TAKING HOSTAGES

Michael Connelly

America, we are in a constitutional crisis and it is time for “we the people” to wake up to what is really happening in our country. I am referring specifically to the controversy over the raising of the debt ceiling. Over the last few years out of control federal spending has put us in this crisis situation, and if we continue on this path we will face bankruptcy and anarchy. Massive cuts in federal spending are needed but the President of the United States refuses to consider any real spending cuts. Instead, he wants to raise taxes once more on the people in our economy who do the most to produce more jobs.

            Conservatives in the Congress are attempting to hold the line on tax increases because most economists agree that you do not cure a faltering economy by raising taxes. We already have the highest corporate tax rate in the world and that is why so many businesses are moving away from our country and overseas, taking American jobs with them. The outcome of this debt ceiling battle is still in doubt, but as I write this article there is discussion of compromise. However, the purpose of this article is to encourage everyone to try to get more of the American people to take their heads out of the sand and look at what is truly going on.

            We have a President who in order to get his way is using significant portions of the population of the United States as hostages. He has stated that if the debt ceiling is not raised under his conditions that would allow him to raise taxes and continue runaway spending he will not guarantee that the members of our military will receive paychecks, or that our senior citizens will get their Social Security checks in August.

 If these threats are carried out military families who often barely make ends meet on their paychecks will be severely hit. The morale of the military would plummet during a time when we are engaged in three wars. This would pose a grave threat to the security of our nation, something that Obama has sworn an oath to protect. Unfortunately, Obama doesn't care. The failure to issue Social Security checks will cause grievous hardship to our senior citizens who have in the past sacrificed so much for this country. Unfortunately, again Obama doesn't care. The members of our military and our senior citizens are to him just pawns.

            This is primarily due to the fact that in the past he has shown utter contempt for the military. For example when he was a U.S. Senator he voted against appropriations to provide adequate body armor and additional armor to vehicles that would've protected our soldiers in combat. In addition, he has recently broadcast to our enemies a willingness to prematurely reduce our forces in Afghanistan and Iraq in such a manner that it will put our remaining troops in grave danger. This has been done strictly to try to bolster his reelection campaign. He is aware that most members of the military voted against him in 2008 and will likely do so in 2012.

            As for our senior citizens, he is also shown his contempt for them by orchestrating a healthcare plan that will reduce Medicare payments dramatically and establish bureaucratic panels that will decide whether seniors are worthy of being saved when their lives are in danger from serious illnesses. He also recognizes that because of this many of seniors will vote against him in 2012. In other words, he is willing to throw people in the military and senior citizens under the bus in order to further his political ambitions, and his desire to turn the United States from a constitutional republic into a socialist dictatorship.

            By the way, military personnel are paid from the existing Pentagon budget, and Social Security checks are issued from the Social Security trust fund. There is ample money available for these checks to be issued and in order to stop them from going out Obama would have to take the extraordinary and unconstitutional steps of issuing executive orders to keep the checks from being sent.

            Thus, certain Americans are considered expendable by this president. There has been no threat by him to withhold or cut the pay of the 77,000 federal employees who currently make more than the governors in states where they reside, or any other civilian federal employees for that matter. Nor has he indicated that there will be any cuts to the salaries of his staff, many of whom are paid over $100,000.00 per year.

            However, there are millions of other Americans who need to realize that they are not safe from the Obama juggernaut toward socialism. Just because you may be a member of a teachers union or any other union that supports Obama does not guarantee that you will not be thrown under the bus if it becomes expedient for him to do so. Only your high paid union leaders are exempt because they are considered part of the elite in this country. Make no mistake about it, we have a President who considers himself far above the rest of us and only the elite who support whatever he does are at least temporarily exempt from his wrath.

            Take for example, the fact that in the stimulus package that Obama got passed there was a special tax break for the owners of corporate jets. That was an apparent attempt to buy their loyalty. However, now in the budget discussions they have become villains who must be taxed. It is part of the hypocrisy of totalitarianism. Every major dictator in the world over the last 100 years has eventually turned on the people who initially put him in the power. This includes Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Tse-tung.

            In other words, there are very few people in this country, whether they support Obama or not who can consider themselves safe from losing their livelihoods, their liberty, and their way of life. President Obama has no regard for our Constitution, our free enterprise system, or our values as Americans. He has clearly shown during this crisis that his only concern is his own well-being and that of other elitists who serve him. Wake up America!