"Politicians Are Buying Off America With YOUR Money"

From 1989 to 2007 (18 years) the "earmarks" by Washington State lawmakers have risen exponentially from $7,500,000 in 1989 to $154,000,000 to 2007.  Since Democrats are in control of the Washington State Legislature, that $154,000,000 went to mostly Democrat districts.  Yes, both parties are guilty of this abuse of your taxes.   I applaud the Seattle Times for running this expose', as rare as such articles appear in the left-leaning mouth piece of the Pacific Northwest.
 
Here are a couple of excerpts from the article to illustrate what we are talking about: "And in Tukwila, WA the state plans to spend $10 million on a road needed for a proposed 490-acre development. The developer is a large contributor to Democrats and has donated to the Senate committee chairwoman who helped get the money."
 
"Since 2005, lawmakers have spent or allocated nearly $270 million on earmarks in the capital budget, which funds construction projects. That's more than was spent in the previous 15 years combined.  Since 2005, lawmakers have spent or allocated nearly $270 million on earmarks in the capital budget, which funds construction projects. That's more than was spent in the previous 15 years combined"
 
If you think this robbing of the public treasury for special interests, lobbyists and political contributors is limited to Washington State, think again.  Legislators in Washington DC and every state of the Union feel empowered to do whatever they damn well please, because no one is holding them accountable. 
 
Also from the Seattle Times article:  "On a national level, earmarks for such projects as "the bridge to nowhere," a proposed $223 million span to connect Alaska's mainland to Gravina Island, home to 50 people and the Ketchikan airport, have sparked outrage and efforts at reform."
 
Outrage?  Where?  Considering the response to our pleas for support, it is no wonder that politicians get away with it.  Who is listening?  Why should you care how government spends your money?  Why should you care that the politicians, that supposedly represent you, find all sorts of creative ways to steal money from you for their own self-aggrandizement, their re-election and their favorite contributors, using a plethora of your taxes on your hard-earned wages?  I know!  You think that maybe if you stick your head in the sand, the problem will go away.  But it won't.  It will just get worse and it is.
 
 
But here is the real reality:
 
"YOUR MONEY IS GOVERNMENT'S MAJOR POWER OVER YOU:  The first power that government has over you is YOUR perception that YOUR money is their money.  The second power that government has over you is by using the money they take from you by force, against you.  The third power that government has over you is that you will religiously obey their laws, or by God, they will make you wish you had."
 
"Only when the people realize that their tax money is being used to environmentally enslave them; only when the people realize that their tax money is being used to "feed" a growing population of other people dipping their bills in the government "pig trough" and those "takers" voting for those very same politicians who take our tax money by force to keep the "trough" full; only when the people realize that our government is using our tax money to merge America into the one-world-order; only when the people realize that the only way to stop this insanity is to resist government in every way possible and withhold their tax money on a grand scale, will principled changes ever occur."
 
When you know all this, freedom could be in your grasp."   Ron Ewart
 
But we wonder if anyone is listening, or even cares? Ron Ewart
 
Find more articles by Ron Ewart on: www.narlo.org

From: Jillm46@aol.com
To: wpduck@msn.com
Sent: Sunday, August 19, 2007 11:25 AM
Subject: Re: Politicians buy America with YOUR money!!!

The Republicans are as guilty of this as the Democrats  Wasn't the bridge in Alaska pushed through by a Republican...and the unneeded railroad tracks that cost millions in a Southern state?

Bush has eliminated our rights...right and left....and given to the rich while taking away from the middle class and the poor.

Personally, I think most politicians start out with a focus on helping their constituents and then become the pawns of lobbyists and their own self-interest.  Then there are the ones like Bush who are out for their own interests (oil and gas, etc.) and foisting their beliefs on the rest of us.

Ahhhh, my Sunday soapbox.

Jill

 

Dear Jill:
I wanted to take a moment to respond, as I understand your thoughts on this.  First of all the article was entitled: "Politicians Buy America With YOUR money".  That's all politicians.  Secondly, in the first paragraph of the article I said: "Yes, both parties are guilty of this abuse of your taxes."  I am well aware of the duplicity of the parties. 
 
In further explanation, a recent front-page article of the NARLO Newsletter went like this:
 
"ABOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY"
 
Most everyone has heard the phrase, "Power Corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely." It is becoming increasingly relevant today where politicians, drunk with "power", are corrupting our laws, our initiatives and the very foundation of our laws and freedom, our Constitutions, state and Federal. A glaring example of this abuse of power occurred right here in the state of Washington. [In 2005, the Snohomish County Superior Court ruled that the Washington State Legislature broke the law and violated Initiative 601 when they shifted funds around to spend the same money twice.

During oral arguments, State Supreme Court Justice Susan Owens called it "a shell game." Incredibly, the Legislature defended itself by saying Initiative 601 did not specifically prohibit them from spending the same money twice. Most are attorneys and know how to "parse".

"Approved by voters in 1993, Initiative 601 put reasonable limits on state government's fiscal policies. But over the years, the Legislature has put loophole after loophole into it."

Another loophole: For 13 years, a two-thirds legislative majority has been required to increase taxes. The Legislature re-enacted this two-thirds requirement in 1998 and again in 2005. But to circumvent it, the Legislature took tax increases off budget. Clever little devils, aren't they?

During closing arguments in the State Supreme Court case, the politicians' attorneys defended themselves by saying "The Legislature has plenary power." That means absolute power; power without limitation. Their claim is they can't break the law because they are above the law. ]

This is a mindset that has permeated politicians and bureaucrats at every level of government for almost 80 years since the early 1930's, when the first dictator of the United States took office as President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). Yes, to some he was a hero, but to others who knew what he did to the rule of law and to the U. S. constitution, he is anything but. Even before FDR's term of office, a previous President, Herbert Hoover, commissioned studies with Harvard and the University of Illinois on how to manipulate the American people through their subconscious minds. The results of some of those studies were implemented into law. It is a provable fact.

This country had built-in controls on government's power through specific constitutional limits and the "Separation of Powers" doctrine. Under the Separation of Powers doctrine, the three branches of government were supposed to be a "check" on each other and thus overall government power. The government received its strict limited powers (about 15 of them) from the Constitution. All other powers were delegated to the states and to the people. That's us. But if we will not, or refuse to watch government like a hawk, it will fill the vacuum created by our apathy and indifference with its own powers, irrespective of the constitutional limits placed upon it, for the simple reason that: "power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Politics is a high-stakes poker game. Unfortunately, only the powerful get to "play" but the taxpayer gets to pay, unless the taxpayer watches what the politicians are doing every day. (Note: What appears in Italics, came from a Tim Eyman message, regarding Initiative 960.   Ron Ewart, President

In the absence of WE THE PEOPLE, the government does whatever it pleases and their power eventually becomes absolute.
 
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
 
Ron Ewart, President
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF RURAL LANDOWNERS
P. O. Box 1031, Issaquah, WA  98027
425 222-4742 or 1 800 682-7848
(Fax No. 425 222-4743)
Website: www.narlo.org

Excellent article!
 
This brings us back to the time of the American Revolution - remember, 'no taxation without representation'?
 
Professor Lee Reed of the University of Georgia, Terry College of Business, has spoken eloquently about the notion of 'sacred property' and the purpose of government. 
 
Here are some excerpts from my speech at Carol Lagrasse's 10th Annual Property Rights of American Conference last October 2006, in which I quote Dr. Reed.
 
You may already have the speech on the GNF website. It is entitled "U.S. Private Property Rights Under International Assault".
 
Here are the excerpts that relate to the theme of the Seattle Post article which you clearly bring out:
 
 
According to constitutional law and property rights scholar O. Lee Reed of the University of Georgia,

 "Historians of the colonial era are virtually unanimous in concluding that the American Revolution was fought over private property and the English refusal to apply to their own colonists the great constitutional principle of England: legitimate taxation of privately owned resources can derive only from the people's elected representatives. Said John Wilkes, Lord Mayor of London, during this time, 'If we can tax the Americans without their consent, they have no property, nothing they can call their own.'" (1)
 
 
...Constitutional law and property rights scholars, such as O. Lee Reed, agree that, "Thomas Jefferson's 'pursuit of happiness' phrase from the Declaration of Independence is property based, deriving from John Locke's belief that one's privately directed acquisition of the means of life is the highest political happiness." Dr. Reed also agrees that the notion of 'sacred property' is firmly entrenched within the U.S. Constitution.

 
"Without any opposition whatsoever, no fewer than five members of the Constitutional Convention observed that the purpose for which the political state comes into being is the protection of property. James Madison, who recorded these statements in his minutes of the Convention, himself held this belief, and in 1792 wrote a famous essay in which he extended the established constitutional cachet of private property to such objects as speech and the practice of religion. Madison said that even as people have a 'right to property' so also do they have a 'property in their rights,' thus representing individual liberty as nothing less than self-ownership." (4)

Lawrence Kogan
 
 
 
1) See O. Lee Reed, "Exclusive Private Property is Indispensable to Brazil's Economic Development", International Journal of Economic Development Volume Eight, Numbers 1-2 (Sept. 2006) at pp. 5-10 at p. 7 (2006), at: http://www.itssd.org/White%20Papers/ijed-8-1-2-reed.pdf , Introduction to, Lawrence A. Kogan, "Rediscovering the Value of Intellectual Property Rights: How Brazil's Recognition and Protection of Foreign IPRs Can Stimulate Domestic Innovation and Generate Economic Growth", International Journal of Economic Development Volume Eight, Numbers 1-2 (Sept. 2006) at: http://www.itssd.org/White%20Papers/ijed-8-1-2-kogan.pdf

4) Ibid.