• The Federal government budget for 2008 is projected to be about $2.9 trillion. In 1998 the budget was projected to be $1.7 trillion and adjusted for inflation would be approximately $2.1 trillion. Personal Income Taxes have brought in about $1.1 trillion per year in the past couple years. Therefore, it’d be possible to have the 1998 government AND cut personal income taxes by nearly 73%.
  • 1961 was the last year the United States had a sub $100 billion federal budget. Adjusted for inflation that would be about $680 billion in 2007. 1968 would be the year the USA went over $1 trillion, after accounting for inflation.
  • In 2005 Congress passed 13,998 individual pieces of pork legislation totaling about $27 billion. If Congress had spent one minute to hear each piece read out loud, it would have taken almost an hour every business day for the year.
  • In 2005 the top 1% of income tax payers paid 39.38% of all income tax collected, top 5% paid 59.67%, top 10% paid 70.30%, top 25% paid 85.99%, and the top 50% paid 96.93%.
  • About 75% of the fire departments in the United States are run completely by volunteers. Another 15% have a force of more than 50% volunteer. 40% of the US population is protected by volunteer departments. Source: NVFC and Phillip Stittleburg on FTL.
  • 93% of Americans have a credit card. The average cardholder has 7 cards and $9,659 in debt. Total, Americans owe about $850 billion in credit card debit whereas the 54 poorest countries owe $412 billion in foreign debt.
  • In 1835, under President Andrew Jackson, the US Federal Budget was balanced and the National Debt was paid in full. This has never happened since.
  • In the economic boom of the 1920’s, the Federal Budget ran surpluses for ten consecutive years. This has not happened since.
  • When ratifying the new constitution, Virginia (1788), New York (1788), and Rhode Island (1790) included clauses indicating they were free to leave the new federal government confederation should it become oppressive.
  • In 2007 American charitable giving hit a record $306.4 billion. A 1% rise over 2006 after adjusted for inflation.
    • Individuals accounted for the largest share giving $229 billion or about 75% of the total.
    • About two-thirds of the households with incomes under $100K gave to charity.
    • Half of the individual giving went to religious organizations.
    • Donations to international aid, environmental and human-services groups rose the most in 2007. A rise of about 13 percent.
    • Americans gave an average of 2.3 percent of their disposable income to charity.
    • Americans rank first in the world in giving as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), at 1.7 percent. Followed by Great Britain at 0.73 percent.
    • Sources: Giving USA report and related
  • New Hampshire’s constitution defines the right to revolution. Section 1: Bill of Rights, Article 10: Right of Revolution: Government being instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security, of the whole community, and not for the private interest or emolument of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, whenever the ends of government are perverted, and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the people may, and of right ought to reform the old, or establish a new government. The doctrine of nonresistance against arbitrary power, and oppression, is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.
  • While the 2nd Amendment of the federal constitution of the United States has quite a bit of interpretative debate surrounding it, some of the states have very specific versions of it. New Hampshire’s for instance states: All persons have the right to keep and bear arms in defense of themselves, their families, their property and the state.
  • Gun Stats:
    • In 98% of the confrontations, armed citizens needed only to brandish their weapons and aggressors fled unharmed. - J.R. Lott Jr., More Guns, Less Crime, p. 3.
    • By showing they were armed, 30% of intended victims “almost certainly” or “probably” saved their lives or that of a bystander. - G. Kleck and M. Gertz, “Armed Resistance to Crime: The Prevalence an Nature of Self-Defense with a Gun,” Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 86: 150-187, 1995.
    • By the 1970s, armed citizens were killing more criminals in self-defense than the police were. - M. Lorenz Dietz, Killing for Profit: The Social Organization of Felony Homicide, Table A.1, pp. 202-203.
    • Armed citizens kill only a tenth as many innocent people by mistake as police do. - J.R. Lott Jr., More Guns, Less Crime, pp. 1-2.
    • Over 85% of gun carrying criminals purchased their weapons illegally. - J. Wright and P. Rossi, Armed and Considered Dangerous: A Survey of Felons and Their Firearms, p. 185; Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Firearm Use by Offenders,” November 2001.
    • In 1966 Orlando police began a highly publicized program to train women to use irearms. Rape rates, which had been on the rise, dropped from 34 in 100,000 in 1966 to 4 in 100,000 in 1967. Surrounding areas continued to see high rape rates. By 1971, though they had risen, rape rates were still below the 1966 values while surrounding areas increased 308%. - G. Klock, “Policy Lessons from Recent Gun Control Research,” Journal of Laq and Contemporary Problems 49: 35-47, 1986; A. Krug, “The Replationship Between Firearms Ownership and Crime: A Statistical Analysis,” reprinted in Congressional Record, 99th Cong., 2nd Sess., January 30, 1968, p 1496, n 7.
  • The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that police do not have a duty to protect you.
  • Given above, citizens of the United States of America are in fact subjects.
  • From the year 2000 to 2007 the number of federal subside programs rose 25% from 1,425 to 1,776.
  • While the Federal Highway Administration claims there are no plans for a NAFTA SuperHighway… the Alberta, Canada infrastructure and transportation department believes otherwise. Looks kind of like this map (this map has been taken down) and this one. More info at http://www.corridorwatch.org
  • Article I of the U.S. Constitution clearly defines what powers that the Congress has. The 10th Amendment says that everything else is left to the states or the people.
    1. Borrow money
    2. Regulate commerce among the states
    3. Regulate naturalization
    4. Regulate bankruptcies
    5. Coin money
    6. Fix weights and standards
    7. Punish counterfeiters
    8. Establish post offices
    9. Establish post roads
    10. Record patents
    11. Protect copyrights
    12. Create federal courts
    13. Punish pirates
    14. Declare war
    15. Raise an army
    16. Provide a navy
    17. Call up the state militias
    18. Organize the militias
    19. Make laws for Washington, DC
    20. Make rules for the army and navy
  • The Espionage Act of 1917, which is still on the books, made it a crime for a person to convey information with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the armed forces of the United States or to promote the success of its enemies. It was used to arrest Socialist Party presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for making a speech that “obstructed recruiting.” The next year, the Sedition Act of 1918 was an amendment to the Espionage Act of 1917 passed at the urging of President Woodrow Wilson, who was concerned that dissent, in time of war, was a significant threat to morale. The passing of this act forbade Americans to use “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” about the United States government, flag, or armed forces during war. The act also allowed the Postmaster General to deny mail delivery to dissenters of government policy during wartime.
  • The second Bush administration is responsible for an enormous amount of rights infringements and distortions to the Constitution.
  • Rendering the Posse Comitatus Act effectively moot and loosening the Insurrection Act, under the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007, Section 1076 Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies, the President of the United States of American may “employ the armed forces, including the National Guard in Federal service” to “restore public order and enforce the laws of the United States when, as a result of a natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or other condition in any State or possession of the United States, the President determines that” “so hinders the execution of the laws of a State or possession, as applicable, and of the United States within that State or possession, that any part or class of its people is deprived of a right, privilege, immunity, or protection named in the Constitution and secured by law, and the constituted authorities of that State or possession are unable, fail, or refuse to protect that right, privilege, or immunity, or to give that protection; or” “opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws.”
  • Prior to 1933 the US dollar was pegged to gold such that 1 troy oz = $20.67. According to the True Money Supply there are 5,295,100,000,000 US dollars immediately available for exchange in the world. The US government supposedly owns 8133.5 tonnes of gold. At 32,150 troy ounces per tonne we then get 261,492,025 troy ounces. If the federal government were to go back to the gold standard pegging the dollar to gold using the current reserves: $5,295,100,000,000 / 261,492,025 troy oz AU = $20,249.57 / troy oz AU.
  • Genesis 47:24-25 in the King James Bible says: ‘But when the crop comes in, give a fifth of it to Pharaoh. The other four-fifths you may keep as seed for the fields and as food for yourselves and your households and your children. You have saved our lives,” they said. “May we find favor in the eyes of our lord; we will be in bondage to Pharaoh.”‘ We are required to give far more than 20% to our government masters.
  • The United States leads the world in prisoner production. There are 2.3 million people behind bars. China, with four times as many people, has 1.6 million in prison. In terms of population, the United States has 751 people in prison for every 100,000, while the closest competitor in this regard is Russia with 627. 531 in Cuba. The median global rate is 125. From 1925 to 1975, the rate of imprisonment was stable at 110, lower than the international average. But then it suddenly shot up in the 1980s. There were 30,000 people in jail for drugs in 1980, while today there are half a million. Each prisoner costs tax payers an average of $25,000 per year.
  • Some numbers on world armed forces:
  • Many states have single party consent laws for recording a conversation. Read about your state here.
  • When slavery was legal in the United States teaching a slave to read was criminal in many jurisdictions. It was considered a threat as a literate individual is more likely to become educated and with regards to slaves, rebel. Today we face a similar system in the legal profession. Laws are practically written in a different language. To understand that language officially you must go through extensive education and swear allegiance to the organization which interprets the law. All others who become literate, in many jurisdictions, and share their knowledge can be considered criminals and be found guilty of providing legal advice without “legal qualifications and official registration.”
  • According to a 30-year analysis, for every American saved by FDA created drug lag, another 64-364 were killed by it. Put another way, between 1950 and 1980, the drug lag saved about 33 American lives per year, while 2,100 - 12,000 died as a result of not being able to obtain drugs which could have helped them.
  • The largest private U.S. landowner, International Paper, balances public recreation with logging. In the Southeast, 25% of its profit is from recreation. (Src: T.L. Anderson and D.R. Leal, “Rekindling the Privatization Fires: Political Lands Revisited” Federal Privatization Project, Issue 108, p. 12). “By the 1990s, International Paper alone planted more than 48 million trees a year - five times more than it harvested - and donated or sold the rest for [the purpose of] additional reforestation.” -Larry Schweikart, The Entrepreneurial Adventure.
  • Industry grows 13% more timber than it cuts in order to prepare for future needs and increase future profits. (Src: Makers and Takers: How Wealth and Progress Are Made and How They Are Taken Away or Prevented - E. Contoski, p. 302)
  • The Fed is constrained to return excess revenues to the Treasury, but enjoys great discretion over its budget and managed to spend over $2 billion on itself in 1996. Fed officials live quite well on their revenues. As a recent General Accounting Office report revealed: The Fed has 25,000 employees, runs its own air force of 47 Learjets and small cargo planes, and has fleets of vehicles, including personal cars for 59 Fed bank managers. . . . A full-time curator oversees its collection of paintings and sculpture. The Fed held $451 billion in accumulated assets as of 1996, when it was engaged in building for itself several expensive new office buildings. The number of Fed employees earning more than $125,000 per year more than doubled (from 35 to 72) from 1993 to 1996; even the head janitor (known as the support services director) is paid $163,800 in annual salary plus benefits. Money is lavishly spent on professional memberships, entertainment, and travel. (The Myth of the Independent Fed by Thomas J. DiLorenzo)