Vanishing Choices – A Bi-Partisan Effort



When people speak of freedom, they refer to choices. Choices give people opportunities and power. When people lose too much freedom of choice, their personal potential and very way of life is affected. Sadly, most do not recognize the forfeiture, until it is too late.

Whether in the name of sustainable development, healthcare or educational reform, Americans are most vulnerable to surrendering their choices, when they think it will benefit others.
That generosity was evident when Congress attempted to pass the Affordable Care Act. In 2009, though 89% of Americans were happy with their health care, 55% worried that others were not. It was their concern for others that swayed many to support the government takeover of all healthcare decisions.
These same people were not told that, because the new law pushed people into Medicaid, 70% of those uninsured they worried about, were already receiving better medical care than if the ACA passed.
For decades, United States’ administrations and Congresses, under both parties, have steadily and often dishonestly stripped away American’s freedoms. Today, when ranked by economic freedom, the U.S. is not even in the top 10 of nations worldwide.
Here is a Q and A to help understand why and how we lose choices that matter.
What choices have been lost?
The choice to:

  • the right of judicial review, (HHS, sections of the ACA and Dodd-Frank forbid legal review of agency decisions)
  • do what people want with their property, (Sustainable Community Initiatives, EPA, HUD)
  • keep the fruits of their labor, (Congress, IRS)
  • buy the healthcare they choose, (ACA, HHS)
  • practice the teachings of their religion without government interference (ACA, HHS)
  • drive the car they want, (EPA, Sustainable Community Initiatives, DOT)
  • farm the way they choose, (EPA, USDA)
  • provide the education they choose for their children, (DOE, Common Core)
  • pass their wealth to their children, (ACA, IRS, Congress)
  • live where they choose, (EPA, Sustainable Community Initiatives, DOI)
  • choose the social makeup of their community, (HUD, Sustainable Community Initiatives)
  • pray where they choose, (Supreme Court, local governments, DOD)
  • speak the words they choose, (Media, DOD)
  • maintain the level of financial privacy they choose, (HHS, ACA, Dodd-Frank, IRS)
  • maintain the level of health information privacy they choose, (ACA, HHS, IRS)
  • maintain the level of email and communication privacy they choose, (NSA)
  • drive on the public highways they choose without fear of surveillance, (DHS, federal and local enforcement, court system)
  • and more…

100 years ago, Americans were free to make every one of these choices. Today, all have been lost, eroded or controlled by government.
Isn’t it important, in such a wealthy nation, to give up a few freedoms, or choices for the good of the community?
Maybe. But, people need to be in control of what and how many choices they surrender by asking questions like…
Who gets to decide what they must give up? How much money can the government take before reaching the point where people do more good spending their own money? At what point do increasing CAFE standards for cars create more accidents than save energy? What are the pros and cons of the Affordable Care Act/Common Core/Sustainable Development, etc.? What is the source and the validity of the data supporting the need for any of these programs?
Americans can not assume government is acting in their best interests. Questions like this must be asked of all federal, state and local governments’ programs.
Doesn’t the loss of some personal choices help the community?
Not necessarily.
The 2012 Federal Register contains 77,249 pages, over half of which regulate what Americans can and cannot do. On top of this, there are state, regional and local plans and regulations. It is hard to imagine that people of all incomes would not have more freedom and opportunity, if many of these ‘controls’ were removed.
Since it is the government agencies that provide Americans with the reports on the successes of the very plans they promote, citizens see only a skewed and rosy commentary making it hard to tell the programs’ true effects.
Recently the administration bragged about the “success” of the GM bailout that was paid for with money from the fruits of American’s labor. Yet, the ‘people’ loaned GM $10.5 billion more than they got back, many of the jobs went overseas, and there is no way to tell if the bailout was even necessary for the company to bounce back. Is that considered “success”?
Republican and Democratic officials are quick to trumpet their program successes, but rarely share the poor results with the people who pay for them. Here are some examples:

  • Between federal income, payroll and excise taxes, state income, state sales, local income and property taxes, many Americans spend 30% – 50% of their time working to pay government. Rather than have this money to improve their lives, the fruits of their labor are confiscated. The results are federal agencies hungry for more money, underfunded subsidies, and underfunded entitlements including a social security and Medicare system that are both insolvent and pulling money from General Revenues. Politicians continue to grab more money, by using sensationalism to play on Americans’ generosity, fear and special interests.
  • Under the Affordable Care Act, people are losing their choice to buy, or not buy health insurance. Their formerly wide selection of policies, is now limited to 4 choices that often force them into unreasonably high deductibles and unusable benefits. People are losing their health plans, doctors and when all is done, according to the CBO, just as many will lack insurance as before the law was passed. According the Medicare’s chief actuary, on average, premiums and healthcare-related taxes will now cost more and grow faster than under the much maligned insurance companies.
  • Federal, regional and local governments argue Smart Growth, which limits choices for living and transportation environments, will decrease traffic congestion and increase CO2 levels. Yet, studies in Australia and the UK report the opposite is true. A 2011 UCLA Department of Transportation report agrees – Smart Growth increases traffic congestion.
  • Portland, Oregon’s urban ‘growth boundaries’ made real estate prices in that city un-affordable to most residents and limited the choices for those wanting to live outside of the boundaries. The direct result has been a loss of housing for the poor and minorities, the very people government planners sought to help.

Sustainable development promoters argue that community members must sacrifice some control of their property for the good of the community. Not only do these ‘collectivist’ programs bring poor results, they echo the same arguments Stalin used in his “revolution from above” and Castro in his “Agrarian Reforms.” Both confiscated choices and property.
But, you exaggerate, how could anything that extreme happen in America?
Because it all sounds good in the beginning.

  • Stalin reasoned that he could increase industrial jobs if he controlled factories and the farms that would feed the new labor force. Sounds reasonable. So, he controlled both. In the end, the factories and farms failed and the people starved.
  • In 1916, Argentinian President Yrigoyen, established pensions, welfare benefits and mandatory healthcare for people in the wealthy country. His moves looked good on a college thesis, but after two decades of government spending the nation was left in debt and poverty. The program took more from the people than it gave.
  • Later, the Peron government expanded social security, forced most industries to unionize, conducted 45 massive state-run hydro-electric projects, ordered companies to provide paid vacations, mandated low income housing projects and more. This sounds socially perfect. Thanks to the excessive government spending and taking money from the people to pay for it, Argentina, once the third most prosperous nation on earth, is now debt-ridden and has been reduced to a collective of poverty-stricken masses dependent on an economic and political elite for survival.
  • America is pursuing a similar path. In spite of having the world’s largest debt, the government has instituted dozens of benevolent-sounding programs that take away choices from Americans. More affordable housing is promised under the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing regulation, the ACA promises health insurance for all Americans, Smart Growth promises to move people away from urban sprawl and into compact living, and Common Core uses standardized testing to drive curricula that educate children to fit into a standardized workforce.

Each of these initiatives reduces individuals’ choices and take-home pay in favor of a state-defined collective good. So far, not one has proven to do more good than harm.
If this is so bad, why aren’t more people complaining?
There are three main reasons:

  1. The media tends to promote the good intentions of programs and minimize the negative damage they create.
  2. People and the media generally do not follow up to find out whether programs worked well, failed miserably, or had mixed results that were not worth the loss of the choices they abridged.
  3. Often, negative discoveries are trivialized when program supporters charge that dismal outcomes are merely politically motivated rhetoric.


The losses caused by the transformation from greater choices to greater oppression is affecting Americans of all political parties and all economic strata. The changeover can be installed rapidly in a violent revolution such as in Russia or Cuba, or over decades as in the case of Argentina and now, the United States. ‘Rapid’ is more noticeable. But, until the loss of choices affects people personally, they often don’t know they have lost anything. When inflicted slowly, the incessant dripping away of freedoms goes unnoticed.
But, a loss of choices for one individual or group, is a loss of freedom for everyone. That is why it is so important for all Americans to work together. As Americans’ choices vanish, so too do their possibilities.
By John Anthony





http://sustainablefreedomlab.org/unc...rtisan-effort/


Wake up America