Republicans’ hypocritical response to Biden’s Executive Order

For Immediate Release
Contact: Andrew Horning
Libertarian candidate for IN08

August 24, 2022

Republicans’ hypocritical response to Biden’s Executive Order

Freedom, IN – It is disappointing, but not surprising, that Republican workers, wonks and elected officials are self-righteously indignant over Biden’s student debt transfer decree. I don’t think they have moral authority to even blink twice.

First, the federal constitution’s 10th Amendment makes it very plain that any authority not specifically granted in the constitution, is specifically and completely denied. The founders exhaustively debated and described the meaning of every word in the constitution through the first ten amendments, so there is no excusing any confusion in the matter of authority before law. The hierarchy of USA federal law is generally accepted as:

1. U.S Constitution
2. Laws (statutes) enacted by Congress
3. International treaties and jus gentium/ “law of nations”
4. Common Law/ Case Law
5. Rules (which are not laws) promulgated by federal agencies (such as IRS, FDA, DHS)
6. Procedures and codes of conduct

So laws written without constitutional authority are, according to founders like Madison and Jefferson, null and void. Delegating authority from one branch to another, or especially to unelected bureaucrats, is clearly forbidden. Only legislators can write laws and disburse funds. Executive Orders are valid only to execute constitutional legislation. So all the “federal” actions and laws detailed in the following, were and are, of course, unconstitutional, null and void:

The Higher Education Act of 1965 prompted only a moderate increase in the cost of college degrees. In fact, the cost of a bachelors degree was actually dropping slightly from 1969 until 1979, when the Federal Department of Education was made a Cabinet-level department. Since then, education costs started rapidly climbing, and have been accelerating ever since, as the carrot and stick of grant money and regulations started affecting all levels of education down to the local preschool level.

But the benefit of a college education, despite today’s rhetoric, has remained relatively flat, with a rapid divergence of the cost/benefit curves starting in …wait for it…1979.

Republicans have of course held a total lock on federal power many times and for many years since the 1980’s. Despite their rhetoric about entirely ending any federal involvement in, or department of, education, they’ve never done anything but increase funding and debt related all the above.

The Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003 (HEROS) correlates to an only slight increase in the rate of increasing college costs, since it applied to only members and veterans of the armed forces, and those living or employed in a disaster area, or under hardship as the result of war or national emergency. And disasters weren’t so frequently and incessantly decreed even after 9/11 as today.

Significantly, HEROS passed with a Republican majority and unanimous Republican votes.

It’s the HEROS Act, and Biden’s recently extended State of Emergency, that Biden claims as authority for unilaterally forcing taxpayers to subsidize some of our society’s most advantaged people. For context, the median household income in Indiana’s 8th congressional district is just over $54,000 per year, with only about 22% college graduates. Biden’s upcoming EO #14080 forces everybody (including the poor and non-college educated, both in taxation and inflation) to pay college-educated people making up to $125K, and families making up to $250K, up to $20,000 in debt transfer.

As a reminder, Indiana’s Governor Holcomb unconstitutionally maintained a state of emergency to keep raking in federal taxpayer funds invoking the unconstitutional IC 10-14-3, the “Emergency Management and Disaster Law” passed and maintained by the Republican General Assembly.

Here is where the rubber meets the road. Even some Democrats, notably Nancy Pelosi, say that Biden’s EO is unconstitutional. Congress can of course deny funding for it, and thus kill it, as is their constitutional duty. I’ve not yet heard anybody calling for that from either side of the tribal aisle. I’ve also not heard anybody calling for constitutional rule of law to be established in this country at long last.

…Except for me, of course.

https://horning4congress.com/

Liberty or Bust!

Andy Horning

Freedom, Indiana

*See my previous press releases at: https://horning4congress.com/news-media-2/
And please see, “Eight Steps to Success” at https://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2017/12/15/eight-steps-to-success/ and https://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2016/08/31/money-politics-and-central-banks/

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Politicians Lie – Social Security is Past-Broke

This is an old press release. Almost ancient, in terms of how much things have gotten worse. But on the eve of the Great Reset, when lies and “cancel culture” and tribal hostility is coming to a boil, I thought it made sense to post this here:

For Immediate Release

August 15, 2016

Contact: Andrew Horning

Freedom, IN – We’re living the biggest lie of all time. I wish that were hyperbole. But we’ve taken an ancient recipe for disaster, and inflated it to a systematic, global, trans-generational scale that’s unprecedented in human history.

Incumbent politicians want only to be reelected, so they won’t spill any bad news. And voters want to believe promises, and don’t want to hear bad news, so we keep reelecting the incumbents.

But there is bad news that people need to hear sooner, rather than later: Our nation’s debts are worse than we’ve been told, and the recent rosy prognostications of OASDI’s short term health, are lies.

The ~19.4 trillion-dollar “US National Debt” figure often bandied about includes only the face amount of securities outstanding. And this amount, while seemingly huge, is comparable to the USA’s debt/GDP ratio just after WWII and at the peak of our nation’s rebuilding. Many people know this, and therefore assume the government has an infinite capacity for writing and redeeming such debts.

But that’s not today’s picture at all.

An approximately $66 trillion “US Total Debt” includes state and local government securities outstanding, plus citizen personal debt; and that is by itself the greatest debt any nation ever owed. While this comes to about $809,896 of debt per US family, even this still doesn’t include the “Federal Agency Debt” of over $8 trillion, or much more significantly, what we call “Unfunded Liabilities” of entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare.

That debt, which is typically only a matter of conjecture since the rules of its calculation are purely political, is guesstimated to be, by itself, well-over $1.1 million …per taxpayer!

Putting it another way, the promises politicians have made to future generations amount to around two times the globe’s total economic output. Just the retirement-related debt alone equals a full year of global output.

Putting it in a much more personal way; the whole world cannot pay for your Social Security. It was spent long ago, and we’re only writing IOU’s now.

There’s a one-hundred-year-old, terrible-ending story about this involving The Federal Reserve, Lawrence of Arabia, FDR and Richard Nixon.

But the bottom line is that a lot of political effluvium is about to hit the fan, and we need to act quickly to clean up what is sure to be a terrible mess.

I propose we dramatically cut spending, government interventions, powers and agencies immediately. Stand down our crony empire and global war machine, and focus on the real problems we face in our real, personal, human lives.
I propose we replace our Ponzi-Scheme funding of Social Security, Medicare and other welfare and entitlement programs with a much simpler taxation and minimum support system at least similar to the Fair Tax.

In other words, I propose we stop lying, stop making promises we can’t keep, and start keeping the promises that make sense for the promotion of peace, prosperity, security …and freedom.
How? It’s really just a choice. Ask me about it.

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Press Release: It’s a Red and Blue ping pong game – and we’re their ball.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Andrew Horning, Libertarian candidate for IN08
19 August, 2022

It’s a Red and Blue ping pong game – and we’re their ball.
(…Or maybe it’s Good Cop/Bad Cop. Whatever it is, is tearing us apart.)

A fine game…for them.

Freedom, IN – A little over half my friends and family are loyal Republicans, so I try my best to understand why they’re so faithful to a party that continuously stabs them in the back in lost rights, more violation of constitutional limitations, more authoritarianism, more bad science and corruption from Big Pharma and Big Ag, more spending, more debt, more spying, lying and militarization, both foreign, and domestic.

You can follow the campaign dollars and see why. As long as they get reelected no matter what, they’ll happily take the money and run…all over us.

But I was asked to listen to Donald Trump’s speech at CPAC, since, especially after the FBI raid, he’s once again idolized as the savior of our nation. So I listened. Since I agree that the current leaders of the Democratic Party are barking-at-the-moon nuts, I too am hoping for miracles…other a Libertarian Sweep of our federal government, of course.

Here are my observations (excluding any mention of extreme narcissism and self-aggrandizement):

1. Much of what Trump said of his accomplishments is not true. For example, the spending and debt by his signature ($4.2 trillion spending is worst-ever), as well as the Fed “stimulus” he supported, is more than half the cause of our current inflationary spike. And “the economy” was not even close to our best-ever; even excluding the COVID-19 madness over which he presided. Also, the supposed drop in unemployment was well under way with Obama before Trump took the helm.

1. While he was only partly wrong about the elimination of drug problems in Singapore, his insinuation that we should add death penalties and harsher enforcement of our already unconstitutional “War On Drugs” is tragically wrong-headed.
2. He spoke of “draining the Swamp” as if he hadn’t already had the reason, authority, power and duty to do that already. All Executive Agencies, for example operate and indeed exist under his direct constitutional authority; he should have stopped their anti-constitutional powers and operations, or eliminated the corrupt agencies completely, with one of the few correct uses of Executive Orders.
3. My faithful Republicans believe that ex-POTUS Trump has learned from his past errors, will drain the swamp at last, repair foreign policy, and turn domestic policy and action over to VPOTUS DeSantis… which of course can’t happen.
4. Yet another “red wave” can’t possibly fix anything. If Republican voters once again vote red, the kingmakers, puppet masters, unelected bureaucrats, permanent partisan staffers, National Security State, Mainstream and New Media that comprise “the Deep State” will still be in charge. In fact that crony network would be even more empowered, since Trump said he’d have to ask Congress to do his job of governing the executive agencies. Too few in the GOP have ever read the constitution to which they pledge their support; even fewer understand what it says.
5. Voters can of course clean up this mess, but only by tearing down the Two Party System that is, like it or not, as wholly and irredeemably corrupt as Trump admitted, it is. That swamp is quite able to suppress any attempts to clean house from inside the system that the swamp owns and controls anyway. Only voters can tear away the partisan firewall, expose the puppet masters, and clean up this destructive madness.

I am not unsympathetic. I understand the need to turn from national self-immolation. But the partisan seesaw we’ve played with two parties who’ve acquired increasingly unfair, corrupt and anti-constitutional power since before we got D/R-only Primary Elections in the 1970’s has been increasingly divisive, increasingly corrupt, and increasingly destructive.

“When you see that your horse is dead, dismount” is a fine saying, but it doesn’t go far enough. “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me” also fails to capture the absurdity of the mess that we keep reelecting. This mess is the direct reflection of We The People. Our government is our avatar. Nothing gets better until we do.

We need a cultural epiphany and reconsideration of who we are, and what the abstraction we call “The United States of America” is all about. We need a revolution that starts in our collective hearts and minds. And we need it fast.

Fortunately, that’s what elections are for. Our vote is not a poker chip. This is no game. We have in our voting arm the power of peaceful revolution. And we certainly need that. Right now.

Each of us also has a voice, people to talk to, and at least a little money to offer to those who really are trying to fight this two-headed monstrosity on our behalf.

We are not powerless. But the historical clock of societal collapse is ticking…

*See my past press releases at https://horning4congress.com/news-media-2/

Liberty or Bust!
Andy Horning
Freedom, Indiana

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Tuì Dǎng – Right here, right now.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Andrew Horning, Libertarian candidate for IN08
thefreedomfarm@gmail.com
11 August, 2022

Freedom, IN – There is a growing movement in China called 退党, or tuì dǎng, which means, “to withdraw from a political party,” or specifically today, to leave the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

There should be no need to say why tuì dǎng is a good thing in today’s dysfunctional, violently oppressive China. The Chinese people have suffered long enough. But there should also be no reason to detail why such a movement is needed here in the USA.

All of us know that the self-appointed, anti-constitutional, divisive and spiteful “Two Party System” that our founders warned against, is a hot mess. We should be done with the increasingly obvious lies, partisan attacks, militarization of unelected bureaucracies, and all the corruption we were warned about by George Washington, through Eisenhower, JFK, and all the wisest people since 1776.

Who isn’t sick of the embarrassing collusion and tribalism inherent in only two choices? In what other realm of natural or human choice would only two options be tolerated anyway? More to the point, actually, there have never been only two choices! Not legally, or even practically, since there are today hundreds of elected Libertarians in the USA, just for example. We’re only told that there are only two choices by the entrenched crony parties themselves, and their servant media. This has to stop!

There have already been many minor movements away from each of the two puppet parties, and the old media. “Blexit,” “Never Trumpers,” and innumerable fractious factions are already dividing the parties into more siloed factions. It’s time to finish the job, and tear down the whole Two Party System canard.

It’s destructive, no sane human likes it, and it’s going to end – either by rational choice, or in slackjaw surprise when red and blue waves finally sweep away all that was good of western culture.

https://horning4congress.com/

Liberty or Bust!
Andy Horning
Freedom, Indiana

*See “Eight Steps to Success” at https://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2017/12/15/eight-steps-to-success/

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You want term limits? Fire the incumbents and hire a BUNCH of new politicians.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Andrew Horning, Libertarian candidate for IN08
thefreedomfarm@gmail.com
https://horning4congress.com/

July 29, 2022

Freedom, IN – Now that most “laws” are written by unelected bureaucrats and few in D.C. seem worried about our government’s growing power, spending and debt, it seems the only job for US Congress critters, other than naming post offices of course, is to get reelected. And the key strategy to keep getting reelected is to keep your head down, don’t make waves, don’t have any unscripted public appearances, enjoy your new D.C. friends, take the money and run silent, run deep.

But that’s not how any of this was supposed to work!

I used to oppose term limits on the US Congress. But mostly because of unconstitutional state and federal codes that grant unfair power and money to incumbent parties and politicians, I would, if elected, immediately propose term limits (among many other restraints on politicians).

But that wouldn’t solve the problem of politicians who don’t live in the district, and insulate themselves from the people they’re to serve. So I’d also propose we (hang onto your hat) increase the number of US House Reps. far beyond the number set in 1929 based on the 1910 census, but also far less than James Madison’s proposed constitutional limit of, based on today’s population, 66,000!

Hang on. Hear me out…

1. We have the technology to do this. I’ve worked remote since the 1990’s, and many more do today. Consider how much different your access to federal politics would be if your representative was almost always in your district, and geographically much, much closer.
2. A lot of our reps don’t even show up to work even half the time, and there are only from around 160 to 190 days when they’re expected to show up anyway. Being closer to constituents, with less excuse to play hooky, would promote more accountability.
3. Pet pork projects and sleazy behavior would be much harder to sneak past so many more representatives that aren’t so buddy-buddy, and don’t hang out at the same golf courses.
4. Most of Washington D.C. is a theme park for corruption and political puppet masters. We really want to get our representatives out of that town.
5. More representatives would make both the House, and thus the Electoral College, more representative of our population in geography, demographics and ideology.
6. It’s pretty dirt-cheap for large special interests to buy out a majority among only 435 reps. Even the military-industrial and financial complexes would have a much harder time purchasing thousands of reps who lived and worked closer to their constituents.
7. We’d be much more likely to actually know something about the people we hire for the job if they were more accessible to us before Election Day.
8. With a few thousand reps close to home and more accessible, we wouldn’t need so many tens of thousands of new and heavily-armed IRS agents.

https://horning4congress.com/

Liberty or Bust!
Andy Horning
Freedom, Indiana

*See “Eight Steps to Success” at https://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2017/12/15/eight-steps-to-success/ and https://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2016/08/31/money-politics-and-central-banks/

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