There were many steps leading up to the current state of aggressiveness abroad and the situation of ignoring what was originally thought as civil liberties. What had originally begun with the Iraq war continued on with the lies told by this administration, and culminated on October 26th 2006, one of the most atrocious documents the PATRIOT act was signed in to law by one of the worst crooks of the 21st century, President George W. Bush.

The patriot act is the most damaging thing to pass in congress since this administration came to power in 2000. This detrimental document has destroyed two things. The first thing that is destroyed is our economy through giving too much money towards federal agencies and creating one of the largest deficits in American history. The Second thing that this document destroyed is something that most Americans have thought sacred; privacy. Though privacy is never explicitly stated in the constitution we have always thought it to be one of our most basic rights as Americans, as such when such a document threatens to take it away through wiretaps or other means, it is considered a complete and utter outrage.

Our economy has plummeted due to this document and the public is not as informed as it should be about the entire situation. Immediately following 9/11 the Department of Homeland Security was created to help reduce terrorist efforts within the United States just the creation of this department has cost over 22 billion dollars(patriot act) the cost which has risen up to 41.6 billion dollars(budget) since the passage of the patriot act.

Another example of how it is costing us exponentially is the expenses paid to protect us abroad by training foreign militaries to help fight this fictitious “War on Terror” the cost of which has been exorbitant; just for training foreign governments has cost us five hundred million dollars. So where is all this money coming from? Our taxes which have not risen in such a high fashion since the inception of the Homeland Security Department so, naturally it is coming from other departments and because of this, things like Kindergarten through twelfth grade education. What America needs is a complete restructuring of its budget; less towards homeland security and more towards infrastructure and social programs such as welfare, because what’s the point of protecting something that isn’t worth protecting.

The second issue is privacy, though it is typically thought of as a civil right is actually a civil liberty which means the government can suspend it during times of war or during a state of emergency which is what the United States has been going through although more of a war of ideas then a set country it is a war nonetheless so section 213 of the patriot act takes precedence over the Fourth Amendment. Section 213 is the so called “sneak and peak” section of the patriot act in which a federal judge can issue a warrant that does not need to notify those whose property they are searching (Wilkes).

There are several stipulations to the sneak and peek warrant however; (1) the court finds reasonable cause to believe that providing immediate notification of the execution of the warrant may have an adverse result (as defined in section 2705); (2) the warrant prohibits the seizure of any tangible property ...except where the court finds reasonable necessity for the seizure; and (3) the warrant provides for the giving of such notice within a reasonable period of its execution, which period may thereafter be extended by the court for good cause shown (patriot act Sec 213).

There are several major problems with this, the first being that if someone was a suspected terrorist or criminal then they would have no problem fleeing from the law. The second section presents the problem that the court could find any reason in which it is necessary to seize any evidence especially if it something easily deposable, items that would incriminate someone. The third major problem is that a person can go on for years and years perpetually without ever hearing about people searching their house. The big problem with this section of the patriot act is that it leaves elastic ends on which law enforcement and government to play with; it threatens the very document this country was founded on, the United States Constitution.