Will the Constitution Survive King Barack the Transformer?

What makes a tyrant? Dictionary.com defines tyrant thus: A sovereign or other ruler who uses power oppressively or unjustly.

In 1776 the 13 American colonies declared independence from just such a tyrant. Eleven years later the same 13 states came together to write a Constitution that was specifically crafted to thwart the emergence of a new tyrant. The laws were to be written in Congress, where discussion, debate and competing factions would keep them from consistently favoring one constituency over another. In turn those laws were to be executed by the President whose constituency was the whole country. That separation of powers and duties has been the key to keeping the United States as a free, democratic republic without a tyrant for over two centuries.

Tyrants rarely adhere to constraints on their power being imposed by anyone or anything, Constitutions included. If they did, they wouldn’t be a tyrant in the first place. At the same time they often don’t brook the slings and arrows of enemies very well either. After all, what self respecting tyrant can allow subjects to feel free to criticize him? Tyrants also often seek to hide what they are doing. Whether it’s a war against someone who has something the tyrant covets or the implementation of a controversial new law, tyrants often choose to obscure the truth of their desires in order to gain the acceptance and acquiescence of their subjects rather than tell them the truth and deal with possible rebellion. Basically tyrants usually do exactly what they want, regardless of what anyone else thinks… but sometimes they feel compelled to lie about it.

Barack Obama seems to have excelled in all of these areas of Tyranny 101. In the first place he sees little constraint on his power. The endless waivers, delays and changes to Obamacare are easily the most impactful example of Obama’s disregard for the Constitution’s direction that Congress writes the laws. Follow that with his “Executive Order” on immigration essentially providing amnesty to millions of illegal aliens and it removes any sheen of Constitutionality. Indeed, Barack Obama is on record 22 times having said he didn’t have the Constitutional authority order amnesty. But he went ahead and did it anyway.

Obama also shines in his treatment of his enemies. This week proof emerged that the administration worked to spike stories by Sharyl Attkisson that were critical of its handling of the Fast and Furious program. Not content with just getting stories spiked, the administration also decided to selectively criminalize the practice of journalism itself when it named Fox News journalist James Rosen as a possible ''co-conspirator'' in a criminal investigation of a news leak. Add to that the IRS’s intimidation of Tea Party groups and anyone who’s just a bit critical of the tyrant president might just want to start checking under their beds and in their closets before they go to sleep at night…

Then there is the lying and obfuscation. The last couple of weeks have been chock full videos popping up of Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber telling audiences that the lack of transparency in the bill was critical to its passage, because if Americans knew its real costs it would never pass. So rather than tell the American people exactly what Obamacre would do, Barack Obama simply lied to them, reassured by Jonathan Gruber that the citizens were simply too stupid to pick up on it.

Tyrants rarely come to power telling everyone they are planning on ruling as a tyrant, particularly in ostensibly free nations. Instead they usually come to power by making grand promises of reward to a sufficient enough number of voters that they are welcomed through the front door. Once in power however, they begin to scheme and manipulate the levers of power so that they can accomplish their goals, regardless of the rules and regardless of any opposition. Indeed, they transform their perch from that of a servant of the people to a that of a ruler of the people. That is exactly what Barack Obama has done… and it’s only become more blatant the longer he’s been in office. With his amnesty move, coming so close after a decisive vote for the opposition, he’s finally demonstrated with unvarnished clarity exactly what he thinks of American voters and the American Constitution. The Constitution has been strong enough to whether crisis’s before. The paper itself is fragile but the ideas behind it have been extraordinarily resilient. Let’s hope both are strong enough to survive the reign of King Barack the Transformer.

The GOP leadership must be using Common Core math to do the calculations on Immigration... and the result is exactly what you'd expect.

Anyone who cares about prosperity has to ask themselves, just how stupid are the people running the Republican Party? One has to wonder, do they even bother to look beyond NBC, the New York Times and TIME magazine for their news and information? Have they ever even bothered to pick up a PEW research paper? You sometimes have to think that if they were around in the 16th century they would have been happy knowing the sun traveled around the earth and ignored the data from Copernicus and Galileo.

In a similar way, today we have GOP leaders have been talking about passing “immigration reform” for years. Just last month House Speaker John Boehner told a group of donors he is “hellbent on getting this (immigration reform) done this year”. Frankly, he might as well put a proverbial gun in the mouth of the Republican Party and pull the trigger – which might not necessarily be a bad thing.

Despite the stories the GOP tells itself while hiding under the covers at night, immigration reform is not the path to success in American politics. And it’s not like there’s not precedent for them to look at. One of Ronald Reagan’s biggest mistakes was when he allowed himself to be hoodwinked by Tip O’Neill into signing Simpson Mazzoli into law. The law allowed 3 million illegal aliens to become citizens and was to be followed by stronger border security. While the citizenship part happened, the border security part never did… and as a result millions more Democrat voters were created. What’s even worse, the amnesty encouraged tens of millions more people from Mexico and Central America to cross the Rio in expectation that they too could be granted amnesty.

The consequence of the failure of creating a strong border has been unambiguously bad for the GOP in general and for the notion of limited government in particular. Coincidentally, as reported by the Center for Immigration Studies, the result of amnesty and our dysfunctional immigration policies has pushed voter support for the GOP down by approximately 6% between 1980 & 2012.

Of course the numbers do tell a story, but the GOP is looking at the wrong numbers. The Republican leadership is concerned that the Hispanic population is the largest minority in the country and they are simultaneously the fastest growing minority. They look at the raw numbers and worry that if they don’t get on the immigration bandwagon that they will get left behind. Their solution is to jump on that wagon despite the fact that it’s heading towards a brick wall.

In this case the brick wall is government control and a lack of economic freedom and prosperity. Some other numbers tell the story. One has only to look at where the immigrants are coming from to understand what numbers really matter.

Over the last 15 years 60% of the legal immigration into the United States has come from six countries: Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, and Costa Rica. Fully 45% came from Mexico alone. At the same time 75% of illegal immigrants are from those same countries. To see what numbers are really important, take a look at where those countries rank on the Heritage Foundation’s Economic Freedom Index – which includes economic freedom and government regulation and taxation. Whereas the United States is today at a discouragingly low 12 and moving down (1 is the best – Hong Kong & 178 is the worst – North Korea), we are still far above those six countries: Mexico -55, El Salvador -59, Guatemala -83, Honduras -112, Panama -71, and Costa Rica -53. Those immigrants are coming from countries where big government reigns supreme and it shows in their economic standing in the world. Per Capita Income on a purchasing power parity basis – which takes into account the differences in costs in different countries – is perhaps the best way to measure their economic standing. According to the IMF, while Per Capita Income in the US ranks 6th in the world, of these six countries Panama is the highest at 61st and Honduras is the worst at 112th.

Of course none of that would matter if those immigrants were coming to the United States to start anew, embrace freedom, private enterprise and pursue the American dream. Unfortunately that’s not what’s happening. They are seeking to replicate the big government dysfunction and disasters of their home countries here in the United States. According to PEW, among the general population (which includes Hispanics) 48% of Americans want smaller government and 41% want bigger government. Among Hispanics only 19% want smaller government while 75% want bigger government and more spending. And the numbers are even worse among first generation Americans 12% are for smaller government while 81% for bigger government and more spending.

And it’s not just their opinions. They are voting that position as well, voting for Democrats over Republicans 2:1 on average since 1980. Despite what the GOP establishment keeps telling itself, immigration reform means more Democrats in office, more big government, more government control, higher taxes and more government redistribution. That growth in government results in less freedom, fewer choices in the marketplace and above all, less prosperity for all Americans, both new and old.

Big, overreaching, stultifying government the issue of our time.  It's opposite, small, limited government is the key to American success and prosperity.  The GOP establishment need look only at the voting record of blacks in America to understand that big government means big problems for Republican survival. But the reality is, the demographic trends are what they are, and if the GOP has any hope of surviving, it will have to learn to stop pandering by demographics. They will have to learn to articulate how small government and free markets are the key drivers of prosperity, not government control and redistribution. They have to demonstrate that limited government and free markets offer all Americans; blacks, Hispanics, whites and everyone else the greatest opportunity to find success and achieve the American dream, regardless of where they came from. So far they have been utter failures in that messaging, save voices like Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal, Sarah Palin and a few others. While it may take a while for the party to find the right message, if Boehner and Co. ram through immigration reform before the 2014 elections it may no longer matter. Let’s hope Boehner takes a wrong turn somewhere on the campaign trail and ends up lost in Lake Erie for the next six months…

From Obamacare to Immigration "reform" Is Anyone in Washington Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

The Wall Street Journal had a rather heartbreaking piece a few weeks about families of people with mental illness. Many families seem to feel helpless in the face of federal privacy laws that keep parents from knowing about their grown children’s medicines, treatments and even diagnoses. While parents are often able to be involved in the treatment of their children as they grow up, once they reach maturity the parents are often locked out. The same is often true for families of those who become mentally ill later in life.

Laws that are meant to protect individual privacy often limit families and professionals from helping the mentally ill until it is too late and they end up harming themselves or others. Somewhere between One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the road leading up to HIPAA and Jared Loughner opening fire in Tuscon, AZ, the common sense of regulations seems to have gone out the door . As a result, society and the mentally ill have been paying the price ever since. Mental illness is certainly one of the most difficult issues a family and a community can face, and federal laws that obstruct common sense solutions do nothing but to complicate the challenges.

Which is exactly why every time the federal government seeks to do anything it should be looked at with great deal of skepticism. Because it’s not just the treatment of the mentally ill that the government messes up. The majority of the things the federal government does are failures, and most certainly lack common sense. Take for example President Obama’s EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) which has sued Dollar General and BMW for racial discrimination. Their crime? Screening out of their potential employee pool applicants who had been convicted of "Murder, Assault, Battery, Rape, Child Abuse, Spousal Abuse (Domestic Violence), Manufacturing of Drugs, Distribution of Drugs, [and] Weapons Violations." And since more blacks than whites were convicted of those crimes – and therefore dismissed from consideration for employment – Dollar General and BMW are guilty of racial discrimination.

If there were an entry in the dictionary under “lacking common sense” this action would be example number one with a picture of a smiling federal bureaucrat next to it. Even a fifth grader would understand that forcing a company to consider more convicted murders and rapists for employment simply because of their race is ridiculous.

But then most of the people in Washington would likely end up losers on Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? One can only imagine that 5th graders would have been smart enough not to give us Obamacare. One doesn’t need to be a genius to figure out that Obamacare was going to be a disaster from the beginning, but of course we had to pass it before we could find out what was in it. The dunces in Washington promised that insurance premiums would go down. Instead they’re going up. The dunces in Washington said if you like your insurance you can keep it. Millions of people are finding they can’t. And of course the dunces in Washington were sure that access to government guaranteed healthcare would improve health outcomes. A landmark study in Oregon puts that lie to rest.

Now the dunces in Washington are trying to sell the American people another thousand page bill of goods that goes against basic common sense. This time in the form of the immigration bill. They claim that rewarding 11 million illegal immigrants in the country will somehow stop people from coming across our borders. So giving a gift to those who came to the US illegally (just as happened in 1986) is supposed to show that the US is finally serious about closing down the border? The CBO is not so sure.

They claim that giving the 11 million people here illegally some legal status should benefit the country because they will pay taxes. Actually, according to the IRS, many of them are already paying taxes thanks to individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs). Not only that, the IRS is actually sending thousands of “aliens living in the United States who are ‘not authorized to work in the United States.’” tens of millions of dollars in fraudulent refunds, 24,000 of whom apparently live in one house in Atlanta. Talk about close quarters!

They claim that they are absolutely, really, totally promise to secure the border this time… Ted Cruz points out that we heard this before.

Common sense tells you that if illegal immigration is to be tackled, the first thing you do, as you would with a sinking ship, is fix the holes rather than rearrange the furniture or dance cards. But then the people in Washington are not well versed in that basic element of everyday life that most citizens (including 5th graders) employ to get through their days. Unlike bureaucrats, most citizens don’t have the luxury of changing the rules to fit their worldviews, regardless of the consequences. No, they have to deal with actual reality rather than the fairy tales of good and effective government that politicians and bureaucrats tell themselves.

Unfortunately, whether regular citizens have family members with mental illness, are simply seeking to run a successful small business or have any one of a thousand other everyday issues to deal with, in almost all every case they will find that beyond the normal complexities of life they will likely have to deal with a plethora of decidedly non common sensical intrusions by the dunces in Washington who fancy themselves as sages and kings.