Tuesday After

Yesterday evening I watched with amusement, as I am am sure many you did, as Senator Schumer (D-NY) seemed positively giddy at the supposed trap sprung on those intransigent Republicans in the House side of the Congress. When asked if the Senate would return to appoint conferees to work out the differences in the two bills he responds indicating the House will do what Leader Reid and the President have asked them to do. Forget for a moment that the House is independent from the Senate and represents the people while the Senate is supposed to represent the State Legislatures under our Federalist system; not act solely as a submissive arm of the other chamber. Put aside that all spending measures are supposed to originate in the House and receive vetting from the Senate. What is this dog and pony show really about?

According to the good Senator from New York we are to accept a 60 day arguably meaningless extension of a tax holiday as a bi-partisan “mission accomplished” from the Senate. A measure that NO payroll department will be able to incorporate into employees paychecks based on the normal payroll cycle of 90 days or 1 quarter in the business cycle. So by my reasoning if the House does buckle and pass the Senate version we still see a tax hike returning to former tax levels January 1st and gear up for the next dog and pony show at the end of February.

As we roll into the next election cycle the gamesmanship orchestrated here is all too familiar. What the right and left wings of the Progressive party appear to be communicating is their belief in how utterly clueless they consider us to be. Under the banner of bi-partisanship we are supposed to be lulled into believing they are working in our best interest and if we don’t see it we are just too stupid or intransigent to accept the truth as they see it. If this observation is true, and I sincerely believe it is, then we have reached that point where the political class sees us as serfs if not out right slaves that they have total power over based on their ability to craft any law needed to keep us subservient. This is not a new phenomenon , regretfully, as this behavior has been so clearly pointed out by Frederic Bastiat over 160 years ago.

I cannot avoid coming to this conclusion – that there are too many great men in the world; there are too many legislators, organizers, institutors of society, conductors of the people, fathers of nations, etc., etc. Too many persons place themselves above mankind, to rule and patronize it; too many persons make a trade looking after it.  – Frederic Bastiat, The Law, 1850

We have a choice in front of us: Continue to send the same thieves to steal in our name and rule over us or seize back the liberty we have surrendered and restore this once great Republic to the vision our founders laid out for us. Cast aside party and look at what the politician is truly saying in both speech and deed. Does he or she advocate the continued use of the government to steal in your name or does he or she advocate restoring your liberty as found in natural law?