Our Founders warned us about the Political Party from the very beginning. George Washington Described it as A frightful Despotism. Parties were Factions Then

"The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension... is itself a frightful despotism."

• John Adams: "There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution."
• Thomas Jefferson: "If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all." (Ironically, Jefferson went on to found one of the most successful parties in U.S. history).

Washington’s fear wasn't that the parties would have bad ideas, but that the competition itself would eventually become more important than the country.

I am definitely the George Washington camp on this. As I have mentioned many times, I have never been a member of a political party. We should always be free to vote our continence and not be guided by someone else. Yesterday I noticed article where the democrat leadership in the house are threatening there democratic members with redistricting or some other punishment if the don't show up to vote and or don't vote they are told to on the war powers bill. I believe they just proved George Washington right.

What we are seeing in Minnesota is just the Very Small tip of a very large iceberg. If we use their numbers and extrapolate for a national figure we are a over a halt a Trillion dollars and I think in the final analysis it will be much larger.. However we have other contributing factors that make it much worse than just the amount of the Fraud. I call this whole thing the 4 whammy's

1- the fraud itself

2- The interest. We are in deficit spending in the U.S. so in fact every dollar stolen is borrowed money.

3-We have at ;east 14 states who are projected to have deficits this year so they will intern have to pay interest on their shortfalls.

4- Much of the fraud money is being sent out of the country according to FBI investigations. According to economists money earned ( or stolen here) and sent out of the country robs our economy of the economic benefit of that money. Theory says that money earned here and spent here in the economy has a 5X multiple effect. Our economy takes a big hit because of the actual loss of the money stolen but also the loss of that Multiplier effect..

If we can stop the fraud or at least minimize it we could eliminate much of our federal deficit. And deficit in many of the states as well.

I am who I am because of my Parents. My dad in particular, had a way of teaching things about life, that many times I don't think he really knew he was teaching at the time. It was not what he said most of the time, it was what he did. The way he worked, the way he dealt with neighbors, friends and even strangers. This podcast is just one example the important life lessons he taught me, by doing it, not saying it. This experience has had a major impact on my life, I hope it can help others the way it has helped me.