Reader Email: Uncle Santa Clause, I want a Pony

It’s Christmas Eve and Jimmy has just been tucked snugly in bed.  The anxiety for the day to come has him plum tuckered out.  As he drifts off to sleep, the last vision that passed across his mind is a photographic memory of the crayon written letter he sent to Santa:

Dear Santa,

It’s me Jimmy.  I have been a very good boy this year and I got all A’s on my report card.  All I want for Christmas is a pony; a brown pony with white spots is what I really want but any pony will do if you can’t find one with spots.

Thanks,

Jimmy

As the first light of dawn broke through the mini blinds in Jimmy’s room, he was up like a shot.  To the window he went, expecting a pony to be tied to the old elm tree in the front yard.  Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes he looked again, more closely this time, bumping his head on the cold glass trying to look straight down.  With a deep sigh, his warm breath obscured the view through the glass. Striking his finger through the haze on the window, he thought to himself, no pony!  “Perhaps the back yard!” he thought with a revived spirit.  Again, no pony.  With sorrow and disbelief he made his way towards the Christmas tree, his bare feet slapping the hardwood floor in a gait of discouragement.  Down he plopped, sideways on his father’s worn recliner.  Just then, out of the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of a red envelope placed thoughtfully at the base of the Christmas tree.  On the envelope was his name, Jimmy.  With restored hope he hurriedly opened the letter.

Dear Jimmy,

I am so glad you have been a good boy this year; however, due to the small number of ponies available, I am unable to grant your wish.  I also expect the supply of ponies to be small next year as well.   With that knowledge, only the very best children will be awarded a pony next year.  Trevor Johnson next door was given a pony this year based upon his very complete letter to Santa.  Please use his format and documentation as an example of a winning letter (see enclosed).

Thanks for believing,

Santa

Jimmy opened Trevor’s letter to Santa, all twelve pages worth.  The front page, which was a cover sheet; the second page, which was left blank intentionally; the third page, which was the table of contents — all pages type written.  “His parents helped him,” Jimmy thought as he thumbed through the pages.  Every good deed was well-documented.  “What’s this?!!!”   “Shoveled snow at old man Lincoln’s house,” it said.  “I did that!”  he fumed.  Passing by that page in disgust he also noticed Trevor’s grades were not as good as his, but with each poor grade was a typewritten reason for his poor performance….

Exit fiction, enter reality.

This morning on my way to work I heard a news story that at first did not sink in.  The story was: “The State of Idaho is in the running for a federal education grant.”  My first thought when I heard the news was, cool, we could use the extra money to help out in a short budget year, but my second thought was a bit deeper.

Why must we apply to Santa, errr . . . Uncle Sam (both old, white bearded guys), to have the same money that was seized from our citizens granted back to us?  The answer is strings, both purse and puppet.  The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution grants to the States and the people all the powers not given specifically to the federal government by the Constitution.  Public education is not a power reserved for the federal government, therefore the duty falls upon the State or the People.  The catch, however, lies in the Sixteenth Amendment:

“The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.”

Boy, howdy does the Feds use that amendment to the fullest!  They take as much as they wish (lawfully so {a legal injustice}) and impose their will by withholding funds from those do not comply, or rewarding those who comply — bribery and pandering to be blunt.  This affective nullification of the Tenth Amendment via the Sixteenth has been gradual erosion that is transforming The United States of America into the Administrative Oligarchal of Puppet States of America (AOPSA).

This federal grant for education that Idaho is in the running for is just a small example of the federal governments “soft persuasion tactics.”  The Department of Energy, the EPA, Dept. of Homeland Security and many more practice this Santa-esque tactic.  But it does not stop there.  The feds have used much stronger tactics in the past, such as threatening to withhold directly budgeted money from our state if we did not conform to their will.

With the apparent wholesale rejection of Obama Care things are looking up for freedom loving Americans.  In the past we as conservative Americans have been content to play defense against the would-be tyrant, giving a little ground each time we proclaim victory.  With this most current election in Massachusetts, we must prepare to go on the offense for once and not squander the opportunity like we did for the Bush years.  As Winston Churchill once said, “Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.”

As we prepare to retake the once golden beaches of liberty, we must consider in advance the genesis of this increasingly less-soft tyranny we endure.  We must fight monumental battles of direct principal rather than a thousand small skirmishes.  I would offer for consideration of the patriots an action plan. 

The Tenth Amendment couldn’t be clearer, yet it is impotent.  We must repeal the Sixteenth Amendment and replace it with something like this:

The Congress shall have the power to levy a tax on each state based solely upon census.  The amount of the tax will be restrained to the actual expense of administration and execution of duties described in the Constitution specifically.

In such a consideration the states would pay a tax directly to the federal government rather than the citizens individually.  Each state could decide how to most efficiently and equitably procure the funds from the people at the state level.  Each state could decide which services and programs are the duty of the government.  Just as Santa is an un-necessary, redundant, convoluting and inefficient intermediary between parent and child, so is the federal government in most affairs.  The power must be closer to the people.

For your consideration,

Walt Holton        

Comments

[Philip France]

This piece is profound and prescient. Shame on Selwyn's readers that failed to comment and applaud.

Excellent piece, Walt!

[Walt]

Thanks Philip, That means alot.

[dieweihnachtskarte.christmas]

The problem with Christmas is that the kids always want everything they see a Pony is just one of the smaller things that kids want, my son wanted a rocket and launcher last year, I wonder how much that would set me back.