and die. I cannot believe the ignorance and lack of thinking ability, even here on the tent.

The arguments that everyone else is doing it, why not the U.S., is no different than a teenager asking his parents to let them do something because “everyone else is.” If that’s your idea of a persuasive and well thought out argument, then you would make an idiot of a parent.

Second, what is it that people do not get about the U.S.? I can understand if you are from another country and you don’t know the principles and ideals on which this country was founded and upon which it is still supposed to be run, but there has been plenty of educational material about that shared at this forum. For those who still don’t get it, let me spell it out here, and clearly. Rights are not granted by man, but by our Creator. The role of government is to protect the God-given rights of man from encroachment or violation by anyone, and especially by government itself. This may not apply in your country, but it is foundational to the U.S.

If you rely on “rights” granted by man, then those rights are subject to being revoked by man as well, regardless of how they are carved into law. Do you really want to rely on our fellow man to respect rights granted by men? This has never worked in history, and even today, men and women in our own government are hard at work, 24/7/365 to strip Americans of our God-given rights. History documents over and over and over that you cannot trust your fellow man. To have freedom, you must recognize that natural rights flow from a Creator and apply to all mankind. The fact of the matter is that the U.S. is the only nation in the world that understood that fact and wrote it into our founding documents, from the constitution to our Bill of Rights and our very form of government - a republic, NOT a democracy. This was intentional to avoid the tyranny of the majority.

And the founding fathers clearly understood that without a populace that understood that rights come from God and tyranny comes from man, the nation would fail. Which is what we are doing now: failing.

Never mind that this legislation is unconstitutional; never mind that it is violating all normal procedures to pass legislation, never mind that it will both bankrupt our country rapidly while raising the cost and limiting the availability of healthcare, never mind that it is full of power grabs (like nationalizing the student loan program) and billions and billions in pork, never mind that the American citizens do not want it - never mind all that. Just go back to first principles, which is where all review of such things should begin. And there, in the constitution and our government structure, you will find that this action by our supposed government exceeds its constitutional authority by a wide margin. No other arguments hold water. Our government, that is, the U.S. government, is very restricted on the activities in which it can engage. And this legislation, like much of what has been passed since 1913, exceeds those limits. That alone is reason enough to both defeat this evil piece of tyranny and to prosecute our congressmen and senators for high treason.

And as always, I am more than happy to buy the right to throw away the key once they are thrown into the worst dungeon on earth upon conviction, wherever that may be. And I would cough up a gold eagle for the pleasure of doing so.