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Title: American Political Truisms

Original CoS Document (slug): [[https://conventionofstates.com/american-political-truisms|american-political-truisms]]

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Created: 2021-03-30 10:56:33

Updated: 2021-04-06 03:00:00

Published: 2021-03-30 00:00:00

Converted: 2025-04-14T21:10:32.475473649


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As we look at our federal government, there are certain truths that stand out.  \\
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**When politicians assert that they are following the science, their intent is to curtail personal freedoms.**\\
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The COVID-19 pandemic and “climate change” have both been cited as scientific proof that our liberty must be curtailed.  In the name of “science” our movement has been restricted, our livelihoods jeopardized, and assembly with like-minded people has been criminalized.  

You can’t even buy an incandescent light bulb or a high flow shower head anymore, because they’re a grave offense to Gaia.\\
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We are belatedly learning that relative to both the pandemic and climate change, the data is faulty and the scientific recommendations are contradictory.\\
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**When the government offers to help, the best result is achieved by declining.**\\
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From time to time, the federal government will arrive in local communities with an offer of help, usually of the financial variety. However, this help always includes strings which are conceived by an army of faceless bureaucrats.  

News flash: those bureaucrats lack any philanthropic motive.  \\
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Federal bailout of the auto industry came with protections for labor unions. COVID-19 relief includes federal dictates on how the states may levy taxes. Medical subsidies require states to commit to Federal treatment guidelines.  \\
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The terms and conditions of the “help” are always designed to convert those helped into long-term dependents. Accepting the outstretched hand of the federal government is accepting seduction into serfdom.\\
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**When politicians invest taxpayer money, the investors shouldn’t expect any return.**\\
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In 2018 the federal government “invested” almost $492B for infrastructure, education and training, and research and development.\\
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This is the money with which the government picks winners and losers in science and industry. With this money, the federal government can promote solar and wind energy, while discouraging advancements in the fossil fuels industry.  It ensures that financially unsound industries can limp along indefinitely, while competing industries are penalized for their successes.  

This is how we ended up with an ethanol industry in which 131,000 BTUs of energy are needed to produce ethanol containing 77,000 BTUs of energy ([[https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2001/08/ethanol-corn-faulted-energy-waster-scientist-says|per Cornell University]]). We’re paying $1.70 to get $1.00 back. I think we need some better investment advice.\\
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The [[https://www.cbo.gov/publication/44974|Congressional Budget Office admits]] that it has no way to compute the benefits (returns) that have been realized from these investments. If your financial planner informed you that he had no idea whether you made or lost money with last year’s investment, would you give him more money this year?  

Investors (taxpayers) can’t expect a return on their investment, because politicians don’t understand what an investment is.\\
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These are not indicators of a properly functioning government. A good government is a restrained government. Unfortunately, electoral politics isn’t getting us there.  

It’s time to put both term limits and fiscal restraints on the federal government by calling an Article V Convention of States. Let’s put the kids on timeout until they learn to behave.

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