In the my Liberty in the Balance post, I gave a reading assignment of several Glenn Beck articles, and concluded that those who love America for the basic premise of our founding documents and rights they represent, need to take a stand now. I didn't elaborate on what specific stands to take.

Well, if you've done your reading assignment (especially this one) then you have learned that right now, the crucial issues are these:

• Healthcare Reform
• The so-called "Cap & Trade" energy tax
• Card Check (non-private union ballots)

Any of these issues alone would have, at the least, an additional chilling effect on the American economic engine (which the "stimulus" activities have already done) but taken all together in addition to the "stimulus" plan, they would be the stake in the heart AND the nails in the coffin.

The insurance impact of Healthcare Reform alone would completely stall Small Business, which is 70% of our economy. At 70%, small business IS our economic engine. Think about that: Take our economy, in it's current tenuous state, and freeze 70% of it. Of course it wouldn't freeze all at once, it would slowly grind to a halt over a miserable 2 - 5 year process. Let that fresh hell rain over your mind... Now, let's take the next step:

The energy tax known as Cap & Trade would hit both individuals and business of every size (although least severely for the Washington-connected megacorps.) The initial impact would be that home energy bills go up by $3,000/yr... then we add the rise in consumer gas, the rise in the cost of producing food, and then add the rise in the price of manufacturing consumer goods, and on that, we add the rise in price for transporting consumer goods and food to the point of sale. Add all those up, and add it to your previous picture of the economy. And yes, then we take another step:

Card Check would effectively unionize most businesses over time, converting potential productivity & innovation into life-sucking employee entitlements, just as occured with the auto makers. Unionization would squeeze most small and medium business out of profitability (and therefore, out of business-- unless, like with the automakers, goverment seizes control.) Now how's that economy looking?

(Note that I've only touched on the economic impact... I don't have room to get into the moral and social impact.)

If these come to pass, watch for proponents of socialism to again claim that the companies they've regulated out of business are more "proof" that "capitalism" has failed us, that entrepreneurial greed is the cause of the failure, and that goverment control of the business "for the common good" is the only way to guarantee our nation's security.

So this is the line in the sand, the 3 main battlefronts in preserving the Constitution at the moment. (The right to bear arms is another, but to my knowledge, a fresh assault on that front does not appear to have been coordinated. Yet. ) We have to hold the line on these, completely scuttle them for this administration, before we can think about retaking lost ground.

There's probably plenty of others that could be taken up, but if we lose these, it probably won't matter.

Why? Well, let's look at the ground we've already lost:

• The Goverment is already the nation's educator, in most cases-- the entity who has taught the majority of the last 3 generations what to think. 
• The Goverment is already the employer for 16% of the workforce (at least, that was the direct figure in 2008... now that they are majority stockholders in the banking and auto industries, they are indirectly employers of a much larger workforce.)
• Trade and Tax policies already control a great deal of the operation of business (of which, only a very limited amount is necessary.) 
• Federal monetary policy-- something that most people couldn't define-- is one of the most invasive, but least noticible: It stealthily curbs business and individual productivity by first, issuing "currency" that is actually interest-bearing notes of debt, and second, by over-printing that fiat currency, causing inflation, meaning businesses and individuals get less and less in return for more and more work. (You'll see more on this topic in later posts.)

If we fail to hold those lines, we yeild the following: 

• Goverment control of Healthcare effectively adds at least another 10% of the total workforce as goverment employees. 
• As your healthcare provider, Goverment sets the terms on everything from birth rates, to diet, to end-of-life care, and everything in between.
• Under Cap & Trade, the goverment affects and regulates every aspect of your life that involves a powered device. Think about that.
• Under card check, the government/union partnership would effectively control any remaining aspects of business which taxes, healthcare and energy policy do not already affect.

With those lost, what else would be left?