Our Enemy the Administrative State

[Wehrwolfen]

June 14, 2013
By Dr. Tom Barron


The vague "fundamental transformation" promised by Barack Obama prior to his first inauguration is nearly complete. America's political system has been transformed from a constitutionally limited government into a modern administrative state of unlimited government. A vast, extra-constitutional and unelected bureaucracy has been empowered with broad governing authority, including both legislative and judicial powers. The unfolding scandals associated with an alphabet soup of government agencies such as the IRS, DOJ, and NSA, along with a myriad of actions taken by the HHS, EPA, DHS, and NLRB, illuminate the fundamental threat that this type of government poses to individual liberty and to the maintenance of a free society.

The origin of America's contemporary administrative state has been detailed by noted scholar and author Ronald J. Pestritto. The idea began with the late 19th- and early 20th-century Progressive intellectuals, whose premise was that the constitutionally limited government of our Founders, set up to safeguard against the "old" problem of tyranny, was no longer needed in the modern democratic state. Restrictions on government action needed to be lifted in order to solve the new social and economic injustices which these people believed were plaguing society.

[Excerpt]



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The Progressive ideal of the American state is what Barack Hussein Obama has given us. The question is, are Americans satisfied with the results, or do the want to return to a Free America as our forefathers envisioned?

 

[pbrauer]

The Progressive ideal of the American state is what Barack Hussein Obama has given us. The question is, are Americans satisfied with the results, or do the want to return to a Free America as our forefathers envisioned?

That's total bull****, President Obama is not even close to being progressive. He's is governing center-right. Obamacare, for example, was developed by the Heritage Foundation.

 

[TheDemSocialist]

That's total bull****, President Obama is not even close to being progressive. He's is governing center-right. Obamacare, for example, was developed by the Heritage Foundation.

C'mon dont get involved with facts. Remember we wont let this "be judged by facts"

 

[Wehrwolfen]

That's total bull****, President Obama is not even close to being progressive. He's is governing center-right. Obamacare, for example, was developed by the Heritage Foundation.

GULP..., Obama governing from the center right? So what you are telling me that Obama nurtured by Marxists all his life and obviously a Leftist is governing from the center right? Of course the fact that the Apollo Alliance Groups claims responsibility for the creation and composition of the 3,000 page Bill, or the supposed Stimulus package has nothing to do with Obama.
The founding board members of the Apollo Alliance are:
United States Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
Leo Gerard, International President of the United Steelworkers
United States Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)
Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club

Chairman [edit]

The Alliance's current Chair is former California State Treasurer Phil Angelides, who is currently the Chair of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.

National Steering Committee [edit]
Ruben Aronin, Global Green USA
Andrew Beebe, Energy Innovations
Robert L. Borosage, Institute for America's Future
Dan Carol, CTSG, Young Apollo
Maggie Fox, Sierra Club
Bracken Hendricks, Apollo Alliance
Van Jones, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
Mindy Lubber, Ceres
Mark Ritchie, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Joel Rogers, Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS)
Marco Trbovich, United Steelworkers of America (USWA)

Funny I don't see one remark involving the Heritage Foundation, but I have seen referral to George Soros.

 

[pbrauer]

GULP..., Obama governing from the center right? So what you are telling me that Obama nurtured by Marxists all his life and obviously a Leftist is governing from the center right? The next statement I expect from you is that pigs fly on stormy nights

That's silly. :roll:

 

[Wehrwolfen]

That's silly. :roll:

That exactly what I said in more words than one.

 

[pbrauer]

GULP..., Obama governing from the center right? So what you are telling me that Obama nurtured by Marxists all his life and obviously a Leftist is governing from the center right? Of course the fact that the Apollo Alliance Groups claims responsibility for the creation and composition of the 3,000 page Bill, or the supposed Stimulus package has nothing to do with Obama.
The founding board members of the Apollo Alliance are:
United States Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
Leo Gerard, International President of the United Steelworkers
United States Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)
Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club

Chairman [edit]

The Alliance's current Chair is former California State Treasurer Phil Angelides, who is currently the Chair of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.

National Steering Committee [edit]
Ruben Aronin, Global Green USA
Andrew Beebe, Energy Innovations
Robert L. Borosage, Institute for America's Future
Dan Carol, CTSG, Young Apollo
Maggie Fox, Sierra Club
Bracken Hendricks, Apollo Alliance
Van Jones, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
Mindy Lubber, Ceres
Mark Ritchie, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Joel Rogers, Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS)
Marco Trbovich, United Steelworkers of America (USWA)

Funny I don't see one remark involving the Heritage Foundation, but I have seen referral to George Soros.

How the Heritage Foundation, a Conservative Think Tank, Promoted the Individual Mandate - Forbes

 

[Sparkles]

That's total bull****, President Obama is not even close to being progressive. He's is governing center-right. Obamacare, for example, was developed by the Heritage Foundation.

How the Heritage Foundation, a Conservative Think Tank, Promoted the Individual Mandate - Forbes

That's total bull****. President Obama is not even close to being center-right. He's is governing progressively. Obamacare, is a perfect example, and was not developed by the Heritage Foundation, and that wouldn't matter anyway.

Where an idea comes from, does not determine what fundamental ideology it is. If Muhammad came up with a new idea that Jesus was Lord of the universe, him coming up with that, wouldn't make it an Islamic idea. It would be Christian.

If Stalin came up with the idea of adding privately owned and operated, unregulated farms and companies in Soviet Russia, that wouldn't make the idea a Communist idea. It would still be a free-market Capitalist idea.

Similarly, if the Heritage Foundation came up with the idea of having government take over and run the entire health care industry, that would not make it a center-right idea to socialize a quarter (or whatever it is) of the economy.

This is a ridiculous concept, that it doesn't matter where the idea is on the political spectrum, only who came up with it.

Further, the basis for this claim is beyond stupid. The Obamacare law is a document that is over 900 pages long. You locked onto one single provision, the individual mandate, and claimed it originated at the Heritage foundation, and then claimed the entire 900 page law is a center-right ideologically, based on that one single claim alone?

Really.... How stupid do you have to be.... what level of complete idiocy do you have to reach... to look at one provision among hundreds, and claim the entire thing is "developed by the Heritage Foundation"? Once again... this right here.... this one poster, is exactly why I could NEVER BE A LEFTIST. I simply can't make myself this absolutely intellectually bankrupt, to buy this moronic crap. I'm simply too intelligent to support such brain damage leftist propaganda.

 

[fmw]

That's total bull****, President Obama is not even close to being progressive. He's is governing center-right. .

It certainly depends on your point of view, doesn't it. I'd have a hard time finding a president who was further left than Obama and would have no problem at all finding those who were to his right. The only other presidents who were big government fanatics within the same ballpark as Obama were Franklin Roosevelt and George Bush.

 

[Gie]

That's total bull****, President Obama is not even close to being progressive. He's is governing center-right. Obamacare, for example, was developed by the Heritage Foundation.

You read it first here folks. The Heritage Foundation, one of the leading conservative voices opposed to what has come to be known as Obamacare? They created it. Which must come as shock to many, least of all Liz Fowler! By way of proof pbrauer offers a link to a Forbes article about the individual mandate issue. Which not surprisingly is explained in the first paragraph. Demonstrating once again, reading is really really essential. Particularly when you just provided a link that renders your own command of the English language nebulous at best.:doh

 

[pbrauer]

That's total bull****. President Obama is not even close to being center-right. He's is governing progressively. Obamacare, is a perfect example, and was not developed by the Heritage Foundation, and that wouldn't matter anyway.

Where an idea comes from, does not determine what fundamental ideology it is. If Muhammad came up with a new idea that Jesus was Lord of the universe, him coming up with that, wouldn't make it an Islamic idea. It would be Christian.

If Stalin came up with the idea of adding privately owned and operated, unregulated farms and companies in Soviet Russia, that wouldn't make the idea a Communist idea. It would still be a free-market Capitalist idea.

Similarly, if the Heritage Foundation came up with the idea of having government take over and run the entire health care industry, that would not make it a center-right idea to socialize a quarter (or whatever it is) of the economy.

This is a ridiculous concept, that it doesn't matter where the idea is on the political spectrum, only who came up with it.

Further, the basis for this claim is beyond stupid. The Obamacare law is a document that is over 900 pages long. You locked onto one single provision, the individual mandate, and claimed it originated at the Heritage foundation, and then claimed the entire 900 page law is a center-right ideologically, based on that one single claim alone?

Really.... How stupid do you have to be.... what level of complete idiocy do you have to reach... to look at one provision among hundreds, and claim the entire thing is "developed by the Heritage Foundation"? Once again... this right here.... this one poster, is exactly why I could NEVER BE A LEFTIST. I simply can't make myself this absolutely intellectually bankrupt, to buy this moronic crap. I'm simply too intelligent to support such brain damage leftist propaganda.

That one provision is the one that holds the whole package together and yes it was developed by the Heritage Foundation. It was the subject of a challange in which the SCOTUS ruled it constitutional. The purpose of the mandate was to pay for ER treatments which were not paid by uninsured patients. A progressive solution would be a single payer system like Medicare.

 

[Wehrwolfen]

That one provision is the one that holds the whole package together and yes it was developed by the Heritage Foundation. It was the subject of a challange in which the SCOTUS ruled it constitutional. The purpose of the mandate was to pay for ER treatments which were not paid by uninsured patients. A progressive solution would be a single payer system like Medicare.

That is the most illogical premise ever taken on this board. It's like saying that Joe Stalin read the Bible therefore Russian Communism is Christian.

 

[pbrauer]

That is the most illogical premise ever taken on this board. It's like saying that Joe Stalin read the Bible therefore Russian Communism is Christian.

:funny

 

[Buck Ewer]

The concept of the individual mandate was hatched by the Heritage foundation, George Bush Senior and Bob Dole.
Had Bush daddy been elected to a second term he would have signed a bill very similar to Obamacare.
President Obama ran as a left of center centrist and governs as a right of center centrist.
Those are facts of history and are beyond refute.
Deny these simple truths at the peril of your own credulity.

 

[Andalublue]

That's total bull****. President Obama is not even close to being center-right. He's is governing progressively.

What does that mean exactly? Obamacare appears to be a private sector solution to UHC. It's certainly not a remotely socialist or left-wing policy. Such a policy would be a free-at-the-point-of-delivery, public sector, nationalised system funded through taxation.

So, anything else about Obama that you would insist is radically left-wing?

 

[Wehrwolfen]

The concept of the individual mandate was hatched by the Heritage foundation, George Bush Senior and Bob Dole.
Had Bush daddy been elected to a second term he would have signed a bill very similar to Obamacare.
President Obama ran as a left of center centrist and governs as a right of center centrist.
Those are facts of history and are beyond refute.
Deny these simple truths at the peril of your own credulity.

Pete claims Obama is centrist right. Explain that one..., while it was the Apollo Alliance Group funded by George Soros and directed by Jeff Jones, former Weather Underground fugitive, who along with Bill Ayers created the terrorist group, actually created what we know today as ObamaCare. Try as you may you cannot change those facts.

 

[Sparkles]

That one provision is the one that holds the whole package together and yes it was developed by the Heritage Foundation. It was the subject of a challange in which the SCOTUS ruled it constitutional. The purpose of the mandate was to pay for ER treatments which were not paid by uninsured patients. A progressive solution would be a single payer system like Medicare.

No, sorry, you fail. This level of logic is that a progressive agenda can only result in one single policy, and anything short of that is center-right? Bull crap. You are full BS.

The political spectrum is a sliding scale. It goes from complete and total government control on the left, the pinnacle of which is communism where government controls every aspect of society. On the right, is reduced and limited government control, the lowest point of which is anarchy, that of no government. Center-right, is an extremely limited government which is confined to merely protecting the rights of the people, life, liberty, and property. Government is given only enough authority to protect the country, and protect the people.

Here you have a 900 page bill that contains hundreds of mandates, requirements, regulations, controls over nearly all aspects of the health care industry.

Is that more free-market capitalist in nature? More limited government, contained to protecting life, liberty and property? Or is it more controlling, dictating, mandating in nature? More socialized?

The answer is, it's more to the left. It's more progressive, and you know it. Just because it's not a complete sell out to socialism, doesn't mean it's center-right, or some other absolute idiocy.

One SINGLE mandate, is on the people to have health insurance or face a tax penalty. Obamacare also controls doctor pay, price controls, insurance premiums, required insurance coverage, fees on medical equipment, medicines, imported goods, taxes on corporations, expansion of medicare and medicaid, controls on the spending practices of insurance companies, benefit controls, mandated health insurance exchanges, regulations of who an insurance company must cover, and what requirements the insurance company can have for coverage, excise taxes, increasing Medicare part D, Fees on Insurance companies, Fees on employers.... and the list goes on and on and on.....


But oh sorry... all of that doesn't matter.... none of that makes any difference....

We're in leftard land!

Where ONE PROVISION..... that might have been suggested by the Heritage Foundation... means all of this is Free-market capitalism! Yes, because we leftards are dumb as a brick, chucked off the side of a Cuban raft trying to make it to Florida, to escape leftard land.

Anyone who believes this moronic idea that Obamacare is center-right, is so brain damage, and has their head shoved so far up their own butt, that they don't have the credibility to tell you what time it is when they post their crap.

 

[iguanaman]

No, sorry, you fail. This level of logic is that a progressive agenda can only result in one single policy, and anything short of that is center-right? Bull crap. You are full BS.

The political spectrum is a sliding scale. It goes from complete and total government control on the left, the pinnacle of which is communism where government controls every aspect of society. On the right, is reduced and limited government control, the lowest point of which is anarchy, that of no government. Center-right, is an extremely limited government which is confined to merely protecting the rights of the people, life, liberty, and property. Government is given only enough authority to protect the country, and protect the people.

Here you have a 900 page bill that contains hundreds of mandates, requirements, regulations, controls over nearly all aspects of the health care industry.

Is that more free-market capitalist in nature? More limited government, contained to protecting life, liberty and property? Or is it more controlling, dictating, mandating in nature? More socialized?

The answer is, it's more to the left. It's more progressive, and you know it. Just because it's not a complete sell out to socialism, doesn't mean it's center-right, or some other absolute idiocy.

One SINGLE mandate, is on the people to have health insurance or face a tax penalty. Obamacare also controls doctor pay, price controls, insurance premiums, required insurance coverage, fees on medical equipment, medicines, imported goods, taxes on corporations, expansion of medicare and medicaid, controls on the spending practices of insurance companies, benefit controls, mandated health insurance exchanges, regulations of who an insurance company must cover, and what requirements the insurance company can have for coverage, excise taxes, increasing Medicare part D, Fees on Insurance companies, Fees on employers.... and the list goes on and on and on.....


But oh sorry... all of that doesn't matter.... none of that makes any difference....

We're in leftard land!

Where ONE PROVISION..... that might have been suggested by the Heritage Foundation... means all of this is Free-market capitalism! Yes, because we leftards are dumb as a brick, chucked off the side of a Cuban raft trying to make it to Florida, to escape leftard land.

Anyone who believes this moronic idea that Obamacare is center-right, is so brain damage, and has their head shoved so far up their own butt, that they don't have the credibility to tell you what time it is when they post their crap.

Yet the Republican party choose a "severe Conservative" candidate who as Governor implemented a nearly identical bill in his State. Your brain does not seem too healthy to me.

 

[Sparkles]

What does that mean exactly? Obamacare appears to be a private sector solution to UHC. It's certainly not a remotely socialist or left-wing policy. Such a policy would be a free-at-the-point-of-delivery, public sector, nationalised system funded through taxation.

So, anything else about Obama that you would insist is radically left-wing?

Let me ask you this....

If I give you $10.... but I tell you how you have to use it, where you can't use it, what you can buy with it, who you can't buy from with it, how much of it you can keep, and how much of it you must spend....

Do you really own the $10? No, not really. Legally... you own the $10. But practically speaking, I'm controlling..... or shall I say.... regulating what you do with it. I'm the one who is dictating how the money I gave you is spent and used. I'm the one with the power, regardless of who on a purely legal perspective owns the money.

I realize that on a purely technically level, in order to "socialize" something, the government has to out right own it. But practically speaking, when you dictate nearly every single aspect of the system, it's not a free-market capitalist system. Capitalism only works, when there is voluntary exchange. That's the whole point of Capitalism. That's what makes Capitalism work. It's people being able to do what they see fit to do, with their own property. That's the point of a free-market, where both parties, the buyer and seller, are free to come up with the best mutually beneficial terms of exchange.

No, perhaps Obamacare didn't socialize by out right nationalizing the health care industry. But Obamacare most certainly socialized by regulating, mandating, and controlling nearly every aspect of health care.

This is the same difference between Nazis and Communists. Some people claim Nazis are right-wing, BS. Both believed in authoritarian power over the economy. The only real difference was Stalin wanted to own everything. Hitler wanted to give people the appearance of ownership, while he controlled the people. Hitler is even supposed to have said "I don't need your cow, if I own you" or something to that effect.

This is exactly what Obama is doing with Obamacare. It's a massive intrusion into the system, which controls nearly every aspect. Which is exactly why prices are doubling in recent years.

 

[pbrauer]

No, sorry, you fail. This level of logic is that a progressive agenda can only result in one single policy, and anything short of that is center-right? Bull crap. You are full BS.

The political spectrum is a sliding scale. It goes from complete and total government control on the left, the pinnacle of which is communism where government controls every aspect of society. On the right, is reduced and limited government control, the lowest point of which is anarchy, that of no government. Center-right, is an extremely limited government which is confined to merely protecting the rights of the people, life, liberty, and property. Government is given only enough authority to protect the country, and protect the people.

Here you have a 900 page bill that contains hundreds of mandates, requirements, regulations, controls over nearly all aspects of the health care industry.

Is that more free-market capitalist in nature? More limited government, contained to protecting life, liberty and property? Or is it more controlling, dictating, mandating in nature? More socialized?

The answer is, it's more to the left. It's more progressive, and you know it. Just because it's not a complete sell out to socialism, doesn't mean it's center-right, or some other absolute idiocy.

One SINGLE mandate, is on the people to have health insurance or face a tax penalty. Obamacare also controls doctor pay, price controls, insurance premiums, required insurance coverage, fees on medical equipment, medicines, imported goods, taxes on corporations, expansion of medicare and medicaid, controls on the spending practices of insurance companies, benefit controls, mandated health insurance exchanges, regulations of who an insurance company must cover, and what requirements the insurance company can have for coverage, excise taxes, increasing Medicare part D, Fees on Insurance companies, Fees on employers.... and the list goes on and on and on.....


But oh sorry... all of that doesn't matter.... none of that makes any difference....

We're in leftard land!

Where ONE PROVISION..... that might have been suggested by the Heritage Foundation... means all of this is Free-market capitalism! Yes, because we leftards are dumb as a brick, chucked off the side of a Cuban raft trying to make it to Florida, to escape leftard land.

Anyone who believes this moronic idea that Obamacare is center-right, is so brain damage, and has their head shoved so far up their own butt, that they don't have the credibility to tell you what time it is when they post their crap.

I am curious, did you vote for Mitt Romney, the creator of RomneyCare in Massachusetts which was just another version of ObamaCare.

 

[Sparkles]

Yet the Republican party choose a "severe Conservative" candidate who as Governor implemented a nearly identical bill in his State. Your brain does not seem too healthy to me.

Again, we already covered this.

You are not a vegetarian because you say "I am a vegan!". You are not a vegetarian because you are a member of PETA. Nor are you a vegetarian because people at PETA said you are.

The only way that you are a vegetarian, is if you only eat vegetables. Nothing else matters. Doesn't matter if the media says "He's a vegetarian!". Doesn't matter if you have a Vegan sticker on your car. Doesn't matter if you walk around with a "down with meat" sign.

If you eat a bit of meat, everything else is completely irrelevant. You are not a vegetarian.

"Democrat" and "Republican" are both political parties. That's all. They are political parties. There are Democrats that are more conservative than Romney ever was or ever will be. If James Traficant had ever run for President, I'd vote for him without even the slightest doubt or hesitation.

Nevertheless, Republicans know that there is political points to be scored for calling someone a conservative. By whipping out their political label maker, and slapping 'conservative' on Romney, people who had never seen Romney's record, never see his position on issues in the past, will simply assume that "Conservative" means what they want it to mean.

Romney was not a conservative, in the Reagan sense. His record is not conservative. There are some conservative views on specific topics, but on most others he was very leftist. Romney care being the most obvious and egregious. It's exactly because of Romney care, and a few other issues, that I didn't vote for him.

 

[Sparkles]

I am curious, did you vote for Mitt Romney, the creator of RomneyCare in Massachusetts which was just another version of ObamaCare.

No. Of course not. And in fact, Romneycare was the primary reason I did not. Romney was nothing more than Obama's Mini-Me in white face. There was not much conservative, or right-wing about the guy.... which is why he lost.

 

[pbrauer]

No. Of course not. And in fact, Romneycare was the primary reason I did not. Romney was nothing more than Obama's Mini-Me in white face. There was not much conservative, or right-wing about the guy.... which is why he lost.

But he promised to cancel Obamacare and promised a 20% tax cut.

 

[Sparkles]

But he promised to cancel Obamacare and promised a 20% tax cut.

Again... you are not what you say your are. You are what your actions prove.

Romney actions proved he was like Obama. I'll take your historical record, over your promised future, any day.

 

[iguanaman]

Again, we already covered this.

You are not a vegetarian because you say "I am a vegan!". You are not a vegetarian because you are a member of PETA. Nor are you a vegetarian because people at PETA said you are.

The only way that you are a vegetarian, is if you only eat vegetables. Nothing else matters. Doesn't matter if the media says "He's a vegetarian!". Doesn't matter if you have a Vegan sticker on your car. Doesn't matter if you walk around with a "down with meat" sign.

If you eat a bit of meat, everything else is completely irrelevant. You are not a vegetarian.

"Democrat" and "Republican" are both political parties. That's all. They are political parties. There are Democrats that are more conservative than Romney ever was or ever will be. If James Traficant had ever run for President, I'd vote for him without even the slightest doubt or hesitation.

Nevertheless, Republicans know that there is political points to be scored for calling someone a conservative. By whipping out their political label maker, and slapping 'conservative' on Romney, people who had never seen Romney's record, never see his position on issues in the past, will simply assume that "Conservative" means what they want it to mean.

Romney was not a conservative, in the Reagan sense. His record is not conservative. There are some conservative views on specific topics, but on most others he was very leftist. Romney care being the most obvious and egregious. It's exactly because of Romney care, and a few other issues, that I didn't vote for him.

So that means that NONE of the mainstream candidates met with your approval. That is how far to the right you are. Way out there where few dare to tread. Why should we care what such a tiny minority like the one that you belong to believes? Obama only looks to the left because you are so far to the right that you are out of sight. To me he is slightly to the right of Nixon. But quite a bit smarter.