Since Barack Obama became president on Jan. 20, 2009, the federal government has not had a budget. It did not have one for the first two years of his presidency, when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, and it did not have one for 2011, when the Democrats controlled the Senate and the Republicans controlled the House.
The Senate — continuously under Democratic control during the entire Obama presidency — has not voted out and sent on to the House any annual budget since George W. Bush was president. The House sent a budget to the Senate a year ago, but the Senate rejected it and sent nothing back in return.
In the nearly three years that Obama has been in office, the government has been collecting revenue, borrowing cash and spending ravenously on the basis of what the government calls continuing resolutions — known in Washington by the initials “CR.”
When Congress enacts a CR, it basically authorizes the government to operate for a finite and brief period of time. The period of time does not coincide with the government’s fiscal year. The federal government’s fiscal year runs from October 1st to September 30th. Here we are at the beginning of a new calendar year, and your government does not have a budget for its fiscal year that began more than three months ago.
Instead, the feds have operated under 15 continuing resolutions throughout the Obama presidency. Some of these CRs have been for as long as nine months, and one was as short as 24 hours. There was a time when the end of a continuing resolution would have brought intense media scrutiny. Will the government stay open? Will it shut down? Who will get blamed? Will Congress let the president spend money the government doesn’t have? None of this produces drama any longer, because the bizarre has now become the routine.
This new year will bring certain new tax rates, specifically for the payroll tax. The payroll tax is what you pay and what your employer pays to fund Social Security. Social Security is a Ponzi scheme: It pays out more than it takes in, and the government lies about its solvency. It once had a cushion, called the Social Security Trust Fund, but Congress took that money and spent it.
Can you think of any crimes here? Running a Ponzi scheme is a crime — just ask Bernie Madoff. And spending money you have lawfully agreed to hold in trust for someone else can get you in a lot of hot water, and likely criminal charges. Just ask Jon Corzine.
So here we are, at the beginning of a new year, and employers and employees don’t know what their payroll taxes will be in March. You cannot run a business, and you should not run your household, without knowing months in advance what your regular expenses will cost you. But when you have a government in which both wings of the Big Government Party — that’s the Republican wing as well as the Democratic wing — think they can bribe the people with their own money and the only difference between the two is how much of a bribe, when both wings think they can write any law, regulate any behavior and tax any event, no matter what the Constitution says, no matter what federal law says and no matter what the laws of economics say, is it any wonder the government is dysfunctional?
All of this demonstrates that the government lives in its own world. It writes laws for the rest of us and breaks them itself. It requires openness of corporations that trade publicly, but it won’t be transparent itself. It doesn’t read the laws it writes, and it doesn’t care about the Bill of Rights. What can you do? If you live in New Hampshire, you can vote for a game changer next week. There is only one on the ballot.
COPYRIGHT 2013 JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO/CREATORS.COM
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31 Responses to “Big Government Cannot Pay Its Bills, Again”
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"The Big Government Party — that’s the Republican wing as well as the Democratic wing — think they can bribe the people with their own money and the only difference between the two is how much of a bribe, when both wings think they can write any law, regulate any behavior and tax any event, no matter what the Constitution says, no matter what federal law says and no matter what the laws of economics say."
Yes, I agree with you, Judge. And as I've been telling people for years, Judge Andrew Napolitano is the only trustworthy individual over at Faux News.
Personally, I like how Ludwig von Mises put it, "Congressmen do not write laws. They issue orders." And that's really the bottom line, isn't it? Collectivism has nothing to do with natural law—e.g. laws of economics— but, rather, everything to do with intervention for the purpose of building centralized, "Big-Government-Party" control.
So how will all of this big-government, collectivist interventionism end? For anybody asking themselves that very question—"how will this end?"— I think Javier Bardem who played a psychopathic hit man in the movie "No Country for Old Men" gave us all the best answer when he said to one of his victims just before he murdered him, "I think you know."
It ended yesterday when the usurper-in-chief said, "… I refuse to take no for an answer." In effect he established his as the only opinion that matters. Either it will be done as he decrees, or else.
"Tu ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito." – Virgil
"Do not give in to evil but proceed ever more boldly against it."
Gill O'Teen
mises motto……
btw, gil, in common "law" systems (or organized/institutionalized violence), much weight is given to "precedent". if the blackhats have already "been there, done that", well then, the next, and subsequent re-visitations are merely circularly referred back to the original instance – that wheel having already been invented, there's nothing much to talk about.
there is much precedent for the top blackhat stepping out from behind the gauzy curtains that the worshipers so admire. scions of uber repub lincoln, and the federalists before him, know this, and will remind you of this, too…..judge n well knows it, too.
or, laws are not written, at all – they are discovered.
"law" is an instilled reverence, in all of us. parents, of course.
and parental archetypes, like moses, "the lawgiver". fabulous that "mises" is a variation of "moses" – because of the juxtaposition of discovery, and coercion, "here is what I've discovered", and "do as I say – or else".
back to "instilled reverence". it is of the same nature as the pavlovian doggies' salivary reflex at the sound of the bell. the sound of the bell is not food and the color of law is not discovery of any truth – but the reflex prevails.
you'll always feel the tug of that reflex, even if you do the hard work of overcoming it. that's another aspect of "you can never go home again" (and tear the damn thing down); you just have to carry your own water…..
Bless you Judge, and Ron Paul, to paraprhase the Immortal "there IS only one". If only there were more of you and him.
connor macleod? cool movie…..
The Government's confidence game will end when a national emergency of some internal origins erupts and citizens rise in unison and pour out their wrath. It cannot be of external nature, that would serve to unite the country. The criminals in current office and recent past should then be prosecuted and serve Bernie Madoff type of sentences. I never thought I would live to see the day when I wished for the fracturing of America.
as the bison rose up…as the denizens of feedlots rise up…bovines don't "rise up"…the bow down……….
Judge,
It ain't over till it's over, but it sure looks like it's gonna be over soon.
There's an economic tsunami headed our way.
The vast majority of the American people have become fat, dumb and happy. They've been brainwashed into thinking they have a right to other people's wealth.
This is part and parcel of the insanity of liberal thinking… and the parasitic politicians who perpetrate it. The government education monopoly is another major factor in the death of the west.
Big government, with its socialistic, totalitarian apparatus, is now America's new god.
That god will soon be toppled by the God of the Bible – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – the One, only, and true God.
Consistent self-reliance mainly stems from God-reliance… or… at the very least… consistently demonstrating habits and thought processes that mirror God's Ten Commandments.
(One of which is, "Thou shall not steal." Another reads, "Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's property… or anything that is thy neighbors.")
Unless the individuals and families who make up America repent and return to Jehovah, America will join a long line of other countries on the rubbish heap of once-great civilizations.
In truth, America is already dead. A "civilization" that allows the wholesale slaughter of unborn babies MUST incur the wrath and curse of God.
If America does not return to its Protestant (i.e. Calvinist) roots, she will and must die.
Thank you for your article.
were/are the federalists/whigs/military industrial complexers "liberals"? if you're going to pin the tail, make sure you've got the correct animal: the wingless, and ubiquitous, cartel (donkeys & elephants have nada to do with it)…..
Reunion,
Sounds like you're aware that the 2-party system is just to distract the sheeple?
The global elite (Bilderbergs, Rothchilds, others) are the ones pulling the puny gov't puppets' strings, I think.
Destination? US becoming a social, police state? Too many dissidents, though, so what to do? FEMA camps??
But wait, the work population is TOO big! What will eventually happen to the global financial system? Europe's falling apart.
What will be the last shoe to drop before the US sees riots in the streets, due to no work and food shortages?
Your thoughts?
cp
who is behind the curtain is a curiosity, not critical (tho later, by all means, they deserve to be dealt with).
the oz apparatus is what is critical. its awe inducement is purely consensual, offered freely by the follower-participants who prop it up, keep it alive.
do not consent; do not participate. that is the simple first step.
timing, whether it be in a piece of music, dance steps, a combination of punches thrown, a berm immediately succeeded by an hairpin turn on a track, or trading bars on a price chart is a result – of a process – it's not an end, a projection, an imposition, a definitive, or a single, unitary, act of will.
i have no idea what the shoe will be – only that it will be. i have no idea when – only that it is coming. don't try to time it – that is a sucker play. tides run, winds blow – tack and jibe, away from the storm…sailing into the storm only intensifies it.
"who is behind the curtain is a curiosity."
The very same "whom" who was behind the curtain five thousand years ago.
Passing through the outer courtyard of the Tabernacle onward through the Holy right on up to the curtain made of fine linen, blueish purple and scarlet yarn which separates all from the Holy of Holies, he pensively drew back the curtain and peered inside: Expecting to see God and then die as the result of such a glorious encounter, he was almost overwhelmed to the point of fainting when all that befell him was the power of his own unfounded fears. Suddenly realizing that the Ark of the Covenant and its atonement cover was crafted by the hand of man, he now understood that nobody really lived here at all—not God nor man. Like a dawning of the sky, his mind came to the realization that the power of a god was actually to be found in the power of the priesthood. And that very power was continually changing as often as men change, like the wind whipped sand.
The point of the little story which I scribbled out up above is that the world is not really controlled from behind a curtain per se. Really, it is open warfare for all to see if only they remove their bovine glasses. Numerous competing priesthoods which are heavily armed with both nuclear and conventional weapons are behind, in front of, underneath and over the top of the "curtain." These cartels/priesthoods have the same collectivist mentality which drove their power-lusting forefathers.
all in favor, say "moo-ooo!". the chute's right this way….lol
There IS only one game changer in this election… He has my vote even if I have to write him in.
if somebody tries to re-rule, re-package, re-sell "monopoly", parker bros / hasbro will have the last word, and action, on the attempt…there is no "changing the game"…there is only play (your assigned role), or don't.
Voluntarily play or play involuntarily! But, play we all will.
The game is in full swing, with the rule-makers safely hidden.
Moving the chess pieces, using the lawmakers to do it.
What's the game's ultimate objective, do you think, Reunion?
cp
not "ultimate" – it is already here, has been since before any of us were born. just "more". cartel wants the whole place to be a company town. you might call it neo-feudalism.
Company town … that's a good one!
Gary Johnson 2012.
Untill conservatives learn how to convincingly frame their message as the only way to help the poor and disadvantaged is the Conservative Solution, they will never again defeat the Liberal Solution of "spend other people's money." Conservatives: Never has such a good story been so badly told. Liberals: Never has such a bad story been told so well. It appears to me that the Democrats have a tear in their eye and a quivering lip when discussing the "needs" of the poor and the Republicans have a frown on their face and a sneer on their lips when discussing the "wants" of the lazy. I wonder who will win out in the end?
really? con-serves don't "spend other people's money"? who is telling stories, now?
Yet another reminder of nomenclature honesty offered many years ago by the good folks at the Wall Street Journal . . . to wit: Republicrats and Demoblicans. The situation is beyond ghastly . . . it is bald-faced criminal.
that must have been before they were gobbled up, became the war street journal…..
the Romans knew how to keep their citizens under control so that the rulers could continue to expand their government, wage war and expand their empire – bread and circuses.
the Republicats and Democans know how to do it as well so that the citizens never wake up to understand what is really going on until it is too late and the country has collapsed
I sent a check to Ron Paul yesterday.
Go Ron Paul 2012!
Who will lead the public revolt?
Another solution to the problem of spending other people's money is to repeal legal tender laws and allow for competing currencies. This will end the Federal Reserve's monopoly on the money supply, and it will also wreak havoc upon the Infernal Revenue Skunks. It will be almost impossible to collect payments based upon income if there is no way for the Federales to establish a value for what is paid and received, thus collapsing the tax system.
Americans, unite against our dollars! Start demanding payment in specie.
My friends who are making 200K+ all say they 'are willing to pay more taxes. Let's tax workers in this country – like my liberal friends – who earn 200K+ or more. I've already told them during holiday get togethers that if the taxman cometh to my house, I'm redirecting him to their front doors.
American are more interesting in Foot Ball than in the freedom they enjoy. Freedom is like a baby, you have to protect it and care care for before someone take it away from you. If you are not interesting in politic, some politicians are interesting in change the way you live.