The 1776 Project: American Action

The No-Insurance Club

2009-10-21T09:49:00.000-07:00

Via Carpe Diem
What's the No Insurance Club?

For an annual fee of just $480 for singles ($580 for couples and $680 for families) The No Insurance Club offers affordable pre-paid health care plans that cover basic medical services from a participating board-certified physician, with no deductibles, no additional premiums, and no co-payments. Services vary slightly depending on your location, but a $480 individual plan with this Atlanta physician covers 12-16 annual office visits, flu shot, pregnancy testing, EKG, an annual checkup, one sports physical, vision test, among other services, see full list here.

Social Security is next to become a true Welfare Program

2009-10-21T09:38:00.000-07:00

Need senior's support for your atrocious healthcare overhaul? Want more people dependent on the government? Want to secure the democrat party's power for years to come by buying votes through a massive expansion of government hand-outs? How about giving seniors $250 checks for "increased cost of living expenses" (nevermind that the recession has done away with these alleged increases but you're a democrat. facts don't matter.) Oh, and the the House Republicans should be ashamed for pandering and going along with this.

From The Heritage foundation:
Since Social Security recipients will get no cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) next year, President Obama wants to give each of them $250, a move supported in principle by the Republican House and Senate leadership. However, this move is not only unjustified; it makes a fundamental change to Social Security's structure and starts the process of converting the program from an earned benefit funded by a worker's own contributions to a welfare program.

The Free Market is Non-Sense

2009-10-21T09:22:00.001-07:00

Here's Obama's Manufacturing Czar. But...we can't judge a man by the company he keeps...or the people he hires to carry out policies. (Must watch in full screen mode).

The White House said...

2009-10-11T10:52:00.000-07:00

...that if we passed the $787 billion stimulus that by september this year unemployment would be below 7.6% and that if we didn't pass the stimulus unemployment would reach 9.5%. Well, guess what...the White House, the government, the Experts, the bureaucrats were wrong.

There are your numbers Prez Bo. But don't worry, Mr President because you have professional spin doctors and a populace of myrmidons who will hang on your every word (cause if they don't, they're racists) See, politicians like the President know that if the economy improves they can take credit for it by citing the stimulus and if it doesn't improve, well, then they can say that the stimulus wasn't big enough and that another is needed...wait, they've already started discussing it. Yes, my friends (drum-roll, please) a Second Stimulus! So, you see they can't lose. They can spin it however they like and all the looters out there - statists, welfare recipients and the Obama-is-so-awesome-cause-he's-so,- well- awesome crowd - will lap the spin right up.

But the facts are that they were wrong about the first stimulus and this next one will be no different! And healthcare and the costs associated with it? Don't worry everyone, those numbers are solid.

Yeah, right.

H/T United Liberty

Even a Blind Squirrel Finds a Nut Every Now and Again...

2009-09-24T22:23:00.000-07:00

Al Franken, a man who I never thought I would agree with on anything - ANYTHING! - managed to surprise me. Kudo's Al. Now, if you wouldn't mind, read the 1st and 2nd amendments as well as Article 1 Section 8, then we might could sit down and have a discussion.

Read his first moment of brilliance here.

School Kids Taught to Praise Obama

2009-09-24T10:14:00.000-07:00

I know, we are just a bunch of over-zealous paranoid, fascist, racist right-wingers so just ignore these videos...it's cool.

lyrics:

Song 1:
Mm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama

He said that all must lend a hand
To make this country strong again
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama

He said we must be fair today
Equal work means equal pay
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama

He said that we must take a stand
To make sure everyone gets a chance
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama

He said red, yellow, black or white
All are equal in his sight
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama

Yes!
Mmm, mmm, mm
Barack Hussein Obama

Song 2:
Hello, Mr. President we honor you today!
For all your great accomplishments, we all doth say "hooray!"

Hooray, Mr. President! You're number one!
The first black American to lead this great nation!

Hooray, Mr. President we honor your great plans
To make this country's economy number one again!

Hooray Mr. President, we're really proud of you!
And we stand for all Americans under the great Red, White, and Blue!

So continue ---- Mr. President we know you'll do the trick
So here's a hearty hip-hooray ----

Hip, hip hooray!
Hip, hip hooray!
Hip, hip hooray!

Taking Over Everything

2009-09-23T11:04:00.000-07:00

I know we aren't supposed to say or suggest that the President is "taking over" the economy, i.e. regulating or nationalizing sectors of our economy, but this piece from David Boaz of the Cato Institute seems to lend credence to our charge. Please, read on...

“My critics say that I’m taking over every sector of the economy,” President Obama sighed to George Stephanopoulos during his Sunday media blitz.

Not every sector. Just

...Read the rest here.

Ronald Reagan on Socialized Medicine

2009-08-04T22:05:00.000-07:00

One of our fans on Facebook posted this video on our wall and I wanted to repost it here to share with the rest of you. Listen to what Reagan is saying here and how so little has changed since the early 60's with regard to the Left's desire to subject us all to socialized medicine and how the same rules and calls to action apply today to try to stop this usurpation of our liberty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRdLpem-AAs

OMG! Free Health Care! LOL! I LOVE OBAMA!

2009-08-03T21:51:00.000-07:00

OMG! Free Health Care sounds so AWESOME! LOL!!!111one! Obama is my home boy! HE'S SO DREAMY! OMG! ROFLMAO! We need health care cUZ people need help and rich people can pay for it. LOL! HOPE FO' SHO'! YES WE CAN! OMG! I LUV IT!

The U.S. Has a More Progresssive Tax Code than France or Sweden...

2009-08-03T02:43:00.000-07:00

And our President wants to make it even more progressive. The dishonesty used by politicians regarding how the wealthy "don't pay their fair share" is disgusting. I would venture to bet that most of us reading this piece are not in the top 1% of income earners. In fact we are probably - most of us anyway - probably in those tax brackets that the Left targets with their class war mongering. Yet because we value freedom over "fairness", liberty over slavery and because we believe that government should "not take from the mouth of labor the bread which it has earned" we find these kinds of numbers disturbing even though it is not us who it directly affects.

I once heard a liberal talk show host in Boca Raton, Fl mention that she just didn't understand why people wouldn't vote for their self-interests and just vote to raise taxes on the wealthy in order to pay for programs for those who aren't wealthy. To her the ballot box is a means of "leveling the playing field" and of bringing about social justice through heavily progressive taxation. I suppose the answer to her asinine question goes something like this:

Ma'am, while it may not be in my direct self-interest to oppose the heavy progressive taxation you espouse it is never-the-less in my indirect self-interest to oppose such a view. Why? I know this fact may escape you but these people, with their millions of dollars, provide jobs not only through what they do - athletes, wall street bankers, movie stars, entertainers, business owners etc - but they also provide jobs simply by who they are. The athlete, like Alex Rodriguez, provides jobs to hundreds if not thousands of people at Yankee stadium. Think of the popcorn vendor or the beer guy who sells his food-stuffs to loyal Yankee fans who came to see A-Rod hit another homerun and these fans want a beer or popcorn or a hot dog while watching him do it. Think of the opportunistic t-shirt vendor outside the stadium with A-Rod emblazened t-shirts for sale and the person who made those t-shirts, the person who made the ink for those t-shits, the person who shipped those t-shirts and the list goes on. Do you think that if Alex Rodriguez didn't get paid what he did, that he would even be a Yankee? Would those same jobs be there? Would as many people come out to the park? Would the Yankees win as many games and so attract as many people as they do now? Would that t-shirt guy enjoy more or less sales? Would the t-shirts guy's vendors make the same amount in sales? Who knows. What I do know is that things are the way they are now because, well, A-Rod is good and he gets a handsome compensation for it. I don't want to take that money from him even if doing so benefits me directly. I'm sure that A-Rod spends a great deal of that money as well. Somebody built his house and somebody probably takes care of it. Think of everything that goes into those 2 things alone! The wood, the brick, the concrete, the carpet, the walls, the lights - all of those items are the end result of a long stream of thousands of people working independently to create one simple object that Leftist like you take for granted. Would A-Rod buy all of this stuff if he was taxed more than he is now? Probably not or at least he'd buy less of it and so less people would have less to produce.
Moreover, Ms. Leftist-Talk-Show-Host-in-Boca, what makes you think I have the right to force someone else to pay extremely high taxes just to benefit me? Do I have the right to walk into your house and take you plasma tv or your ipod or whatever? No! So why I should then think that its okay to use the ballot box to essentially do the same thing, i.e. take from you money that you would otherwise use to spend on material goods or some charity or however you please?

This kind of thinking escapes the Left and that is why we have the kind of taxation we do. To them social justice and equality means "we all have the same stuff" as if though people's intrinsic equality and worth comes from how much they have in material goods compared to the rest of society. For those of us who wish to live moral and just lives the 10 commandments give us some good guidelines*. The 10th one says the following: You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's. The Left's version reads more like this: You shall covet your neighbor's house; you shall covet your neighbor's wife, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, and anything that is your neighbor's because he probably has more than you and that just ain't fair, and if you have to use the power of government to take it from him. That's the Left's modus operandi in a nutshell and it is the foundation of their ethics and form that foundation flows the kind of "progressive" taxation we see today.

Tax Burden of Top 1% Now Exceeds That of Bottom 95%

by Scott A. Hodge

Newly released data from the IRS clearly debunks the conventional Beltway rhetoric that the "rich" are not paying their fair share of taxes.

Indeed, the IRS data shows that in 2007—the most recent data available—the top 1 percent of taxpayers paid 40.4 percent of the total income taxes collected by the federal government. This is the highest percentage in modern history. By contrast, the top 1 percent paid 24.8 percent of the income tax burden in 1987, the year following the 1986 tax reform act.

Remarkably, the share of the tax burden borne by the top 1 percent now exceeds the share paid by the bottom 95 percent of taxpayers combined. In 2007, the bottom 95 percent paid 39.4 percent of the income tax burden. This is down from the 58 percent of the total income tax burden they paid twenty years ago.

To put this in perspective, the top 1 percent is comprised of just 1.4 million taxpayers and they pay a larger share of the income tax burden now than the bottom 134 million taxpayers combined.

Some in Washington say the tax system is still not progressive enough. However, the recent IRS data bolsters the findings of an OECD study released last year showing that the U.S.—not France or Sweden—has the most progressive income tax system among OECD nations. We rely more heavily on the top 10 percent of taxpayers than does any nation and our poor people have the lowest tax burden of those in any nation.

We are definitely overdue for some honesty in the debate over the progressivity of the nation's tax burden before lawmakers enact any new taxes to pay for expanded health care.

[Click chart to enlarge.]

*the 10 commandments are a primarily religious document and while many of us may not be religious there are elements of the 10 commandments by which we do and should live our lives. Like the McManus brothers in Boondock Saints say: Do not kill, do not rape, do not steal, these are principles which every man of every faith can embrace...These are not polite suggestions, these are codes of behavior.

Health Care: Do we Need a Lexus?

2009-07-29T21:16:00.000-07:00

This piece from the Boston Globe. It discusses how the cost of health insurance would drop if the government didn't force us to purchase plans that include coverage for many things we don't need or want. The author, Jeff Jacoby, argues by way of analogy comparing current laws that force us to buy all-inclusive health care plans to being forced to purchase a Lexus when all we may need is a Toyota.

IMAGINE the sort of car you’d drive if government regulations made it illegal to sell any automobile that didn’t feature 380-horsepower direct-injection V6 engines, computer-controlled electric power steering, eight-speed automatic transmission, four-wheel-drive, automatic climate control, “smart key’’ technology, touch-screen navigation, backup cameras, LED headlights, acoustic glass, surround-sound stereo, and leather seat stitching.

If those were the minimum requirements every car had to meet before it could be sold, would you commute to and from work every day in a Lexus LS 460 or some other luxury vehicle? Well, you might, if the steep price wasn’t an obstacle. But it’s more likely you wouldn’t be driving at all. If the government barred you from buying anything but a high-end car, you’d probably have no choice but to rely on the bus or subway, or to find a job closer to home.

What is true of transportation is true of everything else: Increase the number of amenities that a product or service must include, and more consumers will be unable to pay for that product or service.
Read more here.

1982 Walter Williams Discussing Poverty, Blacks and Government

2009-07-23T07:27:00.000-07:00

This from Carpe Diem. An interesting discussion on how the government and not free markets keep the poor and many black people from advancing economically.

Watch the first part above of Walter Williams' PBS documentary Good Intentions based on his book, The State Against Blacks (1982). The documentary was very controversial at the time it was released and led to many animosities and even threats of murder.

In Good Intentions, Dr. Williams examines the failure of the war on poverty and the devastating effect of well meaning government policies on blacks asserting that the state harms people in the U.S. more than it helps them. He shows how government anti-poverty programs have often locked people into poverty making the points that:

- being forced to attend 3rd rate public schools leave students unprepared for working life
- minimum wages prevent young people from obtaining jobs at an early age
- licensing and labor laws have had the effect of restricting entrance of blacks into the skilled trades and unions
- the welfare system creates perverse incentives for the poor to make bad choices they otherwise would not

Arrogance

2009-07-23T07:20:00.000-07:00

This article by John Stossel from Real Clear Politics.

It's crazy for a group of mere mortals to try to design 15 percent of the U.S. economy. It's even crazier to do it by August.

Yet that is what some members of Congress presume to do. They intend, as the New York Times puts it, "to reinvent the nation's health care system".

Let that sink in. A handful of people who probably never even ran a small business actually think they can reinvent the health care system.

Video on Canadian Health Care...

2009-07-21T05:22:00.000-07:00

While what Obama and the democrats in Congress are not currently proposing a "single payer system" the current proposal will lead inevitably to a single payer system. Anyhow, take a look at this video from PJ TV.

Take action, folks. We can Flatline ObamaCare. Call the congressmen listed here:

Here is the contact information for Rep. Jim Marshall (D-GA-8). He is from Macon, so that is probably the best office to contact.

Macon Office:
682 Cherry Street, Suite 300
Macon, GA 31201
Phone: (478) 464-0255
Toll-free: (877) 464-0255
Fax: (478) 464-0277

Dublin Office:
503 Bellevue Avenue, Suite C
Dublin, GA 31021
Phone: (478) 296-2023
Fax: (478) 296-2802

Tifton Phone: (229) 556-7418

Washington Office:
504 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202/225-6531
Fax: 202/225-3013

John Barrow (D-GA-12) is the other Democrat from Georgia who is potentially vulnerable. He tends to be more liberal than Marshall, but not by much.

Savannah is probably the best office to call here.

Washington, DC
213 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
p: (202) 225-2823
f: (202) 225-3377

Augusta
925 Laney Walker Blvd. Suite 300
Augusta, GA 30901
p: (706)722-4494
f: (706) 722-4496 764

Sandersville
City Hall, 141 West Haynes St.
P.O. Box 1017
Sandersville, GA 31082
p: (478) 553-1923
f: (478) 553-9215

Savannah
450 Mall Boulevard, Suite A
Savannah, GA 31406
p: (912) 354-7282
f: (912) 354-7782

Vidalia
Vidalia Community Center
107 Old Airport Rd., Suite A
Vidalia, GA 30474
p: (912) 537-9301
f: (912) 537-9266

FOR REPRESENTATIVES IN PENNSYLVANIA

Rep. Patrick Murphy

go here

Rep. Tim Holden

go here

Rep. Christopher Carney

go here

Rep. Jason Altmire

go here

You can also sign this petition:

Here

Flatline ObamaCare Now!

2009-07-17T15:34:00.000-07:00

Alright folks,

We are working on posting updates on facebook, our action blog and our regular blog. It's up to all of us and those who we know to take action and call and fax these politicians. The 2 individuals listed below have been singled out because they are blue dog democrats who are on the fence on the bill. We can sway them to not toe the party line. The health care bill has stalled in committee. We have to strike now before they pull the wool over our eyes again and sneak this by us.

I cannot stress to you enough that taking action now and killing this thing now is of utmost importance. If this thing passes and the President signs it you can be sure that getting rid of this monstrosity will be very difficult. Stop it now before it's too late. Forward this info to your friends, post it on your blog, post it on my space or anywhere you can.. Take action! Start today!

Here is the text that we should use (feel free to add or subtract as you see fit so long as we are united in saying NO to HR3200).

Hi, my name is _____________. I'm calling about HR 3200, the America’s Affordable Health Choices Act. I am concerned about that this bill will lead to a government takeover of health care and that the tax increases proposed by Democratic leadership could have a crippling effect on our economy. Georgians are watching and waiting to see if the Congressman will stand for taxpayers, present and future, and be a voice for fiscal sanity.

Thanks for your time.

Here is the info for the congressmen whom we can sway. Remember, it doesn't matter if they are not in your district or even in your state. Their decisions affect all of us.

Here is the contact information for Rep. Jim Marshall (D-GA-8). He is from Macon, so that is probably the best office to contact.

Macon Office:
682 Cherry Street, Suite 300
Macon, GA 31201
Phone: (478) 464-0255
Toll-free: (877) 464-0255
Fax: (478) 464-0277

Dublin Office:
503 Bellevue Avenue, Suite C
Dublin, GA 31021
Phone: (478) 296-2023
Fax: (478) 296-2802

Tifton Phone: (229) 556-7418

Washington Office:
504 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202/225-6531
Fax: 202/225-3013

John Barrow (D-GA-12) is the other Democrat from Georgia who is potentially vulnerable. He tends to be more liberal than Marshall, but not by much.

Savannah is probably the best office to call here.

Washington, DC
213 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
p: (202) 225-2823
f: (202) 225-3377

Augusta
925 Laney Walker Blvd. Suite 300
Augusta, GA 30901
p: (706)722-4494
f: (706) 722-4496 764

Sandersville
City Hall, 141 West Haynes St.
P.O. Box 1017
Sandersville, GA 31082
p: (478) 553-1923
f: (478) 553-9215

Savannah
450 Mall Boulevard, Suite A
Savannah, GA 31406
p: (912) 354-7282
f: (912) 354-7782

Vidalia
Vidalia Community Center
107 Old Airport Rd., Suite A
Vidalia, GA 30474
p: (912) 537-9301
f: (912) 537-9266

It's Not An Option

2009-07-17T02:27:00.000-07:00

This from Investor's Business Daily Editorials.

Congress: It didn't take long to run into an "uh-oh" moment when reading the House's "health care for all Americans" bill. Right there on Page 16 is a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal.

When we first saw the paragraph Tuesday, just after the 1,018-page document was released, we thought we surely must be misreading it. So we sought help from the House Ways and Means Committee.
It turns out we were right: The provision would indeed outlaw individual private coverage. Under the Orwellian header of "Protecting The Choice To Keep Current Coverage," the "Limitation On New Enrollment" section of the bill clearly states:
"Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day" of the year the legislation becomes law.
So we can all keep our coverage, just as promised — with, of course, exceptions: Those who currently have private individual coverage won't be able to change it. Nor will those who leave a company to work for themselves be free to buy individual plans from private carriers.

Ayn Rand Interview 1959

2009-07-14T06:02:00.000-07:00

Want a 30% Reduction in Health Care Costs? Here's how...

2009-07-14T02:58:00.000-07:00

This via Carpe Diem.

More and more companies are putting health care clinics in the workplace. That can mean big savings. Some studies show businesses can cut health care costs by up to 30%.

~National Public Radio

MP: More than 1,000 companies, like Rockwell Aviation (featured in the NPR story), offer on-site health care clinics, and they are expected to serve 10-15% of the working population within the next few years. So while President Obama and politicians in Washington dream up the latest grandiose government health care reform to address rising healthcare costs, the most effective, affordable and convenient healthcare solutions might be right on location at your workplace health care clinic.

Who's the Materialist?

2009-07-14T02:53:00.000-07:00

This form Cafe Hayek

Don Boudreaux

Here's a letter that I sent recently to the Washington Post:

E.J. Dionne describes capitalism as "a system rooted in materialist values" ("To the Right of the Pope," July 9). "Materialist values" is a vague term, but if - as seems to be the case - Mr. Dionne thinks the chief justification for capitalism is that it generates lots of stuff for consumers, he's mistaken.

While capitalism emphatically does improve material living standards, all the great champions of economic freedom (aka capitalism) ultimately justify this system because only it affords true dignity to individuals - the dignity that is denied by interventionist systems which arbitrarily diminish each person's freedom to choose. For "Progressives" such as Mr. Dionne not to share the value of freedom is fine. But it's rather cheeky to accuse, with one breath, proponents of capitalism of being unduly focused on material goods, and with the next breath to insist that a major problem with capitalism is that some people get fewer material goods than do other people.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux

Lying Hypocrites

2009-07-12T13:43:00.000-07:00

This is a repost from Cafe Hayek.

Lying Hypocrites

Don Boudreaux

Politicians have no shame. None. Here are the first two paragraphs of Betsy McCaughey's article in today's Wall Street Journal:

Last September Sen. Barack Obama promised that under his health-care proposal "you'll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves." On Monday, President Obama repeated that promise in a speech to the American Medical Association. It's not true.

The president is barnstorming the nation, urging swift approval of legislation that is taking shape in Congress. This legislation -- the Affordable Health Choices Act that's being drafted by Sen. Edward Kennedy's staff and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee -- will push Americans into stingy insurance plans with tight, HMO-style controls. It specifically exempts members of Congress (along with federal employees; the exemptions are in section 3116).

Lies. Special privileges.

Par for the course.

How to Cure Health Care

2009-07-12T13:33:00.000-07:00

This was written in 2001. You'd think that in 8 years our elected "representatives" would consider options that don't involve them controlling us, but the allure of power is too great.

How to Cure Health Care by Milton Friedman via the Hoover Institute.

Since the end of World War II, the provision of medical care in the United States and other advanced countries has displayed three major features: first, rapid advances in the science of medicine; second, large increases in spending, both in terms of inflation-adjusted dollars per person and the fraction of national income spent on medical care; and third, rising dissatisfaction with the delivery of medical care, on the part of both consumers of medical care and physicians and other suppliers of medical care.

Global Financial Crisis, Mortgage Tsunami, Housing Bubble Can All Be Traced to Federal Government Intervention to Create Affordable Housing

2009-07-09T01:20:00.000-07:00

Via Carpe Diem

Excerpts from "The Role of Government Affordable Housing Policy in Creating the Global Financial Crisis of 2008," a 26-page report released yesterday by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform:

The housing bubble that burst in 2007 and led to a financial crisis can be traced back to federal government intervention in the U.S. housing market intended to help provide homeownership opportunities for more Americans. This intervention began with two government-backed corporations, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which privatized their profits but socialized their risks, creating powerful incentives for them to act recklessly and exposing taxpayers to tremendous losses. Government intervention also created “affordable” but dangerous lending policies which encouraged lower down payments, looser underwriting standards and higher leverage.

Finally, government intervention created a nexus of vested interests – politicians, lenders and lobbyists – who profited from the “affordable” housing market and acted to kill reforms. In the short run, this government intervention was successful in its stated goal – raising the national homeownership rate. However, the ultimate effect was to create a mortgage tsunami that wrought devastation on the American people and economy. While government intervention was not the sole cause of the financial crisis, its role was significant and has received too little attention.

The real tragedy of the government’s affordable housing policy is the impact on average Americans, particularly those of modest means. Millions of these borrowers, who were supposed to have been helped by federal affordable housing policy, have now been forced into delinquency and foreclosure, destroying their asset base, their credit, and in some cases their families. For example, Latino homeowners, who once appeared to be among the most frequent beneficiaries of affordable housing policies, are now the victims of the policies that their political representatives in Washington once championed.

The consequences of these policies have also brought the entire global financial system to the brink of collapse, destroying trillions in equity and untold numbers of lives. It is essential to reexamine the borrow-and-spend, high-leverage policies that became prevalent in the mortgage market as a result of well-intentioned-but-reckless decisions made by elected officials on behalf of the American people.

Washington must reexamine its politically expedient but irresponsible approach to encouraging higher levels of homeownership based on imprudently small down payments and too little emphasis on borrowers’ creditworthiness and ability to repay their loans. Without such a return to fiscal discipline and responsibility, we will continue making the same mistakes that led us to the current financial crisis.

HT: Tom Sullivan

Privacy Issues In Federal Systems

2009-07-08T17:39:00.000-07:00

from the Cato Institute.

By Solveig Singleton "Privacy Issues in Federal Systems"

Federal information-gathering systems of many different types raise similar concerns about privacy; some of these systems include tax enforcement systems, Know Your Customer programs to crack down on money laundering, medical databases, and so on. My testimony today is applicable to a wide range of systems, and will explore the following issues:

The danger to human rights from federal information systems.
Security concerns such as identity theft, as distinct from privacy concerns.
The role of encryption, biometrics, and digital signatures in federal systems.
The most effective rules for ameliorating federal threats to privacy, emphasizing the importance of limited government, limited agency discretion, and the Fourth Amendment.

Where was the government with Studebaker?

2009-07-06T06:14:00.000-07:00

P.J. O'Rourke "Where Was the government with Studebaker?" from Reason.tv

There's something romantic about trains, but try getting the tracks to come to your house. When it comes time to unload the groceries, the romance of the train ends immediately.

Politicians love trains. Why? Because they can tell where the tracks go. They know where everybody's going. For policiticians it's all about control and power. Politicians hate cars because cars make people free. Not only free in the sense that they can go anywhere they want, which bugs politicians, but they can move out of the political districts that the politicians represent.

Politics itself is nothing more than an attempt to achieve power and prestige without merit. That's the definition of politics...

How to Kill a Nation...

2009-07-06T06:10:00.000-07:00

This from Conserv-a-rant.

Cap & Trade will turn out to be [if passed] the single most wantonly destructive piece of legislation to come from Capitol Hill since Roe vs. Wade. House Resolution 2454 proposes some of the most sweeping and radical pro-special interest infested regulation we've ever had to face in our lifetimes. Did we ask for these regulations?

The 'cap and trade' bill would cost much and deliver little...

2009-07-06T06:07:00.001-07:00

This from the Post-Gazette via Boortz.

An unusually cold winter (it snowed in Saudi Arabia and Iraq; temperatures fell to minus 80 degrees in Siberia) was followed by an unusually cool spring (it snowed in North Dakota in June for the first time in 60 years).

This may be why only 42 percent of respondents in a Rasmussen poll published June 18 think human activity is causing global warming, and many of those who do don't see it as a serious problem. (In a Gallup poll in March, warming ranked last among eight environmental concerns.)

"Global temperatures have declined -- extending the current downtrend to 11 years with a particularly rapid decline in 2007-2008," said a draft report written in March by an expert at the Environmental Protection Agency.

You haven't heard much about this report because the Obama administration is blocking its disclosure. The Competitive Enterprise Institute obtained a copy and put it on its Web site June 25.

By: Jack Kelly

Obamageddon?

2009-07-06T05:09:00.001-07:00

I suppose this is something to look into more...

Independence, Justice and Revolution

2009-07-03T15:11:00.000-07:00

By Jorge Gonzalez

Our nation has seen many dark days from the hopelessness of blood stained snow at Valley Forge to the tarnishing mark of slavery. We have suffered a war between states and endured a foreign power’s brutal attack on December 7th 1941. We have seen towers crash down on our own people on a sunny September morning.

These events and others like them have been causes for mobilization and action. Events that vibrated our collective core and brought forward a mass movement of individuals to rectify the wrongs perpetrated on us by either a foreign power’s incursion or by our own regrettable and pitiful choices as a result of either bad science, bad religion, bad politics or a concoction of the three into a vile and poisonous brew. And while these events have been momentous it is nevertheless true that today we are all witness to a kind of audacity of negligence to the letter of our Constitution and to the rights of free people from a President with a penchant for high minded speech. A President who is stroking our backs with a soft soothing touch with one hand, while with the other hand devising programs, schemes and alliances the likes of which we have never seen in our young republic’s life. Moreover, this President has the nearly unanimous support of a Congress that is more than happy to pass his and their own schemes with little or no respect to rights of the perceived minority, nor for the rights guaranteed the people by our Constitution. That same minority lacks leadership, vision, and a clear purpose to unite the people of this country against a tide of unilateral disarmament of our rights to economic liberty, social harmony and moral justice.

While you and I struggle to make ends meet, to plan for our families’ futures, to work at our jobs and run our small businesses, while we act like responsible free individuals, our elected representatives in Washington, secure power, wealth and prestige for themselves by selling out our future generations and burdening our children and our children’s children with unprecedented amounts of debt. They sit on capitol hill and lecture us about the dire consequences of not acting now; they force feed us lines about crisis and catastrophe; and they pass legislation that does nothing to address the crisis that they themselves generated. Rather, they use our hard earned dollars, the wealth and security that you and I have generated from acting freely and responsibly, to bail out irresponsible corporate fat cats, and to create a welfare state of a new slavery thereby ensuring their future power through the civ of state dependency.

All the while, you and I are expected to sit idly by watching our daytime soaps and evening game shows while our free nation becomes a slave state of top-down governance and the god-state of socialism.

Thomas Jefferson said of government that “a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government...” And so the cause of our first revolution was a band of free thinking and free willed individuals sick and tired of taxation without representation, of a government that took from them the fruits of their labor and of a despotic government who ruled by shear fiat with concern neither for the will of the people nor for the letter of the law. Let me ask you this, are things much different now?

They do not listen to our will, but pass legislation without so much as even reading what they vote for,

They do not heed our concerns about runaway spending, instead they lecture us about the common good,

They do not follow the letter of the Constitution that our founders fought and bled for, instead they make overtures to our forebear's vision and yet they have no intention of restoring our nation’s founding vision,

They involve us in foreign wars without doing their due diligence as to what strategy will minimize the loss of young american blood while maximizing the efficiency of our forces,
They involve us in treaties and alliances that neither serve us nor follow the provisions set out in our Constitution,

The Supreme Court has taken to justifying decision by appeals to foreign law when in fact it is our the law, our Constitution by which their decisions should be governed,

They do not secure our borders, but instead allow an unending flood of immigrants to access our social programs thus decreasing the availability to our own citizens, the ones who these programs are meant to uplift,

They allow, by way of 527 organizations and non-profit agencies aligned with politicians, illegal immigrants to vote in our national elections because they do not allow us to pass laws that would require state issued identification as proof of citizenship and then label those of us who would like to see our elections conducted in a free and fair manner by way of these forms of identification as racists and bigots of the worst sort,
They fund and shore up a hidden holocaust of the unborn with our tax dollars both here and abroad and in so doing make us all culpable for the violation of civil rights and the murder of the most weak and fragile among us,

They allocate and spend more money per child on education than any other industrialized nation and we get nothing short of mediocre results, government indoctrination and a populous wholly unprepared to live as free and productive citizens,

They refuse to allow the citizens of this country a choice in whether to send their children to private schools or parochial schools by using public funds (the same public funds that force us to send our children to these failing schools) in order to keep the support of unionized teachers. All the while these same politicians, our President included, use their power, prestige and monies gained therefrom to send their children to the same schools that the rest of the general population has little, limited or no access to because of money - money the general population would otherwise have if the politicians would just but allow us to have a voucher program,
They force us to pay into a retirement program that is not only the most vile and vicious of ponzi schemes ever perpetrated on us but it a program who’s benefits are not guaranteed to current generations now footing the bill,

They force us to pay into a medical program that is an abject failure, costs more than its private counterparts and brings little relief to the elderly who need it most,

They use powers neither granted them by us nor by the Constitution to reward their constituencies with treasure seized from other more unimportant constituencies in exchange for votes, re-election and thus more power,

They promise us change and only give us more of the same political pap,

They pass legislation that limits our freedom of speech during the most important time in our political process -- election season -- in order to increase the chances that incumbents will hold their seats,

They demonize our businessmen for making a profit all the while they run up record deficits and in-debt us to foreign powers for generations to come,

They take over private corporations at the expense of tax payers in order to keep their unionized constituencies employed and thus guaranteeing themselves donations, election time volunteers, votes and more power.
They force shareholders and lenders to release the politician’s favorite corporations from their debts in order to curry favor with their union constituencies and they then demonize some of those firms for refusing to release that corporation from secured debt.
They create unfair competitive environments by shoring up failed corporations with tax payer dollars and so force consumers to purchase items they neither want or need because comparable items made by private, non-government held companies, are too expensive because those companies cannot operate at the level the government operates at. After all, our federal government operates everything at a grotesque loss, why would they run their new found pet corporations any differently?
They create a tax code that favors the most unproductive among us while penalizing those of us who have used what freedom we have to be prosperous and enhance not only our lives but the lives of our families and communities as well,
They now want to force us into a health plan mandated and run by them thus blatantly violating the 4th amendment of our Constitution while also interjecting themselves into one of the most private relationships a citizen can have: a patient and her doctor,

They pass legislation that puts undue stress on private industry via carbon offsets all in the name of fighting climate change. A program that amounts to nothing more than government held indulgences for corporations much the same as the Catholic Church did in Medieval times only rather than buying indulgences to sin against God we now buy indulgences to sin against the environment. It is a piece of legislation that will raise the cost of energy for those of us who do not qualify for the handouts that will inevitably be a result of such a monstrous piece of political maneuvering. All the while these politicians know that such legislation does nothing to fight their concocted crises of climate but only serves as yet another way to:

a. receive more tax revenue as a result of carbon offset purchasing and trading

b. it provides another redistributionist program to bolster their power with their constituents.

Our elected officials have learned that they need not fear us. They have come to believe that we are weak minded, malleable and easily mollified. They know the power they wield over the electorate and so, they do not fear us. Come election season all they need do is damn the Constitution and its provisions and simply promise to take treasure from one class of citizens and give it to another and so they ensure their continued stay as slave masters while the rest of us work the plantation to make sure the politician has the tax dollars to make good on his promises.

And so, as independent Americans, we must declare not just by writing letters to the same politicians who would change positions to assuage their compatriots in their respective house or executive quarters, nor just by showing up at the ballot box to cast our votes but through action. Action that puts us at risk of arrest and prosecution. Social disobedience is right and proper when those who lord over us change the laws at a whim to satisfy their constituencies and triangulate their positions, votes and non-votes to curry favor with whoever has the money and donations to keep them in power. Our founders put everything on the line; their lives, families, fortunes to disobey despots and to bring about real change and real revolution. Why are we so unwilling to follow suit? While calling on the spirit of the founders we seek to bolster our arguments with their authority and careful thoughts on our system of government, and yet, when the time comes to stop merely voting and start acting we shrink in the face of our convictions because we have become complacent and comfortable. In Iran we recently saw thousands take to the streets and demand their right to a free and fair election and they did so without permits to protest and in the face of a violent regime that used the power of the bullet to quell the gathered protesters. In our country we have similar restrictions on protest. We cannot gather, whether peacefully or otherwise, to protest the actions of a few individuals whose votes have multi-generational effects without first having permits. As independent men and women our first act of disobedience should be to gather without first seeking their permission and we should gather in places near and dear to the hearts of these thieves and manipulators.

The Declaration of Independence said that “...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 abolish it, and to institute a new Government.” It is my belief that the government we have today has grossly overstepped its bounds. In his first inaugural address Thomas Jefferson spoke about the role of Government in protecting the rights of the minority now out of power: “...that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.” We are clearly in the voting minority and yet our rights are trampled, our Constitutional guarantees are ignored, our right to live as free men and women - unburdened by the chains of serfdom that would inevitably be our lot - are dismissed because our numbers are perceived as insignificant to the ruling class and so our votes are not necessary to their re-election. This is oppression of the worst sort - it is not one of direct persecution and internment but it is one that is akin to death by a thousand cuts. Little by little they take more and more from us. They do this through slight of hand and through silver tongued promises of change, hope, belief and other vaporous notions that appeal to the populist whims of the masses; masses so blinded by the cult of personality that they are incapable of seeing their freedoms to will, to act, to produce being shattered right in front of them even as the receive their dwindling paychecks on Friday afternoons or get their diploma of graduation after taking tens of thousands of dollars in federal loans whose payments must be made lest the bureaucrats garnish our wages.

While we may be called reactionaries by those on the left let us be clear and steadfast. We are the revolutionaries and patriots of this country. We seek not to transform our nation into a reflection of our European counterparts but instead to keep the yoke of European political influence and tradition from affecting us with its gentle despotism through the manufacture of a complacent populace. We seek to retain the spirit of a revolution that brought the world its greatest hope, its last hope and to retain that spirit in the face of a counter insurgency from individuals who are neither patriots and nor,dare I say, American. For there is nothing American about remaking this nation in the image of some leftist ideology completely inconsistent with anything our founders portended or becoming only a fragment of ourselves in order to fit into what the rest of the world, with its despots, tyrants and populist agitators would like us to be. And so I ask you, each of you who see liberty, independence and freedom as the highest of moral values to help organize this revolution. To join together and be as one united voice in the face of this new tyranny, soft as it may be but tyranny nonetheless and march on Washington, to clog the very arteries of political industry with our locked arms and massive numbers, to let them know we are not a weak minority, a silent minority any longer and that we refuse to stand by while they wreck our lives, our livelihood and our country. There comes a time in every generation when it becomes necessary to throw off systems imposed on us by men and women of power and prestige, whereby we make for ourselves a future that does not reek of their vile machinations and schemes but one where we really do have the power and where the guardians of our freedoms stand as loyal and righteous sentries over those things which are most precious to us.

If there is any among you who would be willing to help organize and to carry on the spirit of our founders and of freedom, please let it be known here and by joining the revolution at www.the1776project.com

Obama's Statist Ambitions

2009-07-03T05:28:00.000-07:00

From the Cato Institute

Obama's Statist Ambitions

by Gene Healy

This article appeared in the DC Examiner on June 30, 2009.

"I am a firm believer in the power of the free market," President Obama told the Wall Street Journal recently. The "irony" surrounding his public image as a collectivist, the president insisted, was that "I actually would like to see a relatively light touch when it comes to the government."

Either Obama is as confused about the definition of irony as pop singer Alanis "rain on your wedding day" Morrisette, or he was being disingenuous. Given the president's ambitious, state-bloating agenda and longtime disdain for free enterprise, the latter is more likely the case."

Chuck Schumer on ObamaCare

2009-07-03T04:26:00.000-07:00

Democrats are trying to convince us that government insurance will keep private companies honest.

From the Politico

In advance of Congress’ return next week, Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that he’s hard atworkdrafting a public plan option that competes on a level playing field with privateinsurancecompanies.

Schumer, a key member of the Senate Finance Committee, has been pushing the proposal since May and the announcement comes on the heels of news that the Senate health committee will propose a public option in legislation it is considering.

“There is renewed momentum for a public plan that competes on a level playing field with private insurers. Any plan absolutely must be available to all Americans from the first day in order to successfully keep private insurers honest,” Schumer said.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24424.html#ixzz0KC7ZQiia&D

There's No Such Thing as Free Health Care

2009-07-03T00:33:00.000-07:00

This from Reason.com

President Obama says government will make health care cheaper and better. But there's no free lunch.

In England, health care is "free"—as long as you don't mind waiting. People wait so long for dentist appointments that some pull their own teeth. At any one time, half a million people are waiting to get into aBritish hospital. A British paper reports that one hospital tried to save money by not changing bedsheets. Instead of washing sheets, the staff was encouraged to justturn them over.

Obama insists he is not "trying to bring about government-run healthcare."

Read more here.

There's No Such Thing as Free Health Care

by John Stossel

Cap and Trade

2009-07-02T13:43:00.000-07:00

This from Jamie Dupree's blog.

So let's just review these three items [in the Cap and Trade bill]:

* Payments to those making up to 150% of the poverty line to offset the costs of the Cap & Trade bill
* A doubling of the EITC for low income workers with no dependents who qualify for aid
* An open-ended funding of Medicare and Social Security money to deal with job losses and lower tax revenues caused by Cap & Trade

Have you looked through any of this bill yet? What are you waiting for?

Obamacare Failed in Europe

2009-07-02T13:35:00.000-07:00

This from the Washington Examiner.

"President Barack Obama's proposed "public insurance option" for universal health coverage seems logical: A large public insurance fund will provide quality coverage for the uninsured and force competing insurers to lower costs. In practice, though, one needs only look at what decades of government health care have done to ramp up the financial and quality problems endured by Britain and France.

The Obama plan is supposed to make health insurance more competitive. But heavy subsidies will give it a big advantage, pulling an estimated 118.5 million people from private insurers to the public system. This government-subsidized system will eventually dominate the market in a way that would overrule competition.

This is precisely what happened in Britain. The state provides most health care, via the National Health Service. Patients have almost no say over which physician, surgeon or hospital they can use, while professionals have to conform to government plans and targets..."

You can read more here.

From Obamacare Failed in Europe

by Guillaume Vuillemey and Philip Stevens

2009-07-02T03:51:00.000-07:00

This from Reason.tv

"Barack Obama & the DC School Voucher Program: The president says he wants to do 'what's best for kids.' So why won't he save a proven program that helps low-income students?"

Mercedes Campbell is one of the 1,700 students in the Washington, D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, a school-voucher program authorized by Congress in 2004. The program gives students up to $7,500 to attend whatever school their parents choose. For kids like Mercedes, who now attends Georgetown Visitation Prep, the DC voucher program is a way out of one of the worst school districts in the country.

"It's different, now that I go to Visitation," says Mercedes. "I approach things differently. It's like a whole new world, basically."

The program is wildly popular with parents and children—there are four applicants for every available slot—and a recent Department of Education study found that participants do significantly better than their public school peers. Indeed, after three years in private schools, students who entered the program at its inception were 19 months ahead in reading of applicants unlucky enough to still be trapped in D.C.'s public schools.

Yet working with congressional Democrats and despite his pledge to put politics and ideology aside in education, the Obama administration has effectively killed the program through a backdoor legislative move. "[Education] Secretary [Arne] Duncan will use only one test in what ideas to support with your precious tax dollars," says the president. "It's not whether it's liberal or conservative, but whether it works."

That sort of doublespeak has left many Obama supporters not just puzzled but outraged. Certainly, Mercedes is. "Out of everything else they can shut down or everything else they can advocate for, they want to take this one thing away?" Adds her mother, Ingrid, "We voted for you, we walked, we went to the parade, we stood freezing. Why?...Can you get this tape over to Obama and have him answer our questions? Why, sir, why?"

Everything is on the table...taxes are going up...

2009-07-02T01:10:00.000-07:00

Obama has already raised taxes and levied fees on some of the foods we purchase, the cigarettes that some of us buy, taxes on certain health benefits and on and on. We must stop this healthcare bill before we 1) are hit with higher taxes, 2) are subjected to sub standard health care and 3) allow these power hungry politicans to usurp the Constitution yet again. Go here to sign a petition to stop the government from invading our privacy by commandeering our health care.

Arizona Moves to Oppose Obama’s Expected Health Care Mandates

2009-07-01T15:42:00.000-07:00

This from CNSNEWS.com via Boortz.com

"Voters in Arizona will decide next year whether residents will be subject to mandates in the pending health care reform that President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are promoting.

At least five other states – Indiana, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota and Wyoming – have considered proposals to take pre-emptive action against the pending federal mandates, but those proposals have either not made it out of committee, failed to get enough votes from one side of the legislature, or are still being crafted..."

Government Plans Always Ration Care

2009-07-01T15:22:00.000-07:00

This post taken from Carpe Diem blog.

President Obama objects when people use the word "rationing" in regards to government-run health care. But rationing is inevitable if we simply expand government control without fixing the way health care is reimbursed so that doctors and patients become sensitive to issues of price and quality.

What will be new about government-run health care is the instrument of regulatory control. There will be an omnipotent federal health board. The idea of an omnipotent board that makes unpopular decisions on access and price isn't a new construct. It's a European import. In countries such as France and Germany, layers of bureaucracy like health boards have been specifically engineered to delay the adoption of new medical products and services, thus lowering spending.

In France:

■ Assessment of medical products is done by the Committee for the Evaluation of Medicines.

■ Reimbursement rates are set by the National Union of Sickness Insurance Funds, a group that also negotiates pay to doctors.

In Germany:

■ The Federal Joint Committee regulates reimbursement and restrictions on prescribing, while the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Healthcare does formal cost-effectiveness analysis.

■ The Social Insurance Organization, technically a part of the Federal Joint Committee, is in charge of setting prices through a defined formula that monitors doctors' prescribing behavior and sets their practice budgets.

■ In the past 12 months, the 15 medical products and services that cleared this process spent an average 35 months under review (the shortest review was 19 months, the longest 51).

In short, other countries where government plays a large role in health care aren't shy about rationing. Even Mr. Obama's budget director has acknowledged that rationing reduces costs.

Responsible Healthcare Reform Now!

2009-06-30T21:13:00.001-07:00

Obamacare and the government option is not what we need and it is not what the American people want. Not to mention, it is as un-Constitutional as {GASP!} warrantless wiretaps. So why go for this kind of health care? As Americans we can and should be responsible for making our own decisions on healthcare rather than having politicians mandate to us what coverages we can and can't have and what we will be paying.

This from Reason.tv

Private Property Rights and Government Encroachment

2009-06-30T20:53:00.000-07:00

The right to property is one of our most fundamental rights as humans and as Americans. However, even here politicians and lawyers can't seem to extricate themselves from their lust for power. Rather than ruling in favor of private property rights we now have rulings like the Kelo decision.

On June 23, 2005, the United State Supreme Court dealt a fatal blow to private property rights with the decision issued in Kelo v. New London. This landmark ruling allows state and local governments to use the previously redefined meaning of “public use” from the Fifth Amendment (also known as the Takings Clause) to use eminent domain to essentially steal property from one private entity and transfer it to another.

READ MORE HERE.

Congressional Budget Offices Ignores Climate Bill's Economic Impact

2009-06-30T20:40:00.000-07:00

As if though it weren't already bad enough that politicians want to saddle us with higher energy costs through a program that has no Constitutional authority it is now the case that this bill will directly harm our economy and kill more jobs than it produces.

(CNSNews.com) – The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) did not calculate the economic costs of House Democrats’ massive cap and trade legislation, only accounting for how the government plans to collect and redistribute revenues from selling carbon emissions permits.

The analysis, which was released June 19, shows that if Democrats’ carbon reduction schemes turn out exactly as planned, government will be able to largely mitigate the per-household financial impact of a cap and trade system by redistributing the revenues collected from businesses across the population, resulting in a net per-household cost of about $165 per year.

However, the CBO report does not examine the economic impact of imposing billions in new operating and production costs on virtually every industry in America. It only assumes that the price businesses pay for the allowances will be directly passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices.

Rest of the story here.

2009-06-30T04:26:00.000-07:00

This from reason.tv. As the debate over health care reform gets underway, Reason.tv asks, What if government ran health care?

Approximately one minute. Produced by Meredith Bragg, Austin Bragg, and Nick Gillespie.

Sprint Commercial Parody on Government Healthcare

2009-06-30T03:38:00.000-07:00

This from www.reason.tv

As the debate over health care reform gets underway, Reason.tv asks, What if government ran health care?

Approximately one minute. Produced by Meredith Bragg, Austin Bragg, and Nick Gillespie.

On The DC School Vouchers

2009-06-30T03:02:00.000-07:00

It is our position at the 1776 project that affording people, regular Americans, a choice in how their tax dollars should be spent when it comes to education is one of the singularly most important topics of our time. We believe, along with other freedom loving Americans, that as parents and members of society we should be allowed to send our children to a school of our choosing without having to cover the entire cost of private tuition as well as paying taxes that go to our local schools on our own. We believe that allowing people to have access to school vouchers - a program where the government uses the same dollars allocated towards federal education and re-allocates that money in the form of vouchers which are redeemable at both public and private learning institutions - is in keeping with our ideals regarding freedom and self-reliance. Take a look at this video from reason.tv.

American Action

2009-06-30T02:52:00.000-07:00

Post coming soon...