William R. Collier Jr. 

In a stunning move of abdication of authority, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Indiana pension funds and consumer advocates to delay the Obama administration’s efforts to transfer wealth from bondholders to the unions, clearing the way for the sale and setting a precedent for General Motors in its own bankruptcy proceedings. By denying “cert”, the Court is saying that the government is not bound by ANY of the provisions of the Constitution or of the law that are designed to prevent the taking of property without due process and that are designed to give all citizens, rich and poor and in between, equal protection under the law. 

This is not precedent setting, but legal scholars believe that the court has basically agreed to not intervene in the nationalization process that is now under way in America with the government and those organizations that are supporters of the party in power pursuing policies for political gain that are not valid from a strictly Constitutional, legal, or free market perspective. The rampant creation of “Czars”, unelected officials with quasi-official powers, including a new “Pay Czar”, and the use of TARP and other devices to gain supreme power over private enterprises at the behest of political supporters of the party in power is beginning to follow the pattern set by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. 

A comparison of these practices with those of Ronald Reagan, who pursued an opposite plan in similar circumstances of economic malaise, which resulted in tremendous real growth and a reduction of political power over private enterprise and over the lives of individuals, makes the Audacity of Hope that comes from the White House seem ever more like a “little red book” more in keeping with the ideologues of the hard left who deny the very concepts of a free market or free enterprise and who genuinely believe that politicians and un-elected officials know what is best for the “the People”. 

While there are many Czars, perhaps we don’t really need a “car czar” or a “pay czar”, people whose ideas and proposed actions tend to remove power and wealth from individual and then transfer it to the government or the political supporters of the party in power. Perhaps what we really need is a “Freedom Czar”, someone who is willing and able to observe, detect, report, and then demand an accounting of all acts by any governing official, publicly traded corporation, member of the news media, school officials, court, or other public official that impact negatively on our freedom, our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to protect our civic rights, the sanctity of our persons, and the sanctity of our property. 

Such a “Freedom Czar” would really be the OPPOSITE of a “czar”, they would, FIRST, call for the removal of ALL “Czars” or officials who are NOT accountable to Congress and the People, then they would advocate for something like “Reagan’s Ten Commandments for Prosperity” and use them to compare and contrast all acts that tend to violate these Commandments, exposing the individuals to the light of public scrutiny, urging local governments to PROCLAIM that they endorse and intend on following these Commandments as much as possible. 

Of course, we are all “Freedom Czars” if we choose to stand up for the basic, fundamental freedoms of this nation, but assuming for a second that Ronald Reagan had somehow appointed me, your humble correspondent, a “Freedom Czar for Life”, what would I do? 

First, I would make sure everybody KNOWS Reagan’s 10 Commandments for Prosperity by asking local governments to Proclaim these they endorse and intend on following these 10 Commandments for Prosperity, and of course I would ask for YOU and people like you to petition your local governments and local political party precinct organizations to endorse this Proclamation. You don’t have to call yourself a Freedom Czar, you can call yourself an envoy, an elector, a citizen, or a head cook and bottle washer- as long as you help to inform people and urge your local government, starting at your local political party at the precinct level if possible, to make this Proclamation: 

Because we believe in freedom for ALL Americans and because we wish to see our community and our nation prosper we endorse and intend to follow, to the best of our knowledge and ability, Reagan’s 10 Commandments for Prosperity. 

Reagan History

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reagan news

1. Thou Shalt Have Low Tax rates

High taxes are not good for anybody, neither those who are taxed, nor those who think they will benefit from those taxes, because they take wealth and resources, which is power, and they concentrate them into the hands of those who are taking the taxes, which ultimately makes those people more wealthy and powerful, reduces the wealth of those who have earned it, and has no positive effect on those who are lacking or who are poor.
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When I sign this bill into law, America will have the lowest marginal tax rates and the most modern tax code among major industrialized nations, one that encourages risk-taking, innovation, and that old American spirit of enterprise. We’ll be refueling the American growth economy with the kind of incentives that helped create record new businesses and nearly 11.7 million jobs in just 46 months. [1] Remarks on Signing the Tax Reform Act of 1986, October 22, 1986

2. Thou Shalt Have A Strong dollar. 

A strong dollar is one of our greatest weapons against inflation. Conservative [2] Political Action Conference March 2, 1984
Inflation is almost entirely a product of the printing press, the more money the government prints, and the weaker the value of each individual dollar, the less each dollar buys for Americans, it is only by pursuing a strong dollar that is stable and that is not at the whim of a few individuals who can decide, almost without constraint, what interest rates should be or how many dollars to put into circulation, that we can protect ourselves from fiscal ruin.
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3. Thou Shalt Have Free trade. 

Our trade policy rests firmly on the foundation of free and open markets. I recognize … the inescapable conclusion that all of history has taught: The freer the flow of world trade, the stronger the tides of human progress and peace among nations. [3] Remarks at a White House Meeting With Business and Trade Leaders September 23, 1985

Free Trade IS FAIR TRADE, where both sides agree to open, fair, and competitive trade allowing the markets to determine the value of goods, promoting connections between nations and cultures, and spreading the principles of freedom in the economic realm even where political freedom is lacking. For Trade to be Free, it must of course be fair, but for wealth to increase for ALL trade must be free!
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4. Thou Shalt Not Over-Regulate the People 

The economic realities of the marketplace have done more to bring down the price of oil than all those years of frenetic government regulating. [4] Presidential Radio Address - 26 February 1983
Whatever good you think a “regulation” will do, ALL regulation transfers the decision-making authority away from the individual, the community, private entities, and the individual states to the entity that is making the regulation. If you think you can “regulate” away all problems and all risks, or use regulation to make things “fair” or “just”, you are mistaken- you will only end up increase the power of a few over the many and the result will be gigantism without any of the benefits the regulation was meant to deliver.
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5. Thou Shalt Have Only A Limited Government.
It is no coincidence that our present troubles parallel and are proportionate to the intervention and intrusion in our lives that result from unnecessary and excessive growth of government. [5] Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981 

The notion that you can justify giving something like 30% of ALL wealth that the People produce, over 30% of the LAND in this nation, and almost 50% or so of ALL decision-making powers to 9 supreme court justices, a president, and 535 legislators without seeing serious abuses of power at the expense of the rights, the property, and the welfare of the People is a Utopian fantasy. Those who pursue gigantism in government can use whatever high-sounding terminology they LIKE, but in the end, they are either foolishly ignorant of how dangerous giving such powers to a FEW people is OR they actually WANT that power.
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6. Thou Shalt Limit Government Spending. 

We’ve tried spending our way to prosperity for more than four decades and it hasn’t worked. [6] Radio Address, October 18, 1977

Every dime spent by government IS A TAX on the People, and in the end, that tax is going to be paid one way or another. For every dollar spent by government, there are fewer dollars available to YOU: only economic activity produces wealth, government spending reduces the amount of available wealth and reduces the overall wealth of the People!
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7. Thou Shalt Have Market Pricing. 

Why don’t we impose wage and price controls? Because they don’t work and never have… They distort the natural market forces, create shortages and end up with black markets supplying the people’s needs at bootleg prices. [7] Letter to Captain Wayne Speigel, 1975

It is true that there must always be restraint in favor of ethics, fairness, and even the common good, but the best judge of what should be produced and how much it should cost must be the People, as individuals who invest, who own businesses, who work, who sell, and who buy good and services. When this basic freedom is removed it delivers only inefficiency, more gigantism, and nothing good for the People, be they well off or poor or in between.
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8. Thou Shalt Have Privatization. 

Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States. [8] May 1988 Speech at Moscow University

The “middling sort”, as Benjamin Franklin described himself and his friends, the artisans, shop keepers, and entrepreneurs who started with nothing, gave MUCH, and produced wealth for themselves and MANY OTHERS around them, were the “agents of transformation” in 1776 and they have always been the “prime mover” of our nation. The only groups who ever benefit from nationalization of any kind and by ANY name, are the people who get rich off government favors and the people who run the government- nobody else, which includes over 95% of the population, benefits.
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9. Thou Shalt Have A Strong Defense. 

Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong. [9] Republican National Convention, August 23, 1984

Regardless of the myth-makers on your TV and in your newspapers, the Cold War was won because the United States of America was STRONG and the Soviets could not keep up with our advances in technology nor in raw capabilities, or firepower. It was the people manning SOSUS who tracked Soviet subs, the people who funded and manned all those “non-wars”, and the men and women of the US Military who proved to be too great an obstacle to Soviet ambitions who ended the Cold War, and those of us who were THERE will always be proud of this and will not simply let those who all the while told us we would fail try to take away from this glorious result of the Reagan revolution!
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10. Thou Shalt Reform Welfare 

I’m talking about real and lasting emancipation, because the success of welfare should be judged by how many of its recipients become independent of welfare. [10] State of the Union Address, February 4, 1986
We could even refer to this commandment as “Thou Shalt Not Promote Dependency”. Why does the Bible itself say that those who do not work should not eat? Meeting our own needs, being independent of others, being self-reliant is not just a way to live well, it is an experience that is in and of itself enjoyable and fulfilling like few other experiences. Simply handing people money, after the government keeps its share to feed itself and line its pockets, is a terrible way to treat people and it tells them “we don’t think you have what it takes to even survive on your own.”
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While this is a great idea, stay tuned for more on this idea, one group has a real simple plan that might just warm the cockles of your Reagan-living, Freedom-loving heart. ZAP THE IRS ([11] www.zaptheirs.com) is determined to cut off the life-supply to the big beast called our Federal Government by ending the income tax. While there are MANY ideas and ways to “reform taxes”, the problem is that while those who oppose the present tax system are actually more numerous than those who are FOR it, we all have different idea. 

John Hansen, the progenitor of Zap The IRS, has proposed that we START where we agree: repeal the 16^th amendment which has been used to do everything from over-tax to regulate our free speech (IRS “regulations” have tended, in practice, to protect certain pro-government groups, including unions and a press corps that runs political ads as news or comedy, at the expense of churches and pro-freedom groups, who are heavily sanctioned when they speak on anything political).  

You can read more about this at [12] http://zaptheirs.ning.com/profiles/blogs/income-tax-turns-100-an which is a reprint of one of our member’s blog article at Fox News. Ralph Benko was “at the creation” as it were of the Reagan Revolution and understands WHY we need a free market, free trade, limited government, private ownership, and free enterprise rather than massive government and special interest control over our economy. Hansen wants to launch this effort through a National Day of Mourning that will occur on July 12, 2009, the 100^th anniversary of the adoption of the 16^th amendment. 

To sum this up, let’s review the salient points: 

1. The Supreme Court has decided NOT to intervene on behalf of the rights of the People to private property and to a rule of law rooted in our right to private property 

2. Because of this, all these “Czars” which are not accountable to anybody are proliferating and gaining more and more power over our economy in a series of moves that look more like the Venezuelan government’s nationalization policies than anything Reagan did to rescue the US from a similar economic crisis 

3. If instead of having all these “Czars for this or that” we should ACT AS “Freedom Czars”, comparing, for instance,  Reagan’s 10 Commandments for Prosperity with the present administration, urging local governments to proclaim their endorsement of these Commandments, and holding people up to public scrutiny if they undermine our rights to life, liberty, and property 

4. One simple, elegant approach, written about by our very own Ralph Benko on the Fox News Blog, is to “ZAP THE IRS” and repeal the 16^th amendment, starting by participating in a “National Day of Mourning” on July 12^th to mark the 100^th anniversary of the enactment of the 16^th amendment 

So, how can you get in on the action? 

First, SIGN the petition to ZAP THE IRS. [12] http://zaptheirs.ning.com/profiles/blogs/income-tax-turns-100-an 

Second, invite people to JOIN Reagan 2.0 [14] http://reagan2petition.ning.com 

Third, volunteer to work towards getting local political party precincts and local governments to Proclaim their endorsement of Reagan’s 10 Commandments For Prosperity or volunteer to write about this idea in your own blog or group. Just email me at [15] upadaria@yahoo.com for now until we have created a sign up form for fellow Reaganites. 

Fourth, did I mention INVITE people to join Reagan 2.0? [14] http://reagan2petition.ning.com 

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