to combat – that their government has grown so large, so complex, so involved in virtually every aspect of their lives, that it is now being used as a weapon to by a small segment of the ruling political class.
The weaponization of government is happening and it’s time Americans took notice. For all the folks – primarily on the left – who screamed and yelled that the Patriot Act was shredding the Constitution, far more intrusive tactics that have nothing to do with the NSA or Homeland Security are being deployed right under our noses during this Administration. Those tactics reduce every Americans’ personal and economic freedom.
There is a dangerous arrogance of power among the President and senior-level Democrats that should concern every American.
Last week a senior United States Senator gave a speech stating that the IRS should be used to target and punish groups that disagree with the Democratic Party’s political agenda. Sen. Chuck Schumer stated, “…there are many things that can be done administratively by the IRS and other government agencies — we must redouble those efforts immediately.” Schumer was also one of a number of Democrat Senators who signed a 2012 letter to the IRS demanding they be more aggressive against conservative organizations. Sure, it was a story in primarily conservative media for a couple of days but no coordinated action between Republican elected officials and the conservative grassroots against Chuck Schumer is being contemplated. The Senate should be censuring him for suggesting that the IRS be used as a political weapon against conservative organizations. Americans, however, should be calling for his head.
Last year, Lois Lerner, the IRS’ former director of Tax Exempt Organizations, publicly acknowledged the political, predatory and punitive actions of the agency that led to the harassment and intimidation of conservative groups. Anyone who thinks that these IRS bureaucrats were acting solely in response to the Senators’ letter or of their own volition is kidding themselves. This strategy was deployed by a cunning White House and the community-organizer-in-chief who still understands Saul Alinksy’s rule number 10 – “The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition.”
The IRS scandal is well-known and the misuse of the agency by the Democrat Party machine is still apparently going on. However, the IRS is just one of dozens of other agencies under the control of this White House, many of which go unnoticed by the public and are virtually ignored by elected officials.
Thomas J. Basile:
Some Americans have grasped this.
Take Colorado’s pot laws.
The government is so big and so busy with bigger fish and complexities that the entire state is flouting federal law.
*Even were the feds to prosecute Coloradan pot sellers, which Colorado jury in a federal court there would find them guilty?
Not one.
*I pointed out some time ago how many of Obama’s federal rebate programs have been used as payment in full for things like weatherization and such when the aim was to have homeowners pay much more (a la Davis/Bacon Act). A business can make a tidy living simply on the rebates!
*Last example of people getting it and doing a work-around Obama and his intrusions and taxes is the increase in ”under-the-table” business. It was estimated that, in Los Angeles County, fully 1/4 of the ”velocity of money,” (the times the same dollar changes hands in a year) is done in illegal business! This isn’t all drugs and prostitutes in LACounty. It also includes illegal food vendors, illegal tire businesses, car repairers, roofers, painters, handyman workers, house cleaners and even nannies.
So, maybe Republicans aren’t saying this is how to do it…..it might be unwise to openly do so.
But there is a robust underground economy, pushing to the surface in places like Colorado, and no government is going to stop it.
Screw big government “Progressives” of both parties. The only viable solution to the tyranny of today’s all powerful intrusive government is to vote for TEA Party supported candidates.
Whoa, the tin foil hats are on tight tonight. Lol!
@This one:
You really don’t have to announce yourself.
Since the members of congress haven’t fixed hardly any national problem for many years, no matter which party is in office, and since the members of congress only want more power and more money, we need to get rid of ALL of them, and start over. Pretend they are crates of tea, and THROW THEM IN BOSTON HARBOR (or the Potomac). It worked the first time.