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T HE OR EILLY F ACTOR : T HE G OOD , THE B AD , AND THE
C OMPLETELY R IDICULOUS IN A MERICAN L IFE

T HE N O S PIN Z ONE : C ONFRONTATIONS WITH THE P OWERFUL
AND F AMOUS IN A MERICA

W HO S L OOKING O UT FOR Y OU ?

T HE OR EILLY F ACTOR FOR K IDS : A S URVIVAL G UIDE FOR
A MERICA S F AMILIES ( COAUTHORED BY CHARLES FLOWERS )

T HOSE W HO T RESPASS : A N OVEL OF T ELEVISION AND M URDER

C ULTURE W ARRIOR

A B OLD F RESH P IECE OF H UMANITY

K IDS A RE A MERICANS T OO

( COAUTHORED BY CHARLES FLOWERS )

P INHEADS AND P ATRIOTS : W HERE Y OU S TAND
IN THE A GE OF O BAMA

K ILLING L INCOLN

K ILLING K ENNEDY

For more than thirteen years, BILL OREILLY has presided over The OReilly Factor on the Fox News Channel. OReilly is a three-time Emmy Award winner as well as the recipient of a Governors Award from the Boston/New England chapter of the prestigious National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Before becoming executive producer and anchor at The OReilly Factor, he served as a national correspondent for ABC News and as an anchor of the nationally syndicated newsmagazine program Inside Edition. He is the author of numerous mega-bestsellers. In total, more than five million copies of his books are in circulation. He holds masters degrees from Harvards Kennedy School of Government and from Boston University. Asked about his proudest professional achievement, Bill has said, The millions of dollars we are able to give to charity.

Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States, Howard Chandler Christy (Public Domain)

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Norman Rockwell, Freedom from Want (Printed by permission of the Norman Rockwell Family Agency, Copyright 1943 The Norman Rockwell Family Entities)

Nativity Scene (Public Domain)

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Mass (Public Domain)

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Rosie ODonnell (Damian Dovarganes/File/AP Photo)

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Back in 2006, I had fun imagining in my book Culture Warrior a future State of the Union speech by a U.S. president named Gloria Hernandez. Heres a summary of that imaginary pols goals and philosophies:

A sharing of the wealth by targeting the affluent for most of the governments revenue lax school discipline on American children to promote their so-called liberties naked hostility to religious values and their expression in public a one-world approach to foreign relations that would prevent the U.S. government from imposing a policy that would benefit America first a touchy-feely vision of our society that places individual self-expression and rights over self-sacrifice and adult responsibility.

Did I get it right? Well, I made one serious mistake. I imagined that this would be the platform of a president elected in 2020. Looked at a calendar lately?

The brilliant men who forged the Constitution understood that Americans should have the opportunity to pursue happiness without much government interference. They also believed for both moral and practical reasons that the greater good must always take precedence over individual selfishness.

()

The S-P notion that the U.S. government has the right to seize private property (which is exactly what the estate tax achieves, for example, but under stealth wording), or redistribute legally earned income from the affluent to the poor, runs counter to the founding spirit of America in every way.

Look at the evidence. The United States became the strongest nation on earth because individuals working their butts off created a unified powerhouse.

Right now our national slogan is The more you make, the more we take. And were not even going to watch how we spend it.

Throwing our tax dollars away has become the new national pastime, replacing baseball!

Usually, as Ive noted in the introduction, Im not likely to disagree all that much with what Ive opined in the past. Exceptions are notable, and I will note them. Most of these quotes from my writings will require no explanation. My core values have not fundamentally changed.

Too late now!

In fact

Politicians will argueas many have on my programthat the government needs your money. This is a lie. There is more than enough tax revenue available today to pay for the armed forces, roads, police, and other vital services without looting the take-home pay of working Americans. No, the reason our taxes are so punitive is right there in front of you: obvious and arrogant wastefulness in government-run programs. Forget the $400 toilet seats in the Pentagon budgetpeanuts. The real killing waste is in programs that do not work.

(I then noted the horrific failure of Clintons $30 billion drug war and the $200 billion his administration threw at public education, to no great effect.)

I could give you hundreds of examples of ridiculous government waste, but that would take a whole other book. Right now, I have enough on my hands trying to write this one. But you can trust me on this: The tax situation in this country is brutal, including the fact that your elected representatives and their opponents are using entitlements to buy votes. That includes Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Listen very carefully when pols talk about these hot-button programs. Are they making sense, or are they pandering?