Has anyone read the Fourth Amendment
It's clear that those in government haven't
Last night, Senator Elissa Slotkin (who?) of Michigan provided the Democrat response to President Trump's address to Congress. While there is much that could be picked apart, there is a particular point I'd like to make.
In her response Slotkin asked, "while we're on the subject of Elon Musk, is there anyone in America who is comfortable with him and his gang of 20-year-olds using their own computer servers to poke through your tax returns your health information and your bank accounts?"
In asking this question, she missed a critical point: No one in America should be comfortable with the government having access to their health information and bank accounts!!!
Where does the government think it gets authority to access such personal information? Sure, they have to have access to tax returns - they are filed with the government. But health information? Bank accounts? At the very least, such access violates the Fourth Amendment:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
Having such access opens citizens to “unreasonable searches” without “probable cause” (a pretty stiff legal requirement). This is not being “secure in [our] persons, houses, papers, and effects.” Americans should not tolerate ANYONE having access to that information, least of all the government. But this is what government does.
Don't think this is only a Democrat issue. If the tables were turned, and the Democrats had someone doing what DOGE is doing (though they never would because they would not want their corruption so exposed), the Republican response would likely be similar. They have done nothing, when the power was within their hands, to stop any such government intrusion. In many cases, they were the source of such intrusion (just think "Patriot Act").
This entire situation is backwards. Government should not be keeping tabs on our savings and expenditures. They should be reporting theirs to us:
No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.
We should have publicly accessible receipts for every penny government collects and every penny it spends. This is the reason we need DOGE. The government has failed utterly in its requirement to provide “a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money.” Government agencies regularly fail their audits (how many has the Pentagon now failed?) There is no budget. We have no accounting of the tax dollars they collect and how it is all spent, and this is intentional, because the vast majority of federal government spending is outside the scope of the powers granted by the Constitution.
It's time to clean house and end government overreach not only, but especially, at the federal level.
I haven't looked deeply into this but you give clarity to an issue that is of concern. Those opposed to "DOGE" make it sound like Elon and team are digging through all our (citizens) personal information. As far as I'm aware they aren't looking at (citizens) personal information at all. They are looking at the *government's* "personal information" and that is exactly what they should be doing.
If my government is spending my tax dollars (which of course they are), this should all be public information and there should be no issue with *anyone* digging through it!
Good to see anyone citing our Bill of Rights. By any chance, have you worked for a Financial Institution and taken mandatory training in the GLBA?
https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/privacy-security/gramm-leach-bliley-act
Harkening back to The “January 6” matter, Financial Institutions started violating the GLBA (providing customer information regarding ATM transactions in or around Capital Hill, to the FBI) and violating the 4th Amendment (since no search warrants or subpoenas were obtained).
By the way, there is no provision in the law that permits Financial Institutions to hand-over customer information …even under “exigent circumstances” if anyone tries such a justification.
We all know what many of the banks did when they identified ATM usage & customer’s information - warrantless - just self-initiated by FIs with no warrants & prohibited by the cited Act.