Liberty Maven

Ron Paul and his son Rand Paul appeared on Neil Cavuto’s Fox Business channel show earlier today.

Among other things Rand Paul seems to take responsibility for helping to grow the “freedom movement”. Cavuto, in the end, gets away with calling the Paul family “cheap”, but it was all in good fun. Watch below.

As part of the platform that got him elected almost a year ago, Barack Obama promised not to raise taxes on families making less than $250,000 annually.  But now he’s seriously pushing the idea that all citizens be forced to carry health insurance or else the IRS will impose a penalty.  And he claims this isn’t a tax.

In an interview on Sunday, George Stephanopoulos grilled President Obama by asking the rather obvious question, “Under this mandate, the government is forcing people to spend money [to buy insurance], fining you if you don’t. How is that not a tax?”

Jeff Jacoby’s op-ed on Boston.com discusses the president’s response:

by John Browne – Senior Market Strategist, Euro Pacific Capital

The Obama Administration waited until the wee hours of September 11th, 2009 to quietly inform Americans of its decision to slap new tariffs against low-end tire imports from China. Coming only days before this week’s important G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh, an occasion when China will likely renew its campaign to push the world towards a post-dollar economy, the timing of the announcement seems particularly ill-advised. To be frank, it is like waving a red flag in front of a bull. It is not surprising that China instantly retaliated with their own duties on U.S. auto parts and agricultural products.

The Administration’s action could be simply explained by the president’s need to mollify the trade unions that played a big role in his ascendancy to power. However, the equation may be more complicated.

Despite the mindless chortling of those who believe that the United States will experience a “jobless recovery,” employment holds the key to a healthy economy. It is also a potent political issue. In particular, labor unions subscribe to the idea that protectionism, in the form of trade barriers, preserves domestic jobs.

It is increasingly apparent that America and China are competing partners in a delicate and momentous power struggle, held together, temporarily, by mutual interest. America is the great consumer of the world; China, the great producer.

As a result of this relationship, America’s manufacturing base has been eroded severely, perhaps even mortally. This industrial destitution has been a key factor in the run up of American unemployment, now approaching twenty percent. Although this number is roughly twice the published official unemployment level of some ten percent, it is in fact a truer indication of the health of the labor market.

The difference is due to the fact that the official unemployment figures exclude all those who have given up searching for full-time employment or are only able to find part-time work. No such pass was given to out-of-luck workers during the Great Depression or the ‘stagflation’ days of the 1970s. Unfortunately, this propaganda campaign to hide the true level of unemployment has been a smashing success.

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So often we hear those associated with the GOP (mostly neocons) complaining about Obama’s big-government policies.  It’s the nature of politics, I suppose, that they can’t see past the blinders of their own party to realize that they’re just as much to blame as the Democrats.  Indeed, the size and scope of the Federal Government has grown every single year since the days of Herbert Hoover (and probably since even as far back as the days of Lincoln when the country created by our forefathers ceased to exist).

Sheldon Richman at the Future of Freedom Foundation explains how the Republicans are disingenuous with regards to their commitment to smaller government and in fact are to blame for our troubles:

If the expansion of intrusive government (a redundancy) gives you the willies — it should; the cost is freedom and prosperity — you may be tempted to direct your anger at Obama and the rest of the Democratic leadership. That would be myopic, however.

Blame the Republicans, beginning with the former president, George W. Bush. (We could go back further, but time and space are limited.)

The reason can be illustrated by an extraordinary moment that occurred just after Obama unveiled his multiyear budget plan. Contemplating the spending blueprint, Republican House leader John Boehner went before the media microphones and declared, “The era of big government is back.”

For Boehner to make such a statement suggests two possibilities, although both could be true: he thinks Americans are morons or he’s been in a coma since January 20, 2001, when Bush took office.

Note that he didn’t say, “Uh oh, government is going to get even bigger than it is now.” No, he said, “The era of big government is back.” Back — as in: returned after having gone away.

When did it go away? And does Boehner really believe that the American people don’t realize how much government grew under Bush?

Read the full piece here.

D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h

Quote of the Day: “The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest.” — Albert Einstein

HSA plans cover our employee’s health care expenses through a combination of major medical insurance and a tax-free savings account (which benefit from Einstein’s most powerful force in the universe!). Our employees . . .

* Don’t pay taxes on the money deposited into their HSAs, or on the interest they earn from that money.
* Use debit cards to pay for basic medical expenses out of their HSAs.
* Have insurance coverage for major expenses above the annual amount they can legally deposit in their HSAs.
* Don’t risk losing coverage if they change jobs. They own their insurance and their HSAs.

In addition to these benefits, other amazing things happened when we switched to HSAs . . .

* Our costs dropped by more than 30% per month.
* The insurance industry and the government started getting less of our money, and our employees got more.
* Our employees became cost conscious.

Every dollar our employees don’t spend gets to stay in their HSAs, accumulating compounded interest tax free! This motivates them to make more frugal use of health care services, and to ask providers for a better price. Here are two examples . . .

EXAMPLE #1:

A doctor wanted one our employees to get an expensive MRI. Our employee told the doctor he would be paying for the MRI out of his HSA, and asked how much it would cost. The doctor gave a shocking reply: “Well, I think we can skip the MRI. You don’t really need it.”

This doctor was willing to order the test when he thought someone other than the patient would pay for it. Many other doctors behave the same way. If more people had HSAs fewer questionable procedures would be conducted, and the total demand for medical procedures would drop. Lower demand would lead to lower prices!

But the widespread use of HSAs would also lower costs in other ways. Consider . . .

EXAMPLE #2:

One of our employees needed a blood test. He was going to be spending his own money out of his HSA, so he shopped around for prices. A few simple phone calls enabled him to get more things tested for half the price!

The fact that he was spending his own money motivated our employee to get better care at less cost!

We strongly urge you to make HSAs a central part of your personal plan for health care reform . . .

* If you’re self-employed, consider getting an HSA policy, or . . .
* If you have insurance through your employer, ask them to consider switching to an HSA.
* We found our HSA plan here.

The politicians claim they want to . . .

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During the general election Presidential campaign of 2008 I had no love for the decidedly non-libertarian views expressed by Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate. Prior to McCain selecting her I kept reading about how she could be considered a great libertarian leaning Republican. Then McCain chose her and the truth came out. Or did it?

Is she now going to try to undo the neo-conservative views she expressed while campaigning as McCain’s running mate? It would certainly be a good political move for her, but can she be successful doing it? I’ll be reserving judgment until she makes another statement on foreign policy and interventionism, but at least she’s joining the chorus of critics against the Federal Reserve.

During her Hong Kong speech today she took aim at the Fed for playing a role in causing the economic crisis. The Wall Street Journal blog reports:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin fired a shot at the Federal Reserve in her coming-out speech in Hong Kong today, blaming the central bank for the current crisis and disagreeing with the idea that the Fed should have a greater role in preventing the next crisis. It was an echo of fellow Republican and Texas congressman Ron Paul, who has led the charge in Congress to perform an audit of the Federal Reserve with an eye to eventually eliminating it.

“How can we discuss reform without addressing the government policies at the root of the problems? The root of the collapse? And how can we think that setting up the Fed as the monitor of systemic risk in the financial sector will result in meaningful reform?” she said. “The words ‘fox’ and ‘henhouse’ come to mind. The Fed’s decisions helped create the bubble. Look at the root cause of most asset bubbles, and you’ll see the Fed somewhere in the background.”

More generally, Mrs. Palin took the tack that the financial crisis occurred because government got in the way of free enterprise.

So, thanks for jumping on the anti-Fed bandwagon Sarah, now do liberty-loving Americans another solid and start preaching non-interventionism and a strong focus on national defense rather than preemptive national offense. Do that, then continue it and over time some of us may start believing you.

A couple months ago we revealed the lawsuit former VA congressional candidate Vern McKinley brought against the Federal Reserve and FDIC because the organizations were less than forthcoming in responding to FOIA requests.

Last week McKinley appeared on Fox Business News channel after an editorial was published in the Wall Street Journal about his lawsuit.

In one corner we have a man that has lived his life inside politics. He has been campaigning for his chance at a Senate seat for several years. The stodgy big government Republicans have anointed him the chosen one. In the other corner is the energetic and principled outsider who is standing up to fight because he can’t take it anymore. The downward spiral of today’s America pried him away from his “normal” life to serve the cause of liberty and limited government.

It is Trey Grayson vs. Rand Paul in the event known as the KentuckyFight. It’s not a battle of fists, but a battle of funds. Sure, Rand is Ron Paul’s son, but when was the last time Ron Paul was labeled an insider by anyone?

The event was spawned due to the anger many felt toward Grayson for allowing his fellow Republican insiders to hold a $500/person fund raiser in Washington DC. The act of fund raising isn’t the problem. The problem is that Rand Paul is a Republican too and many of the incumbent Senators attending the Grayson fund raiser voted for last fall’s bailout. This reinforces the notion that Grayson has no intention of being fiscally conservative with our tax money.

So, the grassroots supporters of Paul decided to hold a brilliant fund raiser of their own. It’s another money bomb in an effort to raise more money than Grayson raises at his “i’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” fund raiser. Ron Paul’s supporters are fully backing his son. Given this it is not a question of if the money bomb will raise more than Grayson, but by how much.

Beginning at midnight tonight and ending at midnight tomorrow night, September 23rd, please donate to Rand Paul and send a message to Grayson and his political elitist friends. Let them know that small government is not just rhetoric. It is a philosophy that we demand of our elected officials.

As part of the New Deal, Franklin D. Roosevelt confiscated all privately-owned gold and made it illegal to own the shiny metal, and fixed its price.  Jim Powell of the Future of Freedom Foundation goes through the history of the disastrous actions taken by FDR and the aftermath.

Roosevelt understood that he must apply the full force of federal power to suppress the natural desire for gold in troubled times. The Emergency Banking Act, signed into law March 9, amended the Federal Reserve Act by adding a new subsection (n), which empowered the secretary of the Treasury to demand that all Americans surrender their gold and receive paper money. The following day, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6073, which made it illegal for Americans to take gold out of the country.

In his first “fireside chat,” delivered on March 12, Roosevelt didn’t say a word about his backstage maneuvering to seize gold. He remarked that “hoarding during the past week has become an exceedingly unfashionable pastime.”

Less than a month later, on April 5, 1933, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6012, which expropriated privately owned gold. He ordered Americans to surrender their gold to the government by May 1, 1933. Violators would be subject to a $10,000 fine or as many as 10 years in prison.

Read the article here.

D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h

Share this message with friends: http://www.downsizedc.org/blog/another-success-milestone-for-audit-the-fed

Quote of the Day: “Economists used to worry about government using up the nation’s savings. But now Americans have no more savings to use. Still, the nation that can’t save a dime sets out to save the entire planet.” — Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin, Empire of Debt, pg 35.

That should have been enough to spark committee hearings, and perhaps even an expedited vote, but Congressional leaders didn’t want either thing to happen, so . . .

In early August we asked DC Downsizers to call the House Finance Committee Chair, Barney Frank (D-MA), and its Ranking Member, Spencer Bachus (R-AL) to ask for hearings on the Audit the Fed bill. Many of you did that, and guess what?

The House Finance Committee will hold hearings on the Audit the Fed bill this Friday at 9AM. You’ll be able to monitor the proceedings here.

Once we know what happens at these hearings we can decide what to do next. Meanwhile . . .

President Obama is seeking expanded regulatory power for the Fed.

This must not be permitted.

It’s bad enough when Congress allows the Executive Branch bureaucracy to write regulations that have the force of law, but at least we can hold both the President and the Congress accountable for what the bureaucracy does. However . . .

The Fed is an independent institution accountable to no one. In fact, without an audit, we’re not even allowed to know what the Fed is doing with many of the powers and resources it already has.

* Let’s use our “Tell Congress to Cut Red Tape” campaign to fight expanded regulatory powers for the Fed.
* Send a letter to Congress using DownsizeDC.org’s Educate the Powerful System.
* Use your personal comments to say you oppose President Obama’s plan to give the Federal Reserve expanded regulatory powers.
* You can send your letter here.

Congratulations. Your pressure keeps working, so keep doing it!

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