Government overreach, overspending is digging a hole that only gets deeper

To the editor:

The enemies of the U.S. Constitution label its nature to be living and breathing. However, political Marxism is diametrically opposed to the Founders original intent. To magnify the distance American politicians have traveled from the original intent of the Constitution, here I quote words from Frederic Bastiat, a French legislator of the 1840s, quoted in Ezra Taft Benson's 1986 essay regarding wisdom poured into the U.S. Constitution:

"If every person has the right to defend - even by force - his person, his liberty , and his property, then it follows that a group of men have the right to organize and support a common force (government) to protect these rights constantly. Thus the principle of collective right - its reason for existing, its lawfulness - is based on individual right."

I sent a letter expressing my disgust to Senators Shaheen, Hassan, and my First District Representative Chris Pappas about NH's Washington delegation of 4, which includes Rep. Goodlander. Together, they have a combined total of a zero fidelity rating to the U.S. Constitution in the 119th Congress. The rating is from The Freedom Index which measures their spending habits according to the Constitution; each servant of the people is graded on ten key spending votes.

What has caused our 37 trillion debt? We inherit the kind of government for which the majority votes. It is the everyday citizen that feeds the administrative state. Either they don't want to know or their uninformed choice at the ballot box has given us legislators who spend money like drunken sailors. Apologies to sailors because they at least spend their own money. The bottom line: we can't trust them. Let's put an end to career big spenders by studying the FreedomIndex.com .

Political Marxism feeds on your taxes and a slow culture infiltration. For a century the culture war has penetrated our institutions: churches, education establishment and media. Now, corporate America has turned against God, family and country with diversity, equity and equity inclusion (DEI) and environmental, social and governmental (ESG) engineering. As the saying goes, know your history! We are in a revolution repeating Mao Tse Tung Chinese Cultural revolution of the 1960s. We have tolerated an unwritten manifesto of atheistic humanism with a system of values dominated by an evil crusade to repudiate biblical morality.

It seems the majority in government are products of their education. Universities don't prepare them to serve as leaders to ensure liberty, as Benson's final words describe:

"...By deriving its just powers from the governed, government becomes primarily a mechanism for defense against bodily harm, theft and involuntary bodily servitude. It cannot claim the power to redistribute money or property nor force reluctant citizens to perform acts of charity against their will. Government is created by the people. No individual possesses the power to take another's wealth or to force others to do good, so no government has the right to do such things either. The creature (government) cannot exceed the creator (man)"

Our NH public servants have abused our liberty by usurping powers because we let them. This nefarious activity in Washington is a monster that we created by our vote. Americans are not exempt from paying the price to prevent tyranny that Tom Paine describes in 1776: "Tyranny, like hell , is not easily conquered: yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly...." We've paid a high price for tyranny: 37 trillion dollars!

- Russ Payne,

Merrimack