Only those who are out of touch and those who deny we are on the wrong track as a nation, will say we aren’t in a war for the heart and soul of the nation. The war against the way of the nation, consisting of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness has been progressing through the years. The war began with passage of the 16^th and 17^th Amendments; the 16^th which allows the government to confiscate the wages and property of the earners and owners through taxes and draconian regulations: the 17^th which took control of Congress from the states and gave it to those elected; and who for the most part aren’t accountable to anyone. If you think that isn’t true, you need to examine the constitutional violations of the United States Senators. Most of that which they do is unconstitutional. Thus, those two amendments set the stage for the war and the siege we are facing against our way of life.

The war against freedom from government began with FDR in 1933. While the programs sounded good, they began the long trek to dependence on the government by doing for the people what they should have done for themselves. An article on the Drudge Report, June 4, 2009, taken from USA TODAY reports: The recession is driving the safety net of government benefits to a historic high, as one of every six dollars of Americans' income is now coming in the form of a federal or state check or voucher. That good reader is dependence on the government and lays siege to the independence of the people who should be providing for themselves instead of looking to government to give them the hard earned income and property of others.

FDR invented the New Deal, a system of government handouts that ranged from make work public jobs to agriculture subsidies, most of which are still with us today in some form. The make work jobs were and are bad enough, but the agriculture subsidies are ludicrous. At the outset, the subsidies were supposed to keep small farmers in business, but it forced them out of business and now big farms owned by corporations receive the subsidies. It’s even worse because members of Congress own big farms and receive subsidies. From 1996 to 2000 the farm subsidies for two former Democrat members of Congress from Arkansas were Rep. Marion Berry, $750449 and Sen. Blanche Lincoln, $351085. Lincoln led the effort to block farm subsidy reform. Does anyone see a conflict of interest in this matter? They vote themselves raises and feed at the subsidy trough without shame. Fortunately, the subsidy hog was defeated and now can’t feed at all the troughs available.

As the FDR Administration moved forward in contravention of the Constitution, government increased its intrusion into each facet of private life. In 1938, the Minimum Wage Law was passed which set the wage at 25 cents an hour. In 2009, the wage will increase to 7.25 per hour. There are two problems with the wage. One, Congress has no constitutional power to enact a wage law. Two, the artificial wage doesn’t take into consideration the ability of a business to pay mandated wages. The wage law is nothing more than tyranny and redistribution of income through legislative fiat.

Through the New Deal programs, the economic activity began to be hamstrung by government meddling. Increasingly, Congress passed laws governing manufacturing, price protection, labor laws favoring organized labor (unions) and other restrictions on the economy in general and business specifically.

Thus, through the New Deal, the war against the freedom and liberty of the nation’s people began slowly, and as the years passed, it has accelerated in ways not imaginable in the 1930s. Good intentions have a way of creating unintended consequences. If the Constitution had been followed, we wouldn’t be facing the problems we have today. The social welfare mentality has grown until it is  commonly accepted that the government must provide for the “less fortunate” to make life fair. The problem isn’t the “less fortunate being left out; the problem is the doctrine of dependence on the government to give others a living because those with more have somehow deprived those who have less. Those who believe that foolishness never explain how that is true. But those who believe it always have their hand extended for more. And that includes all branches of government whose extended hand is known as the force of law by which the politicians take more.

© 06-04-2010 DEC