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The IRS’s Job Is To Violate Our Liberties

May 20, 2013 by 4 Comments

IRS 233x300 The IRS’s Job Is To Violate Our Liberties

“What do you expect when you target the President?” This is what an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agent allegedly said to the head of a conservative organization that was being audited after calling for the impeachment of then-President Clinton. Recent revelations that IRS agents gave “special scrutiny” to organizations opposed to the current administration’s policies suggest that many in the IRS still believe harassing the President’s opponents is part of their job.

As troubling as these recent reports are, it would be a grave mistake to think that IRS harassment of opponents of the incumbent President is a modern, or a partisan, phenomenon. As scholar Burton Folsom pointed out in his book New Deal or Raw Deal, IRS agents in the 1930s where essentially “hit squads” against opponents of the New Deal. It is well-known that the administrations of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson used the IRS to silence their critics. One of the articles of impeachment drawn up against Richard Nixon dealt with his use of the IRS to harass his political enemies. Allegations of IRS abuses were common during the Clinton administration, and just this week some of the current administration’s defenders recalled that antiwar and progressive groups alleged harassment by the IRS during the Bush presidency.

The bipartisan tradition of using the IRS as a tool to harass political opponents suggests that the problem is deeper than just a few “rogue” IRS agents—or even corruption within one, two, three or many administrations. Instead, the problem lays in the extraordinary power the tax system grants the IRS.

The IRS routinely obtains information about how we earn a living, what investments we make, what we spend on ourselves and our families, and even what charitable and religious organizations we support. Starting next year, the IRS will be collecting personally identifiable health insurance information in order to ensure we are complying with Obamacare’s mandates.

The current tax laws even give the IRS power to marginalize any educational, political, or even religious organizations whose goals, beliefs, and values are not favored by the current regime by denying those organizations “tax-free” status. This is the root of the latest scandal involving the IRS.

Considering the type of power the IRS excises over the American people, and the propensity of those who hold power to violate liberty, it is surprising we do not hear about more cases of politically-motivated IRS harassment. As the first US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall said, “The power to tax is the power to destroy” — and who better to destroy than one’s political enemies?

The US flourished for over 120 years without an income tax, and our liberty and prosperity will only benefit from getting rid of the current tax system. The federal government will get along just fine without its immoral claim on the fruits of our labor, particularly if the elimination of federal income taxes are accompanied by serious reduction in all areas of spending, starting with the military spending beloved by so many who claim to be opponents of high taxes and big government.

While it is important for Congress to investigate the most recent scandal and ensure all involved are held accountable, we cannot pretend that the problem is a few bad actors. The very purpose of the IRS is to transfer wealth from one group to another while violating our liberties in the process, thus the only way Congress can protect our freedoms is to repeal the income tax and shutter the doors of the IRS once and for all.

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Who In The Obama Administration Is Going To Jail?

May 18, 2013 by 32 Comments

OBAMASCANDALS 467x1024 Who in the Obama Administration is Going to Jail?

It hasn’t been a very good week for the Obama administration. In fact, I’ve never seen the sharks circling as they are today… particularly about the IRS abuse scandal.

You see, Congress is serious about this one. They have five years of pent-up frustration over Obama’s Teflon-like ability to shirk responsibility; and now that he’s on the defensive, they’re going to make sure the law is enforced. The Speaker of the House, John Boehner, asked, “Who’s going to jail over this scandal?”

Yet somehow Obama and his team seem to not understand the gravity of the charges leveled against them. Or perhaps they’re simply in denial. They’ve clearly lost control of the news cycle, and even Obama’s own people are starting to look out for themselves.

Not even the most committed Obama followers want to do jail time for him.

The IRS Scandal in Review

So far, Mr. Boehner and the media have mostly focused on the delay/rejection of tax-exempt status for Tea Party and conservative advocacy groups.

We see this clearly in Boehner’s comments: “Someone made a conscious decision to harass and to hold up these requests for tax-exempt status… I think we need to know who they are and whether they violated the law. Clearly, someone violated the law.”

But my sources on Capitol Hill tell me the investigation has moved from this first violation onto even more significant breaches of IRS statute.

It seems that, under Obama, the IRS has leaked specific information from tax returns and IRS applications of conservative organizations to the media and liberal advocacy organizations.

We know this because of a report from the news organization, ProPublica, which received the illegal information. An article released on May 13 states: “The same IRS office that deliberately targeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status in the run-up to the 2012 election released nine pending confidential applications of conservative groups to ProPublica late last year.”

And if that wasn’t enough, House investigators have also heard about another major felony committed by someone at the IRS.

John Eastman, Chairman of the Board of the anti-same-sex-marriage group The National Organization for Marriage (NOM), reported, “A year ago, someone at the IRS illegally disclosed the confidential portions of its tax return to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the leading organization on the other side of NOM in the war over the definition of marriage. At the time, HRC was headed by someone who had just been named national co-Chair of the Obama for President campaign.”

The bottom line is this: Releasing confidential tax returns is a felony, and the review of confidential tax returns is also a felony.

The HRC reviewed the illicit tax returns and, after acknowledging the document was illegally received, placed it on their website. Soon afterward, the information appeared on the Huffington Post and in other news outlets.

Eastman tried repeatedly to get the attention of authorities. He said:

We asked the IRS and the Department of Justice for an investigation more than a year ago. An investigation was had, but they refuse to let us know who was responsible. We then filed several freedom of information act requests to get to the truth, beginning last August. But NOM’s requests have largely been stonewalled. That latest non-response response is priceless. The identity of the perpetrator, the person responsible for illegally disclosing NOM’s tax returns, is ‘confidential’ information protected from disclosure by the very same law that this individual violated.

Big Problems

Despite their nonchalance, Obama’s team actually has more to worry about than just Congress. The FBI is also looking into the IRS’s criminal activities under the Obama administration.

It’s been a busy – and shocking – week on Capitol Hill. We’ll stay on top of this scandal as the story progresses, and we’ll use our inside sources to bring you the big news before it breaks in the mainstream media.

 

This article originally appeared at CapitolHillDaily.com and is reprinted here with permission. 

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The First Big Step Toward Obama’s Impeachment

May 16, 2013 by 167 Comments

Impeach Obama SC The First Big Step Toward Obamas Impeachment

Over the last few days, I’ve heard the word “impeachment” from more of my sources on Capitol Hill than in the last six years combined.

One member of Congress told me to look at the Richard M. Nixon articles of impeachment and just change the name to Barack Obama.

That member believes that many of the arguments about the Watergate cover-up apply to the current Benghazi cover-up scandal, the IRS Tea Party scandal, and the AP telephone records scandal.

Here’s how article one against Nixon laid out the charges:

  • making false or misleading statements to lawfully authorized investigative officers and employees of the United States
  • withholding relevant and material evidence or information from lawfully authorized investigative officers and employees of the United States

Or how about this one:

  • making or causing to be made false or misleading public statements for the purpose of deceiving the people of the United States into believing that a thorough and complete investigation had been conducted with respect to allegations of misconduct on the part of personnel of the executive branch of the United States

Seems to me all of these charges would apply to Obama’s situation, yet they are direct quotes from the articles condemning Tricky Dick.

It’s too early to say if Barack Obama will be impeached. But mark my words… before the first day of summer, at least one member of Congress will introduce articles of impeachment accusing Barack Obama of “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Just in the last week, the public statements about potential impeachment have been astounding. Former Governor Mike Huckabee said, “I believe that before it’s all over, this president will not fill out his full term… I remind you, as bad as Watergate was, because it broke the trust between the president and the people, no one died. This is more serious because four Americans did in fact die.”

I know Mike personally, and he‘s not prone to hyperbole and over-the-top statements.

Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma said Benghazi is the “most egregious cover-up in American history… People may be starting to use the I-word before too long.”

Chairman of the Government Reform and Oversight Committee, Congressman Darrell Issa, said of Benghazi: “This is a failure. We need to be investigating.”

When the Salt Lake Tribune asked Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah about impeachment, he said, “It’s certainly a possibility.”

Rep. Steve Stockman of Texas started the year talking about impeachment. As the White House prepared gun control proposals, Obama announced he would carry out a lot of his ideas through executive orders. Stockman, a strong defender of the Constitution, responded to Obama’s comments by saying:

I will consider speaking with my colleagues and filing articles of impeachment… Impeachment is not something to be taken lightly. It is a grave and serious undertaking that should only be initiated in a sober and serious manner. It should be reserved only for most egregious of trespasses by the president. I would consider using executive orders to engage in attacks on a constitutionally-protected right and violating his sworn oath of office to be such a trespass.

Stockman continued, “The president cannot issue executive orders depriving the people of full access to an enumerated constitutional right. I do not think it will come to that. The president is not an absolute ruler, and his actions and orders can be checked and balanced by the Congress and the courts – if the Congress is willing.”

Rep. Louie Gohmert, also of Texas, told NewsMax at the same time that Obama has “already abused the law enough times that it’s just been staggering… It’s not a president who steps up and says: ‘You know what? Previous Congresses have passed the law — and it’s been signed into law, and I disagree with it, so I’m just going to create new law — and as I speak, so shall it be,’” Gohmert concluded.

While these are just a few voices, I believe the chorus for impeachment will grow in the weeks ahead. Obama has made a series of highly questionable mistakes, and he refuses to take responsibility for the problems. Expect to hear much more about these scandals before the long, hot summer is over.

Photo credit: katerkate (Creative Commons)

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In Case Capitol Hill Burns To The Ground…

May 15, 2013 by 8 Comments

Congress In Case Capitol Hill Burns to the Ground...

The historian Suetonius wrote that Emperor Nero was responsible for the fire that devastated Rome in 64 AD. Suetonius claimed that Nero watched the fires from a tower as he played an instrument and sang of the devastation of Troy. The story is immortalized in the phrase “fiddling while Rome burns.”

I often think of this phrase when I contemplate the U.S. Congress. They ignore real problems while they focus on self-serving tasks like globe-trotting. And trust me… there’s no shortage of trotting going on.

In 2012, 172 House members visited over 90 countries and every continent except Antarctica. Because the finances of these trips are closely-guarded secrets, it’s nearly impossible to know how much taxpayer money was spent.

What we DO know is that congressmen often travel by military aircraft, and these flights can cost the taxpayers as much as $10,000 per hour to operate.

So even though congressmen like to complain about being underpaid (their average salary is $174,000 a year – much higher than the median American household income of $50,000), they never count the tax-free perks.

Wouldn’t you love to ring the Pentagon and have them fire up one of the 300-plus VIP jets they own? It gives new meaning to the world of private air travel… and the bill goes elsewhere!

Some Generous Perks

In 2012, France, Ireland, and Spain were among the five most frequently reported destinations for U.S. House of Representatives members. 73 members enjoyed the fine hotels of one of those countries, while none reported visiting Iraq.

Other locations visited include the sun-drenched Mediterranean island Malta, as well as the exclusive enclave of the rich and famous, Monaco, on the French Riviera. We’re sure that nothing but business happened in either of these famous ports of call.

According to an investigative report by Jeremy Wallace of the Herald-Tribune in Sarasota, Florida:

• Former Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.) was the most traveled, spending 58 days overseas and visiting at least 18 countries at a minimum cost of $67,000 to taxpayers.

• A month after returning from Monaco, Democrat Dennis Cardoza, also of California – who announced in 2011 he was leaving Congress – spent seven days in Ireland, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, then abruptly quit the House just three days after returning to the U.S.

• California Republican Dana Rohrabacher billed the government for the single most expensive trip, a seven-day excursion to Germany in January 2012 that cost taxpayers $38,382.

But not all of our representatives are bad apples. One of my favorites in Congress, Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina, has bravely spoken out against the travel perks. He has repeatedly introduced a bill to restrict foreign travel for only the most crucial trips. But the bill would restrict travel in ways other members abhor, so this important bill nearly always dies the day it’s introduced.

A Hidden Agenda

We can all agree that lavish vacations are great. But you may wonder why members love to travel abroad SO often.

Well, it’s likely that they’re fishing for clients. You see, the vast majority of former members of the U.S. Congress become lobbyists. Their goal is to land the most lucrative of lobbying positions… foreign registered agent.

As a foreign registered agent, you get to travel abroad at the taxpayers’ expense. Then you meet some top government officials from the countries you visit, hit it off, strike a deal, and you’re set for life.

A slew of former Congress members incur generous compensation from countries and special interests around the globe. Global special interests have a lot of money to spend.

In addition, foreign contacts can also result in big dollar donations. Last year, registered foreign agents reported giving $4.3 million in political donations. And they even admitted giving almost $2 million to congressional campaigns alone.

It’s a complete racket, but it’s being perpetrated by the very people who have the power to stop it. To Congress, foreign travel is as American as apple pie. So much for promises of reform.

 

This article originally appeared at CapitolHillDaily.com and is reprinted here with permission. 

Photo credit: Jessie Owen (Creative Commons)

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What No One Wants To Hear About Benghazi

May 13, 2013 by 17 Comments

Benghazi exposed 300x199 What No One Wants to Hear About Benghazi

Congressional hearings, White House damage control, endless op-eds, accusations, and defensive denials. Controversy over the events in Benghazi last September took center stage in Washington and elsewhere last week. However, the whole discussion is again more of a sideshow. Each side seeks to score political points instead of asking the real questions about the attack on the US facility, which resulted in the death of US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Republicans smell a political opportunity over evidence that the Administration heavily edited initial intelligence community talking points about the attack to remove or soften anything that might reflect badly on the president or the State Department.

Are we are supposed to be shocked by such behavior? Are we supposed to forget that this kind of whitewashing of facts is standard operating procedure when it comes to the US government?

Democrats in Congress have offered the even less convincing explanation for Benghazi, that somehow the attack occurred due to Republican sponsored cuts in the security budget at facilities overseas. With a one trillion dollar military budget, it is hard to take this seriously.

It appears that the Administration scrubbed initial intelligence reports of references to extremist Islamist involvement in the attacks, preferring to craft a lie that the demonstrations were a spontaneous response to an anti-Islamic video that developed into a full-out attack on the US outpost.

Who can blame the administration for wanting to shift the focus? The Islamic radicals who attacked Benghazi were the same people let loose by the US-led attack on Libya. They were the rebels on whose behalf the US overthrew the Libyan government. Ambassador Stevens was slain by the same Islamic radicals he personally assisted just over one year earlier.

But the Republicans in Congress also want to shift the blame. They supported the Obama Administration’s policy of bombing Libya and overthrowing its government. They also repeated the same manufactured claims that Gaddafi was “killing his own people” and was about to commit mass genocide if he were not stopped. Republicans want to draw attention to the President’s editing talking points in hopes no one will notice that if the attack on Libya they supported had not taken place, Ambassador Stevens would be alive today.

Neither side wants to talk about the real lesson of Benghazi: interventionism always carries with it unintended consequences. The US attack on Libya led to the unleashing of Islamist radicals in Libya. These radicals have destroyed the country, murdered thousands, and killed the US ambassador. Some of these then turned their attention to Mali which required another intervention by the US and France.

Previously secure weapons in Libya flooded the region after the US attack, with many of them going to Islamist radicals who make up the majority of those fighting to overthrow the government in Syria. The US government has intervened in the Syrian conflict on behalf of the same rebels it assisted in the Libya conflict, likely helping with the weapons transfers. With word out that these rebels are mostly affiliated with al Qaeda, the US is now intervening to persuade some factions of the Syrian rebels to kill other factions before completing the task of ousting the Syrian government. It is the dizzying cycle of interventionism.

The real lesson of Benghazi will not be learned because neither Republicans nor Democrats want to hear it. But it is our interventionist foreign policy and its unintended consequences that have created these problems, including the attack and murder of Ambassador Stevens. The disputed talking points and White House whitewashing are just a sideshow.

This post first appeared here, and is reprinted with permission.

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A Terrible Fraud Perpetrated On The American Public

May 11, 2013 by 7 Comments

spending2 1024x768 A Terrible Fraud Perpetrated on the American Public

No government activity is more notoriously fraudulent than budgeting. The system is a farce.

Take the sequester cuts, for example. If you listen to the media, Congress, agency heads, and even the president, you might get the impression that the budget is being cut.

This couldn’t be further from the truth.

In gross and real dollars, most agencies and government programs are spending more dollars this year than last. In D.C., amidst all of the talk and scare tactics about cutting back spending, just about all of the frenzy is unfounded.

Even the House Budget Committee’s own figures show that more money is being spent than ever before. In fact, during Obama’s first two years, while businesses and families were scraping by, federal domestic discretionary expenditures soared by 84%, with many agencies doubling or tripling spending.

The Scary Truth About “Budgeting”

You see, every agency sits around and dreams up ways to spend more money, and then they write a budget.

They include every program they can imagine; and if anyone from that point on suggests trimming anything, the suggestion is denounced far and wide as a cut to the budget.

I vividly remember working in the Office of Program and Policy at the Agency for International Development.

A panic would set in around budget time if we hadn’t spent all of last year’s funds. Everyone sat around brainstorming ways to spend more money until every last penny was gone. Obviously, in our own personal budgets, we do the complete opposite. When we’re able to trim in one area, we appreciate the savings.

So why is the government’s process so backwards?

Because government agency heads are recognized by and paid according to the number of employees they have and the money they can ladle out.

If you want to have more power in D.C., you must dish out more money to contractors, consultants, employees, and programs. There‘s a one-to-one correlation between the money you spend and your relevance.

The Obamacare Effect

For example, Secretary Kathleen Sibelius and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are much more important and powerful today than when Barack Obama took office. Their power is tied directly to the passage of Obamacare.

HHS no longer affects just the elderly and welfare recipients. It controls the medical plan of every single American.

In the past, only pharmaceutical and hospital companies came to lobby about reimbursements for Medicaid and Medicare funds.

But now, every state and local government, all large businesses with a certain number of employees, and each and every union have to get the green light or a waiver from Sibelius and HHS. More spending equals more power.

And this connection is terrible for our economy and our government. Our legislators must learn to curb spending in sensible ways and reward agencies for frugality, not for lavish overspending.

I think that the talk about sequestering needs to be reframed. Instead of using the deceitful word “cut”, the more positive word “savings” should be discussed.

The idea that the budget is being cut is a cruel joke on the taxpayers, and it surrounds budget cuts with a negative stigma. To all of our lawmakers – let’s reframe the savings debate in a positive, economically healthy way.

 

This article originally appeared at CapitolHillDaily.com and is reprinted here with permission. 

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The Sequester As Seen From Capitol Hill

May 9, 2013 by 4 Comments

Obama Shaves Uncle Sam Sequester SC The Sequester As Seen From Capitol Hill

If I’ve learned anything after 30 years on Capitol Hill, it’s this: you can never trust what politicians say. We all know that actions speak louder than words, and nowhere is that more true than in government.

The same applies to the budget battle going on in Congress. Everybody on the left and the right has been posturing for months now, spewing rhetoric that they think voters want to hear.

But once the rubber finally meets the road, all of that posturing means nothing. Let me tell a little story to explain…

Last night, at about 9:30pm, my phone rang.

Mary Beth, my wife of 30 years and veteran of countless campaigns, picked up; but then she handed me the phone.

I was surprised to hear a congressman on the other end. It was late, and his call was unexpected. I won’t divulge my friend’s name (we’ll call him “Bill”) because he’s a great source of inside information. If I shared his name, he’d likely deny what I’m about to tell you because he dropped a bomb.

First, Bill tried to tell me that the drop in Obama’s poll numbers would surely make him compromise on the budget.

I couldn’t help but laugh. I said, “If you think a temporary drop in poll numbers will send the White House into retreat, you don’t understand Obama and the people around him.”

See, in my opinion, the Obama administration has only begun to fight for their budget. And I also reminded Bill that all of the House members are up for re-election next year, whereas Obama never has to run for office again.

He then agreed to share his secret with me. He said that the Republican caucus is preparing to compromise with Harry Reid and the Senate on the budget.

After all of the congressional cat fighting, all the rhetoric, and all the posturing, the House Republicans are ready to throw in the towel.

And the worst part is the reason they’re caving. You see, Republicans believe that compromise will cause the least disruption before the 2014 election.

You read that right. They’re only thinking about the election. John Boehner knows that most of the Republican caucus won’t support the compromise. Instead, Boehner is counting on Democrat votes to get a budget deal done.

If Bill hadn’t said it so clearly, even I, as cynical as I am, wouldn’t have believed that our representatives could be this crass. But there it is, straight from the mouth of a congressman. Proof that the reason a budget deal will get done has nothing to do with the country or governing America properly.

Instead, the Republican leadership will compromise with Obama so that Democrats can’t hammer them on the budget in the next election.

Now we know that all the promises to balance the budget, keep down taxes, and repeal the Affordable Care Act are just rhetoric to get our votes and secure their jobs. But, on a positive note, at least my friend said he’d vote against the budget compromise.

 

This article originally appeared at CapitolHillDaily.com and is reprinted here with permission. 

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Why America Spends So Much On Foreign Aid

May 7, 2013 by 3 Comments

20 Dollar Bills SC Why America Spends So Much on Foreign Aid

When our bank accounts start to get low, we all find ways to cut back, right? We scour our budgets, look closely at our needs, and find a way to tighten our belts.

Well, that may happen in our houses, but it never happens in government. Congress continues spending, and our debt keeps growing. And the reason this happens is very simple.

You see, powerful special interests benefit immensely from the spending. And they pass some of the profits back to members of Congress in the form of campaign contributions. In a neighborhood, this might be called protection money. But in Washington, they call it a fundraiser; and it’s perfectly legal.

The Destructive Cycle

Everybody knows about the power of special interest groups at home. But it may come as a surprise that special interests have a huge stake in our foreign aid programs, too. In fact, the connection runs deeper than almost anyone knows. Let me explain.

American foreign aid is structured into two major programs. The first is food aid, and the second is called military aid.

In the U.S. food aid program, the government buys corn, soy, and other farm commodities from American farmers and then ships the foodstuffs to poor and starving villagers around the globe.

That sounds nice in theory. But the program is very damaging to poor farmers across the globe. You see, free food tends to destroy domestic markets. Why would you pay your local farmer to grow soybeans when Uncle Sam will ship them to you for free?

Because of that, the Obama administration is currently pushing a plan to reform foreign food aid. Obama wants to stop buying food from America’s farmers and start sending cash to the world’s poor instead.

But my sources on Capitol Hill tell me that Congress is going to block the reform.

You see, the sad truth is that Congress only supports food aid because farm group lobbyists occasionally drop by and hand out checks. Without the checks, why risk voting for an unpopular program (like foreign food aid) that’s going to send money away from America’s borders?

Ultimately, the power of special interests will completely stymie any efforts to revise our broken food aid program.

Putting Guns in the Wrong Hands

As I said before, the other part of America’s foreign aid is called military aid. Military aid money helps foreign governments buy weapons from America’s arms manufacturers. The money also sends American troops to teach foreign soldiers to use their new weapons.

Military aid allows the United States to get on both sides of many conflicts. For example, we supply advanced military equipment to both Israel and Egypt. The countries are fundamentally at odds, but we win either way.

Military aid occasionally gets us into a lot of trouble, too. Osama Bin Laden got his start with American guns and money. He received aid as part of a radical Islamic group in Afghanistan. Our common enemy was none other than the USSR.

With that in mind, consider our big aid push right now in Syria. We’re funding radical Islamic groups linked to Al Qaeda. Sound familiar?

Times change, and alliances come and go; but our misguided aid program continues unhindered. And why not – the military aid program works great for Congress. Military contractors are happy to deliver checks to congressmen as long as they can continue shipping guns, tanks, and aircraft abroad.

Unfortunately, we can’t expect foreign aid reform anytime soon. The aid programs are ultimately way too profitable to members of Congress, so the spending will go on unabated.

 

This article originally appeared at CapitolHillDaily.com and is reprinted here with permission. 

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The Federal Reserve Is Robbing You Blind

May 4, 2013 by 12 Comments

Ben Bernanke SC The Federal Reserve is Robbing You Blind

Last week, I began to explain what America might look like after a government collapse. I ended on a note about the Federal Reserve, and I promised I’d come back to it.

Well, here we are. And I’m going to begin with a radical statement:

The purpose of the Federal Reserve is to benefit its shareholders… not America.

This statement is confusing to most people because they assume the Federal Reserve is an agency of the government. It’s not.

In fact, it’s a private entity. Only the shareholders aren’t private investors. They’re the major “too-big-to-fail” banks of America.

The next thing you must understand is that the Fed was given (by Congress) the most lucrative monopoly on earth… total control over the creation of money. So it can print money, legally. What a business!

Now, don’t get me wrong – there is some regulation. What Congress gives, it can also take away.

The problem is that when you can literally create money, you have lots of cash to influence the system.

Indeed, when it comes to the economy, the Fed is even more powerful than the president. Only Congress and the president, working in unison, can check the power of the Federal Reserve.

And considering that such cooperation isn’t exactly the norm in D.C., the Fed is using its insane amount of power to rob you blind.

Here’s how…

Too Big to Fail

Simply put, the supply of money should only grow at about the same rate as the economy. It creates a solid equilibrium between goods in the economy and the money supply.

But when the supply of money grows too quickly, it shatters equilibrium and leads to inflation (i.e. – too many dollars chasing too few goods).

And right now, we have too many dollars.

Of course, we can thank the economic crisis in 2008 for that. As you know, when the banking crisis erupted, the Fed was fearful that its shareholders were going belly up. So the former CEO of Goldman Sachs (GS), Hank Paulson, arranged for billions of dollars to be transferred from the government to these private banks through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

Keep in mind, I believe allowing banks to go bankrupt would’ve been the best solution for America. We have over 200 years of bankruptcy court precedent, and the courts should’ve overseen the liquidation of these mismanaged banks. It ultimately would have punished the guilty parties.

But that didn’t happen. Instead, the Federal Reserve kicked into action. It created over $1 trillion that was lent to these same banks to keep them from collapsing.

Now, with so much money floating around, bank deposit owners are worried that the supply of dollars will outstrip demand. This could drive the price of the dollar down. In fact, I believe we could even see a flash crash of the dollar.

And that’s precisely how the Fed is stealing from you. It’s knowingly devaluing the dollar, so your money can buy fewer goods.

And no one is safe.

Say you’re happily employed – perhaps you even got a raise recently. Unfortunately, inflation can devalue your dollars so fast that you end up with less buying power than you began with.

As long as the Fed continues on its current path, we’ll continue holding a currency that’s worth less and less every day.

How Can We Protect Ourselves?

We’ll all likely get poorer unless we have taken serious steps to hedge ourselves.

Buying gold, stocks, real estate, and other hard assets is the best hedge. When the dollar crash comes, these assets will likely bounce back from the inflation, even if their prices decline at first.

Bonds, CD’s, and cash are the assets I encourage everyone to avoid. They’ll be crushed by inflation.

Once again, this is just a small part in the ongoing quest to see what America will look like after a government collapse.

Along the way, I want to explain what’s happening behind the scenes in Washington and give you as much actionable advice as possible.

 

This article originally appeared at CapitolHillDaily.com and is reprinted here with permission. 

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The Lies Go Deeper Than You Ever Imagined

May 2, 2013 by 5 Comments

Team Obama Squad Liberal Media SC The Lies Go Deeper Than You Ever Imagined

If you read the newspapers and listen to the perpetual happy talk out of D.C., you might become convinced that the economy is improving.

For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is supposed to tell us the unemployment rate; and currently, it says the rate is 7.6%. But in reality, we’re being misled.

It’s understandable… we all want to believe the best. And most likely, you feel a little better off than you did four years ago. You can probably look around your neighborhood and see some people doing just fine.

But the sinister truth is that we’re being lied to. The government is sponsoring a campaign of misinformation, and we’re all the victims of a mass hypnosis.

It leads us to think – falsely – that all’s well in the U.S. of A.

A Stark Contrast

I just spent four days on the beautiful Island of Coronado. I was at a board meeting at a 125-year-old resort, the Hotel Del Coronado. All seemed like a fairy tale. I drove into the city of San Diego and had dinner at a lovely Zagat-rated restaurant. I met a group of friends in a skybox, complete with a buffet line, to watch the Padres beat up on one of their rivals.

But that’s where the fairy tale ends.

I also took the time to visit the community of El Centro, California. It’s down Interstate 8 from San Diego. In that town, headline unemployment is nearly 23%. Coming upon a church, I saw a line, winding around the block, of people simply wanting a hot meal.

This is the part of America the media is hiding. They don’t want to blemish President Obama. He feels people’s pain, so he can’t be responsible… right?

But the reality is that every Coronado, America has at least one El Centro.

If you dig deeper and calculate unemployment, adding those people standing in the food line who are unemployed, discouraged, and dropping out of the job search, the unemployment rate is 14.3%.

Economist John Williams counts those discouraged workers, and he says that national unemployment is 23%.

If this is the actual measure for all of America, we can only imagine what the true unemployment rate is in El Centro.

Digging Into the Numbers

Here are some different ways to look at it. The phony “official” unemployment rate peaked at 8.3%, and that was a 31-year high. It remained over 8% for 41 months, the worst record since the Great Depression.

There were 12.8 million people out of work at the peak of the Great Depression. There are currently 12.3 million out of work today. And only 58% of the population is working, the lowest since 1983. That means a record 100 million working-age Americans are unemployed.

Put differently, the actual rate of unemployment is two to three times the Bureau of Labor’s bullsh… I mean, statistics.

And the same is true about prices. The CPI is a crock of foul-smelling bologna.

John Williams believes that the manipulated rate of consumer inflation (CPI) – supposedly 1.6% – is actually 9.2%, as calculated by the official U.S. government methodology of 1990.

Why the disparity in the numbers? Put simply, the official methodology for calculating inflation has been manipulated.

The Cruel Reality

If I’ve learned one lesson in my 30 years of political activity and reporting, it’s that the government lies. A lot. Both parties are equally guilty, too.

And the bigger the lie, the more likely people are to believe it. Today’s economic situation is no different.

With that in mind, I assure you this isn’t the last time I’m going to talk numbers. In fact, this is just the tip of the economic iceberg. So stay tuned.

 

This article originally appeared at CapitolHillDaily.com and is reprinted here with permission. 

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