Today’s Downsizer-Dispatch . . .
In this issue . . .
* Our progress
* An action item
PROGRESS
Welcome back from the Holiday. We hope you and yours had a good Easter. Things have not been so good in Congress. In recent days . . .
* Congressional leaders have withdrawn the “Online Freedom of Speech Act”
* The Senate has passed a so-called lobbying reform bill that would impose huge burdens on groups like us.
* Incumbents have silenced yet another source of competition by restricting political ads by 527 groups.
Please take note of the trend. Step-by-step, Congress is eliminating every source of opposition to its drive for larger and more centralized government. And the people sleep, ignorant of what is being done.
I want to pause for a moment to let this sink in.
If incumbents have nothing to fear on Election Day, because all potential challengers have been hobbled, then the only remaining impediment to them comes from groups like Downsize DC. Our only hope for stopping the relentless growth of the federal government, the ever rising debt, and the ever increasing centralization of power, is to overwhelm Congress with inescapable, mind-numbing pressure to take the opposite course. But . . .
The incumbents are aware of this. And so they seek to cut off this avenue of opposition as well. They want to strangle groups like ours in regulatory red-tape and bury us in compliance costs. Better yet, they can win praise from the media for doing so by claiming that they are controlling special interest lobbyists, the very opposite of what they’re really doing.
Special interest lobbies will not be slowed by the so-called lobbying reform bill. It will merely be an added cost of doing business. This is a cost they can easily bear, because the profits to be made from winning government favors are so huge. But groups opposed to looting the taxpayers to provide these favors have no pot of government gold into which to dip to pay these costs. Advantage, Big Government.
The only cure for this problem is relentless growth for Downsize DC. We grow bigger and stronger everyday. By continuing to do so we can outrun the costs Congress seeks to impose on us, and instead impose on them the inescapable mind-numbing pressure required to make them reverse course.
Congress must be made to pay for its looting of the American people. Only you can exact this price from them, by continuing to bombard them with demands for smaller, less centralized government, and by helping us to build a large enough army to compel Congressional submission. There are two things you can do today to move us forward toward this outcome . . .
OUR GAS TANK:
We must raise another $10,430 in the remaining days of April in order to keep moving forward. Twenty two people have so far contributed $3,570 toward our April goal of $14,000 total. If you want to help Downsize DC pay its bills you can contribute or start a monthly pledge here.
Thank you to the following people for their recent donations
:
Louis P. Sweet, Ken Mosher, Gregory F. Camia, Gerard E. Michel
Special thanks to Cisse Spragins for starting a monthly pledge.
If you choose to contribute, or to start a monthly pledge, you can also choose to be acknowledged here, or to remain anonymous. You can make all of these choices by clicking here.
ACTION ITEM:
Federal legislation and regulation is rarely what it appears to be. Campaign finance reform is really incumbent protection. Lobbying reform is really special interest empowerment. Prescription drug programs and many other government healthcare initiatives are really disguised forms of corporate welfare. So it is with the National Animal Identification System (NAIS).
The politicians and regulators will tell you this system is designed to protect you from potential epidemics like the avian flu. It is nothing of the sort. If something like the avian flu is likely to spread, it is most likely to happen in the factory farms, where large numbers of animals are clustered together, and where the animal population is genetically similar because all the members thereof come from specially selected breeding stock. Why then . . .
. . . are the NAIS requirements for factory farms easy and cheap while the requirements for family farms and other family animals are complicated and expensive?
To ask the question is to answer the question. The intent is to disadvantage the family farm at the expense of corporate agriculture, and drive more resources into the hands of big business at bargain prices. NAIS is just one more step in the looting of America. Please tell Congress to stop NAIS. You can do so here.
REMINDER:
To make a contribution or start a monthly pledge click here.
Thank you for being a DC Downsizer.
Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.