Soap Box

​Recently, I have been thinking about how much life has changed in the last three quarters of a century and how much of that change is influenced by the bureaucracies and federal agencies that hold sway over almost every facet of life in America today.

I have come to the conclusion that we live in a self imposed system of government that has grown so big and so incompetently operated, that the overlapping entities are literally tripping over each other's feet.

Rather than being a government by the people and for the people, it comes off as a cold impersonal monolith, so complicated, so overwhelming, with so many moving parts and so many departments, that dealing with them on a one on one basis is such an exasperating experience, that to even open a letter from any branch of government is a near traumatic experience.

Our lives are regulated, observed, subsidized and intimidated by so many government agencies that it's impossible to keep up.

They are the masters of overkill, they intentionally complicate their dealings with the public to the point of frustration, for instance, trying to fill out a tax return can bring on anxiety attacks and understanding federal regulations is tantamount to deciphering advanced calculus.

There are so many ways to break the law without even knowing it. You can violate federal environmental laws by removing a plant from your own land that you had no way of knowing had been put on the endangered species list.

The federal government can come and take away your property and pay you less than it's worth claiming public domain.

They can garnish your wages for back taxes before ever proving in court that you even owe them.

They can hold you in jail indefinitely claiming you're a threat to national security before you've even been charged with any crime.

Our government has grown too big and too cumbersome for it's own good, or more importantly, We the People's good.

How many politicians have we elected who have promised to reduce the size of government and done absolutely nothing about it. And yet, we reelect their kind again and again.

Our federal government is now the world's largest debtor, with a national debt approaching twenty trillion dollars, with no plan in place to eradicate or even reduce it.

According to the Census Bureau, nearly half the people in America are receiving some kind of remittance from the government.

The unemployment numbers are misleading because they count part time jobs as if they were full employment.

Our foreign policy is basically non-existent.

Our military is the smallest in personnel and equipment that it's been in over a half century.

Big government does not translate into better efficiency or more national strength or a better life for its citizens, it is nothing more than a large unwieldy machine, requiring more and more taxpayer money, acquiring more and more debt, a bloated, self-proliferating conundrum; confusing, disordered and completely unsustainable.

The writing is on the wall.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops and the peace of Jerusalem.

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels