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The Second Declaration Of Independence
Investor's Business Daily
September 11, 2010
By Ernest S. Christian and Gary A. Robbins
The historic rebellion that is stirring the
minds and moving the hearts of Americans is peaceful and high-minded.
It is led by patriots and aimed at restoring America to its
authentic condition of excellence and freedom. And it is as
inevitable and welcome as the triumph of good over evil. Smart
also always beats dumb.
Those who now lord it over us from their high
perches in Washington will lose. No more princely perks and
prerogatives. No more constantly poking at us, insisting on
telling us what to do, say and think. And no more ruining
our economy. Having rid ourselves of them and their impedimenta,
the rest of us will rise victorious.
We the people stand on the elevated foundation granted by
our Creator - individual dignity, Anglo-Saxon freedoms, economic
enterprise and limited government. Renewal of these quintessentially
American characteristics will be the first flowering of the
post-Washington, Obama-free era that is to come. Washington
is today a human and systemic failure that is destroying us
from within. Its profligate spending is undermining the dollar
- and, according to the International Monetary Fund, it is
risking a U.S. sovereign debt crisis. According to Lenin,
"There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the
existing basis of society than debauching the currency."
The eminent Samuel Huntington observed that Washington is
- through the Third World orientation of its immigration policies
- deliberately destroying the linguistic, cultural and creedal
glue that defines and holds the nation together. Research
by Harvard professor Robert Putnam associates high levels
of government-created "diversity" with civic dissonance
and decline.
Washington makes tax slaves out of one in four Americans,
forcing them to pay nearly all the income tax while others
pay little or none. It taxes too heavily in the dumbest way
possible that does the maximum economic damage (about $3 for
every $1 of tax collected), costing everyone jobs and incomes.
Taxation is an economic poison that spreads quickly.
And when government spends a dollar, the economic benefit
is typically between zero and 60 cents, thereby digging the
hole still deeper with a loss on each transaction. No wonder
"stimulus" doesn't work.
Washington discriminates among us according to race and gender,
takes our money and property and gives it to union bosses
and other friends on its political Facebook, and by forcing
us to fill out millions of government forms, annually confiscates
10 billion hours of our time.
It invades our schools, raises costs, messes with students'
minds and morals, and lowers educational quality. It scorns
and interferes with traditional Americans in the exercise
of their religion - and it forces everyone to fight through
a jungle of federal regulations just to live our daily lives.
Washington has by fiat reduced the earnings on our savings
accounts to near zero and given the differential to banks
and speculators. It has taken $2.5 trillion out of our Social
Security Trust Fund and "replaced" the money with
federal IOUs that it can pay only by imposing additional taxes
on us. What a cruel hoax.
A soon-to-be-published analysis of historical data (by Gary
and Aldona Robbins) shows how government ineptitude has for
decades been increasing the price of health care. ObamaCare
is the final atrocity. It will not be tolerated.
Washington constantly intervenes in our free-market economy,
cannibalizing vital parts and impairing its ability to provide
jobs and raise living standards. Adam Smith's "invisible
hand" of commerce and trade may soon stop altogether.
Absent that productive genius, what will we do then? Rely
on government? What a hoot. Washington is broke and produces
nothing.
The Great Recession tells us that government is better at
creating problems (such as deficits, debt, unemployment and
the housing bubble) than it is at providing solutions. And
President Obama proves daily that profligate spending really
is a sin: It kills jobs.
Instead of apologizing to the world for America, Obama should
apologize to us. His administration seems unfortunately to
have lost both its economic mind and its moral compass.
Immediate personnel changes in Washington are imperative
- but the only sure way to "fix" Washington is similar
to the eponymous veterinarian procedure performed on stray
dogs and cats. This is the remedy favored by the Andrew Jackson
wing of the Tea Party, an authentic American political tradition
that is suspicious of authority and intolerant of cant and
conceit.
Voters of a gentler persuasion are also now looking askance
at Washington and demanding fundamental change. At the next
election, we the people will all rise up like Gulliver, brush
aside the Lilliputians and declare America's independence
from Washington. Then we will all sit down together around
the national kitchen table and decide how we can best govern
ourselves.
- Christian, an attorney, was a deputy assistant
secretary of the Treasury in the Ford administration.
- Robbins, an economist, served at the Treasury Department
in the Reagan administration.
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