7-1-25

Big Government

This week we dive into one of my favorite seasonal holidays…..the 4 th of July has

always been one of my favorite times…..probably because I was that kid who was

usually not allowed to play with matches, but yet once a year I was turned loose

with bottle rockets, cherry bombs and Black Cat firecrackers…..and if you’re old

school enough you remember when they actually sold kids a crazy deadly thing

called an M-80….the “M” stood for military because this was originally a military-

grade pyrotechnic….M-80’s were outlawed in 1975….sometimes government gets

it right, just sayin’…..but what about times when government oversteps?....what

about times when government is enforcing laws, its just enforcing governments

role in your life……there is a time and place for government….I get that….I believe

that….there are essential services of government…..there are roads to be built,

schools to be run, and yes, there are laws to be enforced…..

Ok, I’m probably dating myself here……did you ever watch some of the old black

and white sitcoms…….Andy Griffith, Beverly Hillbillies…….Man, I did! All the

time…..classic humor, timeless characters….Remember on Andy Griffith the two

old sisters who had the moonshine still? Andy and Barney could not figure out

where Otis the town drunk kept getting his liquor…..well it was “Papa’s

recipe….for medicinal purposes only you understand”. And then of course the

Beverly Hillbillies……Granny had her still and was always on the lookout for the

“Revenuers”…..those gov’mint men that were gonna swoop in and put the kabash

on her moonshinin’….

That stuff was real though…..Not far from where I live is the Talladega

Superspeedway…..part of the history of Nascar was the boys that would soup old

sedans …..fill ‘em with home brew and outrun the law on the backroads……but

I’ve heard tell of it right in my area….I know one family that was so into

moonshining that they had a house out in the woods with a drive-thru

window…..folks would run out to little ol’ house in the woods on that dirt road in

the backside of nowhere and pull right up to the drive-thru and get a mason jar

full of shine…..I know its true because a friend of mine used to work for the law

enforcement agency that was on a first name basis with them…..they’d get so

mad every time my friend would arrest them and then go right back into

moonshinin’ again…….There’s also a road I know of in my part of North Alabama

called “Six Foot Road”……legend has it that years ago it was the hub for a bunch of

good ‘ol boys in the ‘shine business and if you were found out there when you

weren’t supposed to be you could end up “six foot under”……if you know what I

mean……

Revenuers…….the g-men……gov’mint boys……but that was also illegal activity. In

the end it makes sense that law enforcement…..the government, if you

will…..would go after what is actually illegal…..that’s what they’re there for right?

But what if the G-men wanted to come get into your business without any

indications of illegal activity…..no probable cause ……no warrants……no court of

law intervening to ensure that you have due process……What if the IRS could just

snoop through your records and see every ATM transaction…..every time you

bought milk and bread……every time you went out to dinner…..every time you

used your credit card…..or put money in a savings account…..or planned for

retirement……

Enforcement of the laws is what government is supposed to do….my friend who

busted the moonshiners in our county was doing exactly what he was supposed

to do…..but what about when government gets so big that it no longer cares

about whether you are acting illegally or not….they just want another trophy,

another clamp down on speech, another regulation to prevent you from doing

what your rights say you should be able to do….what about when government

forgets it place and decides that you matter less than the government machine…..

It wasn’t so long ago that a friend of mine right here in Alabama was the target of

a weaponized IRS…..in 2011 Becky Gerritson, who has been on this show many

times, and who now runs the Alabama chapter of the Eagle Forum, a non-profit

conservative policy group, Becky was the head of the Wetumpka Tea Party…..they

applied for 501c3 status and it was delayed and then denied simply because

Obama bureaucrat Lois Lerner chose to use her office for partisan reasons……my

friend Becky wound up making national news when she testified before Congress.

More recently I had another friend on the show from Texas…… Bunni Pounds is

the President of a Christian non-profit called “Christians Engaged” that is designed

to encourage Christians to be active in politics and community efforts……. No

naming of parties at all……. But the IRS originally denied her non-profit status

because (in writing!) they said that Bible Studies are more often affiliated with

Republicans and therefore her group was considered partisan……. It took threats

of legal action to get the IRS to recant….

So what would the IRS do if it could access everything……with no cause. If

someone is cheating on their taxes and they have probable cause to believe so

then it is already a crime……subpoena the records…….But if they can access the

data they want when they want from whomever they want without your

protections or knowledge…….and then combine that with their history of abuse of

processes……and then increase their enforcement arm with new weapons and

tactical gear…….we would be looking at unprecedented levels of govt retaliation

against every day citizens for reasons that unelected bureaucrats have a beef with

at the time…..that my friends is the bullet we dodged when Trump was

elected…..remember in 2021 when the unfortunately named misguided

legislation championed by Pelosi and Schumer was passed called the Inflation

Reduction Act….what a name! what a lie! …..did it reduce your inflation by, I don’t

know, any? The answer is “no”…..the Inflation Reduction Act was a massive

spending spree designed to grow government and buried within it was that

sneaky little provision that would have allowed the IRS to hire close to 87,000

new agents….

Don’t like the look of that series of legal deposits in your account…..I’m sorry

we’re going to have to audit your whole life…..Don’t like the political stance of

your business…..I’m sorry, you appear to be in jeopardy of losing your business

license for partisan activities……Buy too many gun supplies …….scrutiny……you

must be a militia man planning an insurrection……Donate to certain

charities……investigate those charities while we’re at it….

All the jokes about “Revenuers”…….those were tongue in cheek because most

folks know that the law is the law……But the big hand of government having

oversight over the smallest aspects of your life……this is wrong on so many

levels……it is activity like what I just described that led to the reasons why we now

have a country….why we celebrate the 4 th of July…..why we still talk about things

like taxation without representation….or unequal treatment under the law….it is

just this kind of big government burdening that led to the patriots calling

themselves the ”Son’s of Liberty” to march on Boston Harbor and throw cases of

British tea into the waters……

We’re watching right now as the Big Beautiful Bill works its way through the

machinations of the Senate and hopefully back to the House…..but as much as we

watch and worry about spending…..I’ve got to say that we have also put our trust

in an administration that has shown a propensity to curtail government

overreach…..in January of this year, with just a few days in office, President

Trump issued a cease-and-desist order to the IRS to halt their hiring and

growth…..House Ways and Means Chairman, Republican Congressman Jason

Smith, said that it was a good thing he did so because the track of the IRS was

leading to the possibility of more invasive audits which would have been “ripe for

abuse given that the agency has been out of control”……he went on to say that

the “American people overwhelmingly supported this move and gave President

Trump a mandate to end the weaponization of the federal government”……yes,

we did……

Americans are not fond of all-things government……sure, there are those big

government liberals and free spending politicians, but rank and file Americans still

celebrate the 4 th of July because we not only freed ourselves from tyranny…..but

we established a limited form of government…..its really that simple……

The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen…….

And that’s a wrap for the Rightside Way!