Hey, this Cato Institute is doing something! ~ By Pat Boone

Hmmm.... This was not an easy column to write an intro for. Thanks a lot, Pat, you made me have to think a little harder than usual. But that's okay, because I may have learned a few things in the process.

So, as Pat wrote about the Cato Institute, I was wondering, what was his purpose? That was my main question. Within his commentary, Pat reminds us of this important fact: "This train called America is our train, we own and run it, and the engineer is our employee – it's not the other way around!" And further, Pat tells us that the Cato Institute "is leading the fight against the explosion of government growth." Edward Crane, President and founder of the Cato Institution, says:

...we're hardly 'hunkered down' – or alone. In fact, I have never seen our side more energized and clear-eyed in its commitment to reclaim our liberties and our government from the statists and redistributionists who infest our nation's capital.

And, who is "our side"? The Tea Party Movement, "the still-large majority of Americans who revere the Constitution and abhor big, intrusive an oppressive government." Pat goes on to mention that "Cato literally exists to further the kind of awakening exemplified in the tea-party rallies and marches – and in raucous town-hall meetings politicians increasingly fear to hold."

So, there you go. That is what Pat's column was about. Cato Institute is helping to awake Americans, and sets the example for what you and I need to keep on doing, just like I am doing on this blog... and I'm not even a think tank! Just sayin'...

Our citizens by the millions are demonstrating a growing grass-roots resistance to regimentation and governance by coercion and connivance, and this is terribly upsetting to Rahm Emanuel. Hallelujah!

By Pat Boone

Posted: May 29, 2010 ~ 1:00 am Eastern

© 2010

Are you as frustrated as I am about the constant deluge of bad news, revelations of corruption and negligence and overreaching in government, the growing impression that we're on an out-of-control course, like Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train"?

Are you deeply concerned that an ultra-liberal, even leftist or socialist cabal in and around the White House is binding America with unpayable debt, unreasonable entitlements and unacceptable alterations in everything from education to health care to defense to energy supply? That the sacred Constitution is being shoved aside and misinterpreted by activist judges, from the bottom of the judicial system all the way up to the Supreme Court?

With the presidency and both houses of Congress under the thrall of people who proudly want to "fundamentally transform the United States of America," isn't it increasingly bothersome to you that you seem to have precious little to say about all this?

When up to 80 percent of polled Americans say they want to keep health care the way it has been – and our elected representatives, our "public servants," conspire openly to cram the unwanted policy into law and down our throats – doesn't that leave you wondering, as I have been, whatever happened to "We The People"?

Aside from the valiant media soldiers at Fox News, some talk-radio broadcasters and informative websites like this one, is there anybody doing anything to sound the alarms and apply the brakes on this runaway train?

Yes! Yes, there are some bodies, organizations, fellowships and activist think tanks confronting the engineer of this out-of-control administration train and alerting the passengers to get up and reassert control. This train called America is our train, we own and run it, and the engineer is our employee – it's not the other way around!

If we're going to change this destructive, ominous direction, we must be an aroused, informed, determined, organized … and even a sacrificing citizenry. Just being upset, and grousing and complaining, won't change anything.

In the late 1700s, aroused and persuasive patriots like Thomas Paine called effectively to our forefathers, spurring them to heroic action, which resulted in the formation of our republic. Samuel Adams led like-minded men to oppose oppression and even revolt against the armed oppressors, at great cost but greater victory. And you know, hopefully, about George Washington, Ben Franklin, John Adams and James Monroe.

After the dust settled and a new and vibrant nation was born, Thomas Jefferson warned, "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."

I want to shine a spotlight on one of the several patriotic groups that are performing today like these forefathers of ours did – the Cato Institute.

George Will said of the organization, "The Cato Institute is the foremost upholder of the idea of liberty in the nation."

Thankfully, there are other think tanks that might lay claim to that accolade, but Cato is at or near the top of the list. The University of Pennsylvania's index of "Global Go-To Think Tanks" ranks Cato fifth in the world. And a 2009 survey commissioned by Foreign Policy magazine of nearly 1,800 think tanks in America listed Cato among the top 10 overall and No. 1 in the category for "Top Think Tanks for Innovative Ideas."

Cato is a public-policy research organization, guided by the principles that animated the founders of this great nation. The distinguished University of Pennsylvania historian, Alan Kors, sees think tanks as a "market response to the intellectual conformity and stagnation in most American universities." In too, too many cases, our colleges are turning out mental robots, not truly educated, openminded and inquiring learners. But when confronted with incontrovertible facts and logical thought – many of these intelligent and potentially influential men and women can see the light.

The light of truth.

An alarm went off, loud and clear, when Barack Obama's chief of staff let slip the strategy behind the health-care power grab when he declared you should "never let a serious crisis go to waste. It's an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before." Since then, in a shocking display of arrogance and cunning, this administration has created an unfathomable level of "crisis"-related spending that will create at least $1 trillion of deficits per year, for the next decade.

As Cato has revealed, "The total potential federal government support could reach up to $23.7 trillion," according to Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the TARP program. Do you think the liberal media are going to report this to us? How can a citizenry protect itself when it doesn't have the real facts?

Bloomberg News, an objective media source, stated last December, "The few remaining limited-government types are hunkered down at Washington's Cato Institute."

READ FULL STORY at WorldNetDaily.com

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