Whether they are called Democrats, socialists, Marxists or progressives, the current leadership in Washington has but one goal: control. The current leadership has demonstrated its belief that government must control virtually every facet of the economy, of politics and the life of every citizen.

With unprecedented arrogance, this leadership manufactured nearly $2 trillion with which to exercise its control over the banking industry, the auto industry and over virtually every other entity that was persuaded to take the federal handouts. Government is now firmly in control and working overtime to expand its control.

Since the turn of the 20th century, progressives have championed the idea of universal health care delivered by government. No other program touches so many lives with such absolute control as does the delivery of health care. When government is in control, it is government that decides what services and procedures will be provided, to whom and when. When government is in control, it is government that decides how much doctors and nurses will be paid, how much hospitals will be paid and how much will be paid for drugs.

People who have been disappointed by the brick wall an insurance company can build will not believe the impenetrable barrier government can build when a bureaucracy is in control. In a free market, there is always another insurance company; when government is in control, there is no alternative.

Government control doesn't end with health care. The feds are taking control over student loans. On the pretext of eliminating profit of the greedy bankers, the federal government will begin making loans directly to students. Some shallow thinkers may welcome this progressive innovation – until the government begins directing students into fields of study of the government's choosing. When government is the only lender, it is a simple matter to make funds available for those subjects the government wants to promote and deny funds for study in those fields the government wants to discourage.

The government exercises this kind of control every day in every lending program it operates. Farmers who depend on federal loans for spring planting must plant what the government approves and jump through all kind of additional hoops to do exactly what the federal bureaucrats require before one dollar is disbursed. Control is the name of the game.

Pushed by progressives, the U.S. Department of Agriculture tried for years to impose a National Animal Identification System, which sought to require every person who owned even one of any of 29 species of livestock animals to register his premises – with GPS coordinates – in a federal database, tag every animal owed with a government-issued number and report to the government within 24 hours every time an animal left the registered premises for any reason.

Citizen push back has forced the USDA to back up and take a different approach. Now it appears that the leadership is formulating the same kind of controls for everyone who produces any kind of food, as well as livestock owners. There is just no end to the ways this progressive philosophy seeks to quash freedom in order to control the people.

Progressives in Congress are determined to take control over every drop of water in the nation.

Despite having been rejected in the past, promoters of the "National ID Card" are at it again. These folks are hell-bent on forcing every American to have a government-issued identification card that contains whatever information the government decides you must make available to whomever swipes your card.

It continues to worsen. The feds have promoted Comprehensive Planning laws for states to enact. Local communities have embraced these plans as evidence of their progressive thinking – and to get billions in federal "Sustainable Development" grants. These plans have no appreciation for individual freedom or private-property rights. The City of Gilbert, Ariz., has banished Bible study in a private home. Some cities dictate the color each home must be painted; others dictate the length and species of lawn grass. Most counties now have an "Urban Boundary Zone" beyond which municipal services are not available. This destroys property values outside the zone and inflates the value of property inside the zone. It is government control instead of a free market.

It's almost as if the U.S. Constitution did not exist. The congressional powers enumerated in Article I, Section 8, have, for all practical purposes, been erased. The Fourth Amendment, which guarantees security from government without a warrant, is routinely ignored. The Tenth Amendment, which reserves all powers not granted to the federal government to the states and to the people, has been rendered meaningless.

Unless this entire crowd of progressive control-freaks is booted well beyond the D.C. Beltway in the next election, America will continue to spiral downward, deeper into a government-controlled hell-hole.

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Previous articles by Henry Lamb: Doing the Socialists' bidding