The Second Amendment: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the
security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms,
shall not be infringed."
----------------------------------------------------
in·fringe /inˈfrinj/ Verb
1) Actively break the terms of (a law, agreement, etc.): "infringe a copyright".
2) Act so as to limit or undermine (something); encroach on: "infringe on his privacy".
Synonyms
violate - transgress - break - contravene - trespass
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It is obvious that every act currently being taken by Sen. Feinstein and
her Liberals cohorts (regardless of party) is aimed at infringing on
Second Amendment rights. Background checks - infringement. Banning of
firearms - infringement. Limiting weapon magazine ammunition capacity -
infringement. Prohibiting weapon characteristics or features -
infringement. Our Founders used plain, simple language, not legalistic
gobbledygook. It doesn't take a lawyer or the Supreme Court to see that
these acts are unconstitutional and illegal. If Americans don't wake
up, soon any rights they have will be limited to the point of
eradication.
Stand strong, Patriots! No Compromise, No Surrender!
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Procrastination - How to Bankrupt a Nation
Food for Thought: Procrastination rarely produces good results,
especially when it has negative consequences while procrastination
occurs. This continues to be the case with our National Budget. Rather than deal with the hard choices of cutting out unnecessary spending so that we only spend what we have, our Congress continues a decades old strategy of kicking the can down the road to let future legislators deal with the problem. As a result, The National Debt is now in excess of $16 Trillion. $4 Trillion of that was added during eight years of the Bush administration. the last $6 Trillion has been added in only 4 years of the Obama administration. The Federal Government (Congress) has been borrowing in excess of $1 Trillion per year just to pay for the nice to have, and in most cases, unnecessary programs.
Right now, "Entitlement Programs" eat up the majority of Federal spending. Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security—along with other entitlements such as food stamps, unemployment, and housing assistance— make up 62 percent of all federal spending. What is an entitlement program? Per www.wiseGEEK.org:
"An entitlement program can be defined as a governmental mechanism where public funds are given to people because they meet some kind of requirement. One commonly known American example of an entitlement program would be the federal food stamp program, which allows people without sufficient funds to buy food. Another well-known entitlement program is Medicare, although only certain parts of that program actually qualify as entitlements.
There are some common misconceptions related to the definition of an entitlement program. Many people believe that any program where the government gives people money is an entitlement program, but this is not the case. For example, people actually give money to the Social Security program during their years of work, so they are actually paying to gain access to that program, and it doesn’t necessarily qualify as an entitlement. Medicare is similar, although there are actually parts of both programs that could technically be called entitlement program elements.
An example of Medicare and Social Security being used as entitlement programs would be when someone is disabled and they can’t work. People in this situation are given access to Social Security funds, along with government medical insurance. These people don’t actually have to pay into the program to get a benefit, and this is what separates them from normal Medicare and Social Security recipients.
There has been a political firestorm over entitlement programs in the United States. Many people on the right-wing side of the political spectrum are strongly opposed to any kind of entitlement program. They believe that they ultimately cause people to become more reliant on government, and that could potentially harm society. People on the left-wing side of the political spectrum have the opposite view. They think that the government should be spending significantly more money on entitlement programs as a way to help the needy.
Some entitlement programs can be very expensive for a government to maintain in the long term. In order to keep entitlement programs going, governments are often forced to raise taxes and reduce spending in other areas such as military defense or scientific research. Once the government sets up some kind of entitlement program, it is usually politically very difficult to reduce spending on it, and it is often politically impossible to remove it. Those on both sides of the political spectrum often look for ways to reduce the price of these programs so that they can avoid increasing taxes, which is also politically unpopular."
There are two real problems with "Entitlement Programs." The first is that NONE of these programs are included as an enumerated power granted to the Federal Government by the U.S. Constitution. That means that they belong with the States and the People. The second is that with any program you are only "Entitled" what you put into the program plus a reasonable amount of interest for the time the contributions were held. Running a program in any other way is economically unsound and doomed to failure. When a program pays out money to individuals that did not contribute to the program or pays out more money to a participant that what they contributed plus reasonable interest, THE MONEY RUNS OUT! When this happens, people who contributed but have not yet collected benefits are cheated of their portion.
“Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated.” -Thomas Jefferson
“To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.” -Thomas Jefferson, letter to Joseph Milligan, April 6, 1816
"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. In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer." Benjamin Franklin, On the Price of Corn and Management of the Poor, November 1766
"In 1794, when Congress appropriated $15,000 for relief of French refugees who fled from insurrection in San Domingo to Baltimore and Philadelphia, James Madison stood on the floor of the House to object saying, “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”" -James Madison, 4 Annals of congress 179 (1794)
Until this Government, especially Congress, gets realistic on managing the budget to annual intake of revenues, every financial transaction will drive us closer to the financial bankruptcy of our nation. That event isn't far away. We must force our representatives in Congress to go back to basics. What IS the Government supposed to do at the Federal level as dictated by the Constitution? What Federal functions currently existing DO NOT match that list in the Constitution? What departments of the Federal Government must be eliminated to match Constitutional enumeration of powers? What is the Federal Government doing that rightfully belongs with the States or The People? We must force Congress to do this and shackle them to only those functions and only that spending. If it happens in time, we may be saved. If it does not, the United States as we know it will crumble within this decade. Plans that promise to balance the budget in 10 years will not solve our problem in time.
Stand strong, Patriots! No Compromise, No Surrender!
Right now, "Entitlement Programs" eat up the majority of Federal spending. Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security—along with other entitlements such as food stamps, unemployment, and housing assistance— make up 62 percent of all federal spending. What is an entitlement program? Per www.wiseGEEK.org:
"An entitlement program can be defined as a governmental mechanism where public funds are given to people because they meet some kind of requirement. One commonly known American example of an entitlement program would be the federal food stamp program, which allows people without sufficient funds to buy food. Another well-known entitlement program is Medicare, although only certain parts of that program actually qualify as entitlements.
There are some common misconceptions related to the definition of an entitlement program. Many people believe that any program where the government gives people money is an entitlement program, but this is not the case. For example, people actually give money to the Social Security program during their years of work, so they are actually paying to gain access to that program, and it doesn’t necessarily qualify as an entitlement. Medicare is similar, although there are actually parts of both programs that could technically be called entitlement program elements.
An example of Medicare and Social Security being used as entitlement programs would be when someone is disabled and they can’t work. People in this situation are given access to Social Security funds, along with government medical insurance. These people don’t actually have to pay into the program to get a benefit, and this is what separates them from normal Medicare and Social Security recipients.
There has been a political firestorm over entitlement programs in the United States. Many people on the right-wing side of the political spectrum are strongly opposed to any kind of entitlement program. They believe that they ultimately cause people to become more reliant on government, and that could potentially harm society. People on the left-wing side of the political spectrum have the opposite view. They think that the government should be spending significantly more money on entitlement programs as a way to help the needy.
Some entitlement programs can be very expensive for a government to maintain in the long term. In order to keep entitlement programs going, governments are often forced to raise taxes and reduce spending in other areas such as military defense or scientific research. Once the government sets up some kind of entitlement program, it is usually politically very difficult to reduce spending on it, and it is often politically impossible to remove it. Those on both sides of the political spectrum often look for ways to reduce the price of these programs so that they can avoid increasing taxes, which is also politically unpopular."
There are two real problems with "Entitlement Programs." The first is that NONE of these programs are included as an enumerated power granted to the Federal Government by the U.S. Constitution. That means that they belong with the States and the People. The second is that with any program you are only "Entitled" what you put into the program plus a reasonable amount of interest for the time the contributions were held. Running a program in any other way is economically unsound and doomed to failure. When a program pays out money to individuals that did not contribute to the program or pays out more money to a participant that what they contributed plus reasonable interest, THE MONEY RUNS OUT! When this happens, people who contributed but have not yet collected benefits are cheated of their portion.
“Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated.” -Thomas Jefferson
“To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.” -Thomas Jefferson, letter to Joseph Milligan, April 6, 1816
"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. In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer." Benjamin Franklin, On the Price of Corn and Management of the Poor, November 1766
"In 1794, when Congress appropriated $15,000 for relief of French refugees who fled from insurrection in San Domingo to Baltimore and Philadelphia, James Madison stood on the floor of the House to object saying, “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”" -James Madison, 4 Annals of congress 179 (1794)
Until this Government, especially Congress, gets realistic on managing the budget to annual intake of revenues, every financial transaction will drive us closer to the financial bankruptcy of our nation. That event isn't far away. We must force our representatives in Congress to go back to basics. What IS the Government supposed to do at the Federal level as dictated by the Constitution? What Federal functions currently existing DO NOT match that list in the Constitution? What departments of the Federal Government must be eliminated to match Constitutional enumeration of powers? What is the Federal Government doing that rightfully belongs with the States or The People? We must force Congress to do this and shackle them to only those functions and only that spending. If it happens in time, we may be saved. If it does not, the United States as we know it will crumble within this decade. Plans that promise to balance the budget in 10 years will not solve our problem in time.
Stand strong, Patriots! No Compromise, No Surrender!
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