Spring 2000

Page B-3

And the FBI Bureau-crats have a thick file to guard you from the dangerous doings of the Reverend Jerry Falwell.

If this is what freedom looks like then I’d hate to see bondage!

I for one am embarrassed that communist China’s Hong Kong and the city-state of Singapore are rated higher on the Index of Economic Freedom than is the U.S. of A., according to The Wall Street Journal.

The tiny nation of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf is rated equal with the U.S. for its free economy. (Do they cut off your hand if you steal something?)

As every businessman knows, a bureaucrat could be defined as "one who works harder at protecting his job than doing it." And obstructionist bureaucrats are an expense which reduces the Gross Domestic Product.

We learned from King Solomon that a benevolent monarchy is more desirable than a corrupt democracy. Thus, freedom is not systemic. Rather, freedom is an inalienable privilege granted by God (not by earthly rulers).

"We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness..." (1776)

The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights acknowledged that economic freedom and religious freedom are inseparably linked (1791). The loss of economic freedom would soon bring the loss of religious freedom. Both needed constitutional protection.

The totality of federal laws and regulations, if stacked one upon another, could replace the space shuttle as the primary means of reaching outer space. What America desperately needs is a federal housecleaning on a grand scale.

We need a law which imposes a federal mandate – every jot and every tittle of the federal statutes and regulations shall expire in five years – except for those laws which are extended for an additional five years by a two-thirds vote of both houses of congress.

This "Simple Majority Sunset" – this "Supermajority Extender" – would apply to all existing federal laws, and would apply hereafter to every new law. Five years after enactment every Mickey Mouse law, every federal boondoggle, would have to stand on its own merits before a supermajority of the U.S. House and Senate.

If this were the law of the land already then Social Security would have been fixed decades ago, the Energy Department would have expired with the "energy crisis," the incomprehensible tax code would have been replaced with a national sales tax, the Department of Education would be asking local school boards and parents how they can be of assistance, the Environmental Protection Agency would actually protect the environment (instead of Greenpeace radicals)…

In short, if the Supermajority Extender were already law, America would be the undisputed world leader on the Index of Economic Freedom. And, more importantly, your religious freedoms would not be is such grave peril.