It’s the start of another New Year. The air is filled with optimism. Good intentions rule the day. We’re all choosing our own path from the traditional menu to either get in better shape, eat healthier, spend more quality time with loved ones or to cast off any deleterious vices we’ve succumbed to in the past.
Businesses are setting goals, implementing new strategies, reformulating plans and fine-tuning operations for anticipated success in the upcoming year. For all the effort and time put into this planning, a major obstacle that too often proves a debilitating hurdle can be overlooked.
The mindset I’m referring to started with treating financial institutions as, “too big to fail” and now has morphed into the belief that “big government” is “too important to restrain.” Government’s escalating attempt to control all facets of our lives is never ending.
This New Year saw the passage of 3,415 new regulations being imposed on the country. More than 200 of these regulations bring with them an economic impact of more than $100 million that will further burden our fragile economic recovery and our expansion and growth—but we’re told it’s all in our best interest. Never forget, our elected officials are much smarter than us and we’d be much more appreciative if only we possessed their intellect. And remember, too, the passage of these new regs has nothing to do with more control, power and money accruing to the feds.
These new regulations, crafted by unelected bureaucrats—and, too often, only serving to further a political agenda—have the same effect as any law passed by Congress. And once these regulations are put into effect, they’re never reviewed for their efficacy or any unanticipated or unintended negative consequences.
Government is sailing uncharted waters these days in its quest to negate personal liberty and freedom. It believes, with a never-seen-before passion, that “the end justifies any means.” A perfect example of this is the revelations Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber recently admitted, saying, “The bill was written in a tortured way to make sure the CBO did not score the mandate as taxes because if that happened the bill dies.” Gruber went on in his videotaped remarks to credit “the stupidity of the American voter” for letting them hide the true cost of Obamacare and successfully perpetrate this fraud.
This philosophy dominates Washington, D.C., and has proliferated into all areas of government. Whether it’s banking, housing, education or the environment, there’s nothing the feds don’t want to regulate or mandate rather than trusting individuals and free markets. Rather than trusting people to govern themselves, the Washington, D.C., elite want to have a free hand in designing what they believe is the ideal society—all they ask is our compliance. In the end, the real cost is our prosperity and freedom.
The progressive left claim that their ultimate goal is only to help people, but this “help” always comes in the form of the enforcement of their vision of what that help constitutes. And they have very little patience with those who don’t agree with that vision. When you start with the premise that only they know what’s best for people—better than people know themselves—progressives run into an obstacle. That obstacle is the Constitution and that’s why it’s under an unrelenting attack. This venerable, magnificent document is based on the presumption that “the people” have the right to not only choose their government, but also dictate government policy with their votes. Also, it’s clear in reading that there are vast areas of people’s lives that are none of government’s business. These days, getting government to respect that distinction is becoming impossible.
Let’s close this month’s column with a few of my pet peeves. I don’t know if you’ll agree, but these things really bug me:
I’m really tired of hearing that the folks who work hard to earn a living, pay their taxes and don’t break any laws described as greedy and uncaring because they object to having more of their money taken away to support people who feel entitled to have others pay their way through life.
I’m tired of being lectured by morons who espouse moral equivalency. You know, the “who are we to judge right and wrong,” crowd? If they’re incapable of telling the difference between the “good guys” and “bad guys,” I’m not.
I’ve totally had it with being preached at about “tolerance,” when, if you happen to disagree with “preacher’s” position, you’re immediately labeled and dismissed as a racist, homophobe or sexist. Now that’s tolerance.
And lastly, I’m sick and tired of the America bashers who accuse the best country in the world of being responsible for every ill that inflicts the rest of the world.
That’s it for now. Enjoy this month’s magazine.
