Tax Cat Out of the Bag

When President Obama was candidate Obama he said over and over again that he would cut taxes for 95% of Americans, or that they would not see their taxes go up. Well I have news for you Obamabots, let me be clear, that was a big lie! Here’s a good rule of thumb: WHENEVER A POLITICIAN IS A DEMOCRAT (S)HE WILL RAISE TAXES AND INCREASE GOVERNMENT SPENDING! IF THEY SAY THEY WILL DO OTHERWISE THEY ARE LYING! 

On Tuesday, White House adviser Paul Volcker said that we might need to adopt a European-style value added tax and a carbon or other energy tax. He said we might have to do this to get entitlement cost and the U.S. budget deficit under control. 

Here’s a crazy idea: STOP SPENDING OUR F***ING MONEY! How about we try that as a way to get our budget deficit under control. Maybe we could reform our entitlement system so that we can ween people off of it and eventually abolish it instead of creating new entitlements, i.e. healthcare. Oh wait, the Democrats run everything so those aren’t options, failure is the only option.

The Sun Will Still Rise in the East Tomorrow

The unpopular health care overhaul bill passed in the house tonight, 219-212. We all knew this was going to happen and you were fooling yourself if you believed otherwise. Already, Republicans are planning on repealing the bill should they win back the majority in Congress in November. You are fooling yourself if you think the Republicans taking over Congress in November will change anything. It won’t, I’ve seen that movie before.

The natural tendency of government is to get bigger, no matter which party is in charge. This is the natural way of things just like the sun rising in the east. Will this health care bill increase the size of government and take liberty from us? Probably, but no more than the Federal Reserve, the IRS, the Social Security system, Medicare, Medicaid, and countless other unconstitutional government programs already have. The politicians and pundits on the right have been ranting and raving about how this health care bill will destroy our country and our liberty, but our liberty is long gone. We are all slaves to the debt. Our debt didn’t just happen overnight or under one President, but we are doing nothing to stop it. If you think the Republicans taking over Congress will solve our debt problem, you are fooling yourself.

It’s easy to see what will happen to us if we keep going down this road. Just look at Greece. The only way to solve our debt problem is to drastically reduce the size of government. A 50% reduction would be great, but that would be only a start. A limited government with a responsible citizenry is the only way out of the mess. I know it’s a lot to ask for but with liberty comes sacrifice and responsibility.

First, we need to dismantle our empire. Our military occupies land in over 150 countries or territories. Why? What are we gaining from this? We need to bring our military back home to their families. We need to remove ourselves from the UN and stop giving them money. We need to remove our embassies from other countries. Our founders gave us a republic, not an empire.  Anything other than a republic is unconstitutional.

Next, we need to abolish our entitlement programs. All of them. We can no longer allow people to think that the government can or will be their “safety net.” We all need to learn to weave our own safety nets of personal responsibility. Asking for help from your family, neighbors, community or religious institution is fine, but you shouldn’t be able to ask the government.

Dismantling our empire and abolishing our entitlement programs would be the first of many steps we need to take to solve our debt problem and limit the size of government back to what the Constitution demands, and they couldn’t happen overnight, but they need to start happening soon if we want to remove from our necks the yoke of debt we have burdened ourselves with. Will the Republicans or Democrats start to make this happen? No, they won’t. They are too busy arguing about federal funding of abortion.

Am I happy about the health care bill? No. Am I happy about anything government does? Not really. Even if this health care bill were repealed, don’t fool yourself, it wouldn’t be a great victory for liberty. To have the liberty our founders wanted would require much more that repealing this health care bill. It is well worth fighting for, but no one in government from either party except Ron Paul is truly fighting for liberty right now. As much as I love Dr. Paul, he cannot lead us to the promised land. We will have to lead ourselves there, one individual at a time, rising up for liberty. I see hope in the Tea Parties, but they must fight from being overtaken by the Republican party or people like Sarah Palin. But that is a topic for another post.

The natural tendency of government is to get bigger and more powerful. It is the natural way of things, just like the sun rising in the east.

A Few Thoughts on the Texas School Board Decision

As I’m sure many of you have already heard, the Texas Board of Education voted last Friday to adopt new K-12 social studies textbook standards for history and economics curriculum. The Texas Board is made up of 15 elected members, 10 Republicans and 5 Democrats. According to the New York Times, the board has put a “conservative stamp” on the curriculum. Since Texas is one of the largest buyers of textbooks in the country, the Board’s decision will have influence on most other state’s curriculum. The new standards are very conservative and the Board’s decision has, predictably, received much praise from those on the right and has raised the ire of those on the left.

I don’t care to dwell on the changes made by the board, if you’re interested in that a simple Google search will give you all the information you need. I want to focus on the teachable moments that this decision has offered us.

First, elections have consequences. In the last election, held on 11/04/2008, there were 7 state school board seats up for grabs. All but one of the seats were won by incumbents because District 6 had no incumbent. The highest vote count in this election was in District 14 where 579,172 people voted in school board race. These school board elections happened on the same night as the Presidential election when voter turnout is always the highest. Over 8 million people in Texas voted that night for President so I guess most of them either forgot to or didn’t care to vote for their school board member. I bring this up because if everyone who voted for Barack Obama, and lived in a District where there was a school board election, had voted for the Democrat running for school board, that would have had a huge impact on the recent curriculum decision. I would bet that most of the people who are bitching and moaning about this school board decision didn’t even take the time to vote for their school board member. Elections have consequences. 

Second, the amount of textbooks that Texas buys shouldn’t affect any other state in the country, but it does. Why is that? There are only three major (and a few minor) companies that publish textbooks in the United States. Since there are so few players in the textbook market, what we end up with is an oligopoly. Oligopolies are not inherently bad, and sometimes can be good depending on the market. However, in the case of the textbook market, an oligopoly is a bad thing. The textbook publishers have no incentive to provide choices. Since states like California and Texas are the biggest states in terms of population, thus the biggest textbook customers, the textbook publishers only need to please them and the other states are forced to deal with it. Also, the K-12 textbook market is a “broken market” since the end consumers (students) do not select the product, and the people choosing the product (faculty) do not purchase the product. Who purchases the product? The government, i.e. taxpayers. 

Which brings me to teachable moment number three. The root cause of this whole brouhaha is the fact that the government has a monopoly on education in our country. Why should a board of 15 people in any state get to decide what does and doesn’t get taught in school? This is what happens when the government runs things. Whether a board or committee is elected or selected, the decisions they make regarding whatever institution or industry they control becomes set in stone. Once this happens it is difficult to change. In the case of the Texas school board, it will be another TEN YEARS before the social studies curriculum is changed again. Ideally the government is supposed to be held accountable by the people, but elections only happen every so often, and even when they do occur, as I mentioned before, voter turnout is usually not very high. If you were a school board member who gets voted into office over and over again by less than 1% of all eligible voters would you really care what the public at large thought about your decisions? Probably not. 

Since I’m a Conservative Libertarian I don’t really have a problem with most of the curriculum decisions that the Texas School Board made. However, if I were a Liberal Democrat I’d be very upset. A liberal parent shouldn’t be forced to send their child to a school that teaches something they don’t believe, but with our current system there is very little choice. Children are indoctrinated by whomever runs the school system at any given time. No wonder test scores have remained stagnant for over 30 years. The people who run our schools care more about their personal political agendas rather than educating our children to make them the best and brightest in the world.   

Ironically, the very thing that could solve this problem is something that Liberals are completely against: privatizing the school system. If there wasn’t a government monopoly on education schools would be forced to compete with each other, and you could send your child to the school whose views most closely resembled your own. There could be Liberal schools and Conservative schools, although I doubt that it would breakdown that way. The breakdown would more likely be schools that can teach your child to think and succeed in the world and schools that can’t.

No Salt For You!

New York Democrat Assemblyman Fleix Oritz for now on will be known as the Salt Nazi here in Liberty Market Nation. The Brooklyn douchebag Democrat has introduced legislation in New York that would ban restaurants from using SALT. That’s right salt, you know, sodium chloride, the white stuff next to pepper. The bill reads:

No owner or operator of a restaurant in this state shall use salt in any form in the preparation of any food for consumption by customers of such restaurant, including food prepared to be consumed on the premises of such restaurant or off the premises.

If you get caught using salt in your restaurant, you’ll get hit with a $1000 fine. I’m guessing the food police will monitor this?

The Salt Nazi said that the goal of this bill is to “save lives.” He says that banning salt would save billions of dollars and thousands of lives. I’m not sure how he came up with that calculation.

Eating too much salt can cause high blood pressure, which can cause heart attacks, but “you can live with salt in your diet” according to Sonia Angell, director of the cardiovascular disease and prevention program for the [New York] Health Department.

Many New York chefs are not too happy about the Salt Nazi’s proposal. Star of Top Chef  Tom Colicchio says, “anybody who wants to taste food with no salt, go to a hospital and taste that.”  For those of you who don’t understand the reference, hospital food sucks.

I’m guessing this bill has no chance of passing, but they did ban trans-fats in New York so who knows. Needless to say, I have a big problem with things like this. It is none of the government’s damn business how much salt we use. I think Jeff Nathan, the executive chef and co-owner of Abigael’s on Broadway, said it best: “The consumer needs to make their own health choices. Just as doctors and the occasional visit to a hospital can’t truly control how a person chooses to maintain their health, neither can chefs nor the occasional visit to a restaurant. Modifying trans fats and sodium intake needs to be home based for optimal health. Regulating restaurants will not solve this health issue.” 

This is the downside to letting government control our health care. It starts off with banning trans-fat. Most people agree trans-fat is bad so they go along  with it and raise little protest. Next they ban salt. People say whoa, hold on, you can’t ban salt, but it’s too late. Next they ban red meat, or fast food, or sugar. Once the government controls health care they can regulate or ban anything and everything, because everything affects our health one way or another.

The Salt Nazi is not alone, there are many more like him in local and state governments all over the country. The Federal Government is full of them. They are people, from both parties, who think they know better than you and that they can make better life choices for you than you can make for yourself. These are the people who’ve stealing our liberty for over six decades. These are the people who should be eliminated from government. The sooner the better.

Media Weapons of Massa Distraction

The big story out of Washington this week is the resignation of New York Congressman Eric Massa. The details are a quick Google search away if you’re interested. Massa went on Glenn Beck’s show this week to tell his story. It was a boring interview and nothing interesting came out of it. Beck himself said he wasted our time by having the interview and that the story didn’t matter to any of us personally. I agree with Beck in this instance. This story doesn’t matter to any of us at all.

In the realm of political sex scandals, Massa’s scandal is farm league. There were no hookers or blow, no oral sex, no dead bodies- only ‘tickle fights.’ This should have been a one day story in the news at the most but it’s turning into a huge cabal. Today, the House Republicans are spreading rumors that they are going to ask the House Ethics Committee to investigate Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader for their handling of information about misbehavior by Congressman Massa. This is completely unnecessary and it’s obvious they’re doing this to get back at the Democrats for the whole Mark Foley scandal in 2006. Thank you House Republicans for standing up and fighting for the American people, I can’t wait until you guys are in charge again.  

This is a total waste of time. As Glenn Beck said, this story doesn’t affect any of us personally at all. It’s about as important as the Balloon Boy or Tiger Woods story. Unfortunately, stories like these that pass for ‘news’ today.

While everyone is distracted by this stupid story, Pelosi is no doubt behind the scenes, working alongside the White House, arm twisting the fence sitters in their caucus to vote for the unpopular health care bill that will literally affect every single person in the country. Did you know that they want to add a provision to the health care bill that would completely overhaul the nation’s student loan program and require the Education Department to originate all student assistance loans, effectively eliminating a role for banks and other private lenders. For those of you keeping score, Obama has taken over two car companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and potentially the entire health care system and the student loan industry.  Still think Obama isn’t a socialist?    

 Health care isn’t the only thing they’re working on right now either. Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) are meeting with Obama today to talk about immigration reform. According to the Politico, the Schumer-Graham plan “includes a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants (a liberal must-have) while sweetening the pot for moderates by proposing tough new safeguards, including a biometric national ID card for workers.”

A biometric national ID card!?!? Are you f***ing kidding me? ‘Moderates’ are in favor of this? Apparently so. Bill O’Reilly talked about it on his show this week with Lou Dobbs and they were both all for it. The Wall Street Journal said the proposal was only “potentially controversial.” I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. Does liberty even matter anymore?

As if a government takeover of health care/student loans and the National ID cards aren’t bad enough, ABC News reported that the Tresasury Department announced yesterday that “the government racked up a record-high monthly budget deficit of $220.9 billion in February.” (Remember, February is the shortest month of the year.)

According to ABC: 

The latest flood of red ink brings the total deficit for the first five months of the current fiscal year to $651 billion, far exceeding the $589 billion shortfall for the same timeframe in the last fiscal year. The government ended the 2009 fiscal year with a record $1.4 trillion shortfall. The Obama administration has forecast a $1.56 trillion deficit for this year.

 That speaks for itself. If you still believe anything that Obama says about ushering in a new era of responsibility, cutting deficits, deficit neturality, or reducing the national debt you’re an idiot. 

 So while everyone in the media is using the Massa scandal to get ratings the government takes away more of our liberty. I guess it’s just a slow news day.

SEIU Stages Mass Citizens Arrest. Shouldn’t They Be Working?

The Service Employes International Union (SEIU) is marching on Washington DC today to conduct a “mass citizens arrest” of the insurance companies. They joined forces with Health Care for America Now (HCAN) and  started a “posse… to put the insurance companies and every corporate enemy of change on notice.” Apparently Big Insurance CEO’s are having a gathering today at the Ritz Carlton to “kill health care reform once and for all.”  SEIU claims that “massive rate hikes are bringing in huge profits and perks for the insurance companies. Profits are at an all-time high, and companies like Anthem are spending tens of millions of dollars to fly their executives around the country for lavish retreats.”  

 

Supposedly “thousands” of people will attend this rally. That doesn’t surprise me since SEIU has over 2 million members and getting a group of them together shouldn’t be too hard. Especially when you can just bus them in. According to the SEIU blog: “Health care activists spilled off of buses that traveled from DE, CT, MD, MN, VA, NJ, NC, NY, OH, PA, RI to be here today.”  

 These type of demonstrations are textbook examples of “Astroturf” gatherings. These people went to this gathering because they were told to by their union bosses. They want health care reform because they were told they want it. They are nothing but drones. They chant cute meaningless slogans like” What do we Want? Health care! When do we want it? Now!” They all carry signs that were mass-produced (probably by an evil printing corporation) and handed out to them by the organizers.  

They can’t even think for themselves when using social media. On twitter they are all sending out this tweet: “ARREST THEM! Help put @AHIPHIWIRE under citizens arrest for crimes like denying care & blocking health reform: http://is.gd/9Mk2f” If you click on that link they invite you to “Saddle up” and join their “posse” and then they send a fax in your name. (I’m not sure where the fax goes.)    

Here are some pictures from the rally:    

    

      

       

       

We’re pretending to be corporate fat cats!

      

We can't think ourselves long enough to make our own signs!

Only 12% of the workforce today in the US are members of Unions. Nine out of every ten workers in the private sector do not belong to unions. They do not represent the interest of “the working man” anymore, if they ever did. Unions have helped destroy once great American industries like the steel industry and the auto industry. Unions are completely irrelevant in today’s economy and the only reason anyone pays any attention to unions at all is because they make a lot of noise. They are powerful only when Democrats are in power.   

       

Health Care: The Immortal Bill

Health-care reform. It was born over a year ago behind closed doors in Washington, D.C. It is IMMORTAL. It is not alone. There are other like it: cap-and-trade, card-check, immigration reform, and financial regulation reform. Now is the time of THE GATHERING when an up or down vote from the House and Senate and the stroke of the Presidents pen will release THE QUICKENING that will destroy our health-care system and take away our health-care liberty. In the end there can be only one: single payer.

 

Que Queen Music.

Even Democrats Think EPA Carbon Emission Regulation Goals Are Bat-Poop Crazy

Well, at least one Democrat thinks so. Senator John D. Rockefeller of West Virginia will introduce a bill today that effectively stops the EPA from regulating carbon dioxide for at least two years.

For those of you who aren’t aware, carbon dioxide (CO2) is the stuff we humans, and most other mammals exhale. CO2 is also a by-product of burning fossil fuels. 

Republicans like Lisa Murkowski have already introduced legislation to reign in the power of the EPA, but Rockefeller’s bill is significant because it shows that even Democrats know that regulating a trace gas that is essential to life on our planet is bat-poop crazy.

Environmentalist are not happy, however, and are urging President Obama to veto the Rockefeller bill if it ever gets to his desk. They see the bill as “a dangerous precedent and a serious blow to the administration’s ability to cope with climate change if Congress fails to pass a bill.”

Can someone tell me how regulating carbon dioxide will help us cope with climate change? Do you really think that if we lower the amount of carbon dioxide we produce that it will have a significant impact on anything? Also, does anyone else think it is dangerous that the President can use an un-elected regulatory body to do his bidding if Congress doesn’t pass the bill he wants? Why even have a Congress?

Hopefully more Democrats will see the light and fight against this inappropriate use of the EPA. It may be too little too late though, especially if the EPA decides that it is going to do what ever it wants to do, Congress be damned.

For more information about Rockefeller’s bill, see this article from The Washington Post

Coincidence? I Think Not!

Well, well, well, it seems that Barack Obama is engaging in corrupt behavior.

Earlier today the White House announced that President Obama nominated Scott Matheson to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. Matheson is well qualified for the position. On any other day this nomination would be no big deal. Today, however, is a different story.

Scott Matheson has a brother named Jim Matheson. Jim is a Democrat Congressman from Utah. Jim voted against the health care bill when it went through the House the first time. Tonight, Jim and nine other Democrats who voted against health care the first time will meet with President Obama. Obama hopes he can persuade them to vote ‘yes’ for the health care bill this time around.

Put yourself in Jim’s position. You’re a back bencher Congressman from Utah who’s been invited to the White House because the President of the United States wants you to change your position on an issue. Now add to that the fact that the President just nominated your brother to the 10th Circuit Court of appeals. Wouldn’t you feel the pressure to change your vote? Wouldn’t you feel like you owe one to the President?

I’ve never heard of Jim Matheson nor his brother Scott. I’m sure they are both nice guys with clean records. But there should be an independent investigation into whether or not the White House used this nomination to buy the vote of Congressman Matheson. Perhaps there is a simple reasonable explanation. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but I doubt it. It will be interesting to see how Congressman Matheson votes.

Reaching Arbitrary Targets for Greenhouse Gas Levels Will Cripple Our Economy

Remember when gasoline was $4-$5 dollars a gallon? Remember how that impacted your family budget? High gas prices have negative budget effects for everyone who isn’t a multimillionaire. Luckily, gas prices are a product of supply and demand. Gasoline suppliers were willing to supply more gas at the higher price which in turn drove the price down to the market equilibrium. Granted, it was bad for a while when prices were high, but that was only temporary.

Now imagine what it would be like if gasoline was $7 a gallon. How would that affect your family’s budget? What would you have to give up just to get around in your vehicle? A vacation? Cable TV? The Internet? Food? I think we can all agree it would be bad. If market forces drove gas prices to $7 a gallon we would all suffer, but our suffering would be temporary. Gas suppliers would start to supply more gas it would drive prices back down to an equilibrium.

However, if government forces gas prices up to $7 a gallon through taxation we would not have the luxury of market forces to drive the price back down. But the government would never do that, right? I wouldn’t be so sure.

President Obama’s EPA want to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the transportation sector 14 percent from 2005 levels by 2020. The transportation sector consumes 70% of the nation’s oil supply. This target was set in the EPA’s budget for fiscal 2010. According to Harvard researchers, the only way to reach that goal is to make driving more expensive through higher gas taxes.

Even if you drive a fuel efficient vehicle $7 gas would have an extremely negative effect on your budget. Not only would gasoline cost more, but every product that is shipped via truck would see an increase in prices. This would cripple our economy.

Even if you believe in made climate change, are you willing to cripple our economy to reduce greenhouse emissions? I certainly hope not. A gas tax increase of this magnitude would be economically irrational and should be avoided at all cost. We have already lived through $4-$5 a gallon gasoline and that was bad enough, we shouldn’t let the government force us to experience $7 a gallon.

I hope the politicians aren’t stupid enough to do this, because if you thought the protest against health care and the Tea Parties were rowdy, you ain’t seen nothing yet.