Our nation will spend more than $40 trillion over the next ten years with at least $15 trillion in deficit spending, while Congress is arguing about how to reduce that deficit by all of 8% – really?  With this nonsense debate going on, Mr. Obama has abdicated his presidency and is now campaigning for reelection on a full-time basis.  The rest of the world, meanwhile, is simply falling apart.

The Muslim Brotherhood is coming to power in Egypt, Iran is moving deliberately toward nuclear armament and Europe is proving that socialist democracies will fall at their own hand.  In the midst of this turmoil, the media has our people focusing on why the top 1% paying 50% of all federal taxes falls short of “their fair share” and why entitlements and government needs to keep growing.  We are missing the point – eliminate the noise and the real debate is simply whether our children live free or for the benefit of the state?

Let’s forget all the facts and figures about our growing debt and the increasing involvement of government in our lives and focus on the fundamental definition of liberty: liberty is the freedom from arbitrary control; it is freedom to exercise the unalienable rights endowed upon us by our Creator; it is freedom from oppressive power exerted by government; and it is freedom from all forms of tyranny.  While people demand that their neighbors who may be better off economically should be ordered – by law – to share their success with them, what they are really promoting is the ascendancy of the state over the people.  What they are missing is that they are demanding the suppression of liberty for their neighbors, themselves and their own children.

The systematic destruction of our economic strength through increased regulation, increased taxation on the job creators, a 50% increase in the national debt in just the last three years and an equal increase in the dependency on foreign governments to fund our debt has turned our nation upside down.  We have gone from the world’s last hope to a sideshow and find our great country powerless to help prevent ally nations from economic decline and powerless to stop the rise of tyrannical regimes.

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President Obama and the Democratic Party effectively turned every controversial issue they faced over the past three years into a potential crisis, and convinced the American people to support their solutions without question to avert presumed dire consequences.  Important works of legislation capable of changing the American way of life were passed on the basis of “we have to pass this now – or else!”  Mr. Obama is preparing to face the nation again with another speech that will proclaim urgency and use panic to get his legislative desires passed.  We need to recognize what has been going on and put a stop to it.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the stimulus bill, was quickly passed by the Democratic controlled House and Senate without real debate in order to keep the unemployment rate from rising above 8%.  With unemployment at 9.1%, and over 17% when considering all those who stopped looking for work or are working part-time, that crisis was not averted.  All the stimulus bill did was to spend $800 billion of tax payer money to pay government workers salaries for one year and for a few temporary road construction projects.  The law did not provide any incentive for self-sustaining employment and our economy is now facing another recession.

The Patient Protection and Affordability Act of 2010, Obamacare, was crammed through the Democratic controlled House and Senate against overwhelming protests by the American people. All this ideologically designed legislation accomplished, with over 2,700 pages and the creation of 159 new bureaucracies, was to create uncertainty for employers and push up the cost of health care insurance.

The recently passed Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, the last piece of hastily formed legislation passed by the Democratic controlled House and Senate before the November  2010 election shifted power in the House to the Republicans, is an empty bill passed for political purposes leaving its substance to regulations yet to be written.  Our nation’s banking system is now paralyzed by the uncertainty of what will be in those regulations.

From Cash for Clunkers to cash for Solyndra, everything this administration does is preceded by “pass it now, there is no time for debate.”  Economic conditions are difficult for most Americans and with 14 million citizens unemployed and an estimated 25 million Americans in total who are unemployed or under-employed, families are hurting and it would be easy to proclaim a crisis and cause panic.

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Candidate Obama said he would “transform the Untied States of America” and unfortunately this is the one promise he kept.  Two and one half years into his presidency, the National Debt has climbed to 100% of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the first time since World War II; GDP growth for the first six months of this year has been a meager 0.8%; we continue to run a $1.5 trillion annual deficit, essentially growing the Debt by 10% versus the 0.8% GDP growth; 25 million Americans are unemployed, under-employed or have dropped out of the work force; 45 million Americans are on food stamps; and now Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has downgraded our country’s credit rating from AAA to AA+ for the first time in our history.  America has truly been transformed!

I could add to this list a number of foreign policy decisions that have elevated our enemies and trashed our long-time allies, but the economic failures of this president are more striking and more easily understood.  His $900 billion economic stimulus bill did little more than pay the salaries of state workers for one year and increased the Debt.  His re-distributive one-time programs of cash for clunkers and mortgage-restructuring failed and added to the Debt.  The overbearing healthcare legislation, that the Congressional Budget Office now says will increase the cost of healthcare, did nothing but create uncertainty for business.  Massive new and restrictive regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Congress, when under full Democratic control, has forced private capital to the sidelines and almost completely stalled economic growth.  These are only some examples of Mr. Obama’s transformation of our country.

S&P warned us several months ago that our credit rating was in danger of a downgrade and pointed to the lack of leadership in Washington, D.C. as the main problem.  Mr. Obama still does not get it.  His reaction to the weak GDP growth and recent slide in the equities markets was to blame the earthquake in Japan, the economic problems in Europe and the uprisings that formed the Arab Spring.  His supporters are already saying publicly that Obama inherited a situation that was “worse than we thought.” Translation – blame former President Bush.  Mr. Obama will not take responsibility for a failing economy that he has managed since January of 2009 and it is this clear lack of leadership that is at the root of S&P’s downgrade.

The truth is that Mr. Obama’s socialist experiment of hyper-spending has done nothing more than add $4.5 trillion, or 45%, to the Debt since taking office.  He has over regulated the economy into a private sector coma.  It is time for real leadership and a return to free market capitalism. S&P made that clear with its downgrade.

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Just one week ago on Sunday, June 19^th, we were reminded once again that our God given right to life, as declared in the Declaration of Independence, is meaningless without the right to self-defense.  That day, Father’s Day, a terrible tragedy took place in a Medford, New York pharmacy when an armed robber shot and murdered four innocent people.

Imagine yourself in that pharmacy.  You are facing an obvious threat from a man with a gun.  You cannot retreat because the gunman is too close.  You have no weapon, because the State of New York has made it extremely difficult to posses any sort of a weapon, and certainly not a gun.  Hence, your only means of self-defense is to plead for compassion from a soulless thug.  At that point, with your right to life materially impaired by the government restricting your right to self-defense, you simply die.

Gun law advocates are undoubtedly ready to demand more control of firearms, and argue that citizens should rely on the police.  They are missing the point.  Had those innocent victims in the Medford Pharmacy managed to call the police and had the police responded within minutes, all four would still have been killed because the robber acted within seconds.  The painful meaning of the phrase, “when seconds count, the police are minutes away” was all too clear on June 19^th.

For decades the National Rifle Association, gun rights advocates in general and especially hunters have worked hard to prevent gun laws from becoming too restrictive.  Their argument is the Second Amendment and its words proclaiming, “…the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”  For all their fine work, these groups are also missing the point.  Guns, knives, batons and other tools of defense are only tools.  It is the right to self-defense that has been under attack all this time.

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Even if you agree that Congress should have the right to order a citizen to purchase health care insurance on the basis of the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution, you need to consider how this will expand the powers of the federal government to mandate other actions that you, your children and future generations may have to comply with.  Consider a party in power that disagrees with your ideology and imposes mandates on you to take actions opposite of your beliefs.  Can you visualize how allowing this mandate to stand is simply an abdication of individual liberty?

As the 4^th District Court of Appeals deliberates the issue as the next step in a journey that both sides agree will end up at the Supreme Court, we are reminded that part of the genius of our Constitution is in how it defined a government of enumerated powers.  Those powers, specifically granted to the government by the people, clearly subjugate the government to the people regardless of the political agenda of those in power at any point in time.  Previous interpretations of the commerce clause, and the general welfare clause, broadened the powers of the federal government but only to increase the reach of its power to tax.  While those interpretations are still discussed in some circles, the mandate for a citizen who chooses not to participate in commerce to purchase a service to benefit commerce is a significant increase in the power of the federal government.  It will reverse the balance of power in favor of the federal government, subjugating the people to the will of the particular party in power at any given time.

This slope is indeed a slippery one.  If a party comes to power and passes legislation to mandate citizens to pursue education and careers based on the overall benefit to the nation’s commerce, rather than individual choice, it will be able to have that legislation upheld based on the precedent this current mandate will establish.  It will be argued that if the nation needs engineers and chemists, citizens should be tested and those with aptitudes in those disciplines should be mandated to direct their lives accordingly.  The argument will be strengthened by suggesting that these citizens are going to pursue careers anyway and the nation’s commerce would be benefited by mandating the direction of their careers.  If citizens fail to comply, the government would impose financial penalties.

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Standard & Poors (S&P), the credit rating agency that started in business more than 150 years ago and operates in 23 countries, issued the ultimate in realty checks this week when they downgraded its credit outlook for the United States.  S&P cited a “material risk” that policymakers may not reach agreement on a plan to trim the large federal budget deficit.

While the agency maintained the country’s top AAA credit rating, it said “Authorities have not made clear how they will tackle long-term fiscal pressures.” S&P said the move signals there is at least a one-in-three chance that it could cut its long-term AAA rating on the United States within two years.

What would a credit rating downgrade mean to the average citizen?  Immediately following a downgrade, the interest required to refinance our debt would climb dramatically and the Federal Reserve would have to print more money resulting in a sharp devaluation of the dollar.  If you think $4 per gallon for gasoline is an outrage, try $8 per gallon or higher.  If you think that your 401(k) took a hit in 2009, how about a permanent hit due to the United States currency losing its value?  Food, energy, clothing, housing and all other staples of life will experience sharp and permanent price increases.  Unemployment will also rise as businesses attempt to adjust to a new and uncertain economy.

It should be absolutely clear that the growing national debt and continued federal budget deficits are a threat to our economy and a clear and present danger to our way of life.  President Obama took office with a $10 trillion debt and a $740 billion federal budget deficit.  Two years later the national debt is $14.2 trillion and the federal budget deficit has reached $1.6 trillion.  Mr. Obama and the Democrats insist that we need to keep spending, even though our debt will exceed our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) before the end of this year.  They insist that rolling back the George Bush era tax cuts for those making more than $250,000 per year and reductions in defense spending is the path to a solution.

The truth is that the additional revenue potential from rolling back those cuts would only equal a maximum of $64 billion per year.  The risk to jobs in our economy by increasing tax rates on many small businesses that are taxed as individuals, S-Corporations, is extremely high.  There could easily be a spike in unemployment as those business owners adjust their planning to preserve their net income.

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Loaded with misleading statements, demagoguery, political rhetoric and outright lies, Mr. Obama’s speech announcing his debt reduction plan was no more than the formal start to his re-election campaign with the establishment of a clear ideological line in the sand.  The American people now will begin a long debate on which side of that line they will stand.

On one side is the America that those who came before us worked hard for; sacrificed for; and many died for.  This is the America where individualism and self-reliance is real, not just the throw-away line that Mr. Obama opened his speech with.  This is the America where all are guaranteed equal opportunity, not equal outcome; the America where the efforts of citizens determine the winners and losers; the America where the current generation pays for itself and passes on the freedom to increase prosperity to the next generation.

On the other side stands a perverse vision of our country where the government makes choices for the citizens; determines who the winners are; and pays for all of the current generation’s desires with liens on the labor of future generations.

In his own words, Mr. Obama declared, “This is not about debt reduction; this is about what kind of country we want to be.” However if we don’t begin to focus on the run-a-way spending of the federal government, our national debt will exceed our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) before the end of this year and will double over the next ten years.  Our economy will collapse under the weight of that debt and the only kind of country we will be, is a failed one.

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Regardless of failed economic policies, a destructive health care law that most Americans want repealed and the lack of leadership in foreign affairs, Barack Obama will have $1 billion, the support of the majority of the media and a potentially long and divisive Republican primary to assist his re-election in 2012.  However, the recently elected Republican governors can assure the nation of a Republican victory by taking control of the election.  By organizing now and selecting a candidate from among themselves, forcing all others to step aside for the good of the country, they will neutralize Mr. Obama’s advantages and focus the election on his dismal performance in office.

It is clear that no Republican candidate can win in 2012 without support from Ohio’s John Kasich; Pennsylvania’s Tom Corbett; Florida’s Rick Scott; Virginia’s Bob McDonnell, South Carolina’s Nikki Haley; and certainly not without the support of New Jersey’s Chris Christie.  These patriots are all taking on the difficult problems their respective states face and solving them with common sense solutions and firm leadership.  They are making decisions, showing courage and taking the political risks necessary to succeed for their people.  These are all of the same qualities needed to lead the nation back to greatness and are all of the qualities that Mr. Obama lacks or at least has not demonstrated since taking office.

These governors need to organize into a 2012 election committee and then decide on who among them will run for the presidency.  The candidate needs to be one of the governors because neither Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum nor any of the other potential players would be as strong a candidate with independent voters as any of the governors would be.  If left to a long and brutal primary to select from one of these former candidates, the party would spend too much money and time to regain financial strength and momentum.  Mr. Obama will win a second term by default and the nation will be in serious trouble.

Assuming that the governors will take charge, they must do so before the summer of this year.  This will give the candidate as much time to organize a campaign as the Democrats now have, completely neutralizing Mr. Obama’s time advantage.  It will also permit the candidate to match the Democrats dollar for dollar in fund raising, eliminating Mr. Obama’s financial advantage.  Without the need for a Republican primary, there will not be a long period of Republicans debating Republicans with the eventual candidate bruised by the process.  Instead, the candidate will be able to begin to shape the message against this failed presidency and begin to focus the debate on the issues, depriving the Democrats of the advantage of Republican in-fighting for months.

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Wake up America.  We are heading head long into a brick wall and we are ignoring it.  While our elected officials debate spending cuts in the range of $50 billion to $100 billion, our nation is facing trillion dollar deficits for years to come.  The new ten year forecast by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), scrubbed by The Heritage Foundation of unrealistic assumptions the CBO is required to use, predicts an additional $13.6 trillion will be added to the national debt over the next ten years.  Simply put, by 2021 our debt will climb to $27.9 trillion and will require nearly half of all federal income tax revenues just to pay the interest.

The major reason for this crisis is clear, but there is little courage in Washington, D.C. to address it.  Here it is.  Medicare expenditures have grown 81% since 2000 and Medicaid expenditures have grown 87% since 2000.  It gets worse.  Today there are 39 million Americans over the age of 65, but that number has been growing at the average rate of 10,000 per day since January 1^st of this year and will continue to grow at this rate for the next ten years.  Why?  Baby Boomers born between 1946 and 1955, approximately 36 million, will turn 65 over that period of time and become eligible for Medicare.  With life expectancy at 78 for men and 80 for women, we can safely assume that there will be almost twice as many Americans over the age of 65 by 2021.

Persistent slow growth in the economy due the drag of massive federal debt combined with heavily restrictive regulations on business will continue to suppress job growth and force more citizens on Medicaid.  By 2021 the other half of all federal income tax revenue will be required to pay for Medicare and Medicaid.  Even if we assume that Social Security will pay for itself, which will require substantial tax and benefit reform, where will we find the money to fund all other government expenses – including defense and other entitlement programs such as food stamps?  There is not enough rich, middle-class, corporate or any other income that can be taxed more in order to solve this problem.

The only answer is Medicare and Medicaid reform.

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Our continued annual deficits of over $1.5 trillion will eventually destroy our economy and consume our liberty.  We must deal with this crisis now.  The Left says that the rich need to pay more, that more taxes will solve the problem.  Here is the truth.  If we were to double federal taxes on all Americans, our deficits would still be in excess of $400 billion per year.  There is not enough wealth for more taxes to do any good.  Consider that doubling federal taxes means the top rate would be 70%!  With state and local taxes, Americans would have little left for food and shelter.  The debate is over.  We have no choice but to dramatically cut spending.

Entitlements are the major contributor to the spending crisis and Social Security has long been the most protected of all entitlements.  It needs to be reformed in order to reduce its growing burden on our economy.  The reforms being discussed will not result in anyone currently receiving, or about to receive, benefits having any less than they are expecting.  The Democrats will cry that restructuring Social Security will hurt those who have planned for it, but this is a lie.  All reform options being discussed will only impact those who will have the time to plan for the changes.  The truth is that if Social Security is not reformed, the program will fail.

Democrats point to a $2.3 trillion Social Security Trust Fund surplus.  This is not a cash surplus. It was spent on general government expenses and replaced with Treasury Bonds.  Who is responsible for payment of those bonds? The taxpayer is responsible.  Yes, the Social Security Trust Fund surplus is nothing more than a government I.O.U.  Bernard Madoff could not have done better.

Before the recession accelerated in the fall of 2008, Social Security payroll taxes exceeded benefits paid each year.  Surplus cash, though diverted and replaced with bonds, was being generated.  However, since the labor force lost eight million jobs in the recession, Social Security benefits now exceed payroll taxes collected each year.  With the surplus nothing more than part of the national debt, we have to borrow to make up the difference.

It gets worse.

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Henry David Thoreau in his essay Civil Disobedience wrote, “That Government is best which governs least.” Those particular words, written in 1849, summarize the simple truth that the power of the individual and self-reliance in our free society are what has driven the development of American Exceptionalism.  Unfortunately in the 162 years since, our great nation has fallen prey to the dependency of entitlement programs administered by a suddenly powerful central government.  The cost of all this government in our lives, programs that now approximately 50% of our population has become dependent on, has reached unsustainable levels and our liberty is in peril.

The major entitlements of Social Security and Medicare, which all workers pay for through payroll taxes, are only part of the problem.  The future liabilities of these programs can be managed by restructuring the timing of benefits and the manner in which collected taxes are invested.  Future installments in this series will offer some thinking on these matters.  The other part of the problem is the combination of additional entitlement programs and the cost of the large federal bureaucracies to administer these other programs.

In 2011, we will pay out $385 billion in food stamps, $365 billion for the federal portion of Medicaid (with an almost equal amount due from the states), $200 billion in unemployment benefits and over $100 billion in aid to education.  The total cost of these payments will exceed $1 trillion, but the cost of administering these programs will add approximately $300 billion in expenditures to the federal budget.  The Department of Agriculture, the Department of Labor, the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Housing and Urban Development are largely in place to administer the distribution of government aid.  Excluding defense, these departments and their associated costs represent half of our entire non-military federal government.

Without questioning the necessity of the programs, it is reasonable to question why we need all the extra government to administer them.  One solution is to consider localization of the management of these entitlements by transferring that authority to the states.  Private sector experience has proven that more local operations and management results in lower costs and greater efficiency. Decisions made closer to the source of the need are made faster and by fewer employees. Recognizing that there will be a cost to localized administration, the net impact of eliminating these cabinet level departments and their hundreds of thousands of personal and the associated supportive infrastructure will be a significant reduction in overall costs.

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Since June 21, 1788 when New Hampshire became the required ninth state to ratify the US Constitution, the seventeen enumerated powers specifically granted to the federal government in the Constitution have slowly expanded to allow central government involvement in virtually all aspects of life in America.  Thomas Jefferson, were he among us today, would call for a second insurance of the Declaration of Independence.  The expansion of those powers resulted from broad interpretation of the Constitution’s commerce clause and general welfare clause for the stated purpose of promoting societal good.  Jefferson warned us about this in his writings with, “Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated.”

This gradual erosion of our liberty has only surfaced because of the unsustainable financial support necessary to fund an ever increasing role of government in our lives.  Newly elected Republicans in the 112^th Congress recognized that the financial structure of our nation is at the brink of collapsing under the weight of government that has grown too large for its citizens to support.  They are pressing for deep cuts in spending, but are getting pushed back from President Obama and Democrats whose ideology is rooted in central authority control.  Even if successful, the $100 billion in cuts for the remainder of the 2011 budget, called for by the Republicans, will do little when staring at a projected deficit for 2011 of $1.5 trillion.  This deficit will push our national debt to a level that will threaten our ability to fund our military.  It can spark an inflationary cycle that will spike the cost of food, energy and other commodities resulting in hardships for all citizens and for businesses, which would fail creating higher unemployment.

The Treasury Department is forecasting that our national debt will reach $19.6 trillion by 2015.  If our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grows at a respectable annual rate of 3.5% over that same period, it will reach $17.7 trillion by 2015, trailing the debt by almost $2 trillion.  Mr. Obama’s recent proposal to cut $1.1 trillion in deficit spending over the next ten years, while the debt is forecast to increase by more than $5 trillion in only five years, is laughable at best and a cruel diversion to mask the truth at worst.  Can you imagine running your family household by planning to spend more than you anticipate your income to grow for ten years?  You would be bankrupt and that is exactly where our nation is heading.

The clash between our federalist style of government (where the states and the people have the power) and an all powerful central government will drive the debate in the 2012 Presidential Election.  However, we need to deal with the financial crisis now.

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The time is now and the moment is at hand.  We must deal with the run-away spending of our federal government before our compounding debt drives us all into forced servitude for generations to come.  There is little doubt that our growing indebtedness is a clear and present danger to our liberty.

The events in Tunisia and Egypt are warnings to us in the United States that prolonged unemployment, few opportunities for achievement and over taxation to support the excesses of government are the precursors to chaos.  We are seeing that for an educated people who have played by the rules and have the burning desire to prosper, such conditions are exactly what Thomas Jefferson described to the Virginian historian Samuel Kercheval in his July 12, 1816 letter, “We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.”

Jefferson went on to describe the choice that the people must make between “Economy and liberty or profusion and servitude.” He continued with,

“If we run into such debts, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses; and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes; have no time to think, no means of calling the miss-managers to account; but be glad to obtain subsistence.”

Jefferson’s conclusion read with the backdrop of recent events in Northern Africa should shock us all into reality, “Then begins, indeed the bellum omnium in omina.” His Latin phrase means “the war of all against all.” Our nation is on the brink and I will explain.

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Samuel Adams, writing in a letter to James Warren in February of 1779, said, “If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved.” Our nation needs to heed these words and continue to remain informed and engaged. The tragedy of the Arizona shootings by a sick human being has provided Mr. Obama and his supporters a wall shielding the past two years of abusing power and ignoring the will of the people.  A call for civil discourse is no more than code for “moving on” and not challenging the bad legislation that was forced on the American people by single party rule. The people must recognize this and keep the 112^th Congress focused on repealing legislation that threatens our liberty, regardless of how civil the discourse.

Obama Care is more than another expensive entitlement program that will bankrupt our nation and put future generations under heavy financial risk, it changes the fundamental view of the role of government in the lives of the American people.  This legislation places the most private aspects of a citizen’s life and liberty into the hands of the government.  The over reach of the law is far more that its constitutionally challenging provisions for forced purchases of insurance and potential for rationing, it legislates a dominant position for a central authority over the well- being and eventually the actual existence of the individual.

There was no civil discourse when this law was being debated.  Mr. Obama himself, in referring to the outcry of the American people at town hall meetings with their elected representatives during the summer of 2009, said. “The people should just shut up!” Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker of the House during the debate, proclaimed, “We have to pass the bill to see what’s in it.” The American people were called “Nazis” and “dangerous” and worse.  All the American people were doing was simply demanding that their government follow their will. The people were ignored. Now, those who committed the atrocity want us to forget what happened and simply move on all in the name of civil discourse in honor of those slain by a criminally insane individual.

The only way to properly honor the victims of the Arizona shooting is to do what they were doing at the time of that terrible event – engage in the political process and demand that our elected representatives understand what the people want and to legislate based on that understanding.

Repealing Obama Care and replacing it with free market solutions to lowering the costs of health insurance is only one legislative correction necessary.  Focusing on the run away authority of unelected agency heads and commission members, as well as the unconstitutional regulations they have been writing for the past two years is also a necessary corrective step for the 112^th Congress.

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Written into the Declaration of Independence is a simple imperative, “Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Our nation was built on this concept, but the Obama administration is using its power to write regulation to circumvent the will of the people and advance its own agenda.

Three recent examples of this over reach are shocking and all Americans should demand an end to the practice and a reversal of what has already been done.  Citizens need to think, whether they agree with the reasons for the circumvention or not, about what is at stake.  Using regulation to specifically subjugate the will of the people to the agenda of any president is nothing less than tyranny.

The New York Times and Fox News, an unlikely combination, recently reported that the Obama Administration is taking advantage of a rule in the final version of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (“Obamacare”) that authorizes Medicare coverage of yearly physical examinations.  The new rule says Medicare will cover voluntary advance care planning to discuss end-of-life treatment as part of an annual visit.  The mandate for end-of-life planning, commonly referred to as death panels, was specifically legislated out of Obamacare because of the uproar by the majority of Americans.  Most recent polls show 60% or more of the electorate wants Obamacare repealed, but this particular mandate was rejected by the people before the law was passed.

Using this embedded rule, one of the hundreds of Obamacare surprises that will be revealed over time, the Obama administration is able to achieve its policy goal through the regulation-writing process.  In this case, doctors will be encouraged to provide information on how to prepare an advance directive, stating how aggressively patients wish to be treated if they are so sick that they cannot make health care decisions for themselves.  Regardless of the merits, this is not what the people want.  If this seemingly harmless step is allowed to be taken, what else can be written into regulations that will further circumvent the will of the people?

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On March 23rd, 1775 in Virginia, the largest colony in America at that time, a meeting of the colony’s delegates was held in St. John’s Church in Richmond to vote on resolutions of defense for the colony as the war with England loomed and on its participation should war break out.

Patrick Henry, before a vote was taken on resolutions he presented in support of joining the other colonies in a war for freedom, spoke without any notes in a voice that became louder and louder, climaxing with the now famous ending,

“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

Have we come so far from those words and the meaning of liberty itself, that we are now a nation of people who would accept chains in return for a government providing for our every need?  Are we a people who would give up our principles and perhaps most of our own sovereignty in exchange for peace defined as not having to take any individual action or responsibility?

We are burdened with crushing debt and even heavier unfunded liabilities necessary to support an expanding central government that is attempting to control every aspect of the lives of the American people.  Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education, the environment, health care and business regulation are not found in the Constitution as powers of our central government.  However, liberal interpretation – false interpretation if one reads the Federalist Papers – of the Commerce Clause and the Social Welfare Clause of the Constitution opened a back door for the central government to assume powers well beyond the seventeen outlined in the enumerated powers specifically granted therein.  Each time a new power was taken, it was in return for some form of entitlement or relief from self-reliance.  It has reached a point today where it is difficult to distinguish who has the greater hand, the central government or the people.

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Thomas Paine in his Dissertation on First Principles of Government, published on December 23, 1791, wrote, “He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.”

Our nation is deep into the longest post World War II recession in our history, prolonged by the uncertainty created by the policies of the Obama Administration and the Democratic controlled Congress.  Businesses, large and small, are holding on to an estimated $3 trillion in cash and are not going to invest and create jobs without a dependable view of future taxation, regulation and health care costs.  The taxation question is the most pressing at this point in time because of the scheduled expiration of the current tax rates less than eight weeks away.

Mr. Obama and the Democrats in Congress must have never read Thomas Paine’s words, do not fully understand their meaning or simply choose to ignore them.  They are also acting like the recent election was not the repudiation of their agenda that it clearly was. They continue to divide the American people with class warfare by demonizing those taxpayers who earn more than $200,000 per year.

Mr. Obama and his supporters actually believe that the American people will be satisfied with only a temporary extension of current tax rates for those higher earning citizens while most others would see their current tax rates made permanent.  They are sure the private sector will embrace that move and unlock their capital.  They could not be more wrong!

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On September 23, 1779 in the midst of one of the bloodiest engagements in naval history, John Paul Jones was struggling against the forty-four gun Royal Navy frigate Serapis and although his own vessel was burning and sinking, Jones would not accept the British demand for surrender.  Instead Jones declared, “I have not yet begun to fight.” Little more than three hours later, the Serapis surrendered and Jones took command.

The voice of the American people was heard this November 2^nd for the first time in the past two years.  The Republican Party regained control of the House of Representatives, picking up a historic sixty seats and possibly sixty-five or more seats as final votes are tallied.  Six Senate seats were gained by Republicans with another two seats possible as close contests are resolved, further diminishing Democratic political power.  The Grand Old Party (GOP) also gained a net eight governorships and nineteen State legislatures changed over from Democratic to Republican control.

In the final days leading up to the election and in the hours immediately following, the President began to call for compromise.  Really?  After taking the oath of office in January of 2009, Mr. Obama declared, “Elections have consequences and we won!” He then led his fellow Democrats on an eighteen month assault against Republicans in Congress and against the will of the American people, pushing his left-of-center agenda.  Just before this week’s election he said the Republicans can come along but, “They need to sit in the back.” He also publically referred to his opponents as “Enemies.”

Now he wants compromise, but the only compromise that the American people clearly want is for the President and the Democrats to move off their agenda and come to them.

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James Madison, referring to a bill to subsidize cod fishermen introduced to the First Congress said,

If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their own hands;they may appoint teachers in every State, county and parish and pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume the provision of the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads; in short, everything, from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of Congress…. Were the power of Congress to be established in the latitude contended for, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of the limited Government established by the people of America.”

Prior to that, in Federalist 41, Madison wrote,

Some, who have not denied the necessity of the power of taxation, have grounded a very fierce attack against the Constitution, on the language in which it is defined. It has been urged and echoed, that the power “to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States,” amounts to an unlimited commission to exercise every power which may be alleged to be necessary for the common defense or general welfare. No stronger proof could be given of the distress under which these writers labor for objections, than their stooping to such a misconstruction.”

Madison’s incredible forethought underscores exactly what all Americans are facing today as we move into the November 2^nd Election.

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Thomas Jefferson said, “When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.” The power of this statement is boundless, and its meaning is clear in its construction.  These eighteen common words are taken together in a unique organization to express an undeniable and unbreakable truth; that a people of liberty, united in the cause of liberty, become the strongest force for freedom in all of God’s creation.

With these words I began the fifth chapter of my recently released book, Liberty Rising, A Treatise on the Restoration of Our Constitutional Republic.  I repeat them to begin this article to remind all Americans that there has always been a third party among us, and that party is we the people.  The United States of America, more than ever before in our history since the founding, needs its people to rally in the defense of liberty, self-reliance, individualism and the real concept of American Exceptionalism.  Our great nation stands at a dangerous divide.  On one side stands the America that in 234 years has become the greatest nation in the history of man.  On the other side stands a downward spiral toward tyranny and a failed republic.

Since the Democrats took control of the Congress on January 1, 2007 and then with Barack Obama becoming President on January 20, 2009, single party rule in America became a self-appointed ruling class and began to dictate to the American people, against the will of the people.  I have no excuses for the establishment Republicans who, in the years immediately prior, lost their way and set the stage for the assumption of this elitist group of power-mad progressives who believe that their ends justify their means.  The stimulus legislation, the health care debate and resultant law, the House version of cap and trade legislation and countless un-elected special advisors and czars who were appointed to positions of power without even the consent of the Senate, are all examples of how in just 20 months the state has placed itself above the people in an arrogantly un-America fashion.

The response, however, has been typically American.

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