Happy New Year!
Well here we are, watching the mainstream media start off 2013 by fawning all over the “resolution” to the fiscal cliff…
Republicans and Democrats alike are doing their best to look good for the cameras while feeding the spin machine a healthy diet of sound bites and lies, and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is distributing a report that no one seems to be interested in reading.
You see, according to the CBO, the fiscal cliff “deal” will cut $15 billion in spending and increase tax revenues by $620 billion.
So basically, for every dollar in spending cuts, we can expect more than $40 in tax increases.
Hello?! Is this thing on?!!
You know, after all the debating, chest-pounding, and pissing contests we just witnessed, if this is all they can come up with — well, we’re screwed.
But that’s alright. Because despite the inability of our elected leaders to actually come up with a fiscally responsible solution to the self-inflicted destruction of our economy, they were able to work out one very important and pressing issue…
Their own pay raises!
Tip of the Iceberg
These guys really have no concept of right and wrong.
While hard-working Americans have been scrambling to keep their jobs, pay their bills, and prepare for even more of their money to be siphoned by an out-of-control government, President Obama recently signed an executive order to raise the salary for members of Congress, federal workers, and his good buddy, Joe Biden.
That’s right. So while you and I still have to actually produce just in order to keep our jobs, the president took some time away from fiscal cliff talks in order to make sure his friends on both sides of the aisle (because despite the dog and pony show, they’re all in on this scam together) were rewarded for being incompetent.
Folks, the 112th Congress is going to go down as the most unproductive in our nation’s history.
Yet they’re all getting raises! Even the vice president got a salary bump! He’ll now be taking home $231,900 before taxes.
Of course, some lawmakers claim they deserve the raise, since Congress hasn’t received a pay increase since 2009.
You know, the last time I checked, not only do people not get raises when they fail at their jobs — they get fired!
I have to say, it really does take a certain level of arrogant politician to complain about a pay freeze while the rest of the nation deals with the realities of record unemployment, much of which is the result of the unethical actions of this government.
Of course, these pay raises are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to these bureaucratic bums.
Acts of Treason Continue
On December 30, while most folks were busy celebrating the holidays with friends and family, President Obama quietly signed into law a five-year extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
If you’re unfamiliar with this one, FISA allows the government to spy on the communications, including online and via telephone, of millions of Americans within the United States. It also allows for physical searches of Americans’ homes and workplaces without a search warrant.
This is in direct violation of your Fourth Amendment rights.
And the only person who can restrict these spying operations is the U.S. Attorney General — the same person who actually orders the spying operations.
I have to tell you, I’m amazed that folks aren’t rioting in the streets…
But then again, I bet if you asked most people about this, they probably wouldn’t even know this act of treason has actually been going on since 2008.
And that’s just how the government likes it.
The truth is the more folks that are in the dark about the dismantling of our most basic freedoms, the more we can expect to see these continued abuses of our Constitutional rights. And that, my friends, is simply unacceptable.
Live honorably, live free…
Jeff Siegel
for Freedom Watch
