According to the Washington Post, it is “the rise of the
fourth branch.” A large chart pictured
the “imbalance of power;” at the top is the Executive that implements laws, below
are the co-equals, the Legislative that makes laws and the Judicial that
interprets laws. Underneath all, in a huge bubble, is the “Administrative state
that makes, implements, and interprets its own rules without any
accountability.” Featured prominently in this green bubble were the FCC and the
EPA. (Jonathan Turley, “The Rise of the Fourth Branch,” Washington Post, May
26, 2013)
Jonathan Turley, considering the recent events, opined
that “the 19th century Know-Nothing Party had returned to
Washington. President Obama insisted he knew nothing about major decisions in
the State Department, or the Justice Department, or the Internal Revenue
Service. The heads of those agencies, in turn, insisted they knew nothing about
major decisions by their subordinates. It was as if the government functioned
by some hidden hand.” Turley defends the Executive by saying, “the suggestion that someone, even the
president, is in control of today’s government may be an illusion.” http://jonathanturley.org/2013/05/26/the-rise-of-the-fourth-branch-of-government/
Unions, who were the main financial backers and supporters
of Democrats and the unfortunately named The Affordable Care Act, thought themselves
immune, they were too big to fit under the proverbial bus of Obamacare, with
the rest of us, the “unwashed masses” living in a parallel universe. They were
wrong.
To paraphrase Nancy Pelosi, who was in a terrible hurry
to pass the Affordable Care Act in the middle of the night, Let us pass the law
so you can see what’s in it. No more Cadillac plans, no special subsidies for
Big Labor, nothing but reduced choices, higher premiums, rationing of care, and
many other “unforeseen consequences” that the conservative opposition warned
the public about constantly but such forewarnings fell on deaf ears.
The Affordable Care Act is so unaffordable, daunting, and
potentially third-worldish that the mighty Congressmen, their staff, and Big
Labor want exemptions, including the IRS union, the very people who are going
to administer Obamacare and levy tax penalties for non-compliance on other
people. Too bad Americans are not allowed to plead the Fifth when audited as
the IRS’s Lois Lerner did when asked to testify.
It is hard to imagine how the federal government, with
the efficiency of the post office and draconian empathy of the IRS, is going to
enforce our collective health care efficiently and compassionately when they
are running out of money to set up federal exchanges - the HHS Secretary is
asking insurance CEOs for funds to establish health exchanges. The infamous 15-member death panel is having
difficulty finding conservatives to serve on this committee. Who wants to make
life and death decisions, to tell people that their health care is being
rationed when they need it most desperately?
AP reporters, whose rights to privacy were violated when
their phones were tapped, are finally speaking out. Fox News is outraged that their reporters are
targeted. Could it be a little too late to put out the raging fire?
The liberal MSM, setting aside any decorum of objectivity
held in the past, has been the overt propaganda arm of this administration,
vilifying and marginalizing conservatives, Tea Party groups, veterans, and
other like-minded Americans who did not like the excessive government intrusion
into their lives, the IRS audits, denials of tax-exempt status, and firings,
all because they exercised their freedom of speech and assembly.
Citizens did not speak out when Boston was under curfew
without a declaration of Martial Law; people were marched out of their homes
with their hands up like criminals, their houses searched without a warrant
under the excuse that a 19-year old alleged bomber was on the loose. This
fugitive was subsequently found hiding in a boat by a private citizen out for a
smoke in his back yard.
Nobody defended Dr. Michael Savage, a prominent member of
the press, when he was “banned from Britain” several years ago. The MSM was so
silent, you could hear crickets chirping. His good name, reputation, excellent
writing, outstanding career, and scholarship spanning decades were trampled by
placing him in the same category with nefarious individuals and criminals,
while the British press mocked his unrivaled and extraordinary talent as a
“shock jock.” He was doing his job, reporting the truth as he saw it,
exercising his freedom of speech. You may have disagreed with what he said, you may
not have liked his style, his delivery, his abrasiveness, his directness - you
had the choice to turn the dial and not listen to him, but you should have
defended his right to speak.
Who is going to defend the “useful idiots?” I suppose
they can hire expensive lawyers and plead the fifth like any other government
employee. After all, nobody is held accountable anymore, we no longer have
checks and balances, there is one party in power, and Congress does its
bidding.
Money is printed ad infinitum via quantitative easing (QE),
buying our own debt, and thus monetizing the deficit. The low information voters are kept happy
with generous welfare while the shrinking labor force, pensioners, and savers
are paying the price. Much wealth has been lost and re-distributed from the
producers to the slackers. Congress cannot stop spending just like a kid in a
candy store.
The dollar is devalued, interest rates are kept at near
zero by the Fed, saving accounts pay pennies each month in interest, and people
are losing wealth and purchasing power. Inflation is officially reported to be
low. In reality, it is around 9 percent because the Fed bought so much of its
own debt, there is too much money chasing too few goods in a very slow growing
economy plagued by uncertainty and lacking sufficient investment and consumer
confidence. Food and gas are no longer included in the basket of goods used to
calculate inflation. The unbelievable excuse is that prices for food and gas
are volatile. Prices are actually
manipulated and influenced by deliberately unwise energy policies, such as
using corn for biofuel, speculating on commodities, compounding scarcities from
lower-yield crops, and lack of rain.
There is tremendous uncertainty in the economy, acting
like a drag on investment to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. Business
confidence and consumer confidence are quite low. The Ginni index that reflects the poverty
level in the country shows that people below the poverty line in America have
become poorer every year of the current administration in spite of empty
promises of “leveling the playing field” and creating non-existent “shovel
-ready jobs.”
Do useful idiots understand the gravity of the situation,
how close we are to economic disaster, once we hit $20 trillion in national
debt, not counting unfunded liabilities? On some level, is it possible that we are
all useful idiots?
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) said in a statement to Fox
News last Friday, “The fact that the president and the vice president are
hosting illegal immigrants in the White House while constricting citizen tours
and refusing to meet with immigration officers says it all. The White House
will not even grant ICE officers a low-level White House meeting but invites
illegal immigrants into the Oval Office.” http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/25/top-gop-lawmakers-say-obama-is-icing-out-immigration-union-in-border-talks/
MSM reported in scripted unison that the War on Terror is
over, just “onesies” and “twosies” isolated cases, Al Qaeda was on the run and
gone, Benghazi was just a nuisance story, it was long time ago, what difference
does it make, and the IRS scandal was too much ado about nothing because nobody
knew anything, it was just some rogue lowly employees. The spoon-fed talking
points were identical on every cable news channel.
The “useful tool” obviously staged protest and rant by
Medea Benjamin of Code Pink in support of closing Gitmo and releasing the
remaining terrorists is another example of how this administration uses far
lefties to promote its agenda and to change the discussion from serious scandals
to theatrical, uninterrupted heckling by a single Code Pink member. It is a
known fact that many of the released prisoners from Guantanamo Bay have gone back
to the battlefield and have killed many Americans.
For the last five years “useful idiots” have extolled the
virtues and fantastic accomplishments of the dream presidency with a Nobel
Peace Prize under its belt for expanding the Afghanistan war and the use of drones.
Now that the tables have turned on them, is MSM going to wake up from this surreal
dream?
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