Posted on 06/02/2004 9:51:46 AM PDT by madfly
OPINION -- At a financial seminar last weekend we were told our government is $17 trillion dollars in debt and only $6 trillion can be generated from taxes to apply to this indebtedness. This leaves a deficit of $11 trillion to be found from somewhere . . . but where?
This raises the question of how revenue can be generated to pay this tremendous debt, some of which is held by foreign nations?
If we have no gold or silver standard to support our currency, what do we have? We have land and resources with great value. But over fifty percent rests in the hands of private businesses and citizens of the United States as private property.
Could private property be used as "collateral?" That is a thought - but how could it be used if it is held in private ownership?
"Co-creator of the Euro Offers Terra" was an article recently run by the Denver Post. A new global currency was to be revealed in Denver called the "terra" coin. It was introduced as the antidote to a worsening economic slump.
Bernard Lietaer, co-designer of the euro, said "Dropping interest rates and increasing the money supply have proven it doesn’t work."
Did you catch the name "terra" coin? To jog your memory, "terra" means "earth."
Are we now using every control mechanism we can to take the terra from the people? I don’t know. I’m just throwing out a few thoughts and it is up to you to see if the pieces fit.
As funding is allocated for the purchase of more parks, more open space and conservation areas, keep in mind that once the government has the property, it will never again be available for you to purchase and live the American Dream. It appears the government has gotten into the real estate business and they are competing against you for the purchase of land.
When the government wants to buy private property and then partner with environmental groups, we should question who will have the authority. Bureaus and agencies answer to Congress. We elect congressmen and we can vote them out.
A lot of power is turned over to environmental groups partnering with government agencies and the groups do not have to answer in any way to us, the taxpayers. We can’t vote them out.
The U.S. Corps of Engineers signed a partnership with The Nature Conservancy to promote a "healthy functioning, large floodplain river system, while meeting the needs of humans who live along the river and protecting its native biological diversity."
Could this be a deal that was cut in order to get the much needed new 1200 foot locks on the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers? The Corps is to purchase an additional 35,000 acres to be used as floodplain. Will this go to The Nature Conservancy?
The lock and dam fifteen year project would cost $2.4 billion, but the ecosystem restoration would be $5.3 billion over 50 years with an initial phase of $1.46 billion over a fifteen year phase. And the environmentalists are saying that is not enough.
Why was The Nature Conservancy chosen to administer a government project? Why didn’t your "not for profit group" get the deal with the U.S. Corps of Engineers to take care of the environment? Why was this given to an environmental group with $3 billion in assets and who holds a questionable history of how they use their funds?
They are using your tax dollars, but are they accountable to you? Do you vote for their administration? Perhaps we should take a closer look at programs such as wetlands, wildlands, conservation easements, endangered species, invasive species, viewsheds, Heritage areas, zoning, etc.
We now have a new program through the U.S. Department of Agriculture administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, called "endangered soils." Our dirt is now considered endangered.
Each of these programs in some way controls privately-owned land. The property owner no longer can claim the right to the use of his property as he chooses no matter how much sweat equity went into his claim of ownership.
We should then move on to examine comprehensive planning at local levels to see what regulations and codes have been implemented. Many times local boards jump into programs because they are "incentive based" and our bankrupt economy pours in "free" money in the form of grants.
When the facilitators come in saying "We have a vision for you," you will know you will soon be losing more of your rights. Often these people will be dangling a grant and your local officials will grab it, but no one will be reading the fine print.
Could these grants be an investment that will at some point reap dividends for the investors?
Grants are not free. Something has been promised in exchange and restrictions, regulations or some type of compliance will accompany the awarding of the grant. Was it your property your local government gave away as the exchange?
In the case of Scenic Byways and similar programs, the viewshed - which is private property - comes under their control and the landowner must ask permission to use his property. This is to insure the intrinsic value of the viewshed is not changed, as it must be "preserved."
"Who Has a Right to your Property" is an excellent article by Henry Lamb, a wellknown consultant, writer and founding CEO of the Environmental Conservation Organization.
Lamb explains that some philosophers believed the king should own all the resources in order to assure appropriate distribution of the land’s resources to the people. This is the philosophy from which modern socialism emerged.
Among the 59 federal legislators who belong to the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which is basically the Democratic "Socialist" Party, we have Congress members from Illinois: Danny Davis, Lane Evans, Luis Gutierrez, Jesse Jackson Jr., Bobby Rush, and Jan Schakowsky.
CNS News reports the Caucus was reportedly founded in 1991 and is associated with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), according to the latter's internet site. DSA members claim, "We are socialists because we reject an international economic order sustained by private profit" and "We share a vision" of the "equitable distribution of resources."
Socialism, according to a Cato Institute fellow, occurs when the government "arranges social order through state ownership and control, to bring about desired ends," according to CNS.
"I'm a member of DSA," Democratic Representative Danny Davis said. "There's an active chapter where I live. They're basically no different than a lot of the people I know."
Congressman Lane Evans (D), representing the 17th District in Illinois, serves on the Executive Committee of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) which is the largest socialist organization of the United States. Ironically, Evans is the ranking Democrat member of the House Veterans Affairs committee. Although he served in the military during the Vietnam era, he was not stationed in Vietnam during his tour.
Henry Lamb explains, "The right of a private owner to use land and its resources is being systematically stripped from the American system of government. In its place has grown a socialist system of 'community' control of private property, enforced by government. This transformation has already had severe social and economic consequences, and has placed America on a course that will inevitably follow the failed Soviet experience."
"Still, in every community, comprehensive plans are being adopted that take the fundamental right to use privately owned land away from the owner, and vest the authority to use private property in the hands of community 'stakeholders,'" Lamb continues.
What gives the right to some group, organization or government body to have a "stake" and the use of the property you purchased and on which you pay the taxes?
As we daily witness private property ownership being purchased by the government, and by eminent domain if the seller is not willing, and the control of privately owned land offered in lieu of grants by local governments, non-governmental organizations or controlled by embedded environmental bureaucrats, it is time to ask questions before it is too late.
Could the terra coin be a way to pay the nation’s debt? Is your property being used for collateral? Has socialism crept into government far more than we have realized, making it much easier to 'take your land for the good of all?'"
As I said before, I don’t know - what do you think?
© 2004 IllinoisLeader.com -- all rights reserved
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What are your thoughts concerning the issues raised in this story? Write a letter to the editor at letters@illinoisleader.com, and include your name and town.
Joyce Morrison lives in southern Illinois. She is a chapter leader for Concerned Women for America and she and her husband, Gary, represent the local Citizens for Private Property Rights. Joyce is Secretary to the Board of Directors of Rural Restoration/ADOPT Mission, a national farm ministry located in Sikeston. She has become a nationally-recognized advocate for property rights.
Ping
Farmfriend please ping your list, thanks!
Hey madfly! I've missed you! Where you been? Where's your priceless little graphic?
Hey WaspMan! Missed you too.
It's been along time and a long story, lol. And that little graphic was lost in one of many puter crashes, but I might have a look at some floppies to see if she be hiding.
Hope you and the forest up there are safe! :)
Why can't government use its own 50% of the land as collateral?
Huh? The $17 trillion figure is often quoted. However most of that is for future Social Security and Medicare payments. One little secret - the government doesn't have to pay them. According to the Supreme Court decision in Flemming v. Nestor there is no contractual obligation for the government to provide Social Security payments. Congress could meet today, pass a law eliminating SS and if the President signed it that "debt" would be gone.
The government has even defaulted on its debt before. Before the depression many bonds were to be paid in dollars or gold as requested by the holder. Congress and FDR outlawed private ownership of gold and thus defaulted on the bonds.
Ultimately the National Debt will be paid in the traditional way, the way we have paid of great blocks of it in the past when it got too high. We will partially default. Without a gold standard that can be done and few people realize it has happened. The creditors know these things and will begin to jack up interest rates when they see it coming. Some will save much of their principle, many will lose most of it. Default will be by inflation, by pumping out dollars, liquidity, faster than the market demands it and dollars decline in value so that the smaller dollars pay of the dollar denominated debt at a fraction of the value of the loans. Actually it is already occurring. BC startedd it with a nudge and W has ratcheted it up. For the sake of this war I hope that the consumer price effects do not get obvious before November. The price of oil is a big part of that phenomenon.
"Why can't government use its own 50% of the land as collateral?"
Why does the govt. own 50% in the first place
Nixon already committed the mineral estate of the West as collateral for the Federal debt after the collapse of the Brettonwoods agreement. We had borrowed that money from the Europeans in order to defend them from communism.
Go figure.
Seems the only mechanism they need is the New Deal Commerce Clause. A little creative application of that and they can do pretty much anything they want. The damned thing is a bulldozer.
Good article. Thanks for posting.
Terra means earth, duh....whoda ever thought it? I thought she meant Terro, as in terrorist. That's the montetary unit, those of such ilk are rooting for.
Thanks for posting this! I like horror movies from time to time, but that is the scariest thing I've seen in a long while.
You think it doesn't ??
OK.... what is that?
Hmmmm...
Found this:
BTTT!!!!!!!
thanks, HT :)
Teacher, 'Why can't government use its own 50% of the land as collateral?' :
'...Since the federal United States DIDN'T HAVE ANY ASSETS, they assigned the private property of their "economic slaves", the U.S. citizens as collateral against the un-payable federal debt. They also pledged the unincorporated federal territories, national parks forests, birth certificates, and nonprofit
organizations [SUCH AS THE NATURE CONSERVANCY a partner of the United Nations], as collateral against the federal debt. All has already been transferred as payment to the international bankers....'
The Bankruptcy of The United States
http://www.apfn.net/DOC-100_bankruptcy.htm
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