The federal government is constantly out of money and always needs more. It resembles the cartoon character “Wimpy,” a friend of Popeye. Wimpy is a mooch and scam artist. He was always out of cash, but his voracious appetite for hamburgers forced him to ask all – “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.” The federal government constantly asks taxpayers, “I’ll gladly properly manage your money on Tuesday for more taxpayer money today.” The proper management of taxpayer monies never happens; only more promises from our politicians to reform their government mismanagement.

The federal government is very blase about its $35 trillion national debt, and Congress uses its annual budget games to hide unnecessary expenditures in the proverbial weeds. The federal government’s budget is a camouflage to hide its financial condition – it is de facto bankrupt. Its adversaries and the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) understand the federal government’s financial stress more than American politicians. The BRICS  are attempting to create a competing reserve currency and eventually replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. If this ever happens, the U.S. will rapidly sink into second-class status.

Since 2000, the dollar has declined in use and acceptance as the world’s reserve currency from 71% to 60%. The more the federal government uses the dollar to punish foreign adversaries for policies the U.S. dislikes, the more nations seek to displace the dollar to protect their own currencies.

It’s now time for American citizens to focus on this financial disaster facing this nation before it drifts into a financial crisis our government cannot easily fix. The BRICS know the U.S. lives on borrowed time, sustained only by its printing press and a large supply of paper and ink.

A book exposing the perils of the federal government’s fiscal health is written annually but rarely read. If the federal government and Congress won’t read it, it is time for citizens to read it and start taking control of their country.

The book  is titled “The Financial Report of the United States Government” or the “Financial Report.” While federal government agencies prepare their chapters, the significant aspect of the report is that the composite report is audited by the General Accounting Office (“GAO”), an independent arm of Congress. It is not a regurgitation of the budget, focusing on deficits, surpluses, and debt. The Financial Report focuses on the government’s net operating costs, i.e., the differences between real revenues and real costs.

How broke is the federal government? In its latest report (2022), the gross cost of the federal government was $ 7.4 trillion. While it collected $4.9 trillion in taxes, the actual net cost of government is $9.1 trillion since it must recognize an additional future expense of $2.2 trillion, which it incurred by underestimating the cost of employee and veterans’ benefits. Fortunately for the federal government, since it will not have to pay the employee and veterans benefits immediately, accounting standards allow it to show a deficit of only $1.37 trillion for 2022.

What is the value of all the federal government assets? On the asset side of the ledger, the federal government has only $4.962 trillion in assets. This amount consists of $878 billion in cash, inventory valued at $407 billion, and $1.2 trillion in property, plant, and equipment. Its largest asset is “Loan Receivable, Net,” valued at $1.434 trillion. Of that amount, $1.3 trillion is the Federal Student Loan program that President Biden wants to forgive, an act that would immediately reduce federal assets to $3.62 trillion.

What is the bottom line? After GAO makes all adjustments, total federal assets are $5 trillion, and total liabilities are $40 trillion. The federal government is in the hole for $35 trillion. Moreover, the GAO report does not consider, for audit purposes, any unfunded liabilities for Social Security and Medicare, which are estimated at $76 trillion.

If most families live paycheck to paycheck, the federal government lives from every withholding tax payment to the next. If the average American family has difficulty paying the bills, they should be terrified that for every U.S. citizen, including infants, their share of the national debt is $100,000. For families, their share is over $250,000. At some point, Mr. and Mrs. America and the kids must realize the government is penniless. It is borrowing from our children so it can gorge itself today. The federal government, like Wimpy, is a “deadbeat,” a person or entity “that is not willing to pay debts or accept responsibility.”

Every time the federal government takes money out of a paycheck for its wastefulness, it tells the taxpayer, “I’ll gladly pay you on Tuesday for your hard-earned money today.”

William L. Kovacs, author of Devolution of Power: Rolling Back the Federal State to Preserve the Republic. The book received 5 stars from Readers’ Favorite. His previous book, Reform the Kakistocracy, received the 2021 Independent Press Award for Political/Social Change. He served as senior vice president for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and chief counsel to a congressional committee. He can be contacted at wlk@ReformTheKakistocracy.com

William L. Kovacs author of Devolution of Power: Rolling Back the Federal State to Preserve the Republic. Received 5-Stars from Readers’ Favorite. His previous book Reform the Kakistocracy received the 2021 Independent Press Award for Political/Social Change. He served as senior vice president for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and chief counsel to a congressional committee. He can be contacted at wlk@ReformTheKakistocracy.com

The post How Broke Is the Federal Government? It’s Penniless! appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

In addition to funding wars, Congress appropriates trillions of questionable dollars to anyone in the U.S. to address COVID-19 and green technology without any evidence of effectiveness or need.

At least $18 trillion of our $34 trillion national debt can be attributed to some combination of undeclared wars, misinformation, and lies. Every taxpayer is left with the $260,000 tab that accompanies federally created inflation, decaying schools, rising interest rates, declining wages, sagging productivity, labor strikes, supply chain problems, increasing taxes, open borders, and terrorists in the homeland. These problems are not music to the ears of Americans who “get another day older and deeper in debt.”

The unfortunate aspect of this situation is that as much as one-half of the national debt might have been avoided by honesty from our presidents and a Congress willing to debate the critical issues of the day.

$18 trillion of policy mistakes that could have been avoided by a serious debate in Congress and good quality information.

 Vietnam (1965-1973). The U.S. was not attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin as it claimed, yet that lie was our excuse for waging a war against North Vietnam that killed 58,220 American soldiers, wounded 153,303, and another 1,643 are still missing. The war cost U.S. citizens $168 billion in the 1960s-1970s, which would be over $1 trillion today. The costs of that war continue today, with around $22 billion in compensation for injured veterans and lifetime benefits for their families. U.S. involvement in the war ended in 1973, but the U.S. withdrawal was a roadmap to its disgraceful surrender in Afghanistan.

 Afghanistan and Global War on Terror (2001 to 2022). After terrorists crashed airplanes into the Twin Towers in NYC and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, the home of the terrorists. The global war on terror began and lasted for two decades. The U.S. stayed at war in the Middle East 18 years after President Bush declared “Mission Accomplished.”  Its cost is estimated at $8 trillion and over 900,000 deaths. Even after the war ended, the U.S. estimates $2.2 trillion for the future care of our veterans. After two decades of fighting in Afghanistan, the U.S. disgracefully abandoned the war and the hundreds of thousands of Afghans who worked to help the Americans. The U.S. also left $7.12 billion worth of equipment for the terrorists to use against us.

The Iraq War (2003 – 2011). The Iraq War was the result of the U.S. Intelligence Agencies falsely telling the American people Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destructions (“WMD”). Hussein did not have any WMD. Rather, the war was President Bush’s obsession to remove Hussein from power to correct what he believed was a mistake by Father Bush not to invade Iraq and eliminate Saddam Hussein. The cost of the Iraq war was $1.8 trillion and cost 550,000 lives.

Ukraine War (2022-present). So far, the U.S. has spent $115 billion on the Ukraine war with Russia. Presently, the U.S. Senate wants to give Ukraine another $60 billion. While the history of the Ukraine War is not written, there is considerable controversy over the U.S. role in the 2014 coup that overthrew the pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych. The U.S. and the EU certainly wanted a friendly Ukrainian government. The toppling of the Russian-friendly ruler and the installation of a pro-western ruler of Ukraine led to Russia invading and taking Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

Complicating Ukrainian politics, in 2016, after a new Ukraine president was installed,  then Vice President Biden threatened to deny Ukraine $1 billion if the president of Ukraine did not fire Special Prosecutor Shokin, who was investigating Burisma, a corrupt company that paid large sums of money to Hunter Biden to lobby the Obama administration to force Ukraine to end the investigations of its corruption. Now President Biden has forcefully stated he will support Ukraine for “as long as it takes.” The final cost of war is unknown, and the cost of rebuilding Ukraine will be in the hundreds of billions.

Additional Wars (1950-2022). In addition to four major undeclared wars, the U.S. has been involved in the Korean War, Laotian Civil War, Permesta Rebellion, Lebanon crisis, Bay of Pigs, Dominican Civil War, Korean DMZ conflict, Cambodian Civil War, Lebanese Armed Forces, Grenada, Libya, Tanker war, invasion of Panama, Somali, Bosnian and Croatian wars, Kosovo war, intervention in Yemen, intervention in North-West Pakistan, second intervention in Somali Civil War, Ocean Shield, Operation Observant Compass (Uganda), intervention in Niger, Syrian Civil War, second intervention in Libya, Operation Prosperity Guardian (Red Sea conflict).

Cost of Covid (2019-2022). The federal government spent over $4.6 trillion during the Covid pandemic. Most of the money went to individuals and corporations to keep them afloat during the government-mandated shutdown and to Big Pharma for the vaccines that were never properly tested. There is considerable conflict over the usefulness of the Covid vaccines. Moreover, there are many who believe the lockdowns, school closures, fraud, lost productivity, and the rise in mental health cases will cost the U.S. many trillions in the future. The OECD estimates the cost of the lost learning in the U.S. will be $14.1 trillion. Congress never received any information from either Trump or Biden on the origins of COVID-19.

The Inflation Reduction Act (2023). The IRA is not about reducing inflation in any manner. It was about funding green technology. The IRA tax credits for anything “green” incentivized more pigs to show up at the trough than CBO estimated. Within months after the program started, Goldman Sachs raised its estimated cost of the credits to  $1.2 trillion for the same time period. The original forecast missed the cost of the credits for electric vehicles by $379 billion; energy manufacturing, $156 billion; renewable electricity production, $82 billion; energy efficiency, $42 billion; hydrogen, $36 billion; biofuels, $34 billion; and carbon capture, $31 billion.

Governments Make Mistakes; unfortunately, the U.S. federal government does not learn from them.

 The total cost of these few policy mistakes is well over $18 trillion. As to the wars, Congress never declared any of them. As to Vietnam and Iraq, the American people were simply lied to.  As to the COVID cover-up, the most disconcerting fact is that the federal government continues to refuse to tell citizens the origins of COVID-19 or provide scientific studies to support the mandated vaccinations, lockdowns, closures, or other police state tactics.

The U.S. federal government appears to be incapable of learning from its mistakes. The U.S. involves itself in war after war, yet Congress rarely debates the need for the war before the president sends money, equipment, troops, or some combination of war assistance to the fight. The U.S. federal government passes society-changing policies like COVID and IRA and appropriates trillions to implement them with few, if any, members of Congress or the president even reading the summaries of the laws.

The American people deserve more for the $6 trillion they send to Washington each year and the $34 trillion the federal government borrowed in our name. Asking Congress to perform its constitutional responsibility to declare war before the president sends troops and/or equipment to fight the war is not unreasonable. Demanding the Executive to provide the science underlying major public health emergency orders is not unreasonable. Demanding our leaders tell us the truth, rather than lies, about what the government is doing is not unreasonable. Unfortunately, Congress and the president seem very content with living in a state of undeclared wars, perpetual misinformation, and lies.

William L. Kovacs has served as senior vice president for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, chief counsel to a congressional committee, and a partner in law D.C. law firms. His book Reform the Kakistocracy is the winner of the 2021 Independent Press Award for Political/Social Change. He can be contacted at wlk@ReformTheKakistocracy.com

The post Half the National Debt is from Wars, Misinformation and Lies appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Unfortunately, this simple statement often achieves its goal of obstructing efforts by Congress to obtain information. While Congress may be upset with the response, many times, it is cowed into accepting presidents can protect their people from being investigated for criminal conduct. Fortunes, however, can be reversed. If Republicans win the White House with a presidential candidate who sincerely wants to uphold the rule of law, restore justice to the legal system and hold the “Deep State” accountable, that president can make it happen.

The leading Presidential candidates for the Republican nomination have promised to fire the FBI director and clean house at the Department of Justice. If a Republican wins the presidency in November 2024, FBI Director Wary and AG Garland will resign long before they can be fired. So, candidates, please, stop pandering. No one will be fired. All pablum, worthless and oversimplified promises.

Suppose a new president truly wants to clean up the deep, dark, corrupt state at the DOJ and FBI. In that case, the Republican president need only waive Executive Privilege and issue an Executive Order declassifying all investigatory materials sought by the current Republican House of Representatives. Let Congress bleed the truth out of those subverting the Constitution.

Executive compliance is simple. When Congress requests documents, the Executive should order them produced. When testimony is sought, provide it without asserting objections. Cooperate with the Republican House to find the truth.

Since the Nixon administration, presidents have asserted Executive Privileges thirty times to block congressional investigations. Presidential assertions included protecting the president’s brother (Billy Carter), girlfriends (Monica Lewinsky), mismanagement of funds (Solyndra), foreign affairs (Benghazi), gun running (fast and furious), and the Watergate tapes. Democrat and Republican administrations act as if providing Congress with requested information concerning an investigation will somehow diminish their manhood.

Finding and eliminating corruption is for the benefit of the nation. Hiding corruption does not assist the president in the faithful execution of the law. The DOJ/FBI’s long-running minuet of never sharing information with congressional committees is a mechanism of deceit, not of protecting the independence and effectiveness of law enforcement, the identities of informants, avoiding pre-trial publicity, or interfering with prosecutorial discretion. The Supreme Court has long recognized the “…implied power [of Congress] to investigate and to compel the production of information” from the Executive branch.

“Executive Privilege for presidential communications is limited to the quintessential power and nondelegation of Presidential power, and those are the core functions in the Constitution.” It should only be asserted to preserve those core constitutional functions. Claiming it beyond the core constitutional functions is a delaying tactic that often allows illegal conduct to continue.

As to declassifying all documents related to alleged criminal activity in the Executive branch, no president should ever be intentionally or unintentionally covering it up. The American Bar Association writes, “Under the U.S. Constitution, the president as commander in chief is given broad powers to classify and declassify such information, often through executive orders.” While there are procedures for declassifying the materials, a president, except for certain materials such as nuclear secrets, has almost total control to declassify records by Executive Order. Presidents at all times have the power to put sunlight on government corruption. When they choose not to expose corruption, it is an intentional coverup.

Unfortunately, since the Nixon administration in the early 1970s, the Executive branch has forced Congress to issue subpoenas to secure requested documents. Presidents achieve their goal of protecting corruption by requiring years of legal battles to enforce the subpoena.

Hopefully, there will be a Republican Congress, or at least a Republican House sworn in on January 3, 2025, and on January 20, 2025, a Republican president. Between January 3, 2025, and January 20, 2025, the Republican Congress can prepare the appropriate investigative letters to the incoming president requesting the information needed to root out corruption in the DOJ/FBI. On January 20, when the Republican president enters the White House, his first order of business should be to issue an Executive Order waiving Executive privilege and formally declassifying the documents relating to all congressional investigations. These waivers should encompass all alleged DOJ/FBI corruption as described in the Durham Report, Mueller and Horowitz Reports, payments received by Joe and Hunter Biden from foreign countries, all matters associated with the development of a two-tier system of justice, efforts by the federal government to force social media companies to manipulate information distributed to the public and all other matters of high-level DOJ and FBI corruption.

By taking this approach, the president will tremendously assist the congressional investigation of the DOJ/FBI misconduct without investigating the departments he leads. If Congress finds evidence of criminal activity, it will refer the evidence to new appointees at a DOJ for appropriate prosecution.

Suppose Executive branch personnel refuse to testify or take the Fifth to protect their constitutional rights. In that case, Congress can grant the Use Immunity, which compels their testimony but provides immunity to the witness for the new information provided. A witness that refuses to testify after being given Use Immunity can be cited for contempt of Congress and imprisoned.

It’s time the federal government gets serious about corruption in government. More intriguing would be if a president followed this advice. The nation might uncover who is running the Deep State.

William L. Kovacs has served as senior vice president for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, chief counsel to a congressional committee, and a partner in law D.C. law firms. His book Reform the Kakistocracy is the winner of the 2021 Independent Press Award for Political/Social Change. He can be contacted at wlk@ReformTheKakistocracy.com

The post The Big Govt Lie: “I Can’t Answer, the Matter Is Under Investigation.” appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

It will be a trying time since the loudest voices will seek retribution against Democrats through much-needed investigations. Undertake a few very well-structured investigations to expose the corruption in the Biden administration, but, please do not forget your Commitment to America. Some of it can be accomplished with control of only the House. Republicans promised to right the ship of state. You will be doing this for the country, not to satisfy primal urges of revenge.

As part of your Commitment to America, you pledged to “Curb wasteful government spending that is raising the price of groceries, gas, cars, and housing and growing our national debt.” A similar promise was made by the Republicans in its1994 Contract with America. The national debt in January 1994 was $4.4 trillion. The national debt in 2022 is almost $31 trillion. Most concerning, Republican administrations increased the national debt during that period by $14.05 trillion, about 53.6% of its increase. Democrats increased the national debt by $12.15 trillion, about 46.4% of the additional debt in that period.

Worst still, 97% of our national debt has increased dramatically since the end of the presidency of Jimmy Carter, the last president to preside over a national debt of less than a trillion dollars. In those forty years, using fiscal year calculations, the Republicans added $17.46 trillion to the national debt (59%), and the Democrats added $12.15 trillion (41%). It is imperative that the national debt matter to Republicans when they have the power to do something about it. Pontificating about it on cable television is not sufficient.

Interest payments on the national debt over the next 30 years are estimated to exceed $66 trillion. Each taxpayer’s share of the national debt today is $245,191. The average personal income in the U.S. is $63,211. If Americans are concerned with inflation, wait until they get the bill for the national debt. The national debt will become so burdensome to future generations that it will undermine democracy. If the federal government taxed current citizens the amounts needed to pay for today’s government, a tax revolt would topple the government.

How did the government put us in this position?

The framework of our Constitution has few guardrails for the type of government formed by our elected leaders. Today’s federal government combination of capitalist, socialist, oligarchy, kakistocracy, and woke cult. Moreover, the federal government can tax us as much as it needs to satisfy its wants. From 1932 to 1981, the marginal tax rate in the U.S. ranged between 63% – 91%.

Since it is unlikely, we will pay off the national debt in our lifetimes, our federal government and every American must recognize, we are living on the future productivity of those who have no say in creating our debt. The national debt is unjust to those who will have to pay tomorrow for our spending today.

What can House Republicans do today without control of the presidency?

Our Constitution reads, “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.”

For Congress to spend more of the taxpayer’s money, it must appropriate new money by enacting a law that requires the approval of both Houses of Congress and a Presidential signature. To spend no money, however, one House of Congress merely needs to do nothing. No provision in the Constitution gives anyone the power to force Congress to spend money. Moreover, Congress is the only government institution controlling the nation’s purse. The House of Representatives can shut the purse.

A few simple ideas for a Republican House to cut almost one trillion dollars from the budget by Just Saying “No.”

Do not fund unauthorized laws. Almost a half-trillion in savings can be achieved by following congressional rules prohibiting the funding of laws that are not authorized. All Congress needs to do is refuse to fund unauthorized laws.

The Congressional Budget Office annually issues a report on “Expired and Expiring Authorizations of Appropriations” for the Fiscal Year. While CBO prepares this report according to the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, the report is to assist lawmakers in complying with House rules by identifying unauthorized laws that should not be funded. Its 2022 report identifies 1,118 authorizations of appropriations that expired before the beginning of FY 2022 and an additional 111 that will expire during FY 2022.

CBO estimates Congress appropriated $461 billion in 2022 to fund unauthorized laws. Moreover, CBO identifies each committee of Congress that has failed to authorize laws under its jurisdiction and the amount of money appropriated to fund these unauthorized statutes. Forty-four percent of the unauthorized laws being funded expired over a decade ago. If Congress is unwilling to review these laws and reauthorize them, that lack of interest alone should be sufficient to let them expire.

Reduce agency budgets for refusing to provide Congress with the information requested. Congress has a constitutional responsibility to oversee federal agencies. Many times, however, federal agencies refuse to provide Congress with the information requested. Usually, Congress, especially the party in opposition to the Executive, must live with the refusal until a president from its party occupies the White House. Then matters are reversed. One mechanism for addressing this issue would be for the House of Representatives to reduce the agency’s appropriations by some percentage each time an agency fails to provide the information requested.

Use spending power as bargaining power. Since Congress cannot be compelled to spend money on any activity, it needs to leverage this power to ensure the Executive implements the policies Congress enacted. From day one the Biden administration refused to protect the southern border of the United States. The border is open to all comers, no matter how much the Republicans complain. By being in charge of the House, however, Republicans have solid leverage to negotiate with the administration by withholding money for programs Biden deems essential.

The leverage should be the Department of Education (“DOE”) since it is owned and operated by Biden’s most significant political supporters, the teachers’ unions. The DOE is a perpetual pay-off to the teachers’ unions. The teachers’ unions donated $43 million to liberal groups in the 2020 election cycle.

By controlling DOE, teachers’ unions foster the teaching of Critical Race Theory, impose mask mandates, and torture children’s minds by telling them they are born racists. The mere possibility of the teachers’ unions losing this power will likely persuade Democrats to accept the reality that building the border wall and enforcing immigration laws is a cheap price to pay to keep DOE.

If Biden concedes, the House Republicans will get the border wall and immigration enforcement. If Biden refuses to negotiate, the Republicans get to eliminate the agency they have wanted to eliminate since 1980, when it was created.

Require all federal agencies to implement GAO’s Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”) or suffer budget cuts. Congress mandates GAO to perform a GAAP analysis of federal spending and assets and provide recommendations to ensure the financial reporting by the agency is transparent and consistent. One specific GAO recommendation is for all agencies to address the government-wide improper payments, estimated to be $175 billion. A Republican House should refuse to fund agencies failing to implement this recommendation.

By implementing these four recommendations, Republicans can reduce the budget by over $850 billion. Only time will tell if Republicans mean what they promise in their Commitment to America. Republicans’ this is your “put up or shut up” moment.

William L. Kovacs, author of Reform the Kakistocracy, winner of the 2021 Independent Press Award for Political/Social Change, and former senior vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The post Republicans Win the House. It’s Time to Honor their Commitment to America appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Predictions of apocalyptic events have been made since humankind created the calendar needed for assigning the year in which the apocalypse will occur. Predictions include an antichrist, the elimination of humanity and species, the end of the world, and judgment day. All from false prophets. The prediction of a climate change apocalypse will likely occur but not from an event totally outside of human control or even high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Rather the apocalypse will be caused by the only entity on earth that can cause an apocalypse. That entity is government—and Joe Biden, in biblical terms, is the vessel that will make it happen.

The climate hysterics describe a world that is full of disease, melting sea ice causing extreme worldwide flooding, hurricanes, tornadoes, raging forest fires, cities with regular temperatures over 120 degrees, water so acidic as to harm marine life, and starvation over much of the world.

President Biden tells Americans in his usual “tough talk” that climate change is the “number one issue facing humanity.” That the climate crisis poses “the existential threat to human existence as we know it.” He promises “We are going to get rid of fossil fuels,” and the United States will cut its greenhouse gas emissions 50-52% by 2030 compared with 2005 levels.

Biden’s policy advisors implement his policies by shutting down oil and gas pipelines, denying investors the capital needed to produce fossil fuels, and regulating almost every manufactured product from cars to light bulbs. They also propose spending trillions more dollars on green energy in a highly inflationary economy so we can live in an environmental nirvana free of climate anxiety.

Unfortunately, to meet his policy of a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 Biden still needs to reduce emissions by 15 gigatons of CO2 equivalent. Worse, “U.S. greenhouse gas emissions rose by 6.2% last year (2021) compared with 2020.” Moreover, even with gas at $5 a gallon, consumption is close to its pre-pandemic highs.

Moreover, whatever the government mandates, the wealthy will continue to use private jets, and live in massive estates, and even estates on the beach where flooding is likely. They have all the food, water, transportation, housing, high-value goods, and servants they could ever need for many lifetimes. The average person suffers from the government’s actions to address climate change. They suffer inflation, high energy prices, and a lower standard of living.

Even if Biden were the son of Obama, there is nothing reasonable he can do to tame the rise of the oceans and heal the planet. That was all attempted by the prior “god.” The radical environmental groups want Biden to take Congress behind the proverbial gym and beat the hell out of it like he promised to do to Trump. Biden likely believes he can take Congress behind the gym. After all, he shakes hands with invisible persons, believes the U.S. has the fastest growing economy in the world and has the Easter bunny rescuing him from pontificating about his delusions in public.

President Biden, your term as president is not over, however, you have very little support among ordinary people who must work every day for a living. Your best hope of being a transformative president is to do whatever the radical left believes is needed to eliminate fossil fuels. Unfortunately, the Left views your presidency as a series of half measures, perhaps only quarter measures. Scranton Joe, you can prove them wrong.

Keep up hope. A delusional mind can find reality in strange ways…

A few days ago, I found an embargoed copy of the Left’s Manifesto on Climate Change. The Left intends to give it to Kamala Harris after it forces you to resign. You have done so much for the radical Left; it is unfair to deprive you of the opportunity to fulfill their dreams. So, I am giving you this draft. Since you are very good at taking credit for the work of others, I suggest you get a pen, a lot of ink and the largest roll of two-ply toilet paper you can find. Then, start writing an Executive Order that promises to achieve all of the Left’s dreams.

*Joe Biden quickly scribbles*

“I, Joe Biden, President of the U.S. do hereby order that all my cabinet Secretary Office Boys, girls, LGBTQIA+ and every person, of every gender, subject to my rule, (illegals are free of all restrictions), and especially the wealthy ones, obey the following commands:

1. All private plane travel is hereby prohibited since rich people ravage the planet and this order is an excuse to permanently live at my beach house.
2. All limousine travel is prohibited, except for elected Democrats at the federal, state or local level.
3. All limousines are prohibited from carrying the Buttigieg bicycle and dropping it off a few blocks from his office so he looks like he commutes by bike. (bracketed note, “Let Buttigieg walk.”)
4. All new houses and apartments must be under 2000 square feet.
5. All existing houses over 2000 square feet must be converted to shared living quarters with illegal immigrants having living priority over anyone, including the owner. This provision shall not apply to Democrats willing to exhibit hypocrisy in public and be criticized by conservative media. Demonstrated hypocrisy reveals leadership.
6. All office buildings must remove elevators since walking stairs is healthy.
7. Buildings will be warmed by body heat in the winter and cooled by paper fans in the summer for as long as there is paper.
8. All 6000 products made from oil and gas are hereby banned. “

 Biden’s staff attaches a partial list of just 144 of the 6000 items so the public has some idea of what illegal items are made from oil or gas. Keep in mind that 42 – a gallon barrel of oil creates 19.4 gallons of gasoline. The rest (over half) is used to make the following unneeded products that citizens may not realize are destroying the planet:

Adhesives, Air mattresses, Ammonia, Antifreeze, Antihistamines, Antiseptics, Artificial limbs, Artificial turf, Asphalt, Aspirin, Awnings, Backpacks, Balloons, Ballpoint pens, Bandages, Beach umbrellas, Boats, Cameras, Candies and gum, Candles, Car battery cases, Car enamel, Cassettes, Caulking, CDs/computer disks, Cell phones, Clothes, Clothesline, Clothing, Coffee makers, Cold cream, Combs, Computer keyboards, Computer monitors, Cortisone, Crayons, Credit cards, Curtains, Dashboards, Denture adhesives, Dentures, Deodorant, Detergent, Dice, Dishwashing liquid, Dog collars, Drinking cups, Dyes, Electric blankets, Electrical tape, Enamel, Epoxy paint, Eyeglasses, Fan belts, Faucet washers, Fertilizers, Fishing boots, Fishing lures, Floor wax, Food preservatives, Footballs, Fuel tanks, Glue, Glycerin, Golf bags, Golf balls, Guitar strings, Hair coloring, Hair curlers, Hand lotion, Hearing aids, Heart valves, House paint, Hula hoops, Ice buckets, Ice chests, Ice cube trays, Ink, Insect repellent, Insecticides, Insulation, iPad/iPhone, Kayaks, Laptops, Life jackets, Light-weight aircraft, Lipstick, Loudspeakers, Lubricants, Luggage, Model cars, Mops, Motorcycle helmets, Movie film, Nail polish, Noise insulation, Nylon rope, Oil filters, Packaging, Paint brushes, Paint roller, Pajamas, Panty hose, Parachutes, Perfumes, Permanent press, Petroleum jelly, Pharmaceuticals, Pillow filling, Plastic toys, Plastics, Plywood adhesive, Propane, Purses, Putty, Refrigerants, Refrigerator linings, Roller skate wheels, Roofing, Rubber cement, Rubbing alcohol, Safety glasses, Shampoo, Shaving cream, Shoe polish, Shoes/sandals, Shower curtains, Skateboards, Skis Soap dishes, Soft contact lenses, Solar panels, Solvents, Spacesuits, Sports car bodies, Sunglasses, Surf boards, Swimming pools Synthetic rubber Telephones Tennis rackets Tents Tires Tool boxes Tool racks, Toothbrushes, Toothpaste, Transparent tape, Trash bags, Truck and automobile parts, Tubing, TV cabinets, Umbrellas, Unbreakable dishes, Upholstery, Vaporizers, Vinyl flooring, Vitamin capsules, Water pipes, Wind turbine blades, Yarn. Top of Form

Pretty much everything produced by man includes or requires petroleum products. By banning the production of oil and gas and the products made from it, the Biden administration will clearly achieve the Left’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50-52% by 2030 compared with 2005 levels.

President Biden, banning all oil and gas production will make you the most Transformative President in U.S. history. You will achieve every goal of the radical Left.  With the banning of these 6000 products and items, there will be little work for the masses. This will allow you to print more and more money and distribute it quickly since you only need electrons. Please, however, use the electrons quickly since the grid is likely to go down.

The Left’s economists that preach Modern Monetary Theory will praise you on every street corner since there will no longer be television interviews due to the ban on the materials needed to produce the sets. Unfortunately, since there will be almost nothing to purchase, putting money in bank accounts will be a “futile and stupid gesture.”

After a while there will be massive food shortages and a great loss of life, that is the goal of the radical environmental movement. One of its great thinkers, Jacque Yves-Cousteau, stated – “It’s terrible to have to say this. The world population must be stabilized and to do that we must eliminate 350,000 people per day. This is so horrible to contemplate that we shouldn’t even say it. But the general situation in which we are involved is lamentable.”

Finally, without Americans having access to industrial production, energy, and food, China will be the world superpower since it will not follow the U.S.’s lead on meeting climate goals. Ignore the grim news however, this is a fabulous opportunity for your son, Hunter. He will likely receive a very large bonus from the Chinese for giving you sound advice on transforming the U.S. By taking Hunter’s advice, Mr. President, you will be in all the history books as the most transformative ruler in the history of the world. You will exceed Nero; it took him 14 years to collapse the Roman Empire. You will collapse the U.S. in four—a remarkable record, and one worthy of a Nobel Prize.

Bye, Bye American Pie. There is nothing more to divide!

The post A Modest Proposal to Stop Climate Change appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

The answer is simple – it comes from the Judgment Fund which is the mother of all slush funds. Nothing in the world is comparable to it other than dictators stealing the treasury of a nation. In the U.S., Congress has made such secret payments legal and routine.

The Judgment Fund pays judgments against the United States and settlements agreed to by the Department of Justice. It is a fund that does not disclose the receipt of the payments or settlements even when the actions establish major agency policy or when requested by congressional appropriators. It is a fund without accountability or transparency since the federal agencies making the payments will not provide Congress or taxpayers information about who was paid by the fund.

How does the Judgment Fund work? It is a permanent, indefinite, and unlimited congressional appropriation continuously available to pay money judgments entered against the United States and settlements of cases in or likely to be in litigation with the United States. As an indefinite appropriation, it is so secret that Congress no longer even debates what the amounts are for. The funds are appropriated, no matter what the amount. The Department of the Treasury just pays the claims when the proper paperwork is presented to it.

How did such a fund come about? Prior to 1956, Congress actually appropriated funds to pay for every single judgment against the United States. Under this procedure, Congress was actually aware of what claims were being made against the United States and was able to evaluate the actions of the agencies being sued.

In 1956 Congress passed the Judgment Fund Act to provide for payment of most judgments against the United States without the need for individual appropriations. The congressional justification was to enhance the efficiency of the appropriations process. In 1961 Congress amended the statute to pay for settlements in addition to judgments but with a ceiling on such payments of $100,000. In 1977 Congress eliminated the ceiling and now the fund is available to pay any covered judgment or settlement, regardless of amount.

The Judgment Fund functions as an automatic withdrawal from the nation’s treasury. Moreover, the payments made to satisfy a judgment against the US or to settle the alleged illegal activity of the agency, do not come out of the agency’s budget.  There is no penalty to the agency for misconduct or illegal activity since payments do not have to be reimbursed unless Congress appropriated funds to the agency for such payments. Simply, agencies are not required to pay for their misconduct or unlawful activities.

What payments have been made under the Judgment Fund? While the Department of the Treasury provides a list of payments and the amounts, it does not identify who received the payments. In a 2016 article, Politico described how federal agencies, using the Judgment Fund, hid more than $4.3 billion in payment to settle sexual harassment complaints. In 2020, the Judgment Fund paid out nearly 7,500 payments totaling over $14 billion.

Even after the House and Senate, Committees on Appropriations requested details concerning the names of claimants, the amounts to be paid and a description of the facts, the Treasury continued its refusal to provide the information to Congress. Moreover, the Obama administration settled over sixty lawsuits with environmental groups. It is likely it utilized the Judgment Fund since there was no other money appropriated to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to settle lawsuits. Unfortunately, it is impossible to know since the EPA, like all federal agencies, refuses to release the names of the recipients

Are there limits to these secret payments? Unless there is a specific statute authorizing payments in a different manner, there are no limits to payments from the Judgment Fund. According to a September 7, 2016, House Judiciary Committee report, Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, the Obama administration likely used the Judgment Fund to settle the $1.7 billion payment to the Islamic Republic of Iran for claims made on the sale of military equipment before the 1979 Iranian Revolution. This is the incident in which the US flew planeloads of cash, in foreign currencies, to Iran as part of what could be termed a ransom payment for American prisoners.

It is time for Congress to take seriously one of its main legislative responsibilities; its control over the nation’s purse as required by Article I, section 9, clause 7 of our Constitution. It can no longer leave the Executive branch with blank checks to be used when needing money to make secret payments, most times for wrongdoing. It is time for our government to be honest with us about what it spends and the recipients of its spending. After all, it is our money!

The post The Judgment Fund – The Mother of all Slush Funds appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Congress pontificates about reducing its massive national debt of $30 trillion, but each year it gets bigger. Diet books don’t help one lose weight. Only by reducing food intake can weight be lost. The same is true for budgets. Bloviating about the national debt on cable TV will not reduce the debt. Only by cutting programs and reducing laws can Congress reduce the national debt.

In 2021, our federal government spent $6.82 trillion in a $22.4 trillion economy. Simply, 30% of all economic activity in the U.S. is federal spending.  Another $3.3 trillion was spent by state and local governments. Forty-five percent of our entire economy is government spending. The Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) informed Congress that the growth of the national debt is unsustainable and a risk to our future. It’s now time to stop spending and start reducing the nation’s debt to ensure a sustainable nation for our children.

A diet that takes trillions off the federal spending scale without disrupting a lifestyle.

The nation’s goal should be to reduce the national debt with as little disruption as possible. Starvation diets don’t work. The nation just needs to cut out the junk food but keep a good helping of vegetables on our plate. This is doable by recognizing we don’t need to eat every time we see food. Likewise, Congress does not need to spend money every time it sees a perceived “problem.”

Once in this mindset, Congress needs to identify what the American people do not need. Five categories of spending literally jump off the plate.

1. Do not fund laws that have not been authorized. The easiest set of budget cuts would be to refrain from funding laws that Congress has not authorized. “In FY 2021 appropriations, the Congressional Budget Office identified 1,068 authorizations of appropriations, stemming from 274 laws, tolling $432 billion, that expired before the beginning of the fiscal year 2022.” Since House Rules prohibit appropriations to fund laws not authorized by Congress, just letting those unauthorized laws expire is an easy savings of almost one-half trillion dollars. If Congress is so unwilling to perform oversight on expired laws or the public has so little interest in a law being reauthorized, Congress should follow House rules and not fund the expired laws.
2. Review and vote on every expenditure in the Judgment Fund. The Judgment Fund is the mother of all slush funds. It is a permanent, indefinite, and unlimited congressional appropriation continuously available to pay money judgments entered against the United States and settlements of cases in or likely to be in litigation with the United States. It is so secret that Congress no longer even debates what the amounts are for as an indefinite appropriation. The amounts are appropriated, no matter what the amount. The Department of the Treasury just pays the claims upon the receipt of completed forms.This is the fund that President Obama used to deliver $1.7 billion in cash to Iran as a bribe to sign the Iran nuclear deal. Why should our government officials have billions in a secret fund to cover up illegal activity or to held terrorists? Having Congress approve each judgment and settlement as it did before 1956, the U.S. could save taxpayers tens of billions of dollars by rejecting settlements the executive branch makes with its friends that bring suit against the government knowing of a friendly settlement or with terrorists.
3. Enact a fair, simple, tax code that focuses on raising money not legislating behavior. Another easy way to reduce the deficit is to get rid of the 8-million-word tax code and replace it with the 1913- four-page Form 1040. Few deductions and low rates, but everyone pays something, including the wealthiest. The benefit of this simple approach is it captures a greater amount of tax owed by closing the “tax gap.”  The IRS defines the tax gap as the difference between true taxes owed for a given tax year and the amount that is paid. The gap is caused by the under-reporting of income, non-filing, and tax evasion. While the exact amount is unknown, the IRS estimates it to range from $574 to $700 billion, annually. A complex tax code invites under-reporting and manipulation, whereas failing to pay taxes in a simple system, could easily place one in a position of defending a fraud or tax evasion charge.
4. Follow and implement GAO’s Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”). Congress mandates GAO to perform a GAAP analysis of federal spending and assets and provide recommendations to ensure the financial reporting by the agency is transparent and consistent. Every member of Congress should read these reports on how our money is managed and should implement its findings when mismanagement is identified. One specific GAO recommendation is for the federal government to address the government-wide improper payments, estimated to be $175 billion.
5. Congress should make a kitchen-table list of what programs are most important to our Republic. The amount of information available to Congress for making smart debt reduction decisions is overwhelming. It is time Congress puts these materials to use. A simple way to approach this task would be for each congressional committee to rank sequentially, each program within its jurisdiction, with the most important programs having the lowest number. The budget committee would still allocate a budget for appropriations and the highest-priority programs will be funded first. The appropriation committees would work down the list until the revenues raised by taxes are expended.At that point, Congress would have to cease spending money on programs for which there is no longer any money, e.g., studies of shrimp on a treadmill, or admit to the taxpayers, it wants to borrow money to fund programs of little value. This kitchen-table process of spending only up to revenues received could save another $1plus-trillion annually, even if Congress expended a few hundred billion on some lower value programs.

These five modest proposals for reducing the national debt do not disturb any of the programs Congress views as a “must fund.” The reductions all come in areas where Congress has little interest, settlement of lawsuits that should not be settled, making sure everyone pays their fair share on income tax, requiring agencies to only pay authorized recipients, and not spending money on stupid programs.

Is anyone in Congress willing to put the national debt on a diet?

The post Reducing National Debt by Trillions with a 5-Step Diet appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Baby Boomers seem to enjoy borrowing money. At some point, however, someone confronted with having to pay off the debt will object since those future generations will not have had any say in the creation of the debt. What does the nation do when it reaches that point?

The last three presidents of the U.S. (George W. Bush, Obama, and Trump) have imposed  $22 trillion in additional National Debt out of a total of $29 trillion of debt. These three presidents are responsible for 76% of the nation’s entire National Debt from the founding of the Republic. Each person’s share of just the National Debt is $85,423 and for every household, it is $221,321. In his first year in office, President Biden (FY 2021) has increased the National Debt by $1.5 trillion and is now proposing many trillions more in new social programs.

At what point does this massive national debt become so burdensome that it is an unjust law on the citizens of the U.S. by placing them in servitude to the federal government?

There is a passage in Martin Luther King, Jr’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, on unjust laws that should be mandatory reading for every lawmaker. It extends far beyond the heinous evils and unjust nature of racial discrimination. It is a timeless analysis of the fundamental attributes needed in structuring “just laws” in a democracy.

King is asked: “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” He replied, “…there are two types of laws: there are just laws and there are unjust laws.” He explained the moral basis for the distinction. But it is his two examples of the differences that provide insight into structuring “just laws” in a democracy.

To Dr. King, an unjust law is a law the majority imposes on a minority but not on itself. A just law is one that applies to all equally.

Secondly, an unjust law is one inflicted upon a group that had no part in its passing; e.g., the group was deprived of the right to vote.

While these principles apply to racial discrimination, they can also be applied to the rapidly increasing, massive national debt that is being imposed on future generations who have not been given a “say” or “vote” in the process. Future generations are being told, “pay our bills.”

Republicans and Democrats are equally responsible for the National Debt. Actually, Republicans, through the Trump presidency, for all their righteous calls for fiscal restraint, are responsible for about 60% of the National Debt. Biden is quickly moving the split into a 50-50 tie. Both parties relish spending our money and using budget gimmicks to impose more debt on us while lying to our faces. For example, Congress and past administrations lie about the increasing debt by keeping the cost of continuing wars off the books or passing Continuing Resolutions.

It is highly unlikely that present politicians and voters will pay off this debt in their lifetimes. This means we citizens are living on the future productivity of those who have no ability to participate in creating the debt.

Other than the writings of Dr. King and a few leaders of peaceful resistance movements, the discussion of “unjust laws” is left for philosophers and ethicists. The immenseness of the national debt and its impact on future generations requires discussion today—especially by federal candidates.

The national debt could become so burdensome to future generations that it undermines democracy. We can no longer separate questions of morality from the consequences of legislative actions like thoughtless increases in the debt ceiling and new open-ended programs.

We can easily claim there is nothing we can do—our elected leaders control the budget, spending, and continuing increases in the debt ceiling. Moreover, those borrowed funds go to “good causes” supporters claim must be addressed, arguing it would be immoral not to take care of the least among us.

If the state imposed the full amount of taxes on citizens needed to pay for all the programs it provides, there would be a tax revolt against “unjust taxes.” Tax revolts have happened since the government first imposed taxes on people. But the accumulation of massive debt is different from imposing taxes on people. Accumulating and deferring the payment of debt allows the state to avoid taxing voters by shifting the cost of our wants to future generations.

Each dollar expended by us today without earning that dollar is a dollar our posterity will have to repay for us. Is there a point at which the debt imposed on future generations is so massive that it converts the social obligation of paying reasonable taxes into involuntary servitude to the government?

Citizens in a democracy are responsible for the actions of the state. Those taking state action are our servants. We have the ability through our vote to control them.  As we continue to amass debt, we are telling future generations they “have no rights.” This is the essence of an “unjust law.” Worse than being a Kakistocracy, we are becoming an unjust country that is willing to inflict servitude upon future generations so that we can avoid living within our means.

The post $30 Trillion National Debt is an Unjust Law to Our Children appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

The only word that describes the Biden administration is “absurd.” We have a “Government of the Absurd.”

The U.S. government spins its every statement in the hope citizens believe what is not true. Its political language is doublespeak. Words used by politicians no longer have meaning. There is no longer any communication between us and those running our government.

With 338 million people in the U.S., we elected a man described as “Sleepy Joe Biden.” He is gaffe-prone— decades of gaffes insulting blacks, Indians, women, disabled, to name a few. He also has a lifetime of plagiarism starting with law school papers and continuing onto the Senate floor and presidential campaigns. He refuses to answer questions from the press so he does not embarrass himself. Worse, when he finishes whatever he has to say, he turns his back not only on reporters but the American people as he leaves the room. When he does answer questions on policy matters, e.g., the infrastructure deal with Congress, his staff makes later announcements to “clarify,” i.e., “reverse” his “statements.”

These are his good days. On his bad days, he gets lost walking around the White House. And worse days may come as Russia builds its military forces on the Ukrainian border and China develops a hypersonic missile capable of surprise attack on the U.S.  And, while China patiently waits for the winter Olympics to be over, experts predict it will soon take over Taiwan.

The only person saving Biden from the Constitution’s 25^th Amendment (inability to discharge duties of the Office) is his vice president who seems even less “with it” than he. Recent polls find her approval rating at 28%, which is lower than Dick Cheney’s when he was waging war with the world. Even Democrat’s do not support her to run for president in 2024 or ever. Fortunately, for “Cackling Kamala,” she follows Mark Twain’s sage advice, “It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.”

A few of Biden’s policies illustrate his befuddlement in addressing human events.

Afghanistan

Biden secretly withdraws our troops protecting Bagram Air Base without telling the Afghans or our allies, surrenders Afghanistan to the Taliban, and orders the withdrawal of military troops before removing the civilians they are protecting. Biden’s secret withdrawal leaves thousands of Americans and our allies at the mercy of the Taliban. After a public outcry, a day later, he sends troops back to Afghanistan to airlift Americans and Afghan supporters out of the country. The airlift is chaotic, taking anyone the Taliban would let into the airport, not necessarily those who helped us. Biden’s goal is a press release puffing his feat as the biggest airlift in history.

In the middle of the chaos, the Washington Post reports the Taliban offered the U.S. control of the city of Kabul until the Americans left. This offer would have allowed U.S. soldiers to evacuate all Americans and Afghans who wanted out. General McKenzie, with orders from Biden to secure only the airport, refuses the offer and secures only the airport.

These actions are all in addition to leaving tens of billions in equipment for the Taliban; thirteen fallen heroes and several hundred Afghans dead at the airport.

Tony Blair, former prime minister of Great Britain, termed Biden’s withdrawal, “imbecilic.”. Even the Democrat propagandist, The Washington Post, called “This a moral disaster…”

Immigration policy

According to the US Department of State, “the United States accepts more legal immigrants as permanent residents than the rest of the world combined.” The U.S. has thousands of pages of policy on how citizens from other countries can legally enter the U.S. Rather than following U.S. law, the Biden administration abandons all legal procedures and encourages chaotic, illegal, immigration at the southern border.  Biden also puts the entire $53 billion per year cost of food, shelter, health care for up to two million illegals on the American people.

The open border allows immigrants to self-select who will enter the U.S. and empowers drug cartels to determine who they will help immigrate to the U.S.  Also contrary to U.S. criminal law concerning the illegal distribution of drugs in the U.S., the open southern border is a green light for drug smugglers, resulting in a 233% increase in illegal drugs from Mexico, Central America, and China.

Surrenders’ energy dominance

At the end of the Trump administration, the U.S. was the dominant energy producer in the world. Trump embraced expanding the nation’s production of fossil fuels, oil and gas exports to our allies, lower energy prices, drilling on federal lands, and imposed sanctions on Russia’s proposed Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany, thereby preventing Russia from selling its oil in Europe.

In Biden’s first days in office, he terminates the Keystone pipeline, and drilling on federal lands, while removing Trump’s sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream pipeline. Biden so greatly restricts the production of U.S. oil and gas he is forced to beg Saudi Arabia and OPEC to increase production to avoid serious economic disruption. Biden’s cuts in oil and gas production increased the price of gasoline by 40% in seven months. Worse, sanctions on the Russian pipeline allow Russia to enter the European market. If Biden cannot make U.S. energy policy more aburd, he is now, in the middle of high energy prices and less production, considering shutting down the pipeline from Michigan to Canada, which will also directly impact supplies in  Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, as well as Canada, this winter.

Masks— To wear or not to wear, that is the question!

Biden’s Center for Disease Control (“CDC”) tells us masks are not needed. Then it recommends we all wear masks. Then tells us if we are fully vaccinated, we do not need to wear masks. Then abruptly recommends vaccinated, unvaccinated people, and school children need to wear masks. Finally, Biden orders all federal employees, except postal workers, and employees of large businesses are vaccinated or be fired.

The constantly changing CDC guidance and mask mandates leaves the public confused, irritated and some rebellious, while our great Democrat leaders, who imposed the mask mandates, hit the birthday dinner circuit (Gov. Newsom)’ Obama’s birthday bash;  a $29,000 per person campaign dinner (Speaker Pelosi); a hair salon (Speaker Pelosi); White House events (Speaker Pelosi), and participate in large protests  (Chicago Mayor Lightfoot), all without wearing masks. Most telling is AOC in her white gown, people lifting her dress up a staircase, at the Met Ball, which should be referred to as the Hypocrites Dance. She is not wearing a mask but all the staff and waiters are masked so as not to harm the “dignitaries.” It Seems the government mandates are for us commoners, not the “Big guys” Who always have an excuse for not wearing a mask.

Biden proves his contempt for our dead heroes.

During the solemn ceremonies at Dover Air Force Base where the bodies of the fallen heroes were repatriated, Biden is photographed checking his watch as each body is taken off the plane. A father of one of the heroes stated “In reference to the checking of his watch, that didn’t happen just once. That happened on every single one that came out of that airplane. It happened on every single one of them. They’d release the salute, and he’d look down at his watch – on all 13 he’d look down at his watch.’

When stupidity turns into absurdity!

“The National Archives Records Administration has placed a ‘harmful language alert’ (trigger warnings) on records in the website’s catalog concerning the nation’s founding documents (i.e., the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Declaration of Independence).”

The NARA statement warns readers our founding documents contain “…some content that may be harmful or difficult to view.”  The language “… may reflect outdated, biased, offensive and possible violent views and opinions.”

When the Constitution of the United States becomes an offensive document to the President of the United States, the person constitutionally responsible for executing the laws of the nation, we certainly have a government of the absurd.

When absurdity turns to killing civilians!

After the wacky surrender in Afghanistan, our fearless commander-in-chief needed to prove his manhood by proving he could take on terrorists. So, from “over the horizon” he launches a drone attack on high-level “state terrorists.” He brags for days how he “took action.” A week later it turns out  Mighty Joe Biden killed at least “10 Afghan civilians, including seven children—but not an Islamic State terrorist.”

The Biden administration is full of surreal characters whose worthless purpose in life is to foster their illusions of self-importance to America.  The beliefs of the president and his advisors, do not correspond to life experienced by Americans.  The Biden administration is a staged event. Nothing about it is real. There is no president. There is only some unknown person behind the screen, huffing and puffing to create the perception America has a president.

Perhaps the Biden administration is not a Government of the Absurd, it is the real Theatre of the Absurd and we have three years more of drama.

Image: Gage Skidmore (modifications by TLR).

The post The Government of the Absurd appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Dear Uncle Joe:

Mr. President, while you are not my uncle Joe, we did grow up in the same neighborhood in Scranton. I know Scranton’s values well. Unfortunately, you lost those values many years ago.

You remind me of my old, crazy uncle Timmy. He was an embarrassment to us all. He was a danger on the streets, touching everyone who walked near him. And certainly, we never let him walk down the street to the popcorn vendor with a monkey.

Occasionally, we had to be very direct so he understood the seriousness of what he was doing. Unfortunately, this is one of those times your American family must deliver you a straightforward message – your actions are diminishing the value of American citizenship. Let me explain.

The government you “manage” identifies the benefits of citizenship, specifically: protection from deportation, easier entry and reentry into the U.S., travel without restriction in the states, the right to pay taxes and receive the same tax benefits as other Americans, the right to work for the federal government and receive government subsidies and the right to vote.

Before you assumed “management” of the U.S., these benefits were of great value. They generated patriotism, love of country, and respect for the rule of law. Your management style is so disrespectful to citizens. You treat us as commodities that send money to the government for the horror of watching the nation wither into a chaotic, authoritarian state.

And when you rudely turn your back and walk out of the room when reporters ask you simple questions, you act exactly like my crazy uncle. Worse, turning your back is an insult to us citizens. A good mother in Scranton should have told you it is not polite.

Perhaps your craziest decision is opening the southern border for anyone to freely enter the country. You have inflicted more crime on our cities. You are forcing local governments to care for the illegal, mostly unvaccinated, masses. This drains resources needed for schools, police, and health care. Worse, it is a violation of your oath to defend the country. You may not remember it but you were on television on January 20, 2021 and repeated the oath in front of millions of us. Many Americans thought you understood what you were swearing to?

No one knows why you opened the border; you may truly believe drug cartels; sex traffickers and the slave trade are capitalist enterprises. Please note it is not the type of business activity most parents want in their neighborhoods.

Also, no one understands why you stopped building the southern border wall after we paid for it? Obviously, you like walls since you ordered the American people to build a huge wall around your beach house. I am assuming it is your modesty when swimming nude. Believe me, Uncle Joe, no one will look—we would all be too embarrassed for you.

If one of the benefits of citizenship is the ease of entry and exit from our country, you have made it far easier to enter and exit for illegals than citizens. Almost two million illegal immigrants from 75 countries walked across the southern border into the U.S. this year. None were required to prove they had been vaccinated or tested for Covid-19. At the same time,  citizens, returning from a foreign country could not reenter the U.S. without proof of “a negative COVID-19 test, taken within three (3) calendar days of departure, or proof of recovery from the virus within the last 90 days.”

Another of the mentioned benefits of citizenship is freedom to travel throughout the U.S. While citizens have such a right, it is limited to lawful activity. Citizens committing crimes are arrested, no matter where they are caught.  Illegals, however, under your new order, have many safe areas where they cannot be arrested. These locations include schools, daycare centers, medical facilities, playgrounds for children, social service establishments, churches and demonstrations, and parades. You are giving those coming to the U.S. illegally more protection than given Americans. That doesn’t seem fair, crazy uncle Joe?

And now, you want to give illegals who were separated from their children when detained at the border, $450,000 per person, as damages for the temporary separation. What about our homeless and/or disabled veterans?  Are they less valuable than illegals because they fought to defend the U.S.?

The most ironic passage in one pamphlet is the discussion which notes all citizens have the same tax benefits as other Americans. I do not know many Americans who believe paying taxes and having the same tax deductions as other Americans is a benefit. First of all, most Americans do not have the same tax benefits as the super-wealthy. Few Americans can take advantage of the carried interest tax avoidance scheme for hedge fund managers or the $12 million estate tax exemption or trillions that can escape taxation forever, with a stepped-up basis for capital gains at death. You have such benefits, but very few Scrantonians have those benefits. You should nominate the brochure’s writer for inclusion in Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum. There will be a hefty referral fee for Hunter, and the author will live forever as the dumbest person in the world.

The right to work for the federal government may be the one positive benefit of being a citizen that non-citizens cannot have. It is as close to nirvana as anyone can get. It requires little work, no creativity, and a talent to write what no one can understand. Clean clothes are not required and for the last 18 months, they did not even have to appear in an office. There are 2.8 million of them. Sounds like a lot of jobs to apply for, but openings only happen when a government worker dies or retires. There is a long wait even for citizens.

Fortunately, the illegals know you are trying to get rid of Trump’s Public Charge requirement. If you are successful with your Build Back Better legislation, the illegals will receive free community college, housing, and food subsidies. Since federal subsidies never go away, uncle Joe, the illegals may just get benefits rivaling a federal job without the need to show up for work.

The big benefit of being a citizen is the sacred right to vote. What does the right to vote mean anymore? Hillary Clinton and the entire mainstream news media told us the Russians, with a massive disinformation campaign, elected Donald Trump in 2016. Trump and his 75 million supporters tell us that millions of illegal ballots, fake news, and the suppression of news like the contents of Hunter’s laptop, elected you in 2020.

In the 2000 election, George W. Bush was elected by the U.S. Supreme Court. Every other year, our congressional representatives are elected by a rigged system called gerrymandering. The reelection rates for incumbents range from the low 90% to as high as 98%. Congressional districts are drawn for winners, not losers. Seriously, there was more turnover in the old Soviet Politburo than in Congress.

On its face, having the right to vote is a big deal. It seems to be a distinguishing right for which citizenship is needed. But nothing is more political than voting. Whoever controls the voting process wins. The Democrats are pushing the 800 page, “For the People Act.” If enacted, it would nationalize voting. Whoever controls the DC swamp controls voting in the nation. The bill would require every state to allow voting by mail, mandate online and same-day voter registration. It effectively eliminates voter identification requirements by requiring non-registered “voters” to sign a statement attesting to their identity. The bill would mandate drop-off boxes for mail-in ballots, and allow voters to designate another person to drop off their ballots.

Uncle Joe, the “For the People Act” reminds me of the first time, at age six, I accompanied my uncle Timmy to a Scranton polling place. Afterward, I asked him who would win. He told me the Democrats since they vote early and often so the dead are always well represented.

My message to the illegal immigrants is, do not get discouraged. Uncle Joe will soon have you casting ballots for Democrats. As for my vote, it is becoming less and less valuable.

Image: Photographer/ NJ Governor’s Office

The post Uncle Joe, You Have Diminished the Value of My Citizenship appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.