Liberty Maven

There were very few news reports about the Bush administration forcing some private banks that had no desire for bailout money to take bailout money. These were banks that had no need or desire to take government money, but were given an “incentive” to do so using the threat of multi-year audits by our compassionate federal government. While the government may term this tactic as an “incentive” most proper thinking citizens call it for what it really is, extortion.

Judge Andrew Napolitano talked about such a tactic during yesterday’s Freedom Watch show, and then repeated the story on Fox News Channel’s Studio-B with Shephard Smith, embedded below.

So the Bush administration commited extortion paving the way for the Obama administration to hip-hop toward fascism. This is becoming even more evident with the recent Obama “firing” of GM head Rick Wagoner. I’m not a religious person, but I do recall that the Bible teaches us that the borrower is a slave to the lender (Proverbs 22). The Obama administration is now a slave owner of once private businesses. This point is further reinforced by the fact that some of these new government owned business “slaves” became government owned unwillingly.

The Bush administration bought the slaves. The Obama administration is lording over the slaves, whip in hand.

Some of these businesses came to the government on bended knee begging for loans. Perhaps they didn’t realize that in doing so they were also begging into slavery. I think Rick Wagoner may realize that now. I hope others begin to realize this and start fighting back. Companies that choose bankruptcy over slavery should be commended and supported.

Unfortunately, the problem with not supporting the government slave businesses just means that more tax money will be utilized to keep them functioning. That is, unless people start not only waking up, but also acting out by holding lawmakers accountable for supporting this kind of slavery.

The road to economic prosperity is not paved by the blood of government economic tyranny. The road to economic prosperity can only be paved by the sweat of free market liberty.

D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h

Quote of the Day: “…the burden of government is not measured by how much it taxes, but by how much it spends.” — Milton Friedman

The new budget contains trillions in new spending programs, trillions in debt, and a trillion dollars in tax increases. Speak now against this massive outrage or hold your peace.

It will do no good to complain to your friends, or the local radio talk show host, or shout at your TV. Tell it to your elected representatives! That can do a little good. Nothing else can.

If you haven’t sent Congress a message opposing the budget, do so now, using our “cut spending” campaign.

Use your personal comments to object to all the new spending programs and the big deficits.

If you have sent such a message, do so again, this time using our “cut taxes” campaign.

Use your personal comments to oppose the trillion dollars in new taxes that are included in the budget.

If you’ve used our quick and easy Educate the Powerful System before, the best way to send your message given our current technical difficulties, is to log-in using the log-in button at the top of our home page.

Then, click on one of these links, depending on which campaign you want to use . . .

* Cut spending campaign
* Cut taxes campaign

If you’re going to be sending your first message to Congress, just click on the campaign you want above, fill out the simple registration form for first time users, and send your message.

Please also call your Rep and your two Senators to issue them the same instructions by phone. It only take a few minutes, it packs more punch, and you’ll feel good after you’ve done it.

If you’re registered at Digg, please click the thumbs-up buttons in the comments section of our Digg item for these calls so we can know how many calls were made. Click here to go directly to the Digg entry for this Dispatch.

If you’re not registered at Digg, please do so. It only takes a couple of minutes. Digg is a powerful tool we should all be using to promote Downsize DC action items. You can register here (don’t forget to write down your log-in information).

According to our Digg tracker 12 Downsizers called Congress to oppose the budget on Tuesday. That’s not much, but we’re just getting started with this approach and so few DC Downsizers are registered to use Digg. You start small or not at all. Let’s beat that number today!

Thank you for being a DC Downsizer.

Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h
is the official email list of DownsizeDC.org, Inc. & Downsize DC Foundation

UPDATE: There are now 55 co-sponsors!

A little background:
In 1950 the law was changed to exempt the Federal Reserve from any auditing procedures. Essentially, the Fed can use our tax dollars however they wish, without any obligation whatsoever to disclose what they’re doing. HR 1207 seeks to repeal that portion of the code, so when we ask questions, they HAVE to answer.

Why is this important?
As just one example, the Fed is refusing to give a public accounting of the trillions in recent taxpayer backed loans. Just look at the 700 billion in TARP funds that Congress appropriated and the Fed refused to talk about — we now know a portion of it ended up going to bonuses for the AIG execs.

We deserve to know how our tax dollars are being spent, and allowing the Federal Reserve to remain out of control and shrouded in secrecy clearly allows for abuse.

The good news is that this bill is actually gaining momentum – we’re up to 50 co-sponsors as of today (4/1), which is pretty phenomenal. The American people are starting to demand more oversight and push for transparency, and that’s exactly what we need to get things turned around.

The bad news is that some very powerful special interests really don’t want this to happen, so we’re up against a pretty major hurdle.

So, what can you do to help?
Sign this petition to urge your congressman to co-sponsor the bill.

Find out if your reps are on the list.

Please spread the word about this game-changing bill!

–

Another great “Freedom Watch” show today. Tom Woods, Ron Paul, John Stossel, Gerald Celente, and Peter Schiff joined Judge Napolitano.

Especially interesting was the segment with the exclusive audio of a Campaign For Liberty manager getting detained and harassed at the St. Louis airport seemingly because he had too much cash on him. You can watch that segment isolated here. It seems these guys didn’t get the word that the MIAC document was retracted. Yet more evidence that we live in the land of the unfree.

Ron Paul comes on during the final segment and discussed the G20 meetings and other topics.

Watch the entire show in the playlist below or watch it directly on youtube here.

Yesterday in Congress, fifty-four new bills were introduced.  Due to recent controversy, and for those who start reading this series of articles in the middle, I will include the following boilerplate information in every article.

When taking a look at the list below, keep in mind that the U.S. Constitution, which created our Federal Government, clearly enumerated 18 specific functions that it is given.  For all other things, the 9th and 10th amendment make it clear that the individual states have the power.  Note that it states in the Constitution that it is the Supreme Law of the Land, which can be usurped by no other.  This means that all opinions to the contrary made by the Supreme Court are technically invalid.  Throughout the past couple of hundred hears the Supreme Court has rule one way or another on some “interpretation” of the Constitution, but in fact no interpretation is necessary, as the intention of the founding fathers are quite clear.  For example, if the “general welfare” clause or the “interstate commerce” clause was intended to be used as a catch-all for any arbitrary piece of legislation, then the 10th amendments which reads:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

would be completely meaningless.  So simple logic, in addition to the writings of Madison and other founding fathers, dictates the notion that the Federal Government was set up to have very little power, and that these United States are intended to be a loose federation of sovereign states.

Only due to politician’s greed and overwhelming desire for power does the Constitution get relegated to the trash heap.

So, despite the  noble intentions of many of these bills, it doesn’t mean they are legal.

Of the bills introduced yesterday, these are ones that are clearly not legitimate functions of the Federal Government  [as always, my commentary will appear in red]:

• S-753 – A bill to prohibit the manufacture, sale, or distribution in commerce of children’s food and beverage containers composed of bisphenol A, and for other purposes.  [What's the purpose of this?  There's already S-593.  See my comments here about this issue.]
• S-754 – A bill to provide for increased Federal oversight of methadone treatment/
• HR308 – Honoring the life, legacy, and memory of Pedro Pablo Zamora y Diaz, an extraordinary educator and activist, and a pioneer in the battle against the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
• HR309 – Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that North Korea should immediately stop any hostile rhetoric and activity towards the Republic of Korea and engage in mutual dialogue to enhance inter-Korean relations.
• HR310 – Honoring the life of Coach Kay Yow in remembrance of her passing, and recognizing her dedication to the sport of basketball, her commitment to women and women’s health, and her contributions to the State of North Carolina.

Read More »

D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h

Quote of the Day: “I, however, place economy among the first and most important republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.” — Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), Source: letter to William Plumer, July 21, 1816

Somewhere in the blizzard of budget numbers and grand spending plans flooding out of Washington, we missed last spring’s report from the Social Security Trustees. Their latest estimate of the unfunded liabilities for Social Security and Medicare is (hold onto your chair) . . .

$101 trillion

Add to that the $9.3 trillion in deficit spending over the next 10 years, as estimated by the Congressional Budget Office, plus the previous national debt of nearly $11 trillion.

But that may not be the end of it. It’s unclear to us how much the various bailout programs will ultimately cost, and how many of these costs are included in the formal budget proposal. At least three issues complicate the calculation . . .

* Some of the bailout programs carry contingent liabilities that could cause their cost to explode if things go wrong
* New bailouts may be enacted (look for commercial real estate and state/local government pension bailouts)
* The Federal Reserve is also spending/creating lots of bailout money that isn’t reflected in the formal budget

A Reuters story from December 11 calculated the total exposure for the various bailouts at $8 trillion.

But that number has swollen since then. A scholar at OMB Watch told me some things that needed to be added, and after looking up those programs, including the scam-stimulus bill, we believe that number is now over $10 trillion as a CONSERVATIVE ESTIMATE.

But this number is also likely to grow. As will the true costs for the Democrats’ health care, cap and trade, “public service,” and various other social engineering schemes. So here’s the $101-trillion-plus question . . .

How long will the federal government be able to borrow money to pay its multi-trillion dollar bills? Would you want to continue buying Treasury bonds given that . . .

* U.S. debt obligations are exploding, with no end in sight, and . . .
* The Fed is creating massive amounts of new money that could devalue the Treasury bonds people already hold

At what point does government default become inevitable? Do you want the politicians to keep spending until we find out, or do you want them to step back from the precipice?

Please send another message opposing the budget.

Use your personal comments to mention last spring’s report of the Social Security Trustees, and its estimate of $101 trillion in unfunded liabilities. Tell them to enact NO NEW SPENDING PROGRAMS, and FREEZE OLD PROGRAMS AT PREVIOUS LEVELS.

Ask your friends to join you and do the same.

Thank you for being a part of the growing Downsize DC Army. We added 635 new Downsizers in March, bringing readership of this newsletter to 24,697 as of yesterday.

Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h
is the official email list of DownsizeDC.org, Inc. & Downsize DC Foundation