Cut Government Programs: Reagan was a strong supporter of the military. He initiated ground and space-based defense systems to defeat the Soviet’s nuclear missile buildup. At the same time, he cut the budgets of the EPA, federal education programs, food stamps, and Medicaid. Reagan had promised to dismantle the unconstitutional Department of Education, but with a Democrat-controlled Congress and Secretary of Education Ted Bell, the department was doubled in size. Today, it is another massive government bureaucracy that violates states’ rights, telling their state legislatures how to teach their children, or else lose the government handout. To finance federal programs while stimulating the economy, the national debt grew from $997 billion to $2.85 trillion, a burden Reagan described as the greatest disappointment of his presidency.
Ending the Cold War: Reagan and U.S. allies brought several pressures to bear against the USSR to end the cold war. Reagan’s so-called “Star Wars” anti-missile defense system helped, and was viewed by the Soviets as a “very successful blackmail. ...The Soviet economy could not endure such competition.”639 The war in Afghanistan was made more expensive with U.S. shoulder-launched missiles delivered to freedom fighters who could drop multi-million dollar Soviet helicopters out of the sky with the squeeze of a trigger.640 Reagan’s consistent messages opposing the Soviet’s tyranny, and his famous, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” call to end the division between East and West Germany, led the way for the eventual demise of the USSR. Ronald Reagan changed world history for the better.
* * *
623 John F. Kennedy, The Work Done and the Work Still To Do, a speech before the AFL-CIO Convention, November 15, 1964.
624 See SNAP Annual Statistics provided at www.fns.usda.gov.
625 Michael O’Brien, John F. Kennedy: A Biography, 2005.
626 John F. Kennedy, Annual Budget Message to the Congress, January 17, 1963.
627 John F. Kennedy: “Executive Order 11110 - Amendment of Executive Order No. 10289 as Amended, Relating to the Performance of Certain Functions Affecting the Department of the Treasury,” June 4, 1963.
628 John A. King, John R. Vile, Presidents from Eisenhower through Johnson, 1953-69 p. 95.
629 Congressional Quarterly, Volume 1, 1945-1964 (1965) p. 434.
630 Public Law 88-408, by the 88th U.S. Congress.
631 Alfred H. Kelly and Winfred A. Harbison, The American Constitution, Its Origins and Development, 1970, pp. 914-973.
632 Congressional Office of Management and Budget.
633 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Vital Statistics Report, December 2010.
634 U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Budget of the U.S. Government, Fiscal Year 2012: Historical Tables, pp. 73-74, (figures adjusted for inflation).
635 A popular myth that Carter deregulated the beer industry grew out of a misinterpretation of H.R. 1337, a bill signed by Carter in 1978 to amend the IRS code regarding excise taxes. H.R. 1337 did several things, including lifting excise taxes on home-brewed beer and wine if certain conditions were met. The bill didn’t deregulate the commercial aspects.
636 Communist goal: In Toward Soviet America, William Z. Foster said (in 1932), “Among the elementary measures the American Soviet government will adopt to further the cultural revolutions are the following: the schools, colleges and universities will be coordinated and grouped under the National Department of Education and its state and local branches.”
637 See New York Times, Nixon Approves Limit of 55 MPH, January 3, 1974.
638 Jeffery Kahn, NewsCenter, UCBerkeley News, June 8, 2004.
639 Richard Lebow and Janice Stein, Reagan and the Russians, The Atlantic, February 1994.
640 See James M. Scott, Deciding to Intervene: The Reagan Doctrine and American Foreign Policy, Duke University Press, 1966, p. 63.
Chapter 84: U.S. Presidents and Socialism, continued
—Bush, Clinton, G.W. Bush—
In both peace and war, the ruling executives of the United States are bound by oath to uphold, defend and protect the U.S. Constitution. Do they?
After Reagan rescued the economy and national spirit by winning the Cold War, subsequent presidents and congresses acted as if growing the size and intrusion of government was their most important job. No longer was it the goal of politicians to shrink entitlement programs to the point of elimination, no longer was it allowing unregulated innovation and growth, no longer was it the private sector doing all the expansion—instead, it was all about taxes. How many new programs could government invent to justify more taxes, more spending, more borrowing? The Founding Fathers’ most abstract nightmares had at last become formalized and institutionalized. It was the new American way.
PRESIDENT: George H. W. Bush (served 1989-1993)
LEGACY: Implemented additional civil rights socialism
STORY: Bush had big shoes to fill. Reagan had just broken the back of the Soviet Union so freedom could rush in, his deficit-spending programs had to be curtailed, and there were tyrants loose in the world. Besides growing taxes, spending, government, and negotiating NAFTA, Bush pushed America away from freedom with another New Deal program—
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA)
The ADA falls into the category of civil rights socialism. The Act, another attempted “one size fits all” program, forces anyone dealing with the public to comply with rules set by the federal government, or be exposed to a costly law suit. The courts protected this position and allowed untold thousands of legal proceedings against companies failing to meet the rules.
Violated Interstate Commerce: Telling a state how to conduct its business, create its infrastructure, or protect its citizens was not a federal prerogative prior to the Progressive period. Such power in the ADA is a continuation of the same New Deal/Great Society expansion of federal power.
Violated Tenth Amendment: The Founders left nearly everything to the states because they knew how top-level government grows to abuse the people. The states do a better job of discovering reasonable solutions to problems than do far-removed regulatory agencies. Contrary to its legislative intent, the ADA and its close cousin, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, actually reduced employment of the disabled by 10 percent in the first five years after the ADA’s enactment.641
Reverse Discrimination: The ADA discriminates against the able bodied, forcing them to expend resources to accommodate other people. These additional expenses made hiring the disabled too expensive, and many employers avoided those added costs by turning to other solutions.
Example of Fabian Socialism: The Fabians promote socialism in this stealth-like fashion—not specifically the ADA, but as an over-all goal to replace individual freedoms with friendly-sounding Acts. Who could possibly be against a bill that prevents discrimination against people with disabilities? That is how Fabian socialism does its work. With Bush’s signature on the ADA, more liberty was lost—but “for a good cause,” his supporters said.
PRESIDENT: Bill Clinton (served 1993-2001)
LEGACY: A folksy socialist plagued with womanizing
STORY: Clinton and Al Gore’s opening agenda was called “Putting People First.” It was, in reality, a campaign to put government first. Toward the end of his second term he made his intentions more clear.
“Our government is a progressive instrument of the common good,” he said in his 1999 State of the Union address, “... determined to give our people the tools they need to make the most of their lives.”
The only tools his administration gave to the American people were more taxes, more regulations, and more controls.
Eroding the Second Amendment: Clinton was a master at double talk, saying what people wanted to hear, and he tended to pay more attention to marketing than substa
nce. In declaring his support for Second Amendment gun rights, he slipped in justification to violate that very same right: “We can’t be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans to legitimately own handguns and rifles—it’s something I strongly support—we can’t be so fixated on that that we are unable to think about the reality of life that millions of Americans face on streets that are unsafe...”642
Redistribution of Wealth: Clinton enjoyed budget surpluses in his second term, and proposed giving an equal piece of the surplus to each American to start a personal savings account. Even those who didn’t pay taxes would receive a check.
Violated States’ Rights: Clinton’s Goals 2000: Educate America Act of 1993 laid out an ambitious wish list of education goals that rewarded participation with special grants.643 Clinton wanted to remove from the states the power to set their own standards of performance.
Direct Income Taxes: In 1993, Clinton raised the highest income tax rate to 36 percent, added a 10 percent surcharge on the highest incomes, made the Medicare payroll tax apply to all income, added 4.3 cents per gallon on fuel taxes, increased taxes on certain Social Security benefits, raised the corporate income tax rate to 35 percent, and phased out certain deductions and exemptions.
National Health Care: Clinton submitted his 1,342-page national health-care program to Congress in 1993, calling for universal coverage, regulation of the private market, and requiring, among other things, that employers provide insurance. It was rejected by Congress.
National Welfare: Children in families that didn’t qualify for tax-funded Medicaid could qualify for tax-funded CHIP (also known as SCHIP), another expansion of government not authorized by the Constitution. CHIP served as a precursor to the national health-care reform passed in 2010.
Government Welfare Jobs: Americorps was Clinton’s attempt to put low-skilled labor to work as paid volunteers. It has since grown into a $700 million program that supports 88,000 people. A long string of theft, deceit, and abuses, plus a growing list of questionable activities (organizing Pink Proms for gay youth, and lobbying for democrat candidates, etc.) illustrate the futility of government “make work” entitlement programs.644
Ignoring Constitution: An example of Clinton’s imperial presidency was when he deployed American troops as peacekeepers with guns to militarily occupy Haiti and Bosnia—without prior approval of Congress.
Refused to Enforce Law: In the 1988 Beck decision, the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional to force workers to pay union dues that are used to support political candidates. George H. W. Bush issued an order that these Beck rights be posted for workers to see. Bill Clinton rescinded the order in 1993. George W. Bush reinstated his father’s order in 2001, and Barack Obama rescinded it yet again in 2009.
Above the Law: Accusations of moral corruption, back-room politicking, and deal-making followed Bill and Hillary Clinton for decades—“Whitewater”—While Bill was governor of Arkansas, the Clintons were accused of political improprieties in a failed Arkansas real estate venture.
“Travelgate”—The Clintons were charged with misuse of the FBI to bring fraudulent charges against White House employees whom the Clintons wanted fired.
“Filegate”—The Clintons were accused of collecting and storing confidential background FBI files on former White House employees.
Paula Jones sued Clinton for sexual harassment. Clinton claimed he was protected from private lawsuits by presidential immunity until his term expired. The Supreme Court disagreed. By a vote of 9-0, the Court said Clinton could not postpone the trial while serving as president. Clinton ultimately settled out of court for $850,000. Other sexual harassment cases came to light (Juanita Broaddrick, Gennifer Flowers, Kathleen Willey, Elizabeth Ward Gracen, and Sally Perdue, among others.)
Lewinsky—Depositions from the Paula Jones case exposed Clinton’s sexual relationship with 22-year-old White House intern Monica Lewinsky from 1995-1997. He was impeached by the House of Representatives for perjury and obstruction of justice.
Does character matter? Does a president’s private life impact his public life? The Founders thought so and with constitutional restraints they chained down the government so human flaws, jealousies, vices, and passions would not play out on the national scene. But the Constitution can only go so far—personal virtue and work ethic must fill in the rest.
Since the erosion of those values, people like the Clintons have been free to work the system to attack opponents, subvert fairness, and promote their private agendas through force and intimidation.
PRESIDENT: George W. Bush (served 2001-2009)
LEGACY: Grew government and undermined rights
STORY: When Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, circumstances seemed to justify tolerating some temporary war-time powers. However, the intrusion into private lives that followed was unprecedented.
While some elevated Bush as highly conservative for invading Iraq and cutting U.S. taxes, Bush ran on a different frequency. “We have a responsibility,” he said, “that when somebody hurts, government has got to move”—a concisely enunciated declaration of socialism’s moral article of faith that big government should serve as everyone’s savior.645
George W. Bush hurt America with policies of protectionism, increased federal spending, enormous budgets, massive bailouts, and nationalized portions of the economy.
These actions, among others, exposed the Bush Administration as just another in a long line of leadership behaving as if the chore of expanding government’s power was correct and needful.
Violating States’ Rights: The No Child Left Behind Act forced schools receiving government money (notice how Bush ignored any “interstate commerce” criteria) to meet certain testing requirements and follow certain teaching standards. Failing schools would lose money. The scramble for federal dollars resulted in cheating to meet standards, “teaching to the test,” and working the system to retain federal funds. The Act removed local control and imposed a one-size-fits-all approach. For all of its positive intentions, it earns a failing grade from the Founding Fathers’ better idea of leaving it to the states.
Redistributing Wealth: The Threatened Asset Relief Program (TARP) authorized an initial $700 billion to buy shares and protect taxpayers from bad investments, loans, and foreclosures. With millions of investors and billions of decisions, the Act prevented free-market forces from making those adjustments. It expanded government power into private banking. With billions of TARP dollars suddenly flowing, huge amounts of fraud that resulted from such programs buried the FBI in thousands of cases.646
National Prescriptions: Modernizing Medicare was Bush’s expansion of government to cover prescription drugs. The program made good sense to a socialist—why hand out hospital care, but not the drugs? The program also reimbursed corporations for their drug expenses. The Wall Street Journal reported some gigantic private reimbursements—General Motors, $4 billion; Verizon, $1.3 billion; BellSouth, $572 million; U.S. Steel, $450 million; American Airlines, $415 million, John Deere, $400 million, among others.647 Those reimbursements translated into company profits. A million saved is a million earned, thanks to taxpayer “generosity.”
Pork-barrel Spending: According to Citizens Against Government Waste, Bush didn’t veto any spending bills, and signed into law more pork-barrel projects than ever before in U.S. history—from 2001, he signed 6,333 new projects for $18.5 billion, with a steady increase to 13,999 projects in 2005 for $27.3 billion.648 Some observers believed if he had vetoed just one such bill early in his administration, Congress would have reined back its orgy of profligate spending.
Growing the Ruling Class: Bush expanded the federal budget by $700 billion and added more than $2.8 trillion to the public debt to finance federal promises and retain loyalty among voters. He shares $2.6 trillion of new debt with President Obama that was accrued in 2009.
Violating Privacy: The Patriot Act was enacted to track down terrorists hiding in America. The Act freed law enforcement agencies to examine private communications, voice mail, library records, books, papers, documents, telephone records, email, financial, and medical records. It allowed indefinite detention of suspected aliens, the examination of some Canadians’ records, and more. Some of these investigations required a search warrant or court order. The 9/11 attacks illustrated how national security has become an extremely complex process for America’s open society. Nevertheless, a solution that better safeguards constitutional rights should quickly replace the Patriot Act.
Controlling Private Market: Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) was formed in 2002 to regulate how companies select and police their directors to prevent scandals such as the Enron and Tyco International fiascoes. SOX created a new quasi-public regulatory agency that keeps an eye out for trouble or collusion between companies. Since its passage, many new startup companies have refused to submit to SOX, refused to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and refused to keep their business in the U.S. Many of these have moved overseas to the London Exchange to avoid those regulatory powers—taking billions of dollars with them.
* * *
641 Thomas DeLeire, The Unintended Consequences of the Americans with Disability Act, Regulation magazine, Volume 23, No. 1, 2000, pp. 21-24.
642 Bill Clinton, remarks in New Brunswick, New Jersey, March 1, 1993.
643 103rd Congress, H.R. 1804, Goals 2000: Educate America Act.
The Naked Socialist Page 50