It’s not so much that Congress mugging the populace is all that new; it’s just that congresscritters are becoming so much more open and bold about it. *sigh* Denny Crane had a response to muggers that I fear more and more Americans might feel moved to make (following the example of the Founders):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pcVDmX4ho4
Oh, the Founders’ view on “mugging by government”?
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Yep. Pretty much THE central reason for the Second Amendment. I hope it doesn’t come to a third American Revolution. (Ask me, if you wish, about the second American Revolution that overthrew the Constitution’s protections against a tyrannical central government… ) I sincerely hope the current effort to enslave citizens can be overthrown peacefully at the ballot box.