Jonathan Emord -- 2012: The Republic’s Bellwether Year

2012: THE REPUBLIC'S BELLWETHER YEAR

By Attorney Jonathan Emord
Author of "The Rise of Tyranny" and,
"Global Censorship of Health Information"
January 24, 2011
NewsWithViews.com

November 6, 2012 is not only the date when Americans can remove the present occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, it is also the year when they can remove 23 Senators who now stand in the way of repealing Obamacare and making substantial cuts in federal government spending and jurisdiction. That date will be one of the most significant in American history, determining whether our nation will reject or embrace the politics of ever increasing government control. If the mid-term 2010 elections are indicative of a fundamental realignment of the electorate, and I think they are, the American people will reassert their rights to life, liberty, and property, and will reject the politics of government control in favor of individual freedom. Republicans need only gain 4 Senate seats to take control of the Senate. The odds are, they will gain control of that chamber, even if President Obama is re-elected.

If Obama loses, Republican majorities in both houses will likely achieve repeal of most, if not all, of Obamacare; will move to cut government spending and programs; and will hold the line on taxes (if not reduce them). If Obama wins, then a supermajority will be needed to override his almost certain vetoes of those same measures. Therefore, Republican control of the White House and Senate is essential to the movement for individual sovereignty and for restoration of government as a servant, rather than a master, of the people.

On January 20, the Republican House acted boldly to prove its willingness to follow the electorate’s lead. Sure, politics as usual still reigns with duplicity as common now as it ever was.
The difference, however, is that members fear the electorate (as they should), and the electorate demands elimination of the health care reform law and dramatic cuts in government’s size, scope, and cost. Heeding those demands, the Republican majority voted unanimously, 245 to 189, to repeal Obamacare. Senator Harry Reid, the unanticipated victor in his own hotly contested Senate re-election campaign, has announced that he will block moves to bring the bill to a vote in the Senate and, even if a vote is had, will assure that the Democratic majority prevents passage of the bill.

On January 20, the Republican House went beyond its move to repeal of Obamacare, announcing plans to cut government spending by $2.5 trillion over the next ten years: not enough by a long shot, but clearly a move in the right direction. The cuts were meaningful, offering to eliminate Amtrak subsidies and to cut funding for the Legal Services Corporation and the National Endowment for the Arts, among others. Bills offering deeper spending cuts have also been introduced by Republicans, including members of the Republican Study Committee. While those bills also do not go far enough, they are moves in the right direction.

On January 18, two hundred of the nation’s leading economists who have served in Republican and Democratic administrations alike sent a letter to House Speaker Boehner, House Minority Leader Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Reid, and Senate Minority Leader McConnell, demanding repeal of Obamacare. They declared it “a threat to U.S. businesses” that “will place a crushing debt burden on future generations of Americans.” They informed the congressional leaders that the law will establish a permanent barrier to job growth and will add “at a minimum” $1 trillion to government spending over the next decade. Among those signing the letter are many leading lights, including June O’Neill (formerly of Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors, who was an outspoken critic of the health care reform law during congressional debates); Arthur B. Laffer (whose famous Laffer curve served as an intellectual explanation for how cutting marginal tax rates could actually increase government revenues); and Larry Lindsey (former Federal Reserve Governor who also has held many other prominent posts).

The fate of the nation now hinges on popular sentiment. If the electorates demand for restoration of individual sovereignty continues un-abated, the political momentum will continue in the favor of further deconstruction of the bureaucratic state and restoration of individual freedom, the ship of state will move away from the perfect storm into which it is now directly headed and toward less catastrophic waters. In the end, however, sustained prosperity will only occur if we can go beyond reduction in spending to deep cuts in the federal Leviathan, reducing its take of the GDP from approximately 30% to no more than 10% and liberating Americans from their current high tax and regulatory burdens. The Republican House has taken meaningful steps in the right direction, but it is still only proposing cuts in spending increases, not elimination of federal jurisdiction and control over entire segments of the economy. Moreover, we have yet to see proposals to restore the non-delegation doctrine and the separation of powers by dethroning the bureaucratic state.

The federal government may be likened to an obese man who has promised to purchase enough ingestibles to achieve a daily intake of quadruple the number of calories now consumed. The Republican Majority has proposed a halving of the number of future calories, but that reduction if achieved is not enough to eliminate obesity; indeed, even if future planned calories are halved, the heavy federal man will still be more obese tomorrow than he is today. We need a program of severe caloric restriction, beneath that necessary to sustain obesity and equal to that necessary to restore a healthy weight.

To achieve meaningful and lasting reform of the federal government requires an eternally vigilant electorate, one educated in the ideology of a republic and committed to freedom from government restraint. The Tea Party movement has brought America hope by proving itself indispensable to the mid-term 2010 election results. In 2012 Americans must rise to the occasion and remove from the White House and Senate those responsible for the government takeover of all things private. If that objective is achieved, the new majority must understand that it is not enough to cut the increase in federal government growth.

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They must substantially reduce the size and scope of the federal government, restore the non-delegation doctrine by enacting Congressman Ron Paul’s Congressional Responsibility and Accountability Act, and restore the separation of powers so that the bureaucratic state no longer serves as lawmaker, prosecutor, and judge—the very definition of tyranny. Individual freedom must be the end, and all means necessary to achieve that end must be promptly undertaken.

Jonathan W. Emord is an attorney who practices constitutional and administrative law before the federal courts and agencies. Congressman Ron Paul calls Jonathan “a hero of the health freedom revolution” and says “all freedom-loving Americans are in [his] debt . . . for his courtroom [victories] on behalf of health freedom.” He has defeated the FDA in federal court a remarkable seven times, six on First Amendment grounds, and is the author of Amazon bestsellers The Rise of Tyranny, and Global Censorship of Health Information. For more info visit Emord.com.