The Rise of the Fourth Branch, imbalance of power
The Tables Have Turned on “Useful Idiots”
By Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh
CannadaFreePress.com
Now that the tables have turned, the “useful idiots” appear wide awake and do not like the unlawful scrutiny and searches they’ve been subjected to without their knowledge – they feel duped.
Who can they blame?
According to the Washington Post, it is “the rise of the fourth branch.” A large chart pictured the “imbalance of power;” at the top is the Executive that implements laws, below are the co-equals, the Legislative that makes laws and the Judicial that interprets laws. Underneath all, in a huge bubble, is the “Administrative state that makes, implements, and interprets its own rules without any accountability.” Featured prominently in this green bubble were the FCC and the EPA. (Jonathan Turley, “The Rise of the Fourth Branch,” Washington Post, May 26, 2013)
Jonathan Turley, considering the recent events, opined that “the 19th century Know-Nothing Party had returned to Washington. President Obama insisted he knew nothing about major decisions in the State Department, or the Justice Department, or the Internal Revenue Service. The heads of those agencies, in turn, insisted they knew nothing about major decisions by their subordinates. It was as if the government functioned by some hidden hand.” Turley defends the Executive by saying, “the suggestion that someone, even the president, is in control of today’s government may be an illusion.”
Unions, who were the main financial backers and supporters of Democrats and the unfortunately named The Affordable Care Act, thought themselves immune, they were too big to fit under the proverbial bus of Obamacare, with the rest of us, the “unwashed masses” living in a parallel universe. They were wrong.
To paraphrase Nancy Pelosi, who was in a terrible hurry to pass the Affordable Care Act in the middle of the night, Let us pass the law so you can see what’s in it. No more Cadillac plans, no special subsidies for Big Labor, nothing but reduced choices, higher premiums, rationing of care, and many other “unforeseen consequences” that the conservative opposition warned the public about constantly but such forewarnings fell on deaf ears.
The Affordable Care Act is so unaffordable, daunting, and potentially third-worldish that the mighty Congressmen, their staff, and Big Labor want exemptions, including the IRS union, the very people who are going to administer Obamacare and levy tax penalties for non-compliance on other people. Too bad Americans are not allowed to plead the Fifth when audited as the IRS’s Lois Lerner did when asked to testify.
It is hard to imagine how the federal government, with the efficiency of the post office and draconian empathy of the IRS, is going to enforce our collective health care efficiently and compassionately when they are running out of money to set up federal exchanges - the HHS Secretary is asking insurance CEOs for funds to establish health exchanges. The infamous 15-member death panel is having difficulty finding conservatives to serve on this committee. Who wants to make life and death decisions, to tell people that their health care is being rationed when they need it most desperately?
AP reporters, whose rights to privacy were violated when their phones were tapped, are finally speaking out. Fox News is outraged that their reporters are targeted. Could it be a little too late to put out the raging fire?
The liberal MSM, setting aside any decorum of objectivity held in the past, has been the overt propaganda arm of this administration, vilifying and marginalizing conservatives, Tea Party groups, veterans, and other like-minded Americans who did not like the excessive government intrusion into their lives, the IRS audits, denials of tax-exempt status, and firings, all because they exercised their freedom of speech and assembly.
Citizens did not speak out when Boston was under curfew without a declaration of Martial Law; people were marched out of their homes with their hands up like criminals, their houses searched without a warrant under the excuse that a 19-year-old alleged bomber was on the loose. This fugitive was subsequently found hiding in a boat by a private citizen out for a smoke in his back yard.
Nobody defended Dr. Michael Savage, a prominent member of the press, when he was “banned from Britain” several years ago. The MSM was so silent, you could hear crickets chirping. His good name, reputation, excellent writing, outstanding career, and scholarship spanning decades were trampled by placing him in the same category with nefarious individuals and criminals, while the British press mocked his unrivaled and extraordinary talent as a “shock jock.” He was doing his job, reporting the truth as he saw it, exercising his freedom of speech. You may have disagreed with what he said, you may not have liked his style, his delivery, his abrasiveness, his directness - you had the choice to turn the dial and not listen to him, but you should have defended his right to speak.
Who is going to defend the “useful idiots?” I suppose they can hire expensive lawyers and plead the fifth like any other government employee. After all, nobody is held accountable anymore, we no longer have checks and balances, there is one party in power, and Congress does its bidding.
Money is printed ad infinitum via quantitative easing (QE), buying our own debt, and thus monetizing the deficit. The low information voters are kept happy with generous welfare while the shrinking labor force, pensioners, and savers are paying the price. Much wealth has been lost and re-distributed from the producers to the slackers. Congress cannot stop spending just like a kid in a candy store.
The dollar is devalued, interest rates are kept at near zero by the Fed, saving accounts pay pennies each month in interest, and people are losing wealth and purchasing power. Inflation is officially reported to be low. In reality, it is around 9 percent because the Fed bought so much of its own debt, there is too much money chasing too few goods in a very slow growing economy plagued by uncertainty and lacking sufficient investment and consumer confidence. Food and gas are no longer included in the basket of goods used to calculate inflation. The unbelievable excuse is that prices for food and gas are volatile. Prices are actually manipulated and influenced by deliberately unwise energy policies, such as using corn for biofuel, speculating on commodities, compounding scarcities from lower-yield crops, and lack of rain.
There is tremendous uncertainty in the economy, acting like a drag on investment to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. Business confidence and consumer confidence are quite low. The Ginni index that reflects the poverty level in the country shows that people below the poverty line in America have become poorer every year of the current administration in spite of empty promises of “leveling the playing field” and creating non-existent “shovel-ready jobs.”
Do useful idiots understand the gravity of the situation, how close we are to economic disaster, once we hit $20 trillion in national debt, not counting unfunded liabilities? On some level, is it possible that we are all useful idiots?
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) said in a statement to Fox News last Friday, “The fact that the president and the vice president are hosting illegal immigrants in the White House while constricting citizen tours and refusing to meet with immigration officers says it all. The White House will not even grant ICE officers a low-level White House meeting but invites illegal immigrants into the Oval Office.”
MSM reported in scripted unison that the War on Terror is over, just “onesies” and “twosies” isolated cases, Al Qaeda was on the run and gone, Benghazi was just a nuisance story, it was long time ago, what difference does it make, and the IRS scandal was too much ado about nothing because nobody knew anything, it was just some rogue lowly employees. The spoon-fed talking points were identical on every cable news channel.
The “useful tool” obviously staged protest and rant by Medea Benjamin of Code Pink in support of closing Gitmo and releasing the remaining terrorists is another example of how this administration uses far lefties to promote its agenda and to change the discussion from serious scandals to theatrical, uninterrupted heckling by a single Code Pink member. It is a known fact that many of the released prisoners from Guantanamo Bay have gone back to the battlefield and have killed many Americans.
For the last five years “useful idiots” have extolled the virtues and fantastic accomplishments of the dream presidency with a Nobel Peace Prize under its belt for expanding the Afghanistan war and the use of drones. Now that the tables have turned on them, is MSM going to wake up from this surreal dream?
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Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh, (Romanian Conservative) is a freelance writer (Canada Free Press, Romanian Conservative, usactionnews.com), author, radio commentator (Silvio Canto Jr. Blogtalk Radio, Butler on Business, The Liberty Express, Free Market Radio, and Republic Broadcasting Network), and speaker. Her book, “Echoes of Communism, is available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle. Short essays describe health care, education, poverty, religion, social engineering, and confiscation of property. A second book, “Liberty on Life Support,” is also available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle. A third book, “U.N. Agenda 21: Environmental Piracy,” is a best seller at Amazon.com under Globalism, Politics, and Environmental Policy.
Her commentaries reflect American Exceptionalism, the economy, immigration, and education.Visit her website, ileanajohnson.com.
Dr. Johnson can be reached at: ileana@canadafreepress.com