The statement is attributed most of the time to Voltaire. Fortunately,to my knowledge, it has not been tested by the known democracies–not yet, anyway, but we are heading there. That it hasn’t been tested yet doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

Common sense would tell you that once the national treasury has been totally emptied, and the national debt exceeds our yearly revenue by, say,100, 200 or 300%, by representatives voting exactly as their constituents demand for the people to get a payoff of some kind, and we are further mortgaged by the President signing these excessive spending bills, the nation is broke, out of money to pay salaries, bills, service on the debt, military operations and procurements, paying for jet fuel…the whole business of the US as a nation grinds to a halt. We are then bankrupt.

There is a limit to the amount the government can realize by taxing the people, too. Once that limit is reached in every income level, there is no more revenue for the government to be had.

What might the citizens ask for?

Universal health care, universal college education, all mortgages underwritten by the government, cash for clunkers, transfusions by the billions and trillions to various industries such as autos and the financial sector (please save my job, gov!), rampant government growth and inefficiencies, ballooning welfare payments, paying for 1 to 2 million convenience abortions a year, allowing all plastic surgeries to be underwritten, guarantees by the government to the financial sector for their prior mistakes coming to light, perhaps a new war breaking out to drain us heavily, all lead to an empty treasury and a massive, unrepairable national debt.

If there are no truly massive multi-trillion dollar loans from other nations to be had, or the loans run out and are called after a year or so for lack of payment of interest, what then?

One might think that a full financial collapse would be the end of our republic. Don’t you agree?

Let us hope that the current clowns in government are stopped and thrown out of office far, far short of bankrupting the nation completely.

Ben Franklin wrote of Vattel’s book, “It . . has been continually in the hands of the members of our Congress.” The librarian at Carpenters Hall reported that Vattel was the primary source read by the delegates of the Continental Congress. Chief Justice John Marshall quoted from Vattel more than from any other author.

Vattel’s definition was repeated by the Supreme Court in Minor v. Happersett (1885): “It was never doubted that all children born in a country of parents who were its citizens became themselves . . . natural-born citizens.”

Furthermore, in U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) Justice Gray re-affirmed the Minor v. Happersett interpretation: “In Minor v. Happersett, Chief Justice Waite . . . said: “The Constitution does not, in words, say who shall be natural-born citizens. Resort must be had elsewhere to ascertain that.” And he proceeded to resort to the common law as an aid in the construction of this provision.”

By the way, Minor v. Happersett and Wong Kim Ark were after the 14th Amendment. Notice how they both say that the definition is not in the Constittution. Well the 14 Amendment was already there, so it’s not in there! Notice how Vattel is quoted almost verbatim in Minor? Why don’t you do some research since you supposedly have a radio show (which of course I already know that I would never listen to), and a supposedly Conservative Blog. Duh.

For someone who refuses to acknowledge that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, you certainly are a persistent cuss. Up is not down. Black is never white. And the idea I am an Obama supporter because I can see the nose in front of my face is absurd - as anyone with an ounce of intelligence would know if they read anything I’ve ever written.

Oh - other obvious things you deny? Obama is the legitimate president of the United States - recognized by the Congress, the state of Hawaii, and about 98% of the American people.

Duh.

ed.

Just because someone said this doesn’t mean it’s true.

Name one historical, empirical example of this happening. Name one republic/democracy that was ended by the people voting themselves money. Rome? No. Athens? No.

Seriously, are there any examples of this at all or is it just a theoretical prediction that has never actually come true in the history of Democracies?

http://naturalborncitizen.wordpress.com/2009/07/31/wall-street-journal-caught-spreading-false-legal-propaganda-via-james-taranto/

Where in the Constitution does it say both parents have to have been born here? You are mouthing a definition from a treatise published 10 years before the constitution was even written - never seen by Madison or anyone else.

He was born here and born of a parent who was a citizen. That’s all the requirement necessary.

Are you really that much of a loon?

ed.

The time you refer to must be centuries. We have not had all that much sanity in the political world for several decades, beginning with FDR, and landing now in the Obama administration and its profligate spending programs.

The push me/pull you of our system has been won mostly by the liberals, who apparently do not have any economic common sense whatsoever–far less than the Bush administration, anyway. Bush played with billions, while the current crazies play with trillions.

Who was it that said, paraphrasing: “When the citizens realize that they can vote themselves money that will be the end of our republic.”

“Over time with the occasional hick up, sane minds will prevail.”

For almost 4 decades I’ve held fast to that belief. I won’t lie . . . I’m starting to doubt.

The three most influential people in the GOP: Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck and Orly Taitz.

Well played, Reynolds, well played.