Americans should look carefully at the anti-politician, anti-government mood exhibited in California this week. Just as Proposition 13 and the anti-tax movement of 1978 were the forerunners of the Reagan presidential victory, so the results of Tuesday's vote are a harbinger of things to come.The repudiation of the California establishment in the series of initiative defeats could hardly have been more decisive. Five taxing and spending measures were rejected by 62.6 to 66.4 percent of the voters. That is a consistent majority of enormous potential. An even larger majority, 73.9 percent, approved the proposition limiting elected officials' salaries when there is a deficit.
This vote is the second great signal that the American people are getting fed up with corrupt politicians, arrogant bureaucrats, greedy interests and incompetent, destructive government.
The elites ridiculed or ignored the first harbinger of rebellion, the recent tea parties. While it will be harder to ignore this massive anti-tax, anti-spending vote, they will attempt to do just that.
Voters in our largest state spoke unambiguously, but politicians and lobbyists in Sacramento are ignoring or rejecting the voters' will, just as they are in Albany and Trenton. The states with huge government machines have basically moved beyond the control of the people. They have become castles of corruption, favoritism and wastefulness. These state governments are run by lobbyists for the various unions through bureaucracies seeking to impose the values of a militant left. Elections have become so rigged by big money and clever incumbents that the process of self-government is threatened.
Sacramento politicians will now reject the voters' call for lower taxes and less spending and embrace the union-lobbyist-bureaucrat machine that is running California into the ground, crippling its economy and cheating residents. This model of high-tax, big-spending inefficiency has already driven thousands of successful Californians out of the state (taking with them an estimated $11 billion in annual tax revenue). The exodus will continue.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a smart, tough, charismatic leader who has been forced to submit to policies he knows are ruining California on behalf of interests he knows are cheating the state. His failure to tame the union-lobbyist-bureaucrat machine that owns the legislature is a symptom of just how powerful it is.
Albany is even more corrupt and dysfunctional. The special interests that own the legislators in both parties have been exploiting New York for two generations. They have impoverished the Upstate region to the point where it is a vast zone of no jobs and no opportunities. Their predatory tax and bureaucratic union behavior is beginning to cripple New York City. More and more successful New Yorkers are leaving the state. In the face of multiple crises, Gov. David Paterson has shown himself incapable of carrying out reform.
In other words, the political machines in California and New York are wrecking the states' economies and driving out successful residents. But the machines don't care because all they want to do is own the wreckage.
This system of ruining communities on behalf of interest groups first appeared in Detroit. Bad government, bad politicians and bad policies drove a city that had, in 1950, the highest per capita income of any large American city to No. 62 in per capita income as of 2007. The population has declined from 1.8 million to fewer than 950,000. Recently, 1,800 homes were sold for under $10,000 each. The human cost of bad politics and bad government in Detroit is staggering.
Now President Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid want to impose on the nation this style of politics in which interest groups, politicians and bureaucracies dominate. Look at their record: a $787 billion stimulus no elected official had read, 8,000 earmarks, an Environmental Protection Agency plan to control the economy through carbon regulations, the government threatening retaliation against those who would protect their property rights against theft in the Chrysler bailout -- again and again, this team is moving toward a government that owns the country rather than a government that is owned by the people.
Watch Sacramento politicians and interest groups work to overrule the people of California. Watch Albany politicians and interest groups continue to undermine the economy of New York. Watch the arrogance of the elites in Washington as they impose their costs and special deals on the American people.
Then look again at the 62 percent-plus majority in California in favor of smaller government and lower taxes.
In the great tradition of political movements rising against arrogant, corrupt elites, there will soon be a party of people rooting out the party of government. This party may be Republican; it may be Democratic; in some states it may be a third party. The politicians have been warned.
This piece was originally published in the Washington Post.
I read this article in the Washington Post this morning.
I agree with Speaker Gingrich one hundred percent.
It is frightening that Ayn Rand predicted in Atlas Shrugged precisely where our country is heading under the Obama administration.
Here's a direction to grow further on American Solutions, originally written for another so some specifics may not apply to you.
I guess I'm here to apply my skills as a solution provider on the beta version since Sept. 2007 to help transform Charter Contributors on this release into fellow solution providers. So I suggest thinking of solutions, not just wild comments. Read the vision statement on the right:
To recommit America to a free enterprise system that maximizes economic growth, jobs, wages, family income, and overall prosperity for working people and minimizes regulatory complexity, the burden of compliance, and the manipulation by politicians or lobbyists for the benefit of special interests.
We must recommit to a free enterprise system that values and rewards innovation and hard work, and provides the most opportunities for those wishing to build a better life for themselves, their families, and their communities.
Ok, before accepting this as a controlling vision, the statement needs rework to emphasize mom and pop businesses over jobs. Jobs are not free enterprise, they are a form of slavery with pay, fraudulent stock offers, the threat of firing with bad recommendations which reduces equal opportunities, and other tools to force slavish obedience.
This vision of free enterprise cannot be fulfilled with comments supporting per capita income as a function of jobs, in general. Exceptions where business owners are paid less than line workers are rare. Jobs do not grow the economy, businesses do. This educator-politician machine which promotes job growth and excludes business startups needs to be tamed or quashed.
Remember this forum unlike many forums is not closed to advancing the state of the art in Bible interpretation and spiritual reality or applying them to all topics, like America's Founders would. If anyone accomplishes the miraculous feedings turning a lunch into a feast for thousands on a regular basis will have no need for the economy due to acessing a higher life and that skill should be sought and promoted as its a better solution than the entire economic system.
Comments should be regarded by everyone as an area to supply solutions to the problems you Charter Contributors post.
In the great tradition of political movements rising against arrogant, corrupt elites, there will soon be a party of people rooting out the party of government. This party may be Republican; it may be Democratic; in some states it may be a third party. The politicians have been warned.
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When might this new party rise? I'd be standing alongside them as long as they stood for honesty, integrity, were ethical, and willing to abide by the people. Our current parties have become self-absorbed, have been in bed with special interests groups and lobbyists, and are married and/or owned by corporate America. Can there be a third party that can defend itself against all the corruption power and authority often lend? I was blown away by Obama in the beginning - he was for the "little guy" and made so many promises and so many have been broken. He caved to the banks with bailouts, he created a credit card law that doesn't go into effect until July 2010 - giving banks a year to financially destroy us through our credit card interest rates, minimum payments, maximum credit limits. His $1000 stimulus turned into $13.00 before taxes in your paycheck each week and that was taken by increased energy bills, gas, and food. He spouts from the hilltop about education reform and what to do to fix, and then local and state gov't merely budget cut education to death. He spews on about illegal aliens receiving amnesty, instead of protecting our borders. Congress banned "E-verify" so American workers aren't protected. Health Insurance reform will NEVER occur because Hospitals, doctors, and INSURANCE companies will NEVER part with any money for the sake of compassionate medical treatment to those who need. Wall St. and hedge funds should END - they are an invasive species creeping though our society to find any seeping blood with which to suck dry. Fair Trade needs a complete overhaul and that won't happen lest we "upset" some foreign country whose already profited in the billions by American companies being given governemental incentives to LEAVE our country. Our country is becoming a third world country under a communistic and/or dictatorialship. Congress crossed too many lines this time - the CHOSE to save banks - businesses that failed and should have closed down. What about the flower shop around the corner - can they be saved, too? Why has our government chosen to FORSAKE it's own country? I know the answer - GREED. Wars make a lot of money. Joining forces with the elite of other countries creates more power and more money. IT IS TIME for a third party - a party who can bring back common sense, decency, regulation, laws that protect consumers (not businesses), etc. The tea parties are a good foundation - they simply need a cohesive message. Let us bring rise to the new party through the tea parties. It CAN be done if 95% of the population that's getting screwed can still stand up.
Diana, I've started to promote USAFounder's party on this website and others for example http://usafounders.blogtownhall.com/
but I haven't gotten much traction yet. Care to join?
My idea is the founders were mainly Bible driven and I think that we should try to stick to Jesus like they did, which made this country the best superpower in just 200 years.
One interesting plank is no taxation and no debt, just print the money to run all government so nobody gets punished by artificial means. Pay for everyone's basic needs upto the degree jailed prisoners don't have to do anything to survive and help make businesses easier to start.
These ideas and yours need to be worked on until we have a plan that will win the hearts and minds of America's Christian majority which include a majority of independants as well as both major parties.
Referring to both with highest regard for their service,
I think that Speaker Gingrich and VP Cheney are spot on with the way they have brought their Ideas back into focus on the issues of National Security and Policy. We should not be concerned at all about what the failed EU thinks of our Justice system nor the US Military Code of Justice.
President Obama's Ideology leads him to believe that the capitalist system has brought the impoverished into misery and those who have succeeded need to pay those who have not.
Yankey, We must rise above Obama's ideology and any other's to pursue Jesus Christ in all things. If we support criminals by giving them 3 hots and a cot with no need to work (or commit crime) to support themselves, we should supply at least that to everybody outside prison as a minimum. Or provide no fault prisons for poor people.
Then if poor citizens want to rise above sustinance and work to get their own automobile and eventually become a success the opportunities to serve others for pay will still be there.
This proposal would probably be cheaper than Obama's bailouts considering 95%-97% of mortgages are being paid on time so less than 5% of 300 million or 15 million (actually some of these already own their homes) would be interested in a no-fault prison sustinance program.
Jesus has both compassion and righteousness. The Founder's congress prayed and studied the Bible 3 hours a day before conducting the nation's business. We need that again.
PS: On national security, the way Jesus gave us is to go preach the gospel. When all nations become Christian the way we once were, there will be no need for war.
A news video clip interviewing Iraqi Christians showing love on their faces while their hate filled Moslem countrymen were walking around militantly in the background was such a contrast it should have convinced everyone who saw it.
Our enemies are not the people themselves but the ideology that is on their improperly educated hearts and minds. Bush started paying Iraqui teachers well but he ignorantly trusted money would change them from spreading Moslem ideology. What is needed is actual gospel preaching. And for nations to accept that we should start doing it ourselves in our own country. See http://biblek12.com for more.
Polls prove that only half of our best and brightest Evangelical Christians can answer simple Bible questions accurately. So the reason the USA is a mess is because the Christians are a mess. The Bible tells us all denominations are prostituted by money and power in Rev. 17:5 and Jesus says for his people to come out of them in Rev. 18:4. So we must develop a true church life like the Founders practiced in the halls of Congress then we can straighten out America then the World.
It is my belief that our nation sits on the precipice of a tipping point. Our nation has become the "entitled" (those who rely on government and those who are the government) versus the citizen (those who are self reliant and those who seek to re-establish common sense policies in our government). Speaking quite frankly, I am appalled at the amount of pay I bring home to feed my family at the end of every week. I should be making enough money to pay off my debt, which I acknowledge is my fault and my fault alone but this is made almost next to impossible because of the silent taxes we have built into our federal tax system: Social Secuity, Medicare, etc. on top of what I consider outrageous taxes on income. On top of this If I were to own a house I must then pay local property taxes which are going up all the time while at the same time the housing markets in most areas are in a period of deflation. It doesn't make sense and more over, it is degrading for our government to push it's fascist views upon us. The Federal Government is seriously contemplating providing TARP funds to minority owned radio and T.V.stations who claim Neilsen and other ratings companies are "racist" in the reports that these stations have a low public following and therefore this money is needed to keep them "afloat." We have all seen and witnessed the "bait and hook" approach tactics of this administration and congress in their frivolity regarding usage of TARP funds. This is clearly evidenced by the recent government take overs of Chrysler and General Motors, which they say is of course temporary. I implore every reader of my writings here to look at their history books, when has the Federal Government ever let go of something they have gained power over? The Federal Government has grown to such an extent that much of it's functional bodies duplicate work ten times over greatly contributing to infighting and communications breakdowns. When our government no longer fears its citizens, we have tyranny. Since the 1950's with Eisenhower's push towards a massive increase in our national defense budget, we have been on a scary road that is growing scarier by the minute. I ask all who read this to read the Constitution of our great nation, and remember the founders, is a totalitarian state what they would have wanted for us? God bless America.
Well said Christopher!
Warren Weaver
The connection between the nation's problems and the dictates of labor unions and environmental extremists that are obeyed by politicians need to be made obvious to even the mst partisan voter. Reagan was never more right than when he said thta government is the problem-- not the solution !
I think we should encourage Newt to run for president in 2012. He is the smartest guy in the room at this moment. Everyone, let's just picture Newt in a debate with Barack. No teleprompters,no biased proctors, just the right (Newt) and the left (guess who?) This is what we should all be working toward...
The GOP/RNC and all conservatives should band together and roll out The Fair Tax Plan [FTP] for every American to see. Explain to them the true benefits of abolishing the IRS, supported by the ironclad, boilerplate research costing $20 million dollars or more in PRIVATE investment monies.
This should become the "Central Theme" of this political Organization in taking back the Congress in 2010 and the White House in 2012. This would be a new approch to the people.
What the hell, you have Neal Boortz and Congressman John Linder [R-Georgia] the authors of the "Fair Tax Book" & "Fair Tax The Truth Answering The Critics" to aid Mr. Steele in this adventure, not to mention Mr. Herman Cain [federal reserve Kansas City], Former Governor Mike Huckabee [Fox News] who won in Iowa. Neal Cavoto [FBN].Boortz has already done a mock debate on his radio show. The democrats don't stand a chance at a victory, if the GOP follows Boortz's debate plan.
Disclose the legislative Bills HR25 & S1025. Inform the People about Americans For Fair Taxation @fairtax.org.
No demagoguery whatsoever. That has be tried,the Principle's of the above mentioned Organization respond relentlessly in defense of the FTP.
In other words Quash "income redistribution" in its tracks. It is common knowledge, among those of us who have the ability to think for ourselves, that Obama was elected by those who have no sense of self preservation, so they voted for their wallets more than anything else important to this Nation as a whole. Period !
The FTP evens the playing field across the income spectrum for all. No favorites, ending the "class warfare" games of the lobbyist of "K-Street" and Congress jointly. The Internal Racketeering Service [IRS] punishes success. It's time for the abolishment of the greatest drag[on] of the U.S. economy, where compliance cost is $400 billion dollars or more every year.
The fact remains the passage of the FTP would be "the largest tranfer of POWER back to the PEOPLE in the history of the United States" That is the main fear of Congress, they will lose their POWER and ability to beat the American People and industry over the head with the 70,000 plus pages of the U.S. Tax Code, while having the IRS as their "Godfather" for enforcement.
The passage of the FTP would turn America into the "tax haven of the world". Let's make April 15 "Just Another Spring Day", while 50 million visiting foreign tourists are supporting Social Security/Medicare every year spending their money.It captures all illegal aliens, drug dealers including the underground enconomy. Everybody Pays their "fair share" on consumption. 70% of America's [GDP]. 23% "included in the price of all new good and services".
This allows every American to vote their wallets for the retention of their own monies if the GOP/RNC has the moral fortitude and willingness of Ronald Wilson Reagan to allow us to keep it by pushing the FTP to passage.
If you are not aware, check out the Fair Tax Plan. Americans For Fair Taxation @fairtax.org. The "Fair Tax Book" & "Fair Tax The TRUTH Answering The Critics" spells it all out for the American People. Legislative Bills H25 and Senate S1025 are collecting congressional dust. What do you expect with the likes of Pelosi as the speaker of nothing.
Please educate yourself, family and friends with these tools. You will like what YOU see and read. This is the only grand idea I believe in for the financial salvation of America, our children, grandchildren, Great-grandchildren. You owe it to yourself and everyone you know.
Check out the website ResistNet.com./Grassfire.org. Patriotic Resistence and join the movement against the Obama administration. It's Great.
Fair Tax is meaningless, unless it's coupled with a "Fair Spending" mate. In fact, I'd go a step further, in that a "Fair Spending" plan could survive on it's own, whereas NO income/production/sales/excise/etc tax is viable unless spending is under control. Don't get me wrong, I agree with the principle of the Fair Tax, especially in it's simplicity, and as something that might help curb the insanity of consumer spending for the sake of spending. However, I'm also not naive enough to believe Congress could leave it alone in it's simplistic version, and they'd manage to twist it up just the IRS code is now with exemptions/prebates/progressive scales/you name it.
Here's a letter to David Barton which contains a new interpretation of the first amendment which could help straighten out America.
David Barton,
The first amendment says:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Consider at the time it was written:
1) An establishment is a business so establishments of religion were church businesses supported by their members, which businesses are distinct from religion itself which can be factored as RELI-God-I-ON, which includes all Bible based philosophies. So the first amendment seperated Bible businesses, not the Bible from the federal government.
2) By complete seperation of the Bible businesses from government, churches were forerunners of Indian reservations, seperate nation-states which were laws unto themselves, capable of ruling their members as they saw fit without government interferrence.
3) The Bible businesses or reservations created the nation from their pulpits as you've documented and were free to participate in government by sending their representatives to Congress making government a mechanizm for the free and equal unification of the churches.
4) The 3 hour prayer and Bble study meetings in Congress before they conducted the nation's business corresponds to the typical length of church meetings where free equal speech is practiced without the lectures of pastors. As equals without the prostitution of money and power church businesses have (Rev. 17:5) they were among the first true church meetings since Jesus' time on earth. Therefore Congress was a church greater than the sum of its parts.
5) True church should be Jesus based as in a number line where Jesus is on the right, Satan is on the left, and Paul is at zero thus focussed on the New Pentateuch (4 gospels plus Revelation which have most of Jesus' written words), and work to fulfill every prophecy therein including preaching the gospel as a testimony to all nations and building the overcomers required for a church worthy of rapture in Rev. 12:5.
Do you agree with this analysis enough to make speeches about it?
During our time, nations are the only things rich enough to give a Bible to everyone on earth, so the conversion of Congress and the USA back to a Christian nation is required and should be worked on by the Christian businesses.
Jews are Christians by definition because the word Christ means the annointing of the Holy Spirit which Jews also seek evidenced by their Holy Annointing Oil. They also have the same ultimate goal, ascension to God's throne in Rev. 12:5 and Isa. 66:7.
Love Jesus,
Kirk W. Fraser
Clatskanie, OR
PS: If you had a daily radio program like Rush Limbaugh, I'd listen to you instead. But your wallbuilderslive show doesn't have you on very often.
Tea party patriots have a new place to look for help. http://usafounders.org is the best solution for the problems facing America.
Now that we have a solution for all of America's problems, the next thing is to spread the solution around to make it reality. Reds and blues are not going to change unless they see something major (or the blues keep cutting off the blood supply long enough to kill America). So what's left is the great white hope, the independants.
Let's define the independants. Are they registered to vote as independants or are they the 50% of the eligible who aren't registered to vote at all, or in parties other than the big two? I'm not sure what answer AmericanSolutions has in mind. Maybe it's the 50% plus another 30% or so from existing parties that responded to the Platform Of The American People?
It could save on advertizing expenses to know. I might better target my time and money knowing who the great white hope are.
The best guess I can try is using lists of registered R's, D's and C's send ten post cards to each group plus unregistereds and see what happens. Or maybe the great white hope is in another direction than defined by poltical affilation. Maybe the great white hope to rule both the blue and red as backgrounds will be found in churches.