Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ and an American tradition that has evolved into a world-renowned holiday that brings us the season of the unconditional giving of oneself to others.

While the giving of ourselves may include various different forms of  the giving of one’s time,  love, money, and material things all wrapped up in brightly colored ribbons and bows, today I’d like to celebrate what I consider to be some of the most wonderful gifts being given this year from deep within the hearts and souls of true Patriotic Americans. The gift I speak of is our largely unique, longstanding America freedom from an over-bearing, debt-spending, out of control, tyrannical government that has America on the verge of a financial and moral collapse. The gift of freedom.

America’s collective Christian faith has been at the forefront of America’s unity in of our battle against an oppressive ruling class government since the early days of our founding, starting with our Declaration of Independence from our first oppressor Great Britain, to the world battles against assorted tyrannical madmen such as Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, Hugo Chavez etc. Millions of people have migrated to America to escape oppressive, tyrannical rulers and governments for centuries.

That brings us to the current battle in America today against the most dangerous oppressor of modern American history, one which our Constitution has protected us from for some 235 years: Big Government Socialism. Today we no longer have a government that serves the people. Every single prosperous country in the world that has accepted this stealth form of oppressive Communism masquerading as utopian socialism built upon false share-the-wealth promises has ended in chaos and poverty the world over. The prime example of the day that proves this point: The European debt crisis. When taking an objective look into that elitist-ruling-class manufactured crisis that has brought down the governments of Italy and Greece with several more to follow, we see just where that utopian European Socialism leads us once again. The elite are getting bailed out by the working class over and over again without being allowed a voice in the conversation. Crony-capitalist bankers and government-connected thieves are prospering while the working class faces economic Armageddon in what is now called the European Union.

The Socialism-induced collapse of the EU brings us full-circle to what now appears to be America’s last line of defense against the ruling-class oppression of today’s European-style Socialism that now threatens to infect America and wipe out her historic personal freedoms and enduring prosperity. The last line of defense I speak of here, is the coalition of Constitutional conservatives, true American Patriots, to include the all-important group of information sharing citizens, Tea Party political activists, and internet freedom-fighters working 24/7 to inform the public of the dangers of today’s all-too-powerful, constitution-trampling U.S. government. Through this massive effort of self-less giving, these Patriots are indeed our last, best hope of avoiding the stealth European Socialism that now has all of Europe engulfed in poverty, chaos and an uncertain future. America must be made aware of these dangers before they engulf America as they have all of Europe today.

To all of the Patriotic citizen journalists across America, including the engaged stay at home Moms, the concerned senior citizens, the American Freedom groups, the Tea Party warriors, the true Constitutional conservatives of Congress, the information-sharing networks and all of the Patriotic bloggers who continue to give selflessly and tirelessly to stop the big government oppression we are under attack from today, thank you. A heartfelt thank you for uniting to give all of America the greatest gift of all this holiday season: The gift of continuing American freedom and prosperity that has made this nation the greatest nation on earth.  Thank all of you Patriots, and Merry Christmas.   Sincerely,  DJ Redman @conservativedailynews.com

Footnote: As I consider myself to be a citizen journalist writing here at CDN to give the gift of freedom through insightful information-sharing, I would like to add the following info-byte from the UK that shows us the relevancy of certain anti-Americans that constantly denounce and minimize the Christian faith in America, (as in the war on Christmas) in order to install European-style socialism into America:

Anyone who has run a business or even a household budget, knows all too well that budget “gimmicks” will turn around and bite you sooner or later. Whether you are shifting overrun costs from one year to the next or spending more than you take in, most gimmicks are basically a deception and denial of reality. Unfortunately, this slight-of-hand is a common practice in our government budgeting methods.  These politically motivated budgetary deceptions are killing our infrastructure and eroding our economy and as The Wall Street Journal reported, it may soon impact our credit rating.

Moody’s Investors Service said in a report Thursday that the U.S. will need to reverse an upward trajectory in the debt ratios to support its triple-A rating.

“We have become increasingly clear about the fact that if there are not offsetting measures to reverse the deterioration in negative fundamentals in the U.S., the likelihood of a negative outlook over the next two years will increase,” said Sarah Carlson, senior analyst at Moody’s.

Our government exudes incompetence and a lack of true accounting practices today, when we look at the massive gimmickry they use in budgeting the taxpayers hard earned dollars. The truth in this statement is quite obvious in the following example.

TSA Hiring Project Runs 700% Over Budget

According to the Washington Post, in 2002, the TSA issued a $104 million contract to hire airport screeners. By 2006, the cost had skyrocketed almost 700% to $741 million.

“TSA officials then moved forward with no planning ‘or adequate cost control,’ the report said, and they ignored warnings from contractor NCS Pearson Inc. that project costs had far exceeded the budget approved by Congress.” When asked why the initial cost projections were so inaccurate, the TSA program administer who managed the program said, “That $1 billion was a number out of the air, frankly.” He continued, “All I got from the DOT was, ‘When you hit $1 billion, come back to us.’” With this level of insightful analysis put into estimating the true costs of the project, it is less than shocking that TSA’s contractor went over budget.

Fast forward to today. With the addition of the new scanners, thousands of new workers, and other assorted equipment that the TSA currently employs on American citizens when traveling, we cannot even form an educated guess as to the total cost overruns there. In this case, the original budget gimmickry is that there was an initial start-up cost assessment, yet there appears to be no long term Life-Cycle Budgeting. This is akin to a blank check for the never-ending expansion of the TSA, with no built-in accountability or transparency. As noted in the article above, when they hit 1 billion tax dollars, come back to us. There is the gimmick. “A no-limit budget.” It is impossible to declare any form of fiscal sanity with cost projections approved of $104M, and four years later you have spent $741M. Where is the oversight and cost-controls that should slow this money-train down?

In the TSA example, there was no Life-Cycle Budgeting involved, and there are no stated plans to install any. In the real world, the TSA would be declared bankrupt and closed down. This is a deceptive form of fraud against the taxpayer, as we are being asked to fund a never-ending expansion of the TSA with no transparent or accountable budgeting involved. We can do better, and our current economic situation demands it be done immediately.

Infrastructure projects are an important part of our economy and when not budgeted properly, can have devastating long-term economic consequences. These projects are a critical investment towards our economic growth and stability. When we neglect our infrastructure through short-sited, stop gap measures and temporary repairs, we are headed for a disaster of epic proportions. Our transportation system will eventually grind to a halt. Businesses will no longer be able to get materials and products from point A to point B. Our roads, bridges, rail systems, and shipping ports must be maintained and rebuilt with true a more complete and transparent set of practices – life cycle budgeting.

These projects must contain an honest level of transparency in all phases. Access to the budgeting process is necessary towards understanding the true costs of proposed, ongoing and future projects. This must include initial construction costs, plus long term maintenance costs over the lifespan of the project, and together they must be included in the initial proposed budget figures. When we fail to do this, we have people being killed by crumbling bridges due to lack of proper maintenance and inspections and transportation delays that have a massive trickle down effect on our economy. When this type of disaster happens, the reports state that the government didn’t have the money or resources to maintain the project. Wouldn’t they have had the resources if they had properly figured the complete life cycle costs for the project in the beginning?

When discussing our economic problems of today, we have to really look into how our Government spends our tax dollars to find a working solution.. Without transparency in the budgeting process, the nation is kept in the dark as a whole, and the problems of short-sightedness in our budgeting will continue to weaken our economy. Is our Government actually so incompetent and short-sighted ?

When people buy a new car, do they expect to have expense-free transportation for the next twenty years? Even the youngest generation of drivers soon learns that there are life-cycle expenses in owning a car. These include proper maintenance, such as oil changes, new tires, and operating expenses, such as fuel. Without proper budgeting for all expenses involved with driving a car, the person can end up with a car that isn’t able to get them from point A to point B when needed. They may get four years of use out of the car without any maintenance, but then their original investment is lost and they have to go out and buy another car. This isn’t cost effective, and people are quick to learn to use life-cycle budgeting when buying a new car. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as they say. Figure in the cost of maintenance and related expenses when buying a new car, and you will never end up having to use your vehicle maintenance funds for fuel , which then leads to shortening the life of your investment. This should be common sense, but it doesn’t seem to apply to the people in our Government today. When it comes to calculating the actual lifetime costs of Infrastructure projects, our Government displays seemingly major incompetency and ineptitude. Why is that?

Politics, of course.

Our Federal and State governments today way too often try to score political points instead of trying to get more bang for the Taxpayer’s buck. This has been going on for decades with no end in sight. From funding bridges to nowhere, to Airports that only serve a dozen people a day, to paying out millions of dollars a year for maintenance on federal buildings that were tore down years ago, the abuse and malfeasance can almost always be traced back to political posturing, corruption, fraud or flat out cronyism. A lack of transparency is at the main root of these wasteful projects. Politicians that are more concerned with vote-buying through “bringing home the bacon to their districts,” than the actual betterment of our Nation, are robbing our Nation of critical infrastructure dollars. This is a direct threat to our Economy and National Security. Federal and State legislatures are supposed to be the guardians of our nation through the proper use of taxpayer dollars. The most effective, proven way to ensure this, is to demand transparent, full life cycle cost budgeting in all forms of government spending. The future of our great Nation depends on it. Daniel (@twitter mirac777)

       Today I want to share my thoughts on just how out of bounds our government is operating today concerning The Food Safety Bill and it’s passage. This situation first came to my attention, when in December of 2010, I witnessed Senator Dick Durbin explaining The Food safety Bill on cspan2. Mr Durbin had a huge chart with him that showed the next ten years of implementing the Food safety Bill, (as it was known then) would not increase the national Debt. He had it laid out with all zeroes under the cost section of each year. So I immediately asked myself how can creating thousands of more government positions, along with the equipment to operate, costs the taxpayer zero dollars? Then it hit me. It will be paid for by new higher food taxes and/or prices passed down to the consumer! So at it’s roots, The Food Safety Bill is another stealth tax that our Congress failed once again to inform the citizens about. (Unless you think the thousands of people who will have to be hired to enforce this plan will work for free?) Meanwhile, decent Americans were caught up in the argument that this bill would make their home gardens illegal and other propaganda to distract them.
       I also found myself wondering why this bill was being rammed through during the Lame Duck session of Congress in late December. Yes, it did have prior limited debate in both houses of congress.. Yet true to the Democratic party’s method of operation during the last two years, the final process was rushed and fraught with partisanship. Then it was passed illegally in the Senate, due to Article 1 section 7 of the US Constitution, which states the following: All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills. Section 107 of the Food Safety Bill is titled: Authority to collect fees. (making S510 null and void) So many Americans applauded this as meaning the Bill was dead on arrival in 2010, and would have to be completely redone. Not with the 111^th Congress being controlled by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, (along with Republicans who seemed to forget what being a conservative is supposed to mean) No sir.

    Keep in mind here, that the American public was being bombarded with the Tax Cut/Increase debate at the same time. When I wonder why Republicans seemingly let this Food Safety Bill get passed during a recession, I come to the conclusion that the Tax debate had to be relevant. Was there some kind of a deal made? Who, in their right mind would increase the price of food drastically during a recession when Unemployment is darn near 10% ? When I heard that the Food safety Bill (S510 at the time) was passed contrary to the Constitution, I thought like everyone else did, that it was dead. Then I turn on cspan during the lame duck session, and there is the above mentioned Dick Durbin and his chart, telling us that this bill will not increase the debt again. This lead to me calling Senators and demanding an explanation. I received exactly zero answers or explanations. Two days later I received my answers, in the form of HR 2751, A bill to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to the safety of the food supply. Say what? From govtrack.us, accessed on 01/08/2011** I learned the following, regarding the original S510 Food Safety Bill:
    “This bill was superseded by H.R. 2751. On Sunday, December 19, the text of S. 510 replaced the original text of H.R. 2751, and the bill passed by voice vote. H.R. 2751, originally the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act, passed the House in June 2009 and was a “vehicle” for the passage of S. 510 in a House-originating bill because S. 510 was a revenue-raising bill. All revenue-raising bills must originate in the House.”

“This bill never became law. This bill was proposed in a previous session of Congress. Sessions of Congress last two years, and at the end of each session all proposed bills and resolutions that haven’t passed are cleared from the books. Members often reintroduce bills that did not come up for debate under a new number in the next session. “

The following is a short summary of this whole process, again accessed from govtrack.us on 01/08/2011***

Dec 29, 2010: Presented to President.

“Related:

See the Related Legislation page for other bills related to this one and a list of subject terms that have been applied to this bill. Sometimes the text of one bill or resolution is incorporated into another, and in those cases the original bill or resolution, as it would appear here, would seem to be abandoned.

Votes:

Jun 9, 2009: This bill passed in the House of Representatives by roll call vote. The vote was held under a suspension of the rules to cut debate short and pass the bill, needing a two-thirds majority. This usually occurs for non-controversial legislation. The totals were 298 Ayes, 119 Nays, 17 Present/Not Voting

Dec 19, 2010: This bill passed in the Senate with changes by Voice Vote. A record of each senator’s position was not kept. (Therefore, NO Senators up for reelection in 2012 can be held accountable for passing higher food prices onto us during a bad economy)

Dec 21, 2010: A vote in the House of Representatives to agree with the other chamber’s changes passed by roll call vote. The totals were 215 Ayes, 144 Nays, 74 Present/Not Voting. ( not doing what we pay them to do)”

    In conclusion, we must look at the complete picture here to understand just what has happened and how it was done. First, this bill was titled The Food Safety Act. America has had the safest record in Food safety in the world for over 100 years. To put this into perspective, the fake baby formula episode in China resulted in more deaths, then food poisoning has in America in the last 10 years. So this has nothing to do with actual food safety and everything to do with increasing the size and scope of our government by adding thousands new positions and regulations. There were no “massive epidemics” as some people in our Congress were spewing during debate on it.

   Secondly is the “reported costs” to the taxpayer. The CBO has hedged on producing a firm estimate, yet once again projections have risen from 1.4B to 4.2 B yearly. Those billions are in new tax dollars, by the way, as there wasn’t even an attempt to cut waste, fraud or redundant positions within the incompetent FDA, when passing this bill. Spend, Spend ,Spend.

    Last but certainly not least, are the people who were behind this power grab/stealth tax debacle. Over 200 big company lobbyists spent millions pushing this through. Once again the little man is left out and not allowed a voice in this discussion. Small farmers will be driven out of business, and our food prices will rise drastically. There is no solid information that gaurantees our food supply will be made safer, and we will pay higher food prices. This bill should be repealed, and an honest debate be opened up which includes all Americans, not just the ones who will enrich themselves through bribing corrupt politicians with Lobbyist dollars. Enough is enough.

** http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-510 – S510 Ref.*** http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-2751 – HR 2751 Ref.

Thank you, Daniel,Tampa Fl, (aka Mirac777@twitter.com)