The War on Free Enterprise

The war on free enterprise in the US had its roots in the 1880s.

Before 1913 there was no income tax on individuals or corporations and no inheritance tax on families. Those who owned family farms and ranches and those who owned companies could keep these enterprises for their families in perpetuity. Not even the wealthy families saw the danger in paying a 1% tax and we were set up for income redistribution that expanded to 90%. The wealthy had been demonized and had no political clout, so they lobbied for favors with campaign contributions and hired accountants and lawyers to claw back their losses.

To save their companies, the wealthy sold stock and made them public companies. They also consolidated these companies to become monopolies.

To control their wealth, the wealthy set up “Charity Trusts” to lower their inheritance tax costs. These “Trusts” are now controlled by Liberals. (irony) 

In 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act allowing the government to break up monopolies. JP Morgan had consolidated his railroad clients to allow them to pay off their debt for capital they needed to expand the railroads from 1850 to the 1880s. In 1990 Teddy Roosevelt would break up the railroads and other companies who used consolidation to survive.

In 1913, the US federal government betrayed the citizens and set up conditions to move the US economy from a free market economy to a government managed economy. In 1913, the 17^th Amendment removed States’ Rights to have their Senators elected by their State Legislatures. In 1913, the Federal Reserve replaced the Congress to “coin money”. In 1913, Congress passed the federal income tax and inheritance tax.

The original deal that included the right to property and the freedom to be self-sufficient was gone. The mechanism to create dependency on the government had arrived. Most of this was done in violation of the US Constitution, because Congress did not file an Amendment and have States ratify changes in the “enumerated powers”. Congress had violated the Constitution in 1872 to establish a “national park” without an Amendment.

In the 1930s, the Great Depression offered another opportunity for “progressives” to further expand government with Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal” and the passage of Social Security that established a government controlled pension system that worked like a Ponzi scheme, but started modestly. Voters missed the point that their contributions were going immediately to those who were over age 65 and there was no “lock box” or owned accounts.  Government put the money in the general fund and fattened the pot politicians could use to further expand the size of government.

Winning World War II was another opportunity to solidify the status of the federal government. After 1945, it only got worse. Congress began to add unconstitutional departments, agencies and programs with no Amendments filed. The Courts and the legal profession and the law schools were complicit by introducing “case law” as a substitute for following the Constitution. That just allows the Courts to base their opinions on the mistakes made in past decisions.

Now, 90% of what the federal government does is unconstitutional, the federal government is broke with a $21 trillion Debt and $125 billion in unfunded liabilities and we’ve only just began to talk about returning functions to the States.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader