Insidious

/inˈsidēəs/ Adjective: Proceeding in a gradual, subtle way, but with harmful effects


During his State of the Union address the other night, President Obama said “The executive branch also needs to change. Too often, it’s inefficient, outdated and remote. That’s why I’ve asked this Congress to grant me the authority to consolidate the federal bureaucracy so that our Government is leaner, quicker, and more responsive to the needs of the American people.”

What exactly does that mean, I wonder? Is the President trying to change the way our government is set up, with a balance of power, so that all the power falls under the Executive Branch? If that happens the President will have the authority to do anything and everything without the consent of the Congress or Senate, thus making them obsolete and making him, in all reality, a dictator.

Our Constitution delineates a system of separation of powers in which the three branches of government can check and balance each other. The men who wrote the Constitution, intelligent as they were, spread the powers of government among these three branches to keep any one branch of government from becoming too powerful. Now the President is calling that system “obsolete and outdated”, which is another reason it was set up that way. By design, the President cannot lay claim to all the power in our government. If the Legislative Branch gives its authority to the President we no longer have a democratic republic but an authoritarian government. Hopefully this will be another request from the President that goes unheeded.

In other news, the President spoke of “fairness” the other night when it comes to taxes and everyone paying their fair share. This seems interesting in light of the following story…

“A new report just out from the Internal Revenue Service reveals that 36 of President Obama’s executive office staff owe the country $833,970 in back taxes. These people working for “Mr. Fair Share” haven’t paid any share, let alone their fair share.

Previous reports have shown how well-paid Obama’s White House staff is, with 457 aides pulling down more than $37 million last year. That’s up seven workers and nearly $4 million from the Bush administration’s last year.

Nearly one-third of Obama’s aides make more than $100,000 with 21 being paid the top White House salary of $172,000, each.

The IRS’ 2010 delinquent tax revelations come as part of a required annual agency report on federal employees’ tax compliance. Turns out, an awful lot of folks being paid by taxpayers are not paying their own income taxes.”

Another example of “Do as I say, not as I do”, perhaps? If Mr. Obama is so interested in everyone paying their fair share why are his own staff not doing it? Anyone want to bet that next year’s IRS report does not include White House staff? Just sayin’…