Morning Roar: Three Controversial Bills Were Quietly Signed Into Law Last Week
The headlines were dominated last week by talk of President Obama signing of a $1.1 trillion spending bill. The bill lifted the threat of a government shutdown, at least for now. The mainstream media was relatively quiet on the subject of three additional piece of legislation, which were signed into law last week. It is these unheralded items that we will be focusing upon in today’s edition of The Morning Roar!Obama Signs Bill That Forbids Closing GitmoRemember when Barack Obama campaigned on the promise to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay?It is looking less and less likely that the president will honor the pledge he made on his first day in office to close Gitmo. Actually, the bill he signed into law last Friday explicitly forbids him from closing of Gitmo.From AntiWar.com:
Despite this, President Obama insisted that he will “do everything I can” to close the site, which apparently did not include not signing anything that bans closing the site.Obama did accompany the signing with a statement insisting that anything he views as violation of his constitutional powers, which includes the Gitmo provision, would be ignored.
Fool me once Mr. President, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you. The old adage rings true.So many libertarians and liberals had high hopes for President Obama to take action and close Gitmo. But the he has fallen woefully short.Perhaps the saddest part is that nobody seems to care anymore. The inclusion of this legislation in the new defense bill received almost no attention in the media. This is at least a little surprising. Many advocates for individual rights were hopeful that the recent release of the Senate’s CIA torture report would serve to raise the nation’s awareness on the topic of torture and the U.S. government’s practice of indefinite detention.Sadly it appears that Marc’s Clair observation in last week’s edition of the Monday edition of The Morning Roar is accurate. The majority of the voting public are A-OK with torture.President Signs No Social Security For Nazis ActIt’s not that difficult to figure out why this bill did not get much coverage in the mainstream media. The bill admits that the United States government has been paying Nazi war criminals social security benefits. The bill is intended to put a halt to these payments, but the fact that the payments were occurring in the first place does not instill faith in the government.Guns.com has the scoop:
President Barack Obama on Thursday signed a bill barring Nazi war criminals from collecting retirement benefits after an Associated Press investigation revealed that dozens of former Third Reich soldiers were doing so.The AP’s two-year investigation found that the former Nazis — which included SS guards who patrolled camps where Jews were detained and a rocket scientist who worked on developing a rocket used to attack London — had received millions of dollars in U.S. Social Security benefits after the government forced them to leave the country, the news service reported.The No Social Security for Nazis Act halts benefit payments to those who have lost their U.S. citizenship as a result of their participation in the Nazi regime during World War II, where previously only deportation prompted the termination of payments.
For more than thirty years these payments have been made to former Nazis. The AP reported that thirty-eight of sixty-six suspects who were forced leave the country continued to receive their benefit payments. Many of them had lied to become U.S. citizens in the first place.Most libertarians and conservatives understand that the government should not be in the business of managing retirement income. But it is not realistic to expect Social Security benefits to come to an end in my lifetime.It’s a very difficult program to transition out of because so many have paid in and have a certain expectation of a return. But news like the above certainly raises an eyebrow. If the government had been paying benefits to avowed Nazis for the last thirty years, then how can they be trusted to responsibly manage a retirement program? Stories like this are useful because they can be added to the stack of evidence accumulated daily which eats away at the credibility of coercive government.Obama Signs Bill To Sanction Venezuelan OfficialsI guess the week wouldn’t be complete without declaring war on yet another nation. Lest we forget that sanctions are indeed an act of war.From the Sun Herald:
President Barack Obama has signed legislation into law allowing him to sanction Venezuelan government officials who were involved in a crackdown on anti-government protesters.The bill authorizes sanctions that would freeze the assets and ban visas for anyone accused of carrying out acts of violence or violating the human rights of those opposing the South American nation's socialist government.Last summer, the State Department imposed a travel ban on Venezuelan officials who were accused of abuses during street protests that left dozens of people dead.Venezuela criticized the legislation as it moved through Congress.
Sanctions almost never hurt those the government officials they are proclaimed to target. But they almost always end up harming ordinary citizens that have no way of affecting change in the country, but are forced to deal with the consequences of a coercive government intervening in their daily lives.Often, government officials in countries affected by sanctions accumulate greater power and support because they are able to deflect the blame for suffering that occurs towards the outside government responsible for levying sanctions.And of course, read The Morning Roar every weekday Monday-Friday!The Lions of Liberty are on Twitter, Facebook & Google+Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!
