National Chairman's Letter
Platform - Economy
September 2003
Dear Independent American friends,
I want to comment on the Economy section of our IAP National Platform. The
sixth belief point of the Introduction section of our Platform says:
6. [Economy] We believe that "free enterprise" is the best
economic system for America; that taxation should be limited to those
methods provided for in the original Constitution; and that our nation must
return to a debt-free monetary system in accordance with the Constitution.
A century ago, Americans had the highest standard of living in the world.
Under laissez faire we produced, with less than six percent of the
earth's population, over half of the commodities in the world. We had no federal
personal income tax and no Federal Reserve System. And the American people --
not government -- spurred our nation on to economic greatness.
The Economy or sixth numbered section of our Platform, includes the
subtopics Free Enterprise, Taxation, and Money and Banking, and
begins:
6. ECONOMY
Free Enterprise. We favor terminating government competition with
free enterprise, including government ownership, subsidy, bailout, and
direct control of businesses. We support divesting the government of its
commercial enterprises, and selling them to competitive, American owned
private businesses. We oppose governmental wage and price controls because
they interfere with free enterprise and market-driven competition. We oppose
agricultural and business subsidy programs.
We maintain that no services, essential to public need, should be
jeopardized by strike or collective bargaining. We favor the elimination of
OSHA, which has acted as judge, jury, and prosecutor in violation of the
Bill of Rights. We deem their guidelines as advisory only for employers and
insurance companies. We favor Right-to-Work laws.
The 1st plank of Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto calls for the "Abolition
of Private Property ...." On the other hand, John Maynard Keynes, a
British Fabian economist, advocated the control of the means of production and
the money and credit supply, rather than government ownership. Hitler and
Mussolini showed that government doesn't "need" to own property if it
controls it.
In the United States (from government controls) unemployment, poverty and
bankruptcies have skyrocketed. WTO, NAFTA and GATT treaties have reduced our
economic self-sufficiency and independence. Two percent of the people control
90% of the wealth in America. And American knows scarcity.
Taxation. We maintain that there is an urgent need for substantial
tax reforms that would eliminate income, property and estate taxes, and
taxes on necessities to lighten tax payer burdens and curb wasteful
government spending. For example, we oppose the use of tax dollars to
finance art, literature, speech or actions. We support the elimination of
the National Endowment for the Arts.
We maintain that the Internal Revenue Service has used its powers
arbitrarily, punitively and tyrannically to harass and sometimes devastate
honest tax payers. We favor the elimination of the IRS and favor the repeal
of the 16th Amendment, restoring the original Constitutional intent of
taxation.
The 2nd plank of the Communist Manifesto calls for "A heavy
progressive or graduated income tax." This was implemented in the
United States in 1913 by the supposed ratification of the 16th (or Income Tax)
Amendment. This was foisted on a gullible American public with "soak the
rich" hype.
The resultant federal income tax has not only stripped us of our wealth, but
an aggressive IRS has violated our Fourth Amendment rights to privacy in our
homes, businesses, personal papers and personal affairs.
The tax bite in 1932 was 16%. Today over half of our earnings go to federal,
state and local taxes. And federal government spending continues to increase an
average of 7% per year. As Daniel Webster said, "An unlimited power to tax,
necessarily involves the power to destroy."
Money and Banking.
We affirm that the Federal
Reserve is a private business, owned primarily by international bankers,
operating under the deception of a government entity, which annually
extorts, for their personal use, hundreds of billions of dollars in interest
on the national debt from the American public with government cooperation.
We believe the power to issue money should be taken from the Federal
Reserve (and its banks) and restored to Congress and the people to whom that
power rightfully belongs. We favor a total reform of the banking and credit
card industry which currently exploits from us an average of 26% of our
lifetime earnings in usury or interest.
We favor the repeal of the National Bank Act (Federal Reserve Act), and
favor the seizure and audit of the Federal Reserve System, the outlawing of
fractional reserve banking, and disavowal of Federal Reserve claims upon us
and our properties for the national debt.
We favor investigation into and prosecution of all American banks,
corporations, and their owners, etc., who participate in unconstitutional
and treasonous activities via a global economic system.
The 5th plank of the Communist Manifesto calls for "Centralization of
credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital
and an exclusive monopoly". This was implemented by the insidious
Federal Reserve Act of 1913.
The resultant Federal Reserve System, a private banking monopoly that is not
part of the federal government, has made it possible for men to arbitrarily
change the value of money through inflation. It has the power to create money,
then loan it to our government at interest -- hence, our $6 trillion national
debt. This, in spite of the fact that our Constitution (Article I, Section 8)
grants only to Congress the power "To coin money, regulate the value
thereof, ...."
Thomas Jefferson said: "If the American people ever allow private banks
to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation,
the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks], will deprive
the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the
continent their fathers conquered."
Only when we return to free enterprise, sane taxation and sound money can we
truly expect economic greatness again in America.
For God, Family and Country!
Bruce Bangerter
IAP National Chairman
