PatriotPost.us - Monday Brief: The Long Arm of Government Intervention

From: The Patriot Post  Sent: Monday, August 22, 2011 Subject: Monday Brief: The Long Arm of Government Intervention

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Brief · August 22, 2011 · The Foundation

"Without liberty, law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression." --James Wilson

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Essential Liberty

"Over the past half-century, Washington has insinuated itself into a thousand-and-one decisions that individuals or local governments are more than capable of making for themselves.  Which medicines can you buy? How efficient should your light bulbs be?  Can your children's school day begin with a prayer?  Who qualifies for a mortgage?  When do unemployment benefits run out?  Can you pay an employee $5 an hour if that's what his labor is worth?  Should abortions be restricted?  Is health insurance optional?  Do artists or farmers or broadcasters require subsidies?  Are you in charge of your retirement income?  In Federalist No. 45, James Madison emphasized that, under the Constitution, the powers of the federal government 'are few and defined,' while those left to state and local communities 'are numerous and indefinite.'  For the first 150 years or so of US history that was largely the case.  But New Deal and Great Society liberalism has turned the framers' careful arrangement inside out.  Today, there is almost nothing in American life that Washington does not consider itself fit to regulate, control, ban, tax, or mandate.  ... Has the staggering growth of the federal establishment made America a better, more humane, more optimistic place to live?  Obviously it is possible to single out this or that law or regulation or expenditure and show that it has been beneficial.  Not even the most ardent libertarian disputes the need for federal governance of inherently national matters -- and the Constitution itself makes clear that Washington has a role to play in guaranteeing civic equality and political liberty.  Yet in crucial ways, the flow of power upward to the federal government has impoverished American culture and weakened civic society." --columnist Jeff Jacoby

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Opinion in Brief

"Was it Socrates or 'Dirty' Harry Callahan who said, 'A man's gotta know his limitations'?  Well, Harry learned that lesson from life experiences -- experiences that we must assume Obama missed.  From what we know of his scandalously sketchy background and what we observe of his behavior in office, it would seem that Obama had no life experiences following adolescence other than academics and politics in their various forms.  He appears to have no idea why things don't happen automatically as they did on the professors' chalkboards.  As an academically indoctrinated central planner whose tutors trained him to believe the government can create economic growth by using borrowed federal money to pay people to dig ditches and fill them back up again, it's no wonder he is mystified that his stimulus package didn't create jobs.  But he's more than mystified.  He's frustrated, because he believes he ought to have carte blanche authority ... to inaugurate round two, with the building of high-speed rail, more infrastructure and anything else he darn well pleases.  I trust you know I'm not fabricating this.  Just the other day, he repeated his lament that he has to work within this messy system called 'democracy.'  He believes that if he just had sole control, he could match in the real world the economic results the professors produced in the classroom.  Meanwhile, Obama is conducting his government-subsidized campaign bus tour as if everything were just wonderful, except for the refusal of American businesses to do as he says." --columnist David Limbaugh

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