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Today’s Downsizer Dispatch . . .::::::Subject: Urgent Saturday Action Item::::::We don’t normally send you Saturday action items, but some of our allies have just alerted us that we need to do so today.

Today’s Downsizer Dispatch . . .::::::Recruit more Downsizers. Share this message with others.::::::Quote of the Day:::::::“You can’t negotiate when you tell the other side, ‘Give us what a negotiation would produce before the negotiations start.'”::: – Colin Powell (in reference to negotiations with Iran)::::::Subject: The Spending Bomb::::::When we first began campaigning against our government’s violent foreign policy many wrote to ask us what this had to do with Downsizing DC. We responded by pointing out that war is usually the number one cause of government growth. Here is a very big FACT to support our case . . .

This is important. Please, please, please, forward this message far and wide.::::::Quote of the Day:::::::“Should we wander [from the essential principles of our government] in moments of error or alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety.”::: – Thomas Jefferson, upon repealing the “Alien and Sedition Acts”::::::Subject: Support Ron Paul’s “American Freedom Agenda Act of 2007”::::::This is what we’ve been waiting for. Please forward this message far and wide. Make sure everyone knows about it. The “American Freedom Agenda Act” is a bill . . .

State, county, and municipal governments were not intended to be administrative districts of a powerful national government. They are supposed to be self-governing and accountable to the people.
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:::We don’t see that today. Where the federal government does not have direct control, it provides grants to state and local governments. And the grants come with strings attached. To receive the money, governments must comply with federal requirements.
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:::Two recent episodes of the crime drama “The Closer” illustrate this. In the first, a Los Angeles Police Department homicide unit must undergo WMD training, spending the entire day in HazMat suits while they’re trying to investigate a murder. They had to do this in order for the Department to receive federal funds. In the second, a Homeland Security auditor was murdered. One LADP accountant did not mourn her death, saying that he spent most of his time complying with federal requirements even though federal dollars funded just a tiny portion of their budget. Federal funding = more bureaucracy.
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:::Unfortunately, state and local governments are addicted to federal funds, even if it must be spent on things they don’t need. So they jump through the hoops to receive it. Without federal funding, local politicians must make the difficult decision of cutting spending or raising taxes. Federal funding discourages fiscal discipline, mis-allocates resources, creates waste, and makes government bigger at all levels. Federal funding also makes state and local government accountable to the federal government, not to the people.
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:::Downsize DC’s Read the Bills Act will help put an end to this undemocratic way of governing.

In case you missed it, or if you want to hear it again, the latest episode of Jim Babka’s weekly radio show is now available. Jim’s topic, as we mentioned in Saturday’s post, is Blowback: Is Rudy or Ron Paul Right?::::::To listen to the show, just click the attachment below.::::::

Recruit more Downsizers. Please forward this to others.::::::Quote of the Day:::::::“How do wars start? Diplomats lie to reporters and then believe what they read in the newspapers.”::: – Karl Krauss::::::Subject: Iranian offer of a comprehensive settlement with the United States::::::In May 2003 the Iranian goverment faxed the United States government a proposal to discuss a comprehensive settlement. Prompt action on this offer could have brought peace between our two countries, and done much to stablize the entire region. ::::::How did our government react?

Who is right about “blowback”?

We at DownsizeDC.org like to complain when Congress is in session . . .

Recruit more Downsizers. Forward this message to others.::::::Quote of the Day:::::::“If you don’t have anything good to say about anyone . . . come sit next to me.”::: – Alice Roosevelt Longworth::::::Subject: Dick Cheney loves Hillary Clinton::::::We make an effort to limit our use of names and labels. The politics of personality, party, and ideology is toxic to critical thinking. But sometimes it is necessary to name names in order to protect the innocent. The innocent, in this case, is you. And the names to be named are the names of the guilty – Bush and Cheney.::::::Last week “Frontline,” on PBS, presented a chilling documentary about Dick Cheney’s long campaign to free the Executive Branch from all constitutional checks and balances. Cheney, after 9-11, is quoted as saying that “it will be necessary for us to be a nation of men, and not laws.” Cheney has been as good as his word.

Today’s Downsizer Dispatch . . .::::::Recruit more Downsizers. Share this message with others.::::::Quote of the Day:::::::“Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.” ::: – Thomas Paine, Common Sense, January 1776::::::Special Notice: If you live in Northern Virginia you can meet Jim Babka this evening. Jim is in the Capitol to meet with various organizations about the “Read the Bills Act.” He will also be speaking to a Ron Paul MeetUp group. Look here for details. ::::::Subject: Your questions answered::::::Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, a retired teacher from Cecil County, Maryland, just became the first Baby Boomer to file for Social Security benefits. This marks the start of a demographic tidal wave that will compel current and future taxpayers to somehow pay 65 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities for Social Security and Medicare. ::::::Meanwhile, nearly every politician in America continues to talk rot about their great plans for making taxpayers pay for everyone’s medical care too. Where will all the money come from? Money is no object when it isn’t your money, and reality is no problem when you are divorced therefrom.::::::Meanwhile, in the land of those who can add and subtract, we will continue to promote solutions grounded in mathematical reality. We presented one such powerful solution last week — unlimited Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) coupled to tax deductible major medical policies. Needless to say, we received questions, and we will now provide answers . . .