Also, there may be one more surprise guest added to the lineup at the last minute.
It sounds like another great show with some new blood (so to speak). Please spread the word and tune in to the show tomorrow at 2pm if you can. The more people that watch the show online the better chance it has of making into the normal Fox TV lineup. You can watch the show here: http://foxnews.com/strategyroom (Foxnews.com Strategy Room online channel).
Forty-nine new bills introduced in Congress yesterday. Consider some of the ways that your representatives have been wasting time and money lately:
HR248 – Honoring Glenn “Jeep” Davis for being one of the greatest Olympic hurdlers, an active member of his community, and life-long teacher. [Are you kidding me? Congress needs to adjourn and go home!]
HR247 – Expressing support for designation of March 22, 2009, as “National Rehabilitation Counselors Appreciation Day”.
HR246 – Expressing support for a National Week of Reflection and Tolerance. [Pardon me while I vomit.]
HR245 – Congratulating Miss Katie Stam for being crowned Miss America 2009 and thanking the participants in and supporters of the Miss America Competition for their contributions to young women’s lives and communities.
HR1520 – To improve Federal land management, resource conservation, environmental protection, and use of Federal real property, by requiring the Secretary of the Interior to develop a multipurpose cadastre of Federal real property and identifying inaccurate, duplicate, and out-of-date Federal land inventories, and for other purposes. [Yeah, I guess it's a good idea to take care and organize your land better, but let's not forget that the Federal Government has no right to own all the land that it does. Did you know that the Federal government owns nearly 1/3 of all U.S. land? I find that preposterous!]
HR1510 – To amend the lead prohibition provisions of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 to provide an exemption for certain all-terrain vehicles, and for other purposes. [Typically, when the government intrudes into the marketplace with regulations, there are many unintended consequences. Then supplemental bills like this have to be passed in an attempt to "fix" the problem. But the tangled mess of regulation becomes so unwieldy and unmanageable that nobody can figure it out, and compliance and enforcement become impossible. It would be better if we would remember that the Constitution grants no power to the Federal government to provide "consumer safety".]
HR1525 – To amend the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 to require the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to consider reconstruction and improvement of flood protection systems when establishing flood insurance rates.
HR1524 – To allow flood insurance coverage under the national flood insurance program for new structures designed to protect public safety that are located in special flood hazard zones.
HR1521 – To restrict any State or local jurisdiction from imposing a new discriminatory tax on cell phone services, providers, or property. [Uhhmmm, this may sound good at first, but I think they have it backwards. Have you looked at your phone bill lately? Most of the taxes and fees on it are imposed by the federal government. And, the federal government has no jurisdiction over what the states can and cannot charge.]
HR1516 – To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 37926 Church Street in Dade City, Florida, as the “Sergeant Marcus Mathes Post Office”.
I admit it. I really think Sacha Baron Cohen is funny. I also think Ron Paul is the most honest, down-to-earth, and forthright politician of my lifetime. Upon learning that Ron Paul would be appearing in Cohen’s upcoming “Bruno” movie my immediate reaction was “Uh-oh.”
Cohen’s take-no-prisoners approach to comedy is fine as long as you aren’t the one being duped. He’s duped some of the more popular modern politicians, journalists, and celebrities. His punked list includes Pat Buchanan, Newt Gingrich, Bob Barr, C. Everett Koop, Donald Trump, John McCain, Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader, Andy Rooney, and now Ron Paul.
Adding to all of the beyond ridiculus Obama coins, dolls, buttons, underwear, halos and toast comes Obama Fingers. No, you won’t be able to put batteries in them and massage your back to the self-enriching sounds of Obama’s “Yes we can!” voice in your ears. These fingers taste like chicken.
A company in German(sic) has just introduced a line of snacks called “Obama Fingers”: frozen chicken fingers with curry dip. To Americans, marketing a fried chicken dish with the name of our first African-American president instantly tingles our sensitivity to racial stereotyping and racist imagery.
The author prattles on about the apparent racism in such a move. Then asks if it is racist if the company putting out the product claims it was ignorant of such stereotypes?
It’s only “racist” to someone who looks at them and thinks… “oh lord, that is racist!” I look at them and see the chicken fingers are breaded and fried, and come with a curry dip. I then think… mmm yummy. Then I think, what an incredibly stupid name for a food product.
I can certainly see how someone may be offended by Obama Fingers, but don’t we have more to be worried about than whether or not a German company puts out a product that may or may not be offensive?
In an unprecedented interview, Fed Chairman Benjamin Bernanke sat down to talk to 60 Minutes. Right off the bat, he was asked “when does this end?”
Bernanke replied, in part: “The lesson of history is that you do not get a sustained economic recovery as long as the financial system is in crisis. We’ve seen some progress in the financial markets, absolutely. But until we get that stabilized and working normally, we’re not gonna see recovery.”
His concept of “operating normally”, though, is to continue the unsustainable exponential growth that is absolutely required for the Ponzi-like banking and monetary system we have now.
Of course, common sense dictates that nothing can grow exponentially forever. It simply defies logic. Our only true way out is to start over from scratch, and get rid of disastrous ideas such as fractional reserve banking and central economic planning (by such entities as the Federal Government and the Federal Reserve — and put people like Bernanke out of a job).
Bernanke gives a short history lesson, stating: “The Fed was created by Congress in 1913. And its original purpose was to deal with financial panics, which is what we’re doing right now.”
But is the existence of such a job a good idea? After the Fed-induced Panic of 1920 (which few people know about, and which is described nicely in Tom Woods’ excellent new book, Meltdown), there was no government intervention to try to avert the crisis and prop things up. Things crashed hard, and banks and businesses disappeared. But it was all over quickly, roughly within a year, and the economy began to flourish again. But when it happened again in 1929 the Fed and the Federal Government intervened. This time, the downturn lasted more than a decade. But Bernanke seems to thinks that the feds didn’t intervene enough, so this time they plan to do much, much more. (I can only hope that this won’t mean that the current depression won’t last several decades, but I suspect this to be the case).
If you haven’t seen it already, there is an excellent article at FreedomWorks that offers an historical timeline of events that precipitated the current economic catastrophe that began last year:
To understand today’s financial crisis, you must understand the long history of government interference and subsidies for housing and housing debt.
[...]
Since the New Deal, the federal government has passed law after law attempting to shape U.S. housing markets. The U.S. today compels banks to lend to risky borrowers, skews the cost of housing debt and benefit of housing-related capital gains through the tax code, and operates several enormous government lending programs and taxpayer-backed corporations.
The net result is a wild, multi-trillion dollar overinvestment in America’s housing stock, the encouragement of dangerously overleveraged consumers and banks, and a massive new tab for taxpayers. The market is currently trying desperately to correct a government-created housing bubble, but the federal government’s response is to actually expand the government intervention that created the problem.
Here is the timeline of the actions that led to the current crisis.
1913 – The federal income tax is created.
The new law allows taxpayers to deduct their mortgage interest, among other interest expenses. This deduction was capped in 1986 but still exists today. Under the mortgage interest deduction, taxpayers are allowed to deduct interest from their primary residence, their second homes, and most home equity lines of credit. This deduction, which amounted to nearly $90 billion in 2008, increases the value of homes to borrowers by reducing the amount of taxes they have to pay, but also increases home prices, largely offsetting the potential benefit. Still, it creates a strong incentive to buy multiple homes and to use maximum leverage to do so.
Wow, an astounding eighty-six new bills were introduced in Congress on Thursday alone. I’m starting to get a headache. How many of these bills are for causes would you voluntarily donate to? Certainly none of these examples are the bailiwick of the Federal Government: [As always my sarcastic criticism is offered in red.]
HR242 – Recognizing the apology offered by the Government of Australia to the aboriginal people and its significance as a gesture of healing for this proud nation. [Huh? The Aussie government apologizes to the aborigines. How is this our business? The arrogance here is nauseating.]
HR1385 – To extend Federal recognition to the Chickahominy Indian Tribe, the Chickahominy Indian Tribe-Eastern Division, the Upper Mattaponi Tribe, the Rappahannock Tribe, Inc., the Monacan Indian Nation, and the Nansemond Indian Tribe.
HR1505 – To authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to provide services for birth parents who have placed a child for adoption, and for other purposes.
HR1504 – To require that, in the questionnaires used in the taking of any decennial census of population, a checkbox or other similar option be included so that respondents may indicate Dominican extraction or descent. [The Constitution says that one of the jobs of the federal government is enumeration of the U.S. population. This means they are required to count the number of people living at each address. I have no problem with that. But I do have a problem with being asked about my race, income, and other personal and intrusive questions. If we expect to be a "color-blind" society, we need to disregard race, ethnicity, and skin color in all official capacities.]
HR1502 – To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide for equity in the calculation of Medicare disproportionate share hospital payments for hospitals in Puerto Rico.
HR1501 – To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to increase inpatient hospital payments under the Medicare Program to Puerto Rico hospitals.
HR1494 – To ensure that a private for-profit nursing home affected by a major disaster receives the same reimbursement as a public nursing home affected by a major disaster. [This bill was written by Ron Paul. I don't understand. Clearly, no nursing home (private, public or otherwise) should receive any reimbursement for any major disaster. Do you think you disagree? Please read Davy Crockett vs. Welfare.]
HR1492 – To establish a pilot program to provide assistance for partnerships supporting applied sciences in renewable energy.
HR1490 – To establish a grant program to assist in the provision of safety measures to protect social workers and other professionals who work with at-risk populations.
HR1484 – To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Rabbi Arthur Schneier in recognition of his pioneering role in promoting religious freedom and human rights throughout the world, for close to half a century.
HR1481 – To authorize certain States to prohibit the importation of solid waste from other States, and for other purposes. [The states should not (do not) require authorization from the Feds to prohibit whatever they wish to prohibit, as long as the rights of the individual are not infringed.]
I considered calling “Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse” by Tom Woods, your bible for the economic meltdown, but the Bible, although a very interesting read, is littered with ambiguity. There is zero ambiguity in this book. The book is more like a timely and perfect travel guide, full of facts and well-argued opinions covering all of the economy’s hot spots. What Ron Paul’s “The Revolution: A Manifesto” accomplished for political ideas in the wake of his Presidential campaign, this book accomplishes for economic thought in a time of financial turmoil
I would venture to say that the book is the modern day equivalent of “Economics in One Lesson” by Henry Hazlit. While some of “Meltdown” is devoted to our current situation it is also filled with lessons in Austrian economic theory. But it is not written for economists, it is written for you and me.
I watched John Stossel’s latest wonderful 20/20 special on ABC last night. I can’t tell you how excited I get when I see libertarian views being expressed on a main stream media show like this.
These ideas should be commonplace, but over the years they’ve been usurped by statism–the belief that the government is the all-seeing, all-knowing, all-do-good god. But the devil is in the details and Stossel once again reveals the devil in statism
The show is in six parts.
Economic crisis?
Should roads be private?
Should drugs be legal?
Should the federal government (our tax dollars) pay for preschool for every child?
Is combating illegal immigration doomed to fail?
Is America still the land of opportunity?
Watch all six in the playlist embedded below. (Thanks go to youtube user wisted for uploading the videos)
Or do I have that backwards? No, I’m right. Doug Wead shares my own sentiment (and likely many others) that for America to elect Ron Paul or someone like Ron Paul things will have to get worse.
Well, things are certainly getting worse. Will it ever get to the point where people will start taking Ron Paul seriously as a Presidential candidate? I don’t know, but as we sit here today in the beginning stages of the second Great Depression, it is not out of the realm of belief.
Is there anyone who can save us from this insanity?
There is really only one option left. Ron Paul. It is a long shot, but if the madness goes far enough and the reaction sets in, the Paulistas just might stage a takeover of the Grand Old Party and Ron Paul would offer America a real choice. It’s a long shot. But four more years of this and America may actually be ready.
We are on this road. We can’t see beyond the horizon, but we certainly have an idea of what lies ahead. It’s not pretty.
It is rather unfortunate that we have to learn to accept the fact that the only path back to the principles which made America great is paved with economic calamity and social unrest, and constructed by a socialist steamroller.
Liberty Maven
” by Tom Woods, your bible for the economic meltdown, but the Bible, although a very interesting read, is littered with ambiguity. There is zero ambiguity in this book. The book is more like a timely and perfect travel guide, full of facts and well-argued opinions covering all of the economy’s hot spots. What Ron Paul’s “
” accomplished for political ideas in the wake of his Presidential campaign, this book accomplishes for economic thought in a time of financial turmoil
” by Henry Hazlit. While some of “Meltdown” is devoted to our current situation it is also filled with lessons in Austrian economic theory. But it is not written for economists, it is written for you and me.
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