Big Government's Encroachment in Our Lives and Liberties

Americans would never allow our exceptional nation that our Founder’s fought for and established for the sake of exercising our Divinely-given rights of freedom to fall under the soft tyranny of an over-bearing, intrusive, and anti-capitalistic government. At least we American’s wouldn’t tolerate this should these changes from liberty to tyranny be enacted in one fell swoop, right? Unfortunately we Americans have allowed this to happen incrementally over many generations though. Frighteningly we are now at a critical point in the history of our nation where our way of life, our American way of life, is nearly over because of this incremental encroachment of government upon our liberties.

We have allowed the federal government to become so big and so powerful that it literally has control over a vast majority of the private sector economically and control of the population in so many other horrifying ways. The unfortunate part to all of this is that most Americans do not even realize this has happened yet. We are one despot being elected to the presidency away from being in a completely fascist state. Don’t believe me? Look what our neglect in understanding our history, economics, and holding our elected officials responsible has wrought!

First, the two government sponsored enterprises of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are said to be responsible for, depending on the source, between 70% to 90% of all housing loans in the country. The fact that these two companies were given lines of credit from our federal government and no SEC oversight was required of them was the very catalyst for the current economic recession in which we now find ourselves. Basically our federal government has an interest and indeed ultimately control of the loan for a vast majority of everyones’ home in America.

Second, with the passing of Obamacare this year, the federal government has in effect put in place a plan that will ultimately insure that 30+million people are added to the health insurance rolls while providing price fixes and disincentives to doctors and other health care providers. This means that you will have more people seeking health care and less people providing that service. The law of supply and demand dictates that prices for services will go up and/or rationing of available services will occur accordingly. This, of course, is what the government intended as private health insurance companies will ultimately no longer be able to make a profit and stay in business in the coming years. The result will be a fully managed, government-run health care system once the last private health insurer fails. Uncle Sam will dictate who gets what finite services and when. Further, the health care industry in our country is responsible for around 30% of our nation’s economy.

Third, a barely mentioned addendum to the recent health care act was that ALL student loans are now offered ONLY through the government. One can no longer go to a private bank to get a student loan. The government has the power to dictate who will get these loans, decide if the school you choose is “accredited” for your education, and could even conceivably one day approve or deny your loan based upon your desired course of study. This is an extraordinary shift in power away from the people to the government. If the government is in charge of one’s education, they can also determine the “type” of education you are to have and which colleges are worthy of having students that are there on student loans.

Fourth, the recent financial reform was another complete farce and further put control over a huge swath of our nation’s economy into the government’s hands. Rather than correct the problems of corruption and lack of adequate oversight in the financial system, all this act did was to ultimately give the power to the president to unilaterally (now without even the need for congressional approval!) decide if a private company is “risky” and its subsequent failure might negatively impact the nation’s economy. The president can then nationalize the company and have the government operate it like what has been done to GM, Chrysler, and various other financial institutions. A private company can now be seized by the government on the say of the president alone!

Fifth, there are those in government which are ardently working to enact the inaccurately named “Fairness Doctrine” and “net neutrality” in order to dissuade or control the free speech on our radios, televisions, and even internet. A government that has a say in what a citizen can say is no longer a protector of liberty.

Sixth, the federal government is desperately trying to pass cap & trade legislation in order to control the energy sector of our nation. Such an act would transform our energy policy, purportedly to help bring about cleaner and greener energy, but ultimately raising the costs of gasoline, oil, and electricity substantially. This will result in calamitous effects, especially for the poor and lower middle class as they struggle with the exorbitant rise in costs to heat their homes or drive to work.

Seventh, the government wishes to even control many of the jobs in this nation by providing hand-outs and incentives to unions. (Note, how President Obama neglected GM and Chrysler’s debt owed to investors, stock-holders, and vendors only to award many of the assets of the companies to union control!) Further, the Democrats are strongly pushing for card-check legislation to be passed which would essentially eliminate the secret ballot and open up dissenting voices to intimidation etc. when a vote is taken to form a new union in a work place.

So in summation, we Americans have allowed our government to get so gargantuan and intrusive that it now has or is working towards having control of our homes, our health care, our education, our banking and indeed our businesses, our right to free speech, our energy, and even our jobs. At what point do we stand up and say enough? What has happened to America that so many of our citizens don’t recognize this usurpation of our freedoms, but have actually celebrated and desired the government to take care of all of their individual needs from the womb to the tomb?

America was founded as a nation by rugged individuals that understood and desired only liberty. They would look at us with scorn and disgust for what we have allowed this greatest of all nations ever founded by mankind to become. Thomas Jefferson was right when he said,  “A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have.”