RECEIVED AN EMAIL FROM A VERY SMART GIRL WHO SHOULD KNOW BETTER

http://qz.com/566702/finland-plans-to-give-every-citizen-a-basic-income-of-800-euros-a-month/?utm_source=parWD

We need to move to Finland!

# – # – # – # – # 

MY RESPONSE

Sorry, as a little L libertarian, I can’t be part of such oppression. Where does the gang pretending to be the Gooferment of Finland get the largess it’s going to distribute, why it’s STOLEN from the oppressed taxpayers of course. 

I’m surprised at you, my ersatz daughter, from not learning this lesson. 

If the gang pretending to be the Gooferment of Finland can steal from Peter to pay Paul, then what else can the do to poor Peter and demand of poor Paul at risk of having his basic income withheld?

# – # – # – # – # 

Argh!

It’s the same for any Gooferment “giveaway”. First it must be stolen from someone else!

# – # – # – # – # 

http://www.wnd.com/2015/11/supremes-asked-to-rule-on-shell-game-taxation/

WND EXCLUSIVE
SUPREMES ASKED TO RULE ON ‘SHELL GAME’ TAXATION
Was ‘seedbed in which the people’s right not to be taxed without representation sprouted’
Published: 13 hours ago
BOB UNRUH

*** begin quote ***

“Obamacare raises taxes by hundreds of billions of dollars, but it was enacted in violation of the Origination Clause, which was designed to safeguard against arbitrary and reckless taxation. Obamacare was unveiled in the Senate, even though the Origination Clause requires taxes to start in the House, the body closest to the people,” he said.

“Pacific Legal Foundation and Matt Sissel are asking the Supreme Court to accept our challenge to Obamacare, in order to uphold and enforce the Constitution’s safeguards against arbitrary taxation, and to liberate Americans from a harmful law that was imposed in defiance of those procedures and protections,” said Sandefur.

Pacific Legal argues that Reid simply took the number of a House-passed bill that raised no taxes and and pasted it on the front of the thousands of pages of Obamacare, which taxes Americans $500 billion a year.

*** end quote ***

Not very likely.

We’re already seen SCOTUS turn itself into knots to keep it a la “it’s not a tax” / “it is a tax”.

Argh!

# – # – # – # – # 

WND EXCLUSIVE

SUPREMES ASKED TO RULE ON ‘SHELL GAME’ TAXATION

Was ‘seedbed in which the people’s right not to be taxed without representation sprouted’

Published: 13 hours ago

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/11/supremes-asked-to-rule-on-shell-game-taxation/#tHtHT1p0rgfrdduL.99

http://www.cato.org/blog/cbo-tangled-web-welfare-programs-creates-high-tax-rates-participants

NOVEMBER 20, 2015 3:22PM
CBO: Tangled Web of Welfare Programs Creates High Tax Rates on Participants
By CHARLES HUGHES SHARE

*** begin quote ***

The dozens of different programs that form our tangled welfare system often impose high effective marginal tax rates that make it harder for low-income people to transition out of these programs and lift of those programs and into the middle class. As the people in these programs enter the workforce, get a promotion, or work more hours, they can lose a significant portion of those earnings through reduced benefits and increased taxes. A new report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) illustrates this predicament: many households hovering around the poverty level face steeper effective marginal tax rates than even the highest earners. These prohibitively high tax rates can discourage work and limit their prospects, ultimately making them less likely to escape poverty.

*** end quote ***

The Gooferment is immoral, ineffective, and inefficient.

And here’s an example.

At best, it’s an “Unintended Consequence”! At worst, it’s a craven disgusting way to keep people as slaves.

You decide.

# – # – # – # – # 

CBO: Tangled Web of Welfare Programs Creates High Tax Rates on Participants

https://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/carly-fiorina-written-tax-plans-never-implemented/2015/11/08/id/701168/

Fiorina: No Need for Written Tax Plan
By Greg Richter
Sunday, 08 Nov 2015 12:04 PM

*** begin quote ***

Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina said in an interview televised Sunday that she doesn’t need to give a written detail of her tax plan since such plans are never implemented exactly as written anyway.

“Politicians put out detailed plans for all kinds of things; it never happens,” Fiorina said on “Meet the Press.”  

Instead, she said, people should got to her website where she answers questions from all comers about her plans as president.

*** end quote ***

So why doesn’t she put her three pages on the website?

I bet at HP she certainly had written plans. How else do you communicate what you will at least attempt to do?

She lost ground in my “measuring”!

# – # – # – # – # 

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/11/john-w-whitehead/no-one-talking/

The Real Issues You Won’t Hear from the 2016 Presidential Candidates This Election Year
By John W. Whitehead
The Rutheford Institute
November 6, 2015

*** begin quote ***

The national debt.

Why aren’t politicians talking about the whopping $18.1 trillion and rising that our government owes to foreign countries, private corporations and its retirement programs? Not only is the U.S. the largest debtor nation in the world, but according to Forbes, “the amount of interest on the national debt is estimated to be accumulating at a rate of over one million dollars per minute.” Shouldn’t the government being on the verge of bankruptcy be an issue worth talking about?

*** end quote ***

It’s worse than that.

The current 18T$+, on its way to 20T$, national debt in only the tip of the iceberg!

Let’s not forget the guesstimated 200T+ in unfunded liabilities that our posterity will have to deal with.

And, what about the States, County, and Municipalities?

Sounds like we need a “Truth in Accounting” law for ALL Goofermental units to follow.

I know in NJ the state pension fund is underfund.

There’s a reason that corporations have gone away from “defined benefit” plans. The Gooferment must do the same.

The Taxpayer can’t be on the hook for an unlimited tab.

Argh!

# – # – # – # – # 

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/10/ron-paul/benghazi-baloney/

House Benghazi Hearings: Too Much Too Late
By Ron Paul
The Ron Paul Institute
October 27, 2015

*** begin quote ***

Why no House Committee hearing before President Obama launched his war on Libya? Why no vote on whether to authorize the use of force? Why no hearing after the President violated the Constitution by sending the military into Libya with UN authorization rather than Congressional authorization? There are Constitutional tools available to Congress when a president takes the country to war without a declaration or authorization. At the time, President Obama claimed he did not need authorization from Congress because the US was not engaged in “hostilities.” It didn’t pass the laugh test, but Congress did next to nothing about it.

*** and ***

The problem is the ideology of interventionism, not the management of a particular intervention. Interventionism has a terrible track record, from 1953 in Iran, to Vietnam, to 2003 in Iraq, to 2011 in Libya and Syria. A real Congressional hearing should focus on the crimes and mistakes of the interventionists!

*** end quote ***

In listening to the news the other night, we heard about the rescue of 70 Kurds by a mixed force of Kurdish and US troops. A certain young lady turned to me a said (I quote) “Where are there US troops fighting? President Obama ended all the wars.”

My response: “I have a bridge to sell you if you believe that propaganda. We have troops everywhere.”

Argh!

I have no idea how to get the runaway Gooferment back in control of “We, The Sheeple”.

Perhaps a good start would be for Congress to get serious about its Constitutional responsibilities with respect to “war”.

And, budgets. And, debt. And, and, and.

A lawless President should be so busy vetoing stuff he doesn’t like that he has no time for fund raisers or golf.

I can’t believe how far we have “fallen” and so fast.

Dona Nobis Pacem

# – # – # – # – #  2015-Oct-27 @ 10:42  

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/10/andrew-p-napolitano/questions-for-hitlery/

Questions for Hillary Clinton
By Andrew P. Napolitano
October 22, 2015

*** begin quote ***

Mrs. Clinton, isn’t it true that you put the travel plans of Ambassador Stevens onto nongovernmental Internet venues? Isn’t it true that at the time you did that, he asked you for more security in Libya and you did not provide it? Mrs. Clinton, isn’t it true that to fight your secret war against the government of Gadhafi, you sent American arms into the hands of his opponents? And you did this without a congressional declaration of war, right?

*** end quote ***

I’d like to hear the answer to that one myself.

Argh!

If she was asked the Judge’s questions, then I think the game would be over and the plea dealing could begin.

The Gooferment has failed in this case to keep the faith and confidence of even the most clueless member of “We, The Sheeple”!

# – # – # – # – # 

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2015/10/end-war-on-poverty.html

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2015
It’s Time to End the War on Poverty
Richard Ebeling 

*** begin quote ***

We discuss and dissect the history and the failures of the modern welfare state that, in fact, has been a cause of perpetuated poverty and permanent government-dependency through the spider’s web of “entitlement” programs and redistributive activities.

*** end quote ***

Can’t imagine an idea that has outlived its usefulness.

LBJ’s “Great Society” and the ongoing “(pseudo) War on (some) Drugs” has totally destroyed: the inner cities, the black family, the lives of countless minority boys and girls, as well as created generations of “welfare farmers”.

Sorry, but it’s time to change.

I suggest that “public welfare” programs be reduced 5% per year for 20 years. 

It’s going to hurt some people, but the Nation has hit rock bottom and needs to change its ways. 

Blame the folks who started us down this path and not the messenger who delivers the bad news.

No free lunch.

# – # – # – # – # 

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/10/07/bobby-jindal-unveils-tax-plan-eliminate-corporate-tax/

BOBBY JINDAL UNVEILS TAX PLAN, WOULD ELIMINATE CORPORATE TAX
by ALEX SWOYER
7 Oct 2015
Washington, DC

*** begin quote ***

GOP presidential candidate Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal aims to eliminate the corporate tax, an issue he addressed as he unveiled his tax plan Wednesday afternoon on a call with reporters where Jindal argued his plan simplifies tax code.

Jindal’s tax plan only has three tax brackets – two percent, 10 percent and 25 percent.

“Most Americans will be in the 10 percent bracket,” he told reporters. He went on to explain that a couple making $150,000 is now in the 25 percent tax bracket, but under his plan would drop to the 10 percent bracket.

According to Jindal’s plan, individuals making less than $10,000 will be in the two percent bracket, those making more than $10,000 but less than $90,000 will be in the 10 percent bracket, and everyone else will be in the 25 percent bracket.

Those who are married have a slight shift in their brackets: Couples making under $20,000 a year will be in the two percent bracket, where as couples making between $20,001 and $180,000 will be in the 10 percent bracket. Lastly, couples making more than $180,000 will pay 25 percent in taxes.

Jindal said his plan “eliminates the estate tax – death tax, the marriage penalty and the gift tax, and the alternative minimum tax.”

“I think my plan is best,” he touted, referencing that other GOP candidates have revealed their tax plans.

He said his plan has three key differences from fellow Republican candidates.

“Most Republican plans brag about the fact that they allow as many as half of all Americans pay zero federal taxes. Jeb and Trump both have said that. I think that’s a mistake,” Jindal said. “I think everybody should pay at least something.”

“We’ve got to this point where too many Americans believe money just grows on trees in Washington,” he said.

We’re only asking two percent from the bottom bracket. I think that may be the most important two percent in the whole plan. It reestablishes the idea that in America everybody is expected to help row the boat. Some people may have a bigger ore, some may have a smaller ore, but you keep your ore in the water along with everybody else.

The second way Jindal’s plan differs from other Republicans is that it eliminates the corporate tax in America.

The U.S. has the highest corporate tax rate than any other developed countries. Jindal says this move will create jobs and end wealth incentives for companies investing outside this country.

“We need to be willing to be bold,” he said of eliminating the corporate tax rate.

We’ve done various analyses. We show that for example in a 10 year period the GDP would grow 14.4 percent on top of the current base growth projection rate with just my tax changes. We show that nearly six million jobs would be added to the economy, wages would grow by 8. 7 percent – just as an example of the positive outcomes from changing our taxes.

Jindal also says his plan is different because it “reduces the amount of money the federal government is going to be able to spend.”

*** end quote ***

Finally someone nails the corporate tax.

It’s stupid.

The product of Liberal Left non-economic thinking is just dumb.

“Corporations are merely tax collectors; not taxpayers. They merely pass their costs along.” Lawrence Alan “Larry” Kudlow is an American economist, television personality, and newspaper columnist. August 26, 2014 0830 on WMAL Mornings on the Mall Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

It’s one of the ways the Gooferment hides the true costs.

A business has only two choices — pass along its costs of which taxes is a big one OR go out of business.

Argh!

# – # – # – # – # 

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/09/sibel-edmonds/graymail-and-blackmail/

Two Delays & Tight-Lipped Negotiations Point to Graymail & Blackmail Tactics by Hastert’s Legal Team
By Sibel Edmonds
Boiling Frost Post
September 26, 2015

*** begin quote ***

Graymail is the threatened revelation of state secrets in order to manipulate legal proceedings. It is used as a defense tactic, forcing the government to drop a case to avoid revealing national secrets. Graymail can occur in two ways:

* To straight forwardly blackmail the government, forcing it to drop the case using the threat that if the trial moves forward the defendant will reveal classified information he or she already knows.

* To request the use of classified material as evidence in the trial, with an expectation that the government will be unwilling to make the material fully available to the case, and that this will raise the possibility, in the eyes of the judge or jury, that the unreleased material might clear the defendant, making it difficult to prove guilt.

*** end quote ***

Once again, justice denied.

Wonder what the full real story is.

“Move along, people. Nothing to see here. Go home, you looky-loos.” Officer Barbrady’s Catch Phrase South Park

# – # – # – # – # 

Friends,

As many of you know, no one has worked harder than me on the issue of our debt and deficit. And as many of you also probably know, nothing makes me angrier than sequestration.

We’re currently less than one month away from the end of this current Federal fiscal year. If Congress doesn’t agree on a budget by October 1st, we’ll see the return of these mindless, across-the-board cuts.

As a businessman and former governor, I know there’s a smart way to cut government and there’s a stupid way to cut government. Sequestration is the stupid way. Sequestration doesn’t look at what government programs are working versus which ones need improvements. It cuts all without regard to their goals or effectiveness.

There is no state in our nation that has been harder hit by sequestration than the Commonwealth. And continued sequestration would be devastating for Virginia. It would cut back key military investments at a time when our nation is engaged in conflict in Afghanistan and supporting efforts to defeat the terrorists of ISIL. It would cut back investments in veterans’ care, roads and bridges, scientific research, and more.

Repealing the sequester without locking in a sensible, balanced deficit reduction plan risks disrupting the credit markets and harming our economy. Congress must commit to negotiating a balanced budget that reduces our deficit.

That’s why I’ve been pushing the Republican Senate leadership to engage in bipartisan budget negotiations now – not a month from now – so we don’t again find ourselves on the brink of another federal shutdown when sequestration comes roaring back at the end of September.

Now, I want to be clear: this is going to require both parties to get out of their comfort zones. Everything must be on the table in order to come up with a long-term solution – that’s how negotiations work.

The last thing the Commonwealth or the country needs is running out the clock until the end of September and putting the risk of another federal government shutdown in play.

Thank you,

Mark R. Warner

# – # – # – # – # 

Personally, since “shutdown” means stopping 16% of the “entire Federal Gooferment”, then shut it down.

It’s one way to reduce costs!

# – # – # – # – # 

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/09/02/former-staffer-who-maintained-hillary-clintons-private-email-server-to-plead-the-fifth/

FORMER STAFFER WHO MAINTAINED HILLARY CLINTON’S PRIVATE EMAIL SERVER TO PLEAD THE FIFTH
by JOHN SEXTON
2 Sep 2015212

*** begin quote ***

Pagliano worked as Hillary’s IT director during her 2008 campaign. Starting in May 2009 he was hired by the State Department where he served as special projects manager to the Chief Technology Officer. That title also included responsibility for continued maintenance of Clinton’s home server. Pagliano left his position in February 2013, the same month Clinton stepped down as Secretary of State.

*** end quote ***

Now we are getting somewhere.

I’d now subpoena all of his direct reports during that period of time.

Get all the folks on the record as invoking the Fifth.

Then, start handing out “qualified immunity” (i.e., get out of jail free cards).

That will have “the rats deserting the sinking ship” and The Truth will come out.

Argh.

# – # – # – # – # 

Mr. Ferdinand Reinke
1641 International Dr Unit 414
McLean, VA 22102-4831

Dear Mr. Reinke:

Thank you for contacting me about H.R. 1831, the Read the Bills Act. I appreciate hearing from you.

On June 15th, 2015, Senator Rand Paul introduced S. 1571, legislation to require Congress to post potential bills online for a minimum of seven days before voting on passage of them. In addition, all legislation would have to be voted on by a roll call vote.

The Read the Bills Act has been referred to the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration. Please be assured that I closely review legislation that comes before the Senate, and I will be sure to keep your views on this important issue in mind.

Again, thank you for contacting me.

Sincerely,

Signature

Tim Kaine

# – # – # – # – # 

Translation: Now please go away!

# – # – # – # – # 

http://patch.com/new-jersey/southbrunswick/s/f7mst/n-j-supermarkets-laying-off-8-648-employees-on-thanksgiving

N.J. Supermarkets Laying Off 8,648 Employees on Thanksgiving
Bergen County-based company files reduction in force notices with Department of Labor.
Originally posted on the Toms River, NJ Patch
By TOM DAVIS (Patch Staff) August 24, 2015 

# – # – # – # – # 

Anyone care to tell me how low the unemployment rate is?

Everyone always is saying the “economy is recovering from a short recession”.

What a joke.

Go to any mall and count the vacant stores. That’s malinvestment.

Check out the number that have left the workforce. After a while, they don’t count as unemployed.

Look at the numbers on “disability”.

And yet the political class of politicians and bureaucrats are doing just fine.

Argh!

# – # – # – # – # 

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/08/charles-hugh-smith/creative-destructionism/

Does “Creative Destruction” Include the State?
By Charles Hugh Smith
OfTwoMinds.com
August 1, 2015

*** begin quote ***

Under the tender care of the state, we now have uncompetitive, inefficient parastic cartels dominating higher education, national defense, healthcare insurance, pharmaceuticals and hospitals– to name but a few of the major industries that are now state-enforced cartels thanks to the heavy hand of the state (i.e. regulatory capture ).

*** end quote ***

Why can’t “empires” fail?

It has happened all through history.

IMHO it will be the debt — and unfunded liabilities —that drowns the USA. It was the failure of the USSR centralized economy that brought it down.

Only truly free markets maximizes everyone’s outcomes with a minimum of inefficiency. 

Only “capitalism” lifts the poor to a higher standard of living without conflict. (Even Bono recognized “enterprise” was better than “foreign aid”.)

It seems like Gooferment is the instrument of poverty. Look at Africa!

Look in the USA. Between the welfare “prison” and the “(pseudo) War on (some) Drugs”, the minority communities have been devastated!

Argh!

# – # – # – # – # 

https://www.newsmax.com/Finance/StreetTalk/Hillary-Clinton-Capital-Gains-Tax-Scheme/2015/07/24/id/658840/

Hillary’s Inconceivably Stupid Capital-Gains Tax Scheme
By Larry Kudlow | Friday, 24 Jul 2015 09:44 PM

*** begin quote ***

So if investment is the problem, what does Hillary Clinton go out and do? She proposes jacking up the tax on investment. It’s almost inconceivably stupid. 

In her latest economic speech, Clinton proposes doubling the capital-gains tax rate on the profit made from asset sales (stocks, bonds, real estate) held a day less than one year up to two years. Right now, if you take a capital gain a day more than one year, you are taxed at a 20 percent rate. Actually, it’s 23.8 percent when you include the healthcare surtax. So under Clinton’s brilliant new play, you’d be taxed at 43.4 percent — the top individual cap-gains rate of 39.6 percent plus the 3.8 percent Obamacare surtax.

That means, instead of keeping 80 cents on the additional dollar of profit, you’d only keep 56.6 cents — a 30-percentage-point reduction in the take-home-pay reward for taking an extra dollar’s investment risk.
This will create a tall barrier to investment — what we don’t need. If you tax something more, you get less of it. 

*** end quote ***

I rant a lot about the corporate income tax. Only real people pay taxes. Corporations are merely fictions that hide the Gooferment’s taxes from sight. 

When you try to figure out how much tax you really pay, look at a can on beans and try to guess what percentage of the price is really hidden taxes. Don’t forget all the incremental taxes along the way from the bean field to the store. Argh!

And, who owns all the capital invested in stocks and bonds — pension funds.

So, the political class is robbing the taxpayers blind. 

Argh!

# – # – # – # – # 

http://www.wnd.com/2015/07/letter-kagan-ginsburg-acted-unethically-and-unlawfully/

WND EXCLUSIVE
LETTER: KAGAN, GINSBURG ACTED ‘UNETHICALLY AND UNLAWFULLY’
Constitutional experts call for review of Supremes’ marriage ruling
Published: 2 hours ago

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/07/bill-sardi/when-your-doctor-is-paid-to-tell-you-to-die/

Will Your Doctor Include Nutritional Therapy In End-Of-Life Discussions?
Medicare To Incentivize Death By Paying Doctors For End-Of-Life Talks
By Bill Sardi
July 13, 2015

*** begin quote ***

End-of-life consultations

Will your physician be recommending vitamin C, vitamin D, fish oil or vitamin B1 to your loved ones with hopeless terminal diseases?  I sincerely doubt they will.   Doctors say nutritional therapy is unproven, but it is certainly not disproven. 

Even if these nutritional therapies are of marginal benefit, they are non-toxic and inexpensive.  Even if just palliative (relieving pain or alleviating other discomfort) they would serve Medicare patients better than expensive toxic therapies.

Why is conventional medicine so reticent to conduct more convincing larger studies that employ nutritional therapy especially among terminal patients who have little or no hope? 

You can see from the evidence presented here, by not putting nutritional science into practice they are already culling the population and reducing Medicare costs by neglectful attrition.

*** end quote ***

The joke at the VA hospitals among old vets is that their doc is trying to kill them.

The joke at the Indian (Gooferment) hospital system is not to get sick in the last half of the year when they run out of funds.

Sarah Palin was excoriated for mentioning “death panels”.

But now the system is broke (by any measure — debt, deficit, or dishonest money — and they have to reach into their bag of tricks which only contains one thing — kill the old and sick.

Argh!

How dumb are “We, The Sheeple”?

Very.

# – # – # – # – # 

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/07/bill-bonner/dont-feed-the-zombies/

Don’t Feed the Zombies…
By Bill Bonner
Bonner & Partners
July 11, 2015

*** begin quote ***

Simpleminded Narratives

But these headline reports give you only the public stories –simpleminded narratives that even voters can understand.

The hidden story – and the real story – is that these are all clashes, battles, and skirmishes in the Great Zombie War.

On the one side: honest workers, businesses, entrepreneurs, and households.

On the other: fixers, meddlers, thieves, layabouts, and criminals.

Is it really that easy to understand?

Probably not. But it helps us put things in perspective.

Take the proposal for a higher minimum wage. The Financial Times (Britain’s equivalent of the Wall Street Journal) is usually wrong about everything. But it is right today: “Politicians cannot ‘magic up’ a national pay boost.”

From the dawn of time until the moment you read this, politicians have never added one single cent to the wealth of the world.

They can move it around. They can suppress it. They can steal it and destroy it. But if you could add wealth by legislation, they would have gotten the hang of it long ago.

*** end quote ***

I always use the taxonomy — makers versus takers.

This introduces a new distinction to it — makers, takers, and politicians.

The “politicians” enable the “takers” to take and they get power by enabling their behavior.

How do the “makers” ever win?

It’s like having a parasite on a host. In some cases, like this one, eventually the parasites will kill the host.

I think the “makers” have to engage in peaceful non-violent non-cooperation. Oppose EVERY extension of political power over “We, The Sheeple”. REGARDLESS of how beneficial it sounds.

I’ll use the example of Obama-SCOTUS-care. It was not about “health”, “health care”, “health care insurance”, but something else! Control.

FDR’s WW2 Wage and Price Controls screwed up the “health insurance” marketplace by tying one’s health insurance to your employment. This was done with the Gooferment’s perverse tax code.

Your life insurance, car insurance, pet insurance has nothing to do with your emplyment. Hence it’s cheap and easy and competitive marketplace. 

Why is health insurance any different?

Because the Gooferment want to control the Sheeple.

Argh!

# – # – # – # – # 

http://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2015/07/09/poll-majority-of-americans-support-states-opting-out-of-federal-programs/

Poll: Majority of Americans Support States Opting Out of Federal Programs

*** begin quote ***

A recent Rasmussen poll indicates a growing number of Americans agree with James Madison and support state refusal to cooperate with the federal government.

The first key finding was that a majority of likely voters in the U.S. believe states should have the right to opt out of federal programs.

The poll indicates that 54 percent believe states should ignore federal programs they don’t agree with. The number jumps if the program includes unfunded mandates. A full 61 percent of likely voters think states should have the right to opt out of federally mandated programs if the feds don’t help pay for them.

*** and ***

In other words, even though the Court has found Obamacare “constitutional,” states can still opt out and refuse to implement or participate in its operation.

Madison established this principle before the Constitution was even ratified. Writing in Federalist #46, the “Father of the Constitution” addressed an important question: how do Americans keep a limited federal government from acting outside of its delegate powers?

Madison wrote that the states hold the key to checking federal power through a “refusal to cooperate with officers of the Union.” Additionally, he wrote:

“Should an unwarrantable measure of the federal government be unpopular in particular States, which would seldom fail to be the case, or even a warrantable measure be so, which may sometimes be the case, the means of opposition to it are powerful and at hand.”

*** and ***

In fact, as Madison brilliantly argues in Federalist #46, the system was set up that way. The founding generation never intended to establish a monopoly government centered along the banks of the Potomac. Without the ability of states to act against unconstitutional, or even constitutional, yet unpopular acts, the federal government becomes an entity with unlimited power.

When states opt out or refuse to participate, they create effective impediments and obstructions to federal powers

*** end quote ***

So, one must work from the bottom up.

Oppose Federal actions locally.

Non-violent non-cooperation.

Argh!

# – # – # – # – #