A Citizen’s Guide to

American Government

This guide is designed to remind us

what our Founders envisioned for
American government, what that
government has become today, and
how we fit into the equation. It
presents facts, encourages us to
apply our own common sense and
offers some tangible actions we can
take that will help America to stay
true to its founding principles.

By John Anderson
Teapartyboise.com
Basic Terms Worth Knowing
The American form of government is unique in the world and has been the catalyst for
unmatched freedom and productivity. Its structure acknowledges the rights of individuals
being granted to them by their Creator, rather than by government. It balances the power of
government between three distinct and important branches, thus reducing the possibility that
one branch could abolish or neutralize the others. It is important for each American to know
and understand how their government works. To that end, here are some basic terms that help
us to do that.

We are a “Representative Republic” – not a pure democracy

The Founders designed a system that created a government in which people elect
representatives to exercise power on their behalf. They wanted neither a monarchy, nor an
unbridled democracy where majority always rules. They suffered under the former and they
feared a tyranny of the majority under the latter. Their compromise was to form a
government where the people decided who would represent them and their views. Those
representatives, namely Congressmen and women, Senators and the President are oath-bound
to defend the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution, Bill of Rights and the
Declaration of Independence, clearly vest most of the power in America in the 50 states and
its citizens, rather than in the federal government.

Separation of Powers
The Founders desired to avoid the possibility of a tyrannical ruler, like the monarchy they had
suffered under for many years. They also wanted to avoid utter chaos that would ensue if
they had no government structure at all. As they crafted what we know today as the
Constitution, which was a long and arduous task, they decided upon the notion of a
government made of three parts. The “Executive” branch is where the President and his
Cabinet reside. The “Legislative” branch is where the House of Representatives and the
Senate reside. Finally, the “Judicial” branch is where the Supreme Court of the United States
resides. The objective of the “separation of powers” was to keep in check any one of these
branches that may, because of human frailty or excess, overstep their powers. In short, each
has a distinct role in our government, and neither can usurp the other under the Constitution.

Congress
Congress is the national legislative body of the United States, consisting of the House of
Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives is the larger of the two
legislative chambers that make up the Congress of the United States. Along with the Senate of
the United States, it drafts and passes laws that, if signed by the president, govern the United
States and its citizens. Usually called simply “the House,” it consists of 435 members chosen
for two-year terms from districts of about equal population.

The Senate is the smaller of the two legislative bodies of the Congress of the United States.
Along with the House of Representatives, it drafts and passes laws that, when signed by the
President; govern the United States and its citizens. The Senate exercises some powers that
the House of Representatives does not, such as approving treaties between the United States
and other countries. The Senate has 100 members, two from each state.

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Founders’ Principles Every
Citizen Should Know
Debt

“I, however, place economy among the first and most

important of republican virtues, and public debt as the
greatest of the dangers to be feared.”
(Bergh, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 15:47)

Role of the Federal Government

The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to

the federal government are few and defined. Those
which are to remain in the State governments are
numerous and indefinite….The powers reserved to the
several States will extend to all the objects which, in
the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives,
liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal
order, improvement and prosperity of the State.
James Madison (Federalist Papers, No. 45., pp. 292-293)

The Federal welfare state

“If we can prevent the government from wasting the

labors of the people, under the pretense of taking care
of them, they must become happy.”
(Bergh, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 10:342)

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Founders’ Principles Every Citizen
Should Know (con’t)
Protection of Private Property

“The moment the idea is admitted into society that

property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that
there is not a force of law and public justice to protect
it, anarchy and tyranny commence. PROPERTY
MUST BE SECURED OR LIBERTY CANNOT
EXIST.” (Charles Francis Adams, ed., The Works of John Adams, 10 vols. – Boston: Little,
Brown and Company, 1850-56, 6:9, 280; emphasis added.)

Currency – what makes our money worth something?

Article I, Section 8, clause 5 of the Constitution stated

that Congress would have the power “To coin money,
regulate the value thereof and of foreign coin…”
States were strictly forbidden to allow debts to be paid
except in terms of gold or silver. (Article I, Section 10)

“The indignant protest of Thomas Jefferson can be

heard across the vista of two whole centuries:
If the American people ever allow the banks to control
the issuance of their currency (e.g., the Federal Reserve), first
by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and
corporations that will grow up around them will
deprive the people of all property until their children
will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers
occupied…” (Quoted in Olive Cushing Dwindell, The Story of Our
Money, 2nd ed. – Boston: Forum Publishing Company, 1946, p.84, e.g. added)

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 Food for Thought
The Bureau of the Public Debt uses a quote
from Alexander Hamilton, one of our
founding fathers, to justify the massive debt
owed to other countries and our citizens.

Some interesting questions worth asking….

In 1800, following the Revolutionary War, a recession and the cost of building a nation, our
public debt, according to the this agency and the Department of the Treasury, was about $88.9
million dollars. Why is it then that by 1835, after yet another war, the War of 1812, and without
the benefit of a federal income tax, our public debt had been reduced to a mere $33,000?

From 1835 until the beginning of the Civil War in 1860, the public debt rose to about $64 million
dollars, according to these same government sources. By the end of the Civil war, in 1865 that
debt had ballooned to over $2.6 billion dollars. Why is it then that by 1895, still without the
benefit of a federal income tax, that public debt had been reduced by nearly half, to $1.6 billion
dollars?

The federal income tax came into existence with the 16th Amendment to the Constitution in 1913.
Between the end of the Civil War in 1865 and 1915, fully two years after the introduction of the
income tax, our public debt was still only $3 billion dollars. This constituted a post Civil War
increase, over 50 years, of just a half a billion dollars. How is it then that after having fought the
costliest war in American history in terms of damage, lost lives and reconstruction, our public
debt was kept in relative check, with no help from a federal income tax?

From 1915 to 2009 our public debt has skyrocketed to over $11 trillion dollars and is rising faster
than ever before. Naturally there was WWI, the Great Depression, WWII, Korean War and
Vietnam, plus wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. One would expect the debt to rise. However one
wonders why, given the availability of the federal income tax and all other taxation that has
come since, the pattern of paying down the debt has disappeared?

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 Could it be that as the federal government
has grown through taxation, legislation and
spending without discipline, so has our
public debt grown without ceasing? Could
it also be that as our government has
continued to burden its citizens and
businesses with more and more taxes,
regulation and intrusion, America has
ceased to be a producing nation? As our
federal government grows in power, are we
losing our desire to build, create, make
things and prosper on our own? Are we
being systematically reduced to being little
more than “cared for subjects” of a
benevolent tyrant, the federal government?
It’s worth thinking about.

Returning to basics
What is good for the citizen should be good for the government
Freedom of the individual is the core principle of America. Our Constitution was
designed to protect individual liberty, and all that it entails. Those who would try
to convince us that the Constitution is outdated and never designed to deal with
the issues of today, should spend more time reading it. The Constitution was
designed to control something which has not changed and will not change ---
namely, human nature

Does borrowing and spending more than I make help me to prosper?

That is exactly what our current administration and those in the past have said to us. Is there
anything in your experience running a business, managing your family budget or teaching
your children how to manage money that would lead you to believe the government’s claims
on this subject?

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 FACT: In 1905, fully 129 years after America declared its independence from
Britain, and having fought the Revolution, the War of 1812 and other conflicts,
and with no federal income tax, the public debt was a little over $2.2 billion
dollars. Yet America was the richest industrial nation in the world. We had only
5% of the earth’s continental land area and merely 6% of the world’s
population at the time, yet Americans produced over half of almost everything,
including clothes, food, houses, transportation, communications, even luxuries.
However, by 2008, fully 95 years after the 16th Amendment to the Constitution
gave the federal government the right to tax us without limits, that public debt
had risen to well over $9 trillion dollars (yes that’s 12 zeros after the number).
As of early September of 2009 the debt is now estimated at a whopping
$11,787,062,206,713 and rising fast. Today America derives 70% of its economic
activity from consumer spending. We now produce a fraction of what we produced in
1905. We have become a “consumer nation”, not a “producer nation”.

Regardless of whether you support or oppose how the money was spent,

do you really believe that a business, a family, or even a government can

continue to borrow and spend this way can remain solvent? If not, here

are some tangible actions that you, as a citizen, should take right now.

Demand of your representatives and the President,

• Freeze all non-defense spending for 1 year and the return all
stimulus money and bailout repayments to the treasury for reduction
of the debt
• Pledge: “No more bailouts, regardless of the size of the company or
bureaucracy”
• Abandon the Cap & Trade bill. It’s a huge consumer and corporate
tax that will absolutely cost America jobs
• Healthcare reform should be done in small, incremental steps that
are paid for with current money. NO PUBLIC OPTION or
“Healthcare Exchange.” Both amount to a federal takeover of our
healthcare system.

Should I or the federal government decide where my money is spent?

The growth of the federal government and its intrusion into our daily lives is out of control,
but is seldom really thought about in monetary terms. It’s time we citizens considered just
how much it costs us and what we actually get for that money.

The IRS, under the Department of Treasury dictates how much of your
hard-earned money you are allowed to keep. Congress decides where, on
whom, and in support of what causes they can spend all the money taken
from you in taxes. Today, the average taxpayer works about a third of the
year just to pay their taxes. Given the massive spending since the fall of
2008, we will be working much further into the year to pay taxes.

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In 2007 the cost to you, the taxpayer, for “just” the Department of the

Treasury, which includes the IRS, was over 17.6% of the total federal

outlay of over 2.7 trillion dollars. That means that you and I had to spend

over $490 billion dollars to run the world’s largest accounting and tax

enforcement agency. Could you have found better use for that money?

Demand of your representatives and the President,

• Eliminate the IRS and introduce a “flat or fair” tax to reduce the
cost of government and simplify the tax code
• Do this or face a movement by states to repeal the 16th Amendment to
the Constitution, effectively eliminating the federal government’s
ability to tax income.
• Lower individual income tax rates permanently, and begin with a 1
year freeze on all payroll taxes to help jump-start the economy

The Department of Health and Human Services has no fewer than 13 agencies,
responsible for the health and safety of children and families, the food we eat, the drugs
we take, all health research and development, substance abuse and lots more. One can
argue that some of this work is worthy to pursue, but keep in mind that in 2007, DHHS
cost you and I $6.7 billion dollars or over 24% of the total outlay of the federal
government. That’s more than we spent for the Department of Defense (19.7%) or Social
Security Administration (22.3%) that year.

Are we really convinced that spending $6.7 billion dollars of our money

by the federal government just to maintain bureaucracy designed to

oversee our health makes sense? What might parents be able to do with

that money if they kept it in their wallet? Couldn’t the states do more with

that money if it stayed closer to their citizens and communities?

Demand of your representatives and the President,

• Explain to us why tax dollars used to sustain DHHS cannot be better

spent by the state and local governments to maintain and protect the
health and safety of families, children and the aged.
• Explain why DHHS costs taxpayers more money than the Defense
Department and Homeland Security combined, more than Social
Security Administration and even more than Treasury
• Explain what in the Constitution specifically gives the powers vested
in DHHS to the federal government?

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 Are We Still a Republic?
Look around you and decide for yourself….
Throughout American history, maintaining the free and protected representative republic
given to us by our Founders has been a constant struggle. It remains a struggle today, with
powerful forces in office that would marginalize individual liberty, dismiss the U.S.
Constitution and establish a “collective state”, ruled by a totalitarian government.

It’s happened throughout the world before, and history instructs us as to the signs of such a
shift that takes citizens from being free men and women to being “subjects” of an all-powerful
political class. We are wise to examine what we were given in 1776 and how well we have
protected the enormous gifts our Constitution bestows upon each and every American citizen.

The American Constitution vs. Socialism

America in 2009, although still free and still professing to be true to the Constitution and Bill
of Rights, has begun to erode in terms of individual liberty. The federal government has
grown far beyond the powers granted to it by the Constitution and today poses a very real
threat to our freedom. In a Constitutional America, the individual is honored, while in
socialist and communist countries, the State is all powerful. Today, the U.S. Government
runs two of our leading automakers, our largest insurance company, and our largest banks.
More and more they intrude on liberty that once was the sole right of the individual. They
speak of America more and more in terms of the “collective good” and “leveling the playing
field”, taking your hard-earned money and giving to others. That should concern us all?

An Important Contrast
America of the Constitution Socialism

Freedom to try Only part of the “collective society”

Freedom to buy Your private property is not protected
You
Freedom to sell State can redistribute your wealth
Freedom to fail The State decides who succeeds

Government derives its power State owns power and control

Power
from the consent of the people over virtually everything

Each of us is endowed with Only the State can grant rights

unalienable rights from our Creator to the people, and only as it
Rights
sees fit to do so

America remains free, and is the Has led to the welfare state, police
richest, most productive country in state, financial ruin or all of the
History the world above throughout history

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Why should I care about “gun rights” and the 2nd Amendment?
At the time America was founded, the fledgling country and its citizens knew well that their
ability to arm themselves against tyranny provided a means by which states could defend
themselves against oppression, both foreign and domestic. The Second Amendment to the
Constitution, incorporated into the document known as the Bill of Rights, protects individuals
and states right to keep and bear arms.

In recent years, the U.S. Supreme Court has established the right to bear arms as a “personal”
right, not requiring that the right be associated with being part of an organized militia. Thus,
every American citizen has a Constitutional right to buy, keep, own and use firearms in lawful
ways and to protect themselves against harm.

The reason that the right to bear arms is critical to freedom is the fact that human nature leads
to excess. Governments are made up of people, who can be corrupted or can decide to
oppress others, including individuals or states, using force. The fact that America is a nation
of laws is a powerful thing. But the thing that protects that characteristic is the notion that
citizens can protect themselves from one another and from an over-bearing government.

In many societies in the world, disarming the public has lead to tyranny. Conversely, a
citizenry who is well-armed presents a significant obstacle to potential tyrants.

In the final analysis, like all other rights of citizens under the Constitution, the right to bear
arms gives power and authority to the individual, rather than the government. This is
precisely why America is unique. Unlike any other nation ever established, America was
built upon “Peoples Law”, not “Ruler’s Law”. That fundamental distinction is what makes
and keeps us free today.

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Closing Thoughts
America is an amazing experiment that grew into the most free, industrious, wealthy and
generous nation on earth. It has survived depression, war, cultural upheaval and an influx of
immigrants second to none in history. It took that experience and the people who came here
to create the incredible “American Dream”. The term “E pluribus Unum”, or “from many,
one” fits our country well.

It was not a passing fancy that we were given a country founded in the Declaration of
Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It took the Founders, beginning with
Jamestown in the spring of 1607, until 1787, fully 180 years, to put it all together. Many
mistakes were made along the way, and more were to follow, but the vision never faltered.

We Americans enjoy a society today that is the envy of the world, and it is up to us to protect
it and make it better in the future. American citizenship is a responsibility than cannot be
shirked. It must be a commitment of each and every citizen of these United States.

The men who wrote the Declaration of Independence didn’t take their task lightly. Each
knew, by signing the document, that if captured by the British, they would be hanged. They
also knew that if they lost the struggle for independence, all their worldly belongings, their
families and their hopes would be destroyed or taken from them. They knew they were right,
not because they thought they had wisdom beyond others, but because they were willing to
learn from the wisdom of others who came before them.

The Founders studied a wide variety of sources as they crafted their vision for America. For
example, Cicero (106-43 B.C) was a Roman political writer who came to recognize the power
and authority of “Natural Law”, or “the Creator’s order of things”. Our Founders used the
“People’s Law” of ancient Israel and Anglo-Saxon common law, both of which emphasized
individual liberty that cannot be infringed upon by man or governments of men. Thomas
Hooker wrote the “Fundamental Orders of Connecticut”, based on the principles recorded by
Moses in the first chapter of Deuteronomy. These “Fundamental Orders” were adopted in
1639 and constituted the first written constitution in modern times. This charter was so
successful that it was adopted by Rhode Island.

Much more would follow. Writing the Constitution was a frightening experience. A
Convention that was supposed to be relatively short turned out to be four months long. This
was unexpected and after a few weeks many of the delegates, including James Madison, were
living on borrowed funds. Still they pressed on and ultimately each of us has benefited from
their commitment to the Constitution of the United States.

In the end, it is wise, dare we say, necessary for Americans to fully acknowledge the efforts of
our Founders, the sacrifices they were willing to make for us and the product of their steadfast
journey to freedom. America has never been perfect, or easy. We have had to correct
ourselves often, always harkening back to those founding documents for guidance. It’s time
we did that again.

Bibliography of Sources, most important of which were the following:

The Constitution of the United States Writings of the Founding Fathers (various)
The Declaration of Independence “The 5000 Year Leap”, by Skousen
The Bill of Rights “Democracy in America” by De Tocqueville

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