It seems to fall on me to cover issues that the vast majority of so-called conservatives refuse to discuss. But that’s one reason this column is so popular: I always write from a totally objective perspective, based on my understanding of truth. That will not change in 2019.
First, for all of Donald Trump’s (and his Republican cohorts in Congress) rhetoric as being a staunch supporter of smaller government—or say it another way, being a staunch opponent of Big Government—the federal deficit rose $1.37 trillion during 2018. That means your family now owes an extra $10,743 to the international bankers at the Federal Reserve:
The federal government has added another $1,370,760,684,441.54 to the debt since last December 25, according to numbers published by the U.S. Treasury.
On Dec. 25, 2017, the federal debt was $20,492,874,492,282.58, according to the Treasury.
According to the latest numbers published by the Treasury, which show where the debt stood on Dec. 20, 2018, the federal debt was $21,863,635,176,724.12.
According to the Census Bureau, the population of the United States as of this month is 328,082,386. That means the $1,370,760,684,441.54 Christmas-to-Christmas increase in the debt equals approximately $4,178.10 per person.
The Census Bureau estimates there were 127,586,000 households in the United States in 2018. That means the $1,370,760,684,441.54 Christmas-to-Christmas increase in the debt equals approximately $10,743.82 per household.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Now, as much as Christians and conservatives will try to blame this fiscal irresponsibility on Barack Obama and the Democrats, this huge federal deficit increase is solely and completely the work of President Trump and the GOP Congress. As I have noted before, Republicans get away with bigger government spending than Democrats. In fact, Republicans spend the kind of money that Democrats WISH they could spend.
In fact, under the Republican-controlled House, the federal debt increased at an average rate of $31,374 per second.
Some Republicans may claim they should not be blamed for the massive increase in the federal debt during the eight years they controlled the House. They may say: “For four of those eight years, the Democrats controlled the Senate.” Or: “For six of those eight years, Barack Obama was president.”
But the Constitution says, “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.”
And no law may be enacted unless it passes the House.
A Republican-majority House approved every one of the federal spending laws enacted over the past eight years.
Not only that, but all of the spending laws enacted since Jan. 20, 2017, when President Donald Trump was inaugurated, have been approved by a Republican-majority House, a Republican-majority Senate and a Republican president.
How did Republicans do in controlling the debt during that limited time when they held all three elected branches of the federal government?
The Republicans controlled the House, Senate and White House for a span of 714 days, which equals 102 weeks — or just two weeks short of two full years.
At the close of business on Jan. 19, 2017, the day before Trump was inaugurated, the debt was $19,944,429,217,106.77. And again, at the close of business on Jan. 3, 2019, the last day the Republicans controlled the House, the debt was $21,929,258,046,653.58. During that 102-week Republican reign, the debt climbed $1,984,828,829,546.81.
That means that under the all-Republican government, the debt rose approximately $19,459,106,172 per week, or $2,779,872,310 per day, or $115,828,013 per hour, or $1,930,467 per minute, or $32,174 per second.
That $32,714-per-second increase in the debt under the all-Republican government that reigned from Trump’s inauguration until last week exceeds the $31,374-per-second increase in the debt the nation saw over the entire eight-year span of the Republican-majority House.
The GOP in Washington, D.C., has NEVER been “the party of smaller government,” and 2018 was no exception.
Secondly, according to a recent report of the Government Accountability Office (GAO)—what a misnomer—the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had over 4 thousand firearms and more than 5 million rounds of ammunition going into 2018:
The Internal Revenue Service had in its weapons inventory 4,487 guns and 5,062,006 rounds of ammunition as of late 2017, according to a report published this month by the Government Accountability Office.
Included in this arsenal, according to the GAO, were 15 “fully automatic firearms” and 56,000 rounds of ammunition for those fully automatic firearms.
The same report–“Federal Law Enforcement: Purchases and Inventory Controls of Firearms, Ammunition, and Tactical Equipment“–says that the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services had 194 fully automatic firearms and 386,952 rounds of ammunition for those fully automatic firearms.
“The term ‘fully automatic’ used in this report,” says a footnote in the report, “encompasses a range of firearms classified as machine guns, including submachine guns, three round burst guns, and guns with a selector switch that can enable continuous fire.”
The guns in the IRS inventory also included 3,302 pistols, 623 shotguns, 543 rifles, and 4 revolvers.
The ammunition stockpiled by the IRS–in addition to the 56,000 rounds for its fully automatic firearms–included 3,156,046 pistol and revolver rounds, 368,592 shotgun rounds and 1,481,368 rifle rounds.
The IRS’s firearms and ammunition are used primarily by its Criminal Investigation (CI) unit, which is manned by 2,148 federal law enforcement officers [FLEOs]. But some of it is also used by the IRS’s Police Officer Section, which includes only 9 federal law enforcement officers.
“The 20 federal law enforcement agencies in GAO’s review reported spending at least $38.8 million on firearms, $325.9 million on ammunition, and $1.14 billion on tactical equipment—at least $1.5 billion in total—from fiscal years 2010 through 2017, based on data agencies provided to GAO,” said the report.
“This report is the public version of a sensitive report that we issued in October 2018,” said GAO. “HHS, IRS and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) deemed some of the information in our October report to be sensitive, which must be protected from public disclosure.”
But the IRS was not the only agency listed in GAO’s report. So were the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA):
At the EPA, the Office of Investigations in the Office of the Inspector General had 48 FLEOs, according to Table 4. As of November 2017, this IG’s office had 231 pistols, 20 shotguns, and 6 rifles. It also had 95,576 pistol rounds, 31,145 shotgun rounds, and 5,278 rifle rounds.”
In addition to these guns and ammunition, the EPA IG also had tactical equipment that included 4 silencers.
The EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance had 157 FLEOs. This unit was armed with 377 pistols and 223 shotguns. It also had 220,418 pistol rounds and 146,075 shotgun rounds.
At HHS, the Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigation had 232 FLEOs. This force was armed with 390 pistols and 122 shotguns. It also had 166,783 pistol rounds and 30,620 shotgun rounds.
In [the] tactical equipment category, the FDA Office of Criminal Investigation also had 16 piece[s] of “breaching equipment.”
The HHS Office of Inspector General had 444 FLEOs. This force was armed with 1,061 pistols, 12 revolvers, 194 fully automatic firearms, 1 shotgun, and 2 rifles. It also had 541,864 pistol and revolver rounds, 386,952 fully automatic firearms rounds, 225 shotgun rounds, and 420 rifle rounds.
Its tactical equipment included 219 pieces of breaching equipment.
The IRS Criminal Investigation unit had 2,148 FLEOs. They were armed with 3,282 pistols, 4 revolvers, 15 fully automatic firearms, 621 shotguns, and 539 rifles. It also had 3,151,500 pistol and revolver rounds, 56,000 fully automatic firearms rounds, 367,750 shotgun rounds, and 1,472,050 rifle rounds.
In the tactical equipment category, IRS Criminal Investigation had 103 “aiming devices,” 178 “specialized image enhancement devices,” and 10 “tactical lighting” instruments.
The IRS’s Police Officer Section had 9 FLEOs. This force was armed with 20 pistols, 2 shotguns and 4 rifles. It also had 4,546 pistol rounds, 842 shotgun rounds and 9,316 rifle rounds.
Remember all of this the next time you hear a politician talk about restricting YOUR right to keep and bear arms.
And right now, the tactic being used to strip Americans of their gun rights is the passage of “red flag” laws. These are laws that are implementing Donald Trump’s tyrannical ambitions to “take the guns first, go through due process second.” That’s exactly what “red flag” laws do. Without a person committing a crime or even being charged with a crime; without being accused of a crime; without threatening to commit a crime; etc., a person’s firearms can be seized because someone—almost anyone—complains that the person “might” be a threat or that there are “red flags” associated with a person’s behavior. That’s it! That’s all it takes, and wham: Without any due process, that person’s constitutional protection to keep and bear arms is expunged.
Imagine your ex-spouse, a bitter relative, co-worker or neighbor or a Gestapo-like cop (anyone who hates you) having the ability to use a “red flag” law to confiscate your firearms. Then, after your guns are seized (meaning stolen) by the police, you must prove your innocence (which will take years) to get them back—IF you get them back at all. That’s what these “red flag” laws do, folks.
Thirteen states have already passed “red flag” laws, and most of the other states in the country (probably including the State in which you live) are considering the passage of “red flag” laws. All of this is being done under the rubric of “mental health.” But it’s really backdoor gun control, while getting the American people accustomed to accepting gun confiscation at the same time. Thousands of Americans have already had their firearms confiscated under these “red flag” laws, and one man (so far) in Maryland was killed by police as they attempted to confiscate his firearms.
And get this: I have just discovered that there is a massive public relations campaign promoting “red flag” laws taking place in churches all across America. Last weekend, the largest church in the county in which I live showed a professionally produced video promoting “red flag” laws. This is going on all over the country. Once again, these 501c3 government “churches” are being used as government propaganda ministries to indoctrinate Christian people with Big Government (in this case “red flag” gun confiscation laws) ideology.
Plus, you cannot rely on the NRA to take a stand (or even inform you) against these “red flag” gun confiscation laws either. The NRA has, again, succumbed to political correctness by making a decision to lie down on this vitally important issue. I’ll say it again: The NRA is controlled opposition and cannot be trusted to defend the Second Amendment.
When will freedom-loving people in this country wake up and realize that most special interest groups such as the NRA, National Right to Life, AIPAC, AARP, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, ad infinitum—and most of the churches in this country—are actively working AGAINST their liberties?
Thirdly, speaking of AIPAC, one of the top priorities of the Zionist lobby group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has become the very first bill introduced in the U.S. Senate in 2019.
In the 2019 GOP-controlled Senate, the first bill to be considered — S.1 — is not designed to protect American workers, bolster U.S. companies, or address the various debates over border security and immigration. It’s not a bill to open the government. Instead, according to multiple sources involved in the legislative process, S.1 will be a compendium containing a handful of foreign policy-related measures, the main one of which is a provision — with Florida’s GOP Sen. Marco Rubio as a lead sponsor — to defend the Israeli government. The bill is a top legislative priority for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
In the previous Congress, that measure was known as S.170, and it gives state and local governments explicit legal authority to boycott any U.S. companies which themselves are participating in a boycott against Israel. As The Intercept reported last month, 26 states now have enacted some version of a law to punish or otherwise sanction entities that participate in or support the boycott of Israel, while similar laws are pending in at least 13 additional states. Rubio’s bill is designed to strengthen the legal basis to defend those Israel-protecting laws from constitutional challenge.
Thus far, the two federal courts that have ruled on such bills have declared them to be unconstitutional violations of the First Amendment speech rights of American citizens. “A restriction of one’s ability to participate in collective calls to oppose Israel unquestionably burdens the protected expression of companies wishing to engage in such a boycott,” U.S. District Court Judge Diane Humetewa of Arizona wrote in her decision issuing a preliminary injunction against the law in a case brought last September by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of “an attorney who has contracted with the state for the last 12 years to provide legal services on behalf of incarcerated individuals,” but lost his contract to do so after he refused to sign an oath pledging not to boycott Israel.
A similar ruling was issued in January of last year by a Kansas federal judge, who ruled that state’s Israel oath law unconstitutional on the ground that “the Supreme Court has held that the First Amendment protects the right to participate in a boycott like the one punished by the Kansas law.” In that case, a Mennonite who was a longtime public school teacher lost her independent contract as a school curriculum developer after she followed her church’s decision to boycott goods from Israeli companies in the occupied West Bank and thus, refused to sign the oath required by Kansas law.
These are the Israel-defending, free speech-punishing laws that Rubio’s bill is designed to strengthen. Although Rubio is the chief sponsor, his bill attracted broad bipartisan support, as is true of most bills designed to protect Israel and supported by AIPAC. Rubio’s bill last Congress was co-sponsored by several Democrats who are still in the Senate: Bob Menendez of New Jersey, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Ben Cardin of Maryland, Ron Wyden of Oregon, and Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan.
That the newly elected U.S. Congress would choose to prioritize protection of this foreign nation — at the expense of the constitutional rights of American citizens and over countless bills that would help Americans — was only one of the stinging criticisms voiced to The Intercept by ACLU Senior Legislative Counsel Kathleen Ruane:
In the midst of a partial government shutdown, Democratic and Republican senators have decided that one of their first orders of business next week should be to sneak through a bill that would weaken Americans’ First Amendment protections. The bill, Combatting BDS Act, encourages states to adopt the very same anti-boycott laws that two federal courts blocked on First Amendment grounds. The legislation, like the unconstitutional state anti-boycott laws it condones, sends a message to Americans that they will be penalized if they dare to disagree with their government. We therefore urge senators to vote no on the Combatting BDS Act next week.
As I have shown in this column, the entity with the most power and influence over American politics (and entertainment and religion) is the Israeli (Zionist) lobby. Whatever the Israeli lobby wants, the Israeli lobby gets. Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives: They all (with very few exceptions) bow down to the Zionist lobby.
Just about everyone who runs for President in the two major parties (the only exception I can think of in recent memory is Ron Paul) feels compelled to make a pilgrimage to Israel and go bow at the Western Wall and kiss the ring of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Imagine the federal government (or any State or local government) passing a law that forces the American people to NOT spend their money any way they choose. Talk about tyranny: This is it.
And the hypocrisy of it all is staggering.
The federal government enacts boycotts (called “sanctions”) against foreign countries all of the time. And when the federal government boycotts a country, suffering, starvation and war are the result. But that same federal government wants to make it illegal for an American citizen (or private business) to boycott a country—one specific country, of course: Israel.
You and I both know that no nation in the world has the power and influence to get this kind of legislation through Congress other than Israel. We don’t see a bill in Congress outlawing the boycotting of any other country, do we? One would not be exaggerating too much to say that the U.S. government is mostly a puppet organization of the Zionist state occupying Palestine.
By the way, the month of January is not a pleasant memory for the people of Gaza. January 4 and 5 of this year marked the 10th anniversary of the Israeli slaughter of 48 members of one family (including 10 children and 7 women). In all, over 1,400 Palestinians were murdered by the IDF, and over 3,500 homes were destroyed—along with 268 factories and 18 schools—in those horrendous and unjustified attacks. And as with all of its atrocities, including its unprovoked attack against the USS Liberty—and the ongoing atrocities it commits every day to this very minute—Israel has never been held to account. Yet Christians in America still think that they are serving God by supporting the murderous gangster regime in Tel Aviv.
I spent over 30 years believing and teaching the fallacious Israel-first prophecy doctrines. But, thankfully, God opened my eyes to the truth a few years ago—and I asked God to forgive me for my participation in promoting that unbiblical teaching. And now I am determined to spend the rest of my life telling the truth about the scriptural teaching on Israel.
I have a 15-message, 7-DVD series at a huge discount, entitled The Israel Package, available for purchase. This package is not exhaustive. I will be delivering more messages on the subject in the near future, but this package contains the fundamental foundation necessary to understanding the truth about the scriptural teaching on Israel. Anyone who has an honest heart to know the truth and who is willing to reject the falsehoods they have been taught (I know it’s not easy) should start by listening to these messages.
So, as we say goodbye to 2018 and hello to 2019, 1) the Republican Party in Washington, D.C., exploded the size and growth of the federal government to record levels, 2) the federal government armed its federal agencies to the teeth (who are they preparing to use those guns against if not the American citizenry?) and 3) Israel is showing the American people who really controls Congress.
And, as in past years, these kinds of stories are completely off the radar of the vast majority of so-called conservatives and Christians. Welcome to 2019: a brand new year in which everything stays the same.
Article posted with permission from Chuck Baldwin
