Questions For All Legislators (Newsletter #262 - A Weekly View from the Foothills of Appalachia)
There are a number of important questions that we present to each
individual candidate for the legislature every election cycle. These
questions relate to our personal rights and liberties, as well as to
our American way of life. Questions such as these can be quite
enlightening in an election year. So we made them public a couple
years ago. Below is a revised edition.
There are an awful lot of laws, rules and regulations on the
books. Do you agree with all those laws, rules and regulations? If
not, which ones did you work to have removed? Which laws, rules or
regulations were actually removed? Exactly when can we expect others
to be repealed?
Do you actually know all of the current laws, rules and
regulations and how they impact on the people? If you, as a lawmaker,
do not know all of the laws, rules and regulations affecting the
people, how in the world can you believe any single citizen can be
expected to know and obey them?
That is, if you do not care enough to know all laws on the books
at this moment, it means that either there are too many, or you just
do not care and plan to continue to pile on more anyway. Either way,
we have a problem that needs the immediate attention of good
legislators.
The Founding Fathers intended that a wealth of unalienable
rights and liberties belong to each citizen individually and are not
to be interfered with by government. Generally, these include our
natural and individual rights of life, liberty and property. The
Founding Fathers intended it to be the expressed duty of all elected
officials and bureaucrats to protect these rights and liberties. In
fact, part of this duty to the people is expressed in the oath of
office taken by all elected officials and public servants upon
entering government service. Exactly what, then, did you (or will
you) do to insure the uninterrupted personal freedom of the people of
our State?
There were a number of bills recently submitted that would
impact negatively on the freedom of the people of our State. In other
words, if enacted into law, the bills will act to remove certain
personal rights and liberties. Gun laws obstruct our unalienable
right to protect self, family, home and community. Some laws, such as
those regulating medical services and the purchase of other personal
goods and services, affect our right to contract, which is a direct
violation of the United States Constitution. Others, such as
forfeiture and environmental laws, adversely affect our natural right
to private property. Still others, such as traffic stops and stop and
frisk laws, directly affect our liberty to move about in society and
function as we please. Did you (or will you) support bills that
adversely impacted on the rights and liberties of the people? If so,
please indicate which ones and why.
Over the past decade, government has been our fastest growing
industry. More government, of course, needs more tax dollars.
Consequently, about 45% of the average family’s household income goes
directly to taxes and another 10% for hidden costs caused by spurious
regulations. What did you (or will you) do to help remove some of
this excessive tax burden from the people of our State? Do you ever
intend to roll back government to a more unintrusive level? When will
this program begin?
Benjamin Franklin admonished that: "They that can give up
essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither
liberty nor safety." Voters need to know exactly which rights
legislators will support, unequivocally. Which rights will you
support? Which rights do you view as unimportant at this time, and
why?