As of right now, there are 457 separate agencies in the federal government. As of May 2021, there were approximately 2.1 million federal employees. According to The Hill, “the federal government employs a total of 9.1 million workers.”
In addition to the 2.1 million federal employees, there are “4.1 million contract employees, 1.2 million grant employees, 1.3 million active duty military personnel and more than 500,000 postal employees.” Their average annual salary was over $90,000.
Let us look at a few examples of this bureaucratic brilliance.
What does the Agriculture Department’s Rural Housing and Community Development Service do that the Rural Housing Service doesn’t?
Why do we need an Economic Analysis Bureau and an Economics and Statistics Administration in the Commerce Department?
Why does the Defense Department need a Defense Criminal Investigative Service and a Defense Investigative Service? For that matter, what is the difference between the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Agency/Central Security Service?
Can’t the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service and Mines Bureau be combined with the Labor Department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration?
Why isn’t the Utah Reclamation Mitigation and Conservation Commission located in, well, Utah?
What the heck is the National Partnership for Reinventing Government?
All of these agencies fall under the direction of the executive branch. Each churns out their own set of rules, regulations, policies, and procedures. Some of these rules and regulations carry criminal penalties if a person or company violates them. How many? Don’t ask an agency director that question. They likely have no idea.
The Constitution lays out three branches of the federal government: the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The executive branch is to enforce the laws the legislative branch passes. The judicial branch is to apply the Constitution to the laws the legislative branch passes to ensure they comply.
So, where is the federal bureaucracy set up in the Constitution? Spoiler alert! It isn’t.
Then, where does the federal bureaucracy receive its authority to draft rules and regulations to punish American citizens criminally? This set up is a product of a corrupt Congress and a complacent court system.
In 2010 the Republican Party told voters it needed a majority in the House to push back against President Obama’s policies. The voters agreed but nothing changed. In 2014 the Republican Party complained it only had the majority of one-half of one-third of the federal government. “Give us a majority in the Senate and look out!” they said. “We will get this government ship shape in no time.” Well, nothing changed.
Enter 2016. Voters had a range of establishment candidates to choose from along with one outsider. A good friend of mine was tuned into Donald Trump from the beginning. I was rather skeptical. I generally agreed with his policy positions but thought his mannerisms and conduct would wear thin and keep him from being the nominee.
As the primaries drew closer, my thinking changed. Donald Trump made the Republican establishment as uneasy as the Democrat establishment. So I thought, maybe this guy can actually win.
In 2016 I believe all the frustration came to a head and voters thought, “Maybe we need someone in there who will blow the whole thing up. Sure, some good things may go and some bad things may happen. With the number of activities the federal government involves themselves with, we will take our chances that more bad than good will go.”
So, President Trump pulled back a bit of the curtain and showed anyone willing to look at the dark underbelly of the federal government. The establishment did not approve and still doesn't today. It has learned how to thrive with the status quo and leverage it to its advantage.
To complicate matters, the media is all too happy to provide cover. Both the media and establishment are ideologically aligned with big government. They also do not want to lose access to information, status in society, or that coveted access to elitist events. Many politicians are exactly the same.
Whether it be cancel culture, the bureaucracy working against its adversaries, unconstitutional impeachment proceedings, a two-tiered system of justice, behavioral mandates, or now a coup attempt by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the political establishment acts to protect itself at the expense of the American people.
The Framers understood human nature and corruption. That is why the Constitution was written the way it is. That is why we have the convention of states process in Article V. That is why self-governing citizen activists must continue to push back as many have been. We need even greater numbers.
The Convention of States Project has gained over 2,400 new petition signers so far this month in Missouri alone.
We the People have had enough. We must take back our city councils, school boards, local, state, and federal governments. They will not go quietly. The elected officials who refuse to represent us and uphold their oaths of office must go.
We must repair the structural issues that the courts and Congress have caused that have resulted in unconstitutional governance. Once we make an example of those without the courage to uphold the Constitution, others will fall in line.
We the People must be activist citizens--the irresistible force that moves the immovable object and saves our nation. At this point in history we have no other choice.
In liberty,
Brett
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