Editorial from Rep. Joshua Evans, R-Greenbrier; July 6, 2012:
Throughout this week of celebrating our Independence, I hope that, in addition to the fireworks and the barbecues, each of us takes the time to reflect on the system that our Founding Fathers so wisely developed. Influenced by the experiences of other nations where citizens struggled beneath all-powerful monarchs, overly-influential legislative bodies, and historic social barriers that stood in the way of true individual involvement in the state, our government was created to give voice to the citizens of our nation.
This time of reflection is essential today because we have a presidential administration that is acting with impunity – resembling the all-powerful monarchs that our governing system was designed to resist.
First, the administration argues before Congress that Obamacare is not a tax. This argument protected Congressmen who were afraid to explain to their constituents why they had voted for the largest tax increase in American history.
Then, the administration goes before the Supreme Court and argues that Obamacare is indeed a tax and thus constitutional. So – for all of you keeping score at home – for political expediency, the bill is not a tax, yet for Constitutional expediency, it is a tax.
In his recent proclamation that created a path to amnesty for many who are in our nation illegally, the President belied his apparent belief that members of congress are simply obstructions and side-stepped them and their collective authority.
And for good measure, when Congress dared to call into question the Department of Justice and its egregious failures through the Fast and Furious operation, the President invoked executive privilege, protecting a number of documents that could potentially reveal the implicit – or even explicit – support of the administration in these illegal activities.
These are three examples – all of them recent – of an administration acting in a manner where it appears as if all others are irrelevant or at best bit-players in the administration’s larger production.
Unfortunately for the American taxpayer, the price-tag for the President’s actions is growing by the day. The projected cost of Obamacare has already grown from $800 billion to $1.7 trillion. In addition, the EPA now has more regulations in the approval pipeline than the Agency generated in its entire 40 year existence. These regulations contribute to $1.75 trillion in costs to the American taxpayer while also killing jobs and stifling business growth.
We are on a path that will bankrupt this great nation. This fall, however, we have the opportunity again to exercise our freedoms to shift the direction of the country and to place us back on a path to prosperity.
In the 2010 elections, the American people expressed their displeasure with Obamacare, voting the Republican Party into 63 democrat-held seats in Congress – and 680 seats shifted to the Republican Party in state legislatures across the country. This was an historic shift, and voters have a similar opportunity this year.
The power of your votes is clearly evident in our General Assembly. Through the repeal of the Death Tax, through ongoing Tort-Reform efforts, through the strengthening of our right-to-work laws in Tennessee, through the passage of business-friendly, job-creating statutes, and through our extensive education reform efforts, we have navigated our state into a position where businesses and individuals in Tennessee have greater opportunities to be successful.
We are blessed to live in a nation where through our votes we are given the opportunity to steer our course, directing us – as we have in Tennessee – to prosperity. So as we celebrate our Independence and look forward to the elections ahead, I implore you to remember the privilege that we share in our ability to vote and the responsibility we share to exercise that privilege.
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