Liberty Maven

D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h

Quote of the Day: “Yesterday Democrats in the House introduced a 1,000-page national health-care plan. To make sure at least some people read it, they named it ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Pound Proposal.’” – Conan O’Brien

It’s easy to see why. Consider the AIG bonus provision in the stimulus bill. Had Obama waited five days to sign the bill the bonus provision would likely have been exposed sooner, and Obama would have been pressured to send the bill back to Congress. But it was the Obama Administration that wanted the provision in the first place!

If the Read the Bills Act (RTBA) had been in force, however, Obama’s broken promise would be irrelevant. Under RTBA, all bills would be posted in their final form for seven days before Congress votes on their passage.

Some may say that Obama didn’t personally know about the AIG bonus provision, but that’s not the point. The point is, Obama’s a party leader and political parties exist in order to raise money for themselves and grant favors to those who help elect them to power. Obama may not have known about the AIG swindle, but he appointed the people who pressured the Democratic Congress to pass it.

More than lobbyists, the most corrupting influence on Congress is the President of the United States. This is the dirty little secret of American politics. Most provisions of bills that increase the size, scope, and power of government aren’t written by a lobbyist, or an ideologue in Congress, but rather by the Administration. This is how it works regardless of whether a Republican or Democrat is in the White House.

Congress is now considering whether the federal government should take total control of your health care. Most of the legislation they’re considering wasn’t written by them, but by the Obama Administration.

Is it so unreasonable to tell Congress to at least know what it is they’re passing?

The 1,017-page health care bill (H.R. 3200) was introduced on July 14 and already two committees have approved it. It’s hard to believe that any staff member of these committees read the bill in full, let alone any member of the committee. It will be harder to believe that any other member of Congress will have time to read it before it comes to a vote.

This health-care “reform” is not from the people, it’s from the Obama Administration. The least we can do is ask the representatives of the people in Congress to actually read the bill. Even better, however, would be to demand that they introduce and pass the Read the Bills Act.    Read More »

Ron Paul chose to enter politics in 1971, the year I was born. The reason he entered politics was due to then President Nixon driving the last nail into the gold standard coffin. Nixon severed all ties of gold to the U.S. dollar. This event implicitly granted the Federal Reserve to print money without bound. For Ron Paul being anti-Fed is not just another political position, it is the political position. It is in his blood.

In those early years and up until the economic crisis of last year Ron Paul was brushed off as crazy whenever he brought up the unchecked powers of the Federal Reserve. Once the bailouts began and continued it became politically expedient to be more like Ron Paul. That is, as long as you are talking about economics. On foreign policy Ron Paul is still apparently crazy for firmly believing in non-intervention.

I am not alone among the Ron Paul faithful when I say that I’m very tired of reading articles with any of the following labels attributed to Ron Paul:

“You can’t get corporate jets. You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas, or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers’ dime.” – Barack Obama, February 2009

by Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution

Originally published at http://www.nolanchart.com/article6466.html

Apparently Obama’s advice does not apply to flying in 700 of the Social Security Administration’s 62,000+ employees to a resort in Phoenix, spending $700,000 in taxpayer money in the process as ABC reported here. The SSA claims that due to threats of bodily harm received, the event was necessary in order to reduce stress rather than videoconferencing or a meeting. While I certainly do not condone threats, one might wonder why these threats have been received in the first place.

Read More »

By Bob Burg, bestselling author, speaker, and advocate of a free market economy

Well, it’s coming down to the wire; the Obama Administration is perhaps just weeks away from enacting legislation that will put our loved ones’ health in the hands of a colossal government bureaucracy comprised of nameless/faceless administrators, drive up job-killing taxes through massive spending, create huge waiting lists for life-saving procedures, cause a shortage of doctors, significantly harm the middle class and poor, elicit health-care rationing as we’ve never before experienced, and, in the end, bring us an inferior level of healthcare.

All of these are certain to be true…and presenting our case like this is exactly the WRONG way to win the hearts and minds of those we are trying to persuade.

Instead, we must communicate the issue at the very heart of this matter and which – as far as I can tell – no one; including any of the usual “Pro-Economic Liberty” pundits, are explaining.

In fact, the Pro-Universal Crowd has done a brilliant job of framing a false argument:

“Do we stick with a Free-Market Healthcare system which is not working?”

or…

“Do we at least do something to try and help; for example, go to a system of Universal Healthcare?”

And (anti-Constitutionality aside), that question would make sense, except…

WE DON’T CURRENTLY HAVE A FREE-MARKET BASED HEALTHCARE SYSTEM. (Sorry for shouting but has nobody noticed that??!!)

Actually, we haven’t had a market-based healthcare system in over 50 years. When we did, it worked magnificently well for everyone, including the financially disadvantaged. Only after government first inched its way in and then eventually controlled nearly every aspect of it did we find ourselves in the predicament we are currently in, with the masses now asking the government to solve the very problem they created (I can’t think of anything more nonsensical).

While I explain all this in my five-part series, Check Your Healthcare Premises, it hardly matters if we don’t effectively communicate this faulty premise to those who advocate Socialized (i.e. Socialistic) Healthcare.

We must “control the frame” and re-direct the argument from a choice between a current “free-market” system (which it is not) that doesn’t work (and it doesn’t) and a socialized system of healthcare that will be absolutely disastrous…and offer a third choice; indeed, the only choice that can work, and – even better – has proven to work; a healthcare system based on the free market.     Read More »

Obama has more or less dictated to America that there will be health care reform whether we like it or not. Well, those of us paying attention don’t like it one bit. Most of us agree that something must be done to make health care more affordable and thereby make it available to the huddled masses, the un-huddled rich 1%, and the semi-huddled in between. There could not be further disagreement about how we accomplish it.

Most on the Left argue from emotion:

“It doesn’t matter if it’s not Constitutional, people who are sick need help.”

Those on the Right attempt logic:

“Passing health care reform as the Democrats wish will only bankrupt America more than it already is.”

The Bill of Rights numerates our natural rights as human beings. It does not grant us rights. The last time I read the Bill of Rights I did not see any mention of health care as a natural right. In fact, access to health care is no more a right than access to food. That may be cold, but it is the truth.

Read More »

Today the necessary forms to officially declare candidacy and candidate organization have been sent to the Federal Election Committee (FEC) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as Jake Towne continues on his bid to run for Congress in 2010 in the 15th congressional district.

by Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution, Originally published Thursday, July 16, 2009 at http://towneforcongress.com/economy/towne-for-congress-files-with-fec-for-2010-lehigh-valley-congressional-bid

As the current Congress continues to socialize major businesses and infringe upon personal liberties, the people of the 15^th congressional district in the Lehigh Valley will have a choice on the 2010 ballot for LIBERTY instead of the continued oppression on economic and personal freedoms by Democrats and Republicans alike.

The campaign is centered on preserving personal liberties and returning to the rule of law as specified in the Constitution of the United States. I believe prosperity for our society can best be obtained by defending freedom and promoting peace, and the policies and path the current government is following will take our great country to economic and moral ruin.

Read More »

Ron Paul questioned Federal Reserve Governor Elizabeth Duke regarding transparency and an audit of the Federal Reserve. He asks directly how the information revealed with an audit could be harmful to the consumer. Naturally, Duke attempts to toe the standard line that the audit would “interfere” with monetary policy.

Ron Paul interrupts and corrects her saying that the audit has no intention of interfering with monetary policy, it would just reveal what they are doing.

His second round of questioning is also included in the clip below. He uses this time to attack the Fed as an institution that is actually harmful to the consumer.

Paul then has another chance to ask questions, this time to Jim Carr of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC). Carr takes Paul’s question and runs down a predictable path with it. Paul also gets in a last question about support for a Fed audit.

(Thanks to Minnesota Chris for the videos)

Holy cow, here we go. Take a look at this article posted on Yahoo! Finance:

Fed Independence

The Keynesians are attempting to lodge a full force counter-attack. Why doesn’t Anil Kashyap (one of the petition initiators for Fed Independence) look at the reasons the Federal Reserve was instituted, and compare it to their track record?

In a lame attempt to keep you from questioning their authority, they list the credentialed signators of said petition. I’m so angry about this, I had better just stop writing.

Here is Ron Paul’s opening statement today during the House Financial Services Committee hearing on “Consumer Protection and the Role of The Federal Reserve”. He uses his time to promote the idea of “honest money” to legalize the use of gold and silver as legal tender.

I apologize for the poor audio, but that’s how the stream came across.

D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h

Quote of the Day: “If every member pledged to not vote for it (the health care bill) if they hadn’t read it in its entirety, I think we would have very few votes.” — Senator Steny Hoyer, House Majority Leader

This is very dangerous. We must resist this with everything we’ve got. Not only will it be bad for the government to expand its involvement in health care, RUSHING to do so will be even worse.

If they pass a bill containing nearly 1,000 pages you can be sure that almost no one voting for it will really understand it.

Please hit Congress again. Use DownsizeDC.org’s health care campaign to send your message.

This time use your personal comments to tell your Congressional employees that you object to rushing through such an important and complicated bill. Tell them you expect them to read and understand every single word of the bill BEFORE they vote.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve sent recent messages on this issue. Send another one. Say something different this time.

We must keep opposing these proposals until they’re defeated, or we’ll regret it for the rest of our SHORTENED lives.

Thank you.

Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

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