By Craig Andresen – The National Patriot and Right Side Patriots on cprworldwidemedia.net

Reagan said…“Our Government has no power except that granted it by the people. It is time to check and reverse the growth of government which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed. In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

To be clear, since the very beginning, there has been an element of corruption and misconduct within our government and, as our nation grew, so too did our government and as our government grew, that element of corruption and misconduct grew right along with it.

Reagan’s comment above came from his First Inaugural Address in January 1981 and since then, government has grown even more.

We now face bigger problems than ever…both foreign and domestic and we, as Conservatives, seek to vote next year to turn things around but even if we retake the White House and hold the House and the Senate…can we expect big changes?

Maybe but…

If we think our VOTES are all it will take to make BIG changes…we’re wrong and the proof of that is in the first sentence of Reagan’s quote.

“Our Government has no power except that granted it by the people.”

The problem is that We The People are far too disengaged from our government and that is exactly what politicians want. They want us to VOTE for them every few years and that’s it. Between those elections, they want to be left to their own devices and We The People have been all too willing to maintain that status quo.

For far, FAR too long, we have allowed GOVERNMENT solve the problems OF government and what follows is but a microcosm of what transpires when the fox is allowed to guard the hen house.

A few days ago, Michele Leonhart…the chief of the DEA along with a few others were before the House Oversight Committee to answer for misconduct related to DEA agents in Columbia…some of which go back nearly a decade.

More than a dozen agents took part in sex parties while in Columbia but that’s not what they were sent to Columbia to do. They were sent there, on the nickel of the U.S. taxpayer, to investigate the Columbian drug cartels and while on those assignments…those agents ‘entertained’ prostitutes who were supplied TO them by…the Columbian drug cartels they were investigating.

The parties, at least some of them, took place in an official government-leased property…a property not leased by the government of Columbia…a property leased by OUR government and again…that lease was paid for by the American taxpayer.

That is, without question, not only gross misconduct…it’s a security risk.

In one of these sex parties, one agent threw a glass at one of the prostitutes, striking her in the head during an argument over how much he was expected to TIP the woman for her activities.

So…what happened to the agents involved?

A handful of them were given between two and ten days of unpaid leave but…NOBODY got fired…only THREE of the more than a DOZEN involved lost their security credentials and NOBODY was reassigned.

Those agents engaged in sex parties with prostitutes…supplied by the very drug cartel they were sent to investigate…in an official U.S. government facility…on the nickel of the American taxpayer and the HARSHEST penalty doled out was a ten day vacation but that is not where it ends.

SEVERAL of those agents later received…PROMOTIONS and/or…BONUSES. That’s correct…they were REWARDED.

Now…let’s have another look at the END of that 1981 Reagan quote.

“Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

Our bloated government, protected by mountains of bureaucratic nonsense compiled by decades of power government granted to itself, and unchecked by We the People, made it virtually impossible to do the one simple thing it would have taken to have put a stop to that sort of corruption and misconduct…

DEA chief Michele Leonhart, who has been either the number 1 or number 2 in command there for ten years…is unable to FIRE those agents or to even recommend punishment for them.

It seems that there is a panel for that and the panel protects those agents by manipulating the charges against them. In fact, according to Leonhart and others questioned by the Oversight Committee on Tuesday…the panel, never told them OF these cases of gross misconduct until…in most cases…YEARS after the fact.

But this is not at all adequate cover for Michele Leonhart.

As the DEA chief…while she doesn’t have the authority to FIRE or RECOMMEND punishment actions regarding the agents under her command…she COULD have, at the very least…rescinded ALL of the security credentials OF those agents involved…thus preventing ANY of them from ever being field operatives again and relegating them to desk duty but…she never did.

Watch and listen to Michele Leonhart provide political cover in response to questions posed by Trey Gowdy in Tuesday’s hearing.

Mr. Horowitz, the Inspector General seen in the video, sent to the DEA 45 criteria upon which his staff wanted to search data bases regarding the investigation of these cases but what you don’t see or hear in that video is that the IG was only allowed to search those data bases based on but THREE of those criteria.

So how DO we fix such a problem as this?

Well, firing Leonhart isn’t the answer for a couple of good reasons not the least of which is that, while appointed by the president, in Leonhart’s case, first by George W. Bush and then by Obama, she answers to the Attorney General and since nobody got fired over Fast and Furious, is there anyone out there who believes Holder would fire Leonhart? Second…even if she DID get fired or replaced under the next president…the bloated bureaucracy that protects those agents involved in future such misconduct would remain in place.

The REAL solution for this is in reorganization of the DEA itself from top to bottom and the first element OF that would be to eliminate that autonomous ‘panel’ from existence thus putting the power over discipline directly into the hands of whoever is running the agency but that is only stripping away ONE level of bureaucracy from the DEA and I guarantee there are MANY layers in that agency that COULD and SHOULD be stripped away.

And the DEA is but ONE agency. This is exactly what needs to happen in EVERY government agency…strip away each and every layer of bureaucracy from each and every government agency making them more and more accountable for their actions rather than ADDING layers making them less and LESS accountable.

SOME agencies need to go away completely such as the Department of Education, the EPA, the IRS and another of THE biggest offenders…the DHS which we learned a couple of months back has spent tens of BILLIONS of the American’s taxpayer dollars and yet can’t show even a single accomplishment that has led to added security according to a recently filed federal oversight report.

Bureaucratic bloat in government is a BIG problem and NOT something that can be solved in one election or by one president and the burden of finding the solution is not on GOVERNMENT but on We the People as per the Constitution as echoed in Reagan’s words…“Our Government has no power except that granted it by the people.”

If those we elect don’t take action to cut the size of government, We the People most throw them out and elect those who WILL and it is going to take DECADES of involvement to make it happen because this is NOT a new problem…it’s one that has existed and grown, unchecked since the very beginning but now, it’s reaching critical mass. GOVERNMENT will only act if WE act and hold government accountable to US and not the other way around but it’s not just the mountain of bureaucracy that must be stripped away…

On Wednesday, a bill that would have held government employees accountable to do, of all things, PAY THEIR FEDERAL TAXES…sponsored by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) FAILED in the House. IT FAILED…and according to congressman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) who had inside knowledge of the IRS targeting scandal…“This measure is based on ideology rather than facts, and will perpetuate a negative image of federal workers.”

Here are the facts upon which Cummings says the bill was not based…”Federal workers and retirees owe the IRS $3.5 billion, according to data released Tuesday,” as per a report from CNN…hardly a partisan purveyor of right wing ideology.

Government employees, whose salaries are paid by the American taxpayers, who don’t pay THEIR taxes should be fired…right? Well, the ONLY government agency who has the authority to fire their…and ONLY their employees who don’t pay their taxes is the IRS and the bill that would have changed that just got killed in the House…the rest…ALL the rest…are covered by a mountain of unchecked bureaucracy.

Cases that involve government agents involved with prostitutes who are protected from accountability make headlines while bills that fail often don’t but…all of this SHOULD make We the People stop and take inventory of our involvement with our government…a government that is SUPPOSED to be accountable to US because…

As Reagan once said…”No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size.”