Posted by
The INFORMER (Cokie907@yahoo.com) on Friday, July 29, 2011 2:22:37 PM
You'll never learn it by listening to know-it-alls on talk radio like Mark Levin but there's an unsung hero in this debt-ceiling debate. His name is Lewis K. Uhler and he was working for Gov. Ronald Reagan back when Levin was likely pledging as a frat-boy at Temple! :-)
Lew has devoted his life to one central objective: the establishment and maintenance of Constitutionally LIMITED government for the good of all American citizens. In doing so, he has continued Reagan's vision and serves as a "living link" to him. He should be given some credit at a time when WE ARE AS CLOSE AS EVER TO GETTING THE BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT. Why? Because according to an award winning economist at the Hoover Institution, he is its "Father".
For Lew, this daunting battle began in the dark, depressing era of the Carter Administration. If you weren't alive during those sad days, consider yourself lucky. Not only was the taste in fashion and automobiles awful but our nation was an absolute disaster. That's when Lew Uhler organized and motivated people to act both at the state and federal level to CONTROL GOVERNMENT!
The first state in the union to act decisively was the my own beloved Tennessee with a tax and spending limitation law, then other states followed immediately. This began a national movement to begin work on the Balanced Budget Amendment, led by guess who? Ole "Constitutional Lew". haha
He assembled a team of many die-hard Constitutionalists, I guess today you'd call them "Tea Partiers" and they set off to write the legislation. The group included reknown economist Milton Friedman from the Hoover Institution, Walter Williams and even a future Supreme Court Justice named Anthony Kennedy. The legislation became one of President Reagan's highest priorities and in summer of 1982, it was presented to the US Senate under the leadership of Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT).
What you never hear from "mouthpieces" like Levin (probably because he's ignorant) is that the Balanced Budget Amendment PASSED the US Senate on August 9th 1982 with 69 votes. Keep in mind that it takes 67 votes for passage under the 2/3 rule for amendments. This was a huge victory at the time but the elation was short-lived for Uhler and his team. Once the BBA made it to a Tip O'Neil controlled House of Representatives, it was blocked non-stop so that ultimately it suffered an undignified death.
And this is the salient point of my polemic effort today: It was then, is now and always will be the DEMOCRAT PARTY that is against any restraint on government spending. This is a party comprised almost entirely of statists who care nothing about our financial future or the preservation of our Constitutionally-protected freedoms. Sadly, through their vicious fear-mongering and demagoguery, they're able to drag along weak-kneed Republicans (known as Re-pussi-cans) for the slow, excruciating ride from freedom into the bondage of statism.
Lew Uhler has known this for most of his life and it's why he has devoted it to fighting for Constitutionally-limited government and a Balanced Budget Amendment. His 22 year old book: "Setting Limits: Constitutional Control of Government", almost perfectly predicts the battle we find ourselves fighting today! He explains that the ONLY solution to our coming demise is an informed electorate and elected leaders who END the business of big, self-serving government. I urge you to purchase this book NOW and learn why our government has grown so out-of-control and what is necessary to put the insatiable monster back in its cage. Why spending caps will NEVER work, just as they did not work with Gramm-Rudman-Hollings in the mid-80's and why the BBA is the ONLY way.
Lastly, I want to salute Lew Uhler and CONGRATULATE him and the others at the National Tax Limitation Committee up in Roseville, CA. (www.LimitTaxes.org) Your dream is in the process of becoming reality, sir. You hang in there and stay healthy for us, until it does.