Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Government Out Of Control, Democracy in Free Fall

Okay, you may have thought that the past six posts were the end of the bad news coming out of the Federal government and the American political class. After all, after four days of reviewing the idiocy and insanity from our politicians and following that up with two posts reviewing the dire economic condition the political class has led us into would seem to cover all of the insanity.

However, that is an erroneous assumption. Today, we will be covering the distressing trend of government getting totally out of control, so large and cumbersome that it is endangering our democracy and freedoms. Rather than a supportive government that protects and serves citizens, we have a government structure that is evolving, rather quickly, into an oppressive, unaccountable, overbearing bureaucracy that makes Jabba the Hutt look efficient and benevolent.

But before we examine this loss of liberty let’s review how a democracy is supposed to work:
  • Citizens elect politicians that are supposed to go to Washington to look after our interests and wealth that we pass to them as taxes.
  • They develop laws and legislation to implement procedures and programs for the good of the people.
  • Staff and organizations in the executive wing of the Federal government then implement the wishes and output of Congress and the President.
  • Those staffs, organizations, and their actions should be accountable to sitting politicians who are accountable to the citizens.
This simple concept was illustrated pictorially in the following blog post:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-freedom-pyramid-where-it-is-and.html

But this concept of liberty, elections, and most importantly, accountability, has been perverted and undermined in so many ways:

1) A recent Congressional meeting was held by the Subcommittee on Aviation, which is a part of the House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee (TIC). Obviously, they have some responsibility for aviation in this country, a responsibility that would logically put them in partnership with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

The subcommittee extended an open invitation to the head of the TSA to attend the meeting. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss how best to improve the nation’s airport passenger security system through common sense solutions:

The purpose of this hearing is to examine the impact that the regulations and policies of the Transportation Security Administration have on aviation passenger experience and the free flow of aviation commerce. The subcommittee will hear from government, industry, and labor witnesses on their observations and suggestions on TSA’s policies.

Sounds like a good idea, Congress trying to make informed decisions on how to better protect and serve the American traveling public. And it is certainly needed since the history of the TSA serving American citizens has been one of incompetence and violations of Americans’ personal space and bodies.

This does not appear to be a confrontational Congressional hearing. There does not appear like it was a political witch hunt. It was for information gathering purposes. But the head of the TSA that received the invitation told the Congressional subcommittee to take a hike. This is a Congressional transportation committee asking for the help of a major government transportation entity to help Americans and the head of that entity said no way:

By U.S. House of Representatives rules which state that the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has no jurisdiction over the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), no representative from TSA will be present at the Subcommittee on Aviation hearing scheduled for Nov. 29.

When a government bureaucrat can tell an elected representative, who is only looking for that bureaucrat’s help and insights to serve America, then we see our first example of government out of control and running wild.

2) One of the most frightening aspects of Obama Care is the implementation of a new Federal government panel of unelected fifteen people that will decide the who, what, and when of medical care in this country. The Independent Payment Advisory Board of Obama Care, or IPAB, has the task of achieving specified savings in Medicare without, theoretically, affecting coverage or quality.

Under current laws, changes to Medicare payment rates and program rules are recommended by MedPac, a current advisory board, but require an act of Congress to take effect. The new system grants IPAB the authority to make changes to the Medicare program with Congress being given the power to overrule the agency's decisions through supermajority vote.

If at any time the head actuary of Medicare estimates that a preset Medicare budget target will be missed, this IPAB board of fifteen then puts together a plan so that the financial targets are actually met by lower Medicare spending processes. If the actuary decides that this plan does not meet the financial targets, the Health and Human Services department of the Federal government then steps in and makes the necessary Medicare expense, and service cuts. Congress, our elected representatives get involved only if they can put together a supermajority of votes to override the IPAB or Health and Human Services.

Given that the U.S. Senate is so incompetent that it has not even figured out how to pass a simple budget over the past three years, it is highly, highly unlikely that Congress would ever get its act together to accurately manage Medicare costs. Which leaves the decisions on who, when, and where Americans do or do not get Medicare funding for their aliments to 15 faceless bureaucrats or the faceless hulking bureaucracy known as Health and Human Services.

When the precursor to Obama Care was implemented in Massachusetts, very quickly it became apparent that financial budgets and targets were not going to be hit. At that point, the people responsible for the program’s financials in Massachusetts starting cutting services and coverages, e.g. taking dental care out of the program.

You can safely bet the same thing will happen with Obama Care since this inadequate piece of legislation never addressed the underlying root causes of high health care costs. Congress will never get its act together and at some point, fifteen people you will never likely meet or possibly never know their names will decide whether you will get funding for your health problems, hardly a way to run a democracy.

3) Many times in this blog we have already covered the fact that Obama’s financial industry reform legislation, the Dodd-Frank Act, has already proven to be a failure and will continue to be a failure going forward. The legislation failed to identify the collapse of the financial firm, MF Global, like it was supposed to do, and does nothing relative to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two main culprits in the Great Recession.

And according to a recent article by George Will in the Washington Post, that was summarized in the November 30, 2012 issue of The Week magazine, the third component of failure and overreaching government power is about to crash down on us. According to Mr. Will, the Dodd-Frank law created a monster bureaucracy called the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB): “ (the CFPB) is a dangerous new bureaucracy answerable to no one” and “makes a mockery of Congress’s Constitutional powers by being unfettered from all three branches of government, unlike anything created since 1789.”

This bureau will be embedded inside the Federal Reserve Board’s organization, which will provide the funding for its existence. Thus, much like its larger home organization, the budget and workings of this new bureaucracy will be clouded in secrecy and darkness, two aspects that should never be allowed to happen in a democracy. Will makes the following cogent, and chilling, points in his article:
  • The 2012 official budget for the organization contained a request for $130 million for unspecified “other services,” a huge chunk of money that could easily be abused and wasted or used as a slush fund.
  • The new bureau can arbitrarily impose new rules and regulations on the banking and financial industry without public hearings, debate, and Congressional action or legal recourse by the firms and citizens affected.
  • The original law creating the bureau enables unspecified, unnamed, and “unaccountable experts” to develop these new protection laws and regulations but the law provides minimal guidance and restrictions on what these experts can arbitrarily pronounce and implement.
  • According to Will: “By creating a CFPB that floats above the Constitution’s tripartite design of government, Congress did not merely degrade itself, it injured all Americans.”
More secrecy, more bureaucracy, and more unaccountability as faceless government workers decree what they want done without discussion, debate, and representation of Americans’ interests at the negotiation table. That is not democracy, that is dictatorship.

4) In these first three examples of government gone wild we can relatively easy see that our elected representatives, namely Congress, are directly being cut out of government actions and decisions, which means we are being cut out of government actions and decisions.

In this next example, we see a massive government bureaucracy at work but in extreme secrecy, even more secret than the previous examples above. In a recent interview by William Binney, a whistleblower of the National Security Agency (NSA), EVERY citizen in the country probably is having their digital life being tracked in detail by the Federal government:
  • Mr. Binney asserts in the interview, (http://www.westernjournalism.com/nsa-whistleblower-everyone-in-u-s-under-virtual-surveillance/), that the FBI and NSA are already recording and storing the emails of nearly all U.S. citizens, without warrants or permission.
  • This information is being stored in massive, multibillion dollar data centers and can be retrieved at any time regarding any specified citizen.
  • While much of this NSA and government data collection and privacy invasion was started during the Bush administration, it is Mr. Binney’s opinion that it has gotten worst and more secretive under the Obama administration.
  • From a credibility perspective, the video mentions that Mr. Binney has received the Callaway Award for Civic Courage for his whistleblowing of this privacy invasion by the NSA.
Mr. Binney is not alone at pointing out how mysterious government secrecy organizations are trampling on our privacy, often without us even knowing that the Feds are watching us, and reading our digital communications. Reason magazine reported on some of the same encroachments of freedom in January, 2013 issue:
  • U.S law enforcement agencies made 1.5 million requests of citizens’ cell phones records in 2011, or about 4100 requests every day of the year.
  • For the most part, under current law, the citizens who had their cell phone records turned over to the government will never know their records were passed along.
  • Without warrants, law enforcement and government agencies can now pinpoint your location within several feet using your own cell phone, any time, any day, for any reason.
  • Law enforcement is very secretive about these invasions of privacy; the Irvine, California police department guide on these activities state: “never disclose to the media these techniques (tracking people) - especially cell tower tracking.”
  • The Iowa fusion center, one of 72 nationwide government intelligence gathering centers, states in its manual: “Do not mention to the public or media the use of cellphone technology or equipment to locate targeted subject.”
  • The ACLU interprets these warnings as the following: “We would hate for the public to know how easy it is for us to obtain their personal information. It would be inconvenient if they asked for privacy protections.”
The article goes on with other chilling statistics and trends relative to unfettered government operatives having unfettered access to our digital, and real lives. The article is completely compatible with the accusations made by Mr. Binney.

Very scary stuff. Faceless government employees who can violate our privacy virtually any time they want. Government employees determining what they can do rather than citizens determining what we want to allow government employees to do and to access.

So what did we learn today:
  1. At least one government agency, the TSA, can tell our elected representatives in Congress to pound sand and not help them do their jobs.
  2. 15 bureaucrats will have final say in your retirement whether or not they will pay for a specific ailment you have, depending on whether the government is hitting a budget number.
  3. A new government bureau can decide in secret what fees, rules, and regulations it wants to implement, without oversight from citizens or Congress, on your bank, your credit card provider, etc.
  4. And probably worst of all, the government can, and does, snoop and intrude on your privacy, essentially assuming you are guilty until proven innocent, usually without your knowledge and permission.
Yes, we are truly living through a reality where government is out of control, financially, Constitutionally, medically, and secretly, and democracy is in free fall.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w



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