I read in this article, Justice Departments “Operation Choke Point” Targets Businesses It Doesn’t Like, by Glenn Reynolds, at usatoday.com, about how the Justice Department is using its power to force banks into targeting legal businesses that the DOJ {the admisistration} deems undesirable. It is pressuring banks to cut off the accounts of businesses in industries like ammunition sales, payday loans, coin dealers, firearm sales, online gambling, escort services, fireworks sales, pornography etc (read full list here). {Groups not on the list are abortion clinics, radical environmental groups, and marijuana shops}. The Justice Department threatens the banks with litigation or fines if they won’t do the bidding of their regulatory masters {Incentives matter}. This is how tyrants use the bureaucratic, administrative, and regulatory maze of Government to force their will on people. Instead of using force directly and meeting resistance, politicians hide their tyranny in the bureaucratic maze of Government, hoping nobody will be able follow the trail that leads back to them. But even if someone finds the evidence that points to the political perp, a lot of time has usually passed, and the passage of time allows the politician to lie, leak out information in drips, stonewall any investigation, and spin the truth, all with the help of the mainstream media {or as I like to call them the get away car driver}. If you want to see this cover up process in action just look back at the Fast and Furious gun running program, the Benghazi debacle, and especially the IRS targeting of tea party and liberty groups just to name a few.
The size of Government has to be reduced, because whoever is in power will use the force of Government to move their political agenda forward. Those in power will also use the force of government to target groups who don’t agree with them. We can’t just put the “right” people in positions of power, and expect them not to abuse it. If you give your teen age son the keys to a 720 hp Lamborghini, would he drive under the speed limit. No chance. If you want your son to drive under the speed limit you can’t give him a vehicle that can go over the speed limit. We can’t give politicians the vehicle that can abuse the speed limit on our freedoms. Government power has to be reduced by an exponential factor if we are to remain a free people, because I assure you whatever power Government has, our political leaders will use it for their political advantage.
Related Article – What Is Tyranny? The President Should Know The Definition, at austrianaddict.com.
Related Article – Choking On The Administrative State, by Glen Reynolds and Todd Zywicki, at powerlineblog.com.
AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS ADDICT 