April 13, 2011 Napolitano: Thomas Jefferson and the Meaning of Liberty | Glenn

April 13, 2011 Napolitano: Thomas Jefferson and the Meaning of Liberty | Glenn Beck With: Judge Andrew Napolitano This is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," April 13, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.   Does the government work for us or do we work for the government? Can previous generations enact social welfare programs or build an empire around the world, financed by borrowing and then enslave subsequent generations to pay for it in perpetuity; or do individuals have a responsibility to pay their own way and take care of themselves? Tonight, Thomas Jefferson and the meaning of liberty. Today is the anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birth. He is the American original who created the American republic. He authored the most famous phrase in American history: "that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights." His legacy of natural rights -- that our liberties come from God and not from the government -- lives on in the hearts and minds of freedom loving people throughout all the world. But what would Jefferson think of us if he were still alive today? He once remarked that "It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes." Would he be proud of what we've become or would he turn his back on a nation that squandered his legacy? Could he even have imagined our present debt? It was reported just yesterday that in just the last six months, the debt of the federal government increased by 15 percent. That is an enormous sum in a very short time and it highlights the dangerous and historic times in which we live, as we shoulder an unprecedented $14.3 trillion debt burden. That is a sum that is so astronomical it defies comprehension; so allow me to try. If you laid 1 trillion one dollar bills end to end they would stretch from the Earth to the sun. If you did the same with the dollars only going to the moon, they would go to the moon and back 200 times. If you spent a dollar a second, it would take you 32,000 years to spend $1 trillion -- that's longer than all of recorded human history. Now, multiply all this by 14 and you still need to add $300 billion to visualize the government's debt. It is truly unimaginable in size. But the Congress lets the president borrow more than $1 trillion a year. It's ridiculous, it's unconscionable, it's immoral and it's dangerous. And we don't have the money to pay it back. Only an informed and educated public -- which is our goal here at Fox -- can restore fiscal sanity. Like in Jefferson's day, these are the times that try men's and women's souls. The modern day struggle for liberty is a renewed fight from a long forgotten age. The founding of the American Republic was defined not simply by throwing off the yolk of the British Empire; for when the Revolution ended, the Founders were left to argue and battle amongst one another to create a government on their own. Just like our politicians today, they become corrupted by too much power and many of the Founding Fathers began to lust for power and desire to shape the American Republic toward big government. But not Thomas Jefferson. With a few minor exceptions, the Jeffersonian band -- the Anti-Federalists -- who believed in small government and maximum individual liberty, struggled against the power-hungry big government types at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. The big government types -- the Federalists -- led by Alexander Hamilton, were dissatisfied with the Articles of Confederation that had held the states together loosely and left them largely alone to govern their own affairs. Although the Federalists were victorious in drafting the Constitution with a stronger central government, the Anti-Federalists were successful in restraining the new central government with the Bill of Rights. But the fight to limit the power of the federal government would go on, and Jefferson would continue to be at the vanguard of that fight. In 1798, he secretly authored the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. These declarations were a response to the Alien and Sedition Acts that the Congress had just enacted that criminalized free speech. The modern equivalent of the Alien and Sedition Acts, Woodrow Wilson's Espionage Act of 1917, is still the law today and even as we speak is being used to silence the speech of those who embarrass the federal government. Would Jefferson be happy with the federal government today? Well, his arguments that the best government governs least -- once long forgotten -- have been revived through the tea parties, and the assertion of the rights of states to nullify federal action not authorized by the Constitution. Would our hero be happy on his birthday? Only if we continue our current push for the principles that he lived and fought for. The grassroots are alive and thriving. Many more Americans than ever before now see that the emperor wears no clothes and the government only has the power that we give it. So what shall it be, America? Do we let big government continue to spend and regulate us into economic slavery or do we continue our push to breathe life into Jefferson's legacy? The choice is yours and the choice is obvious. Content and Programming Copyright 2011 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2011 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.   Carl Ray Louk "FRIENDSHIP NEVER ENDS" SG-1996 "LET LOVE LEAD THE WAY" SG-2000 "THE PHOENIX SHALL RISE" SD "EVEN A MAN WHO IS PURE IN HEART AND SAYS HIS PRAYERS BY NIGHT, MAY BECOME A WOLF WHEN THE WOLFBANE BLOOMS AND THE AUTUMN MOON IS BRIGHT." LT-1941 "FLESH OF MY FLESH; BLOOD OF MY BLOOD; KIN OF MY KIN WHEN SAY COME TO YOU, YOU SHALL CROSS LAND OR SEA TO DO MY BIDDING!" CVTD-1895 "FROM HELL'S HEART I STAB AT THEE, FOR HATE SAKE I SPIT MY LAST BREATH AT THEE" CA-1895  "I HAVE BEEN, AND ALWAYS SHALL BE YOUR FRIEND" Spock  "TRICK OR TREAT, TRICK OR TREAT CANDY IS DANDY BUT MURDER, OH MURDER, IS SO SWEET" CRL-2003  "EYE OF NEWT, AND TOE OF FROG, WOOL OF BAT, AND TONGUE OF DOG ADDER'S FORK, BLIND-WORM'S STING, LIZARD'S LEG, AND OWLET'S WING. FOR A CHARM OF POWERFUL TROUBLE, LIKE A HELL-BROTH BOIL AND BABBLE. DOUBLE, DOUBLE, TOIL AND TROUBLE, FIRE BURN, AND CALDRON BUBBLE" WS MySpace.com: www.myspace.com/carlraylouk http://www.myspace.com/carlraylouk Yahoo Group: Yahoo! Groups : LouksHauntedGraveyardhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/LouksHauntedGraveyard/ Yahoo Group: Yahoo! Groups : TheWorldAccordingtoCarlRayLouk http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheWorldAccordingtoCarlRayLouk/