‘Term Limits’ Sounds Right, But is Dead Wrong!

From: GemStatePatriot.com                                                 by Rich Loudenback

HERE’S WHY

Politically, nothing feels better than to exclaim ‘Throw them all out!’ because a majority of us who are paying attention are madder than hell! How often do you hear others say with conviction that the answer to our problems is term limits?

Most of us don’t give serious enough consideration to what that process would entail, however.

That is to say, we haven’t thought about the fact that the people that voted for those that will leave are the same people that will vote for the replacements. Do we actually believe new upstarts will speak differently and vote differently with the same amount of inattentiveness paid them by their constituents?

  1. How can we possibly believe that new candidates saying what we truly want to hear will vote any differently than those before them, once they too, taste the attention and perks offered them by special interests lobbyists as well receiving indoctrination and tremendous pressures from the establishment orchestrated leadership?
  2. The most unfortunate result of the process of throwing them all out is that we will also throw out the proverbial ‘babies with the bathwater’ or in other words, a few excellent elected officials that we direly need.
  3. Realize it takes time to get to know rules, procedures, people and ensuing strategies of friends and foe. It can take a term or two for the learning curve and peak effectiveness to kick in, just as it does in any other endeavor in the private sector. Term limits steals the expertise of experience.
  4. Also, realize that those leaving because of term limits, during their lame-duck status, won’t be as incentivized to do their best as they would were they running for re-election.
  5. And unfortunately, some will probably take advantage of opportunities to enrich themselves on the way out. What do they have to lose, after all? Nobody’s watching anyway.

THE FAULT OF IT ALL

The problem is them. But the fault lies with us, their constituents! We are ultimately responsible for them doing what they do because we let them. We elect them and then don’t pay attention to what they are doing. We pay less attention to what they are doing and how they are actually voting than average employers do with their employees. Why should we believe that term limits are the answer to human frailty?

THE NECESSARY CORRECTION

The answer to this chronic problem with inattentiveness is: Watching how they vote! That is done by watching voting indexes. The Idaho Freedom Foundation puts out The Freedom Index and in Washington DC an excellent voting index also called The Freedom Index has been published for years by the John Birch Society (JBS) in their New American magazine.

The reason America is in the sad state it is today is revealed in the JBS National Freedom Index that shows both the House and the Senate voted 34% with our Constitution in the last six-month index of the 114th Congress.

Their statement on that voting index: “‘The freedom index: a congressional scorecard based on the U.S. Constitution’ rates congressmen based on their adherence to constitutional principles of limited government, fiscal responsibility, national sovereignty, and traditional foreign policy of avoiding foreign entanglements. To learn how any representative or senator voted on the key measures described herein look him or her up in the vote charts.

“The scores are derived by dividing a congressman’s constitutional votes (pluses) by the total number he casts (pluses and minuses) and multiplying by 100. The average score for this index (votes 31 to 40) is 34% for both the House and Senate. Two representatives and one senator earned 100%. We encourage readers to examine how their own congressmen voted on each of the 10 key measures as well as overall. We also encourage readers to commend legislators for their constitutional votes and to encourage improvement where needed.”

SOME ENLIGHTENMENT

America is not supposed to be a ‘Magic Kingdom’ providing material and monetary benefits for its citizens and certainly not for non-citizens (illegal aliens). America is, most simply put: …about personal responsibility and freedom. REAL FREEDOM is about the freedom to win and the freedom to benefit from learning when not attaining our goals and then moving on strengthened from the experience. The consequences of our run-away big government’s guarantees, freebie phones, entitlements, subsidies, welfare fraud, grant abuses, government lies, redundancies, waste, manipulated loan interests, covert propaganda, travel and expense abuses, fraudulent loans, fixed bids, bribery & kickbacks, ‘stimulating’ beer & cigarette sales, overreach, utter theft, and the damaging deceitful free trade programs that have been foisted upon us actually damage our freedoms by penalizing our costs, unbalancing our commerce and markets while de-incentivizing our citizens.

GOVERNMENT GROWTH ERODES FREEDOMS

Communist-socialist propaganda in American schools – downloadable

We are experiencing the utter death of common sense in America, and we must recognize the overwhelming onslaught to our way of life by government itself because of most Americans’ apathetic refusal to pay attention to how their elected representatives are voting with our Constitution in order to keep America truly free and competitive.

As government grows our freedoms are diminished because of the constant and enormous strangulating costs of taxes and regulations. Freedom’s cancer is big government! (Click this link, A Must See!) There is just too much ‘social’ in government, (trying to do for everybody.) Can you say Socialism? It’s being taught in our schools and universities, you know. And our elected officials, asleep at the ‘reality switch,’ are helping it grow with every ‘do good,’ ‘bring home the bacon’ abuse they concoct or support at the bidding of their lobbyist buddies and their orchestrated party leadership. This socializing of America is not a party thing. Both parties are guilty. The Dem’s are in our face with it and much of the Grand Old Party are supporting socialist issues when they actually vote most of the time, in spite of their own platform. It is not about their platform, what they say and hugging babies! It’s all about what they do and how they vote!

SAMUEL ADAMS SUMMED IT UP PERFECTLY IN 1790:

“Much safer is it, and much more does it tend to promote the welfare and happiness of society to fill up the offices of Government after the mode prescribed in the American Constitution, by frequent elections of the people. They may indeed be deceived in their choice; they sometimes are; but the evil is not incurable; the remedy is always near; they will feel their mistakes, and correct them.

“Let’s use frequent elections to restrain any legislator who abuses his access to power, not rely on nanny state “term limits” to restrain our liberty. And let us take the shackles off of states and encourage them to exercise their power to refuse to enforce any act of the federal government that exceeds the power given to it in the Constitution.”

OUR FUTURE LIES IN ACCOUNTABILITY

Elected officials usually schmooze us so well because we have not studied their actual voting records. Here in North Idaho, we boast a lot of the best voting records in the state among representatives and senators. We are proud of them, but as good as our representatives and senators are, we even watch their voting records.

Nothing is more important to the future of our Republic than for our citizens to learn our Constitution, start watching voting indexes, informing others to do the same, holding our elected officials accountable and culling them at the voting booth as soon as they go against their oaths they swore.

Now, having said all this, I too, know how strong the urge is to want to shout “Throw them all out,” because I too am madder than hell. But, it would be a big exercise in futility. We must hold them accountable and cull them selectively for poor performance just like any other employer. You know the words…”You’re fired!”

What the Hell Is Going On Here? Really! –…

From: GemStatePatriot.com                                                      by Rich Loudenback

America’s great icon of inspiration for the work ethic and winning, the late, great Vince Lombardi for whom the NFL Super Bowl Trophy is named is often remembered for the similar on field remark “What the hell is going on out here?”

A leader he was, a politician he was not. Leading to win in his world is about focusing on a plan, preparing physically and mentally, practicing and executing.

The art of a winning in politics has become chameleon like, trying to be what an opportunity for deals and money calls for, be damned with principles.

It hurts a great deal to see Paul Ryan’s GOP put itself intentionally in the position of owning the fact that they single-handedly are going to be responsible for directing America into the throes of the power elite at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and their comrades at the UN taking more control over our lives with what will most certainly become a single payer health care system just like Canada’s. Think VA medical care, because the federal government runs nothing well. Slow and crappy service with high progressive taxes to pay for it all will become our world. Really. Gone will be the competitiveness and incentives for innovation that has driven America to our many successes in healthcare and better health for our citizens.

IT IS TIME FOR AMERICANS TO WAKE-UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE

“Republicans are not arguing for the free market anymore. They have sort of accepted the fact that the electorate sees health care as a commodity. It’s not like purchasing a steak or a car. It is something people now have a sense that government ought to guarantee. I would predict that in less than seven years, we will be in a single-payer system.” – Quoting Dr. Charles Krauthammer as a guest on Fox News who also happens to be a member of the CFR. Why is that not good? See: ‘Who the ‘Establishment’ Really Is’ – (A single payer system is all about government control from the CFR).

Worse yet, is having to acknowledge, like on too many other campaign issues our President, “The Donald,” seems to be backtracking and being maneuvered by influential “insiders,” and unfortunately by his own young daughter and impressive young son-in-law who still have too much New York “enlightened’ liberalism in their veins. Pray that President Trump will stay closest to Steve Bannon and become educated on the Constitution and the seriousness of its wisdom. He is the perfect man for these times, if he will stay on course like he campaigned for and not fall under the wrong influences, namely from those many belonging to the CFR. He should vet all his people for CFR membership.

OUTING AHCA’s TRUTHS AND INEVITABLE COURSE

True, the bill erases the tax penalties for not having insurance but then gives the same power to the insurance companies—to raise your premiums by 30 percent and shuffles much more with different looks and names.

Alex Newman in his article at TheNewAmerican.com ‘GOP House Keeps Much of ObamaCare in “Repeal and Replace” Bill’reports, “Despite virtually every Republican at the federal level running on a platform of repealing ObamaCare, the GOP-controlled House of Representatives just voted to retain the bulk of it under the guise of “repeal and replace.” Now, in addition to keeping in place a dizzying array of unconstitutional and destructive federal meddling in healthcare, Republicans have ensured that they will get the blame as costs continue to surge and care becomes increasingly difficult to access. Everyday Americans and constitutional governance, as usual, will be the main losers. Now the fight moves to the Senate, where analysts expect lawmakers to retain even more of ObamaCare.

“The bill does cut back some of the taxes imposed under ObamaCare. But despite deceptive coverage of the bill by much of the establishment media, which went along with the ruse that the AHCA repeals ObamaCare, the legislation actually keeps huge swaths of the unconstitutional statute in place. For instance, under the GOP version of ObamaCare, most of ObamaCare’s regulations, mandates, decrees, and meddling are kept firmly in place. It keeps subsidies for insurance, and penalties for not having it, but changes a few relatively minor elements. While the bill purports to “allow” states to “apply” for waivers from some mandates, the legislation simply requires that states create what critics slammed as “mini-ObamaCare” schemes at the state level to obtain the exemptions.

“Some principled grassroots organizations, though, opposed the scheme. The constitutionalist John Birch Society, which publishes this magazine and has chapters across America, has been urging its members to push for a full and complete repeal — and only a full repeal, such as the exact same repeal bill that was repeatedly sent to Obama when Republicans knew he would veto it. Instead of replacing the unconstitutional ObamaCare with something else, the organization called for the federal government to obey the Constitution and get out of healthcare completely, beginning with full repeal of ObamaCare. “We urge our members and supporters to contact their congressmen to let them know not to pass a repeal and replace bill, rather to pass a repeal-only bill,” reads a May 4 statement issued by JBS Vice President for Communications Bill Hahn.

“Other liberty-minded organizations, meanwhile, blasted the new bill for keeping in place huge swaths of ObamaCare, including many of the worst provisions responsible for soaring costs and reduced care. “The leadership calls this ‘repeal and replace, ‘ but it is actually ‘retain and renew’, ‘ explained Campaign for Liberty President Norm Singleton, whose organization urged members to contact Congress and ask that their representatives oppose the scheme. “Like the so-called ObamaCare replacement bill that was pulled from the floor last month, this new bill preserves most of ObamaCare’s regulations and mandates. It also retains the Republican version of the individual mandate that was a centerpiece of Ryan’s original legislation.”

See: “Here are the major changes to the GOP healthcare bill” by Bob Bryan at BusinessInsider.com

In Dr. Joel McDurmon‘s article ‘Trumped-Care: If At First You Don’t Fail, Try, Try Again’ in Gem State Patriot he cites another article from The Nation, “This is single-payer for dummies. In a single-payer system, the government picks up the health-care costs for the population, paid for through progressive taxation. The market power of having one insurance payer can work to lower overall health care costs, making the system sustainable. In TrumpCare’s single-payer for dummies, the fragmented private-insurance middleman remains intact. But taxpayer dollars still pick up the health-care costs for those who cannot afford it. Instead of acquiring market power, they just give those taxpayer dollars to the private middlemen, which tells the private middlemen they can charge whatever they want and always get paid.”

What has brought America along with its endless heralded successes has been our unbridled freedoms to compete and pursue our destinies following the direction of our incredible three documents: The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and The Bill of Rights as a nation of laws. Guarantees, subsidies, handouts and entitlements are socialistic and paying for them injures our very foundations of free enterprise. Government run, Single Payer Insurance, creating high progressive taxes is pure socialism. It dramatically injures free market capitalism; which when unabated always wins, but to do so it needs being free of budget killing socialistic programs. Although Socialism is utopia for dreamers (dummies) it has never succeeded in history and cannot because it’s redistribution of money drains our freedom to compete by killing the work ethic, de-incentivizing entrepreneurism and shackling our competitiveness.

A FORBODING

Felix Frankfurter, Justice of the Supreme Court (1939-1962), said: “The real rulers in Washington are invisible and exercise power from behind the scenes.”

“Let us face reality. The framers (of the Constitution) have simply been too shrewd for us. They have outwitted us. They designed separate institutions that cannot be unified by mechanical linkages, frail bridges (or) tinkering. If we are to turn the founders upside down… we must directly confront the Constitutional structure they erected.” – James MacGregor Burns Council on Foreign Relations member 1984

This drive toward the Single Payer System for America’s health insurance is a very direct confrontation for that control. Government run anything is the path toward that very world of socialism that is begging for global governance run by un-elected, unaccountable, power elitists who know best about everything for everybody. We must be vigilant and not give too much trust to the political parties that are so full of themselves. Pesky special interests and hidden agendas continually replace those grand proclamations of great sounding platforms. All that counts is how elected officials vote with our Constitution which has been responsible for making America great.

Quoting former U.S. Rep. Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe in their book ‘Give Us Liberty,’ “The miracle of the Constitution is the simple genius of limited government and its singular devotion to protecting individual liberty.

“…The Government should be concerned with protecting my liberty, not my liver.

“The founders designed a government that was to do only that which was both right and necessary; the rest was to be left up to the states and individuals. It is simply the best organizational chart for running a society ever created. However, this division of labor only works if people mind their own business. The problem is that politicians and bureaucrats often do not know their limitations and make it their business to mind yours.”

To which I add, it is our fault for not paying attention, letting them get away with it and not replacing them.

WHAT WE MUST DO

Americans must quit denying reality and seek real vetted truth in their news. I strongly suggest The New American.com for vetted truth that can be counted on. They publish six to twelve new articles a day on the hottest issues confronting America.

So seek verified news and study issues. Then study voting records at the Freedom Index in Washington D.C at The New American.com/freedom-index on how Congress votes with the U.S. Constitution. In Idaho check the Idaho Freedom Index at IdahoFreedomIndex.com, which is an aggregation of the Idaho Freedom Foundation’s non-partisan analysis and rating of bills voted on by the Idaho Legislature during each legislative session. After studying these voting indices inform others and cull the vermin at the voting booth.

It pains me to acknowledge this, but the House passed the AHCA 247-243 and Raul Labrador was one of the 247. Had he and one other voted nay, there would have been a four-vote swing and passage would not have been “guaranteed.” Raul is such a great Congressman I want to forgive him on this one, but I’d sure like to know what the hell he was thinking.

Two further quotes to wrap this up:

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” — Aldous Huxley

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” — Edmund Burke