It is unlikely he’d be so honest about his feelings. Instead we will have to consider the following quote from Theodore Dreiser:
Words are but the vague shadows of the volumes we mean. Little audible links, they are, chaining together great inaudible feelings and purposes.
In fact, that quote sums up a lot about Barack Obama (and most Presidents I might add). We live in a public relations world. I miss the days of Calvin Coolidge (not that I was alive back then). He delivered speeches standing on the White House lawn reading off of a piece of paper. It was simple and responsible. All presidents should be this “boring”.
It seems to me that we’ve replaced one George W. Bush with another. One was forced to wage a war on terror. This incarnation is waging a war on health care, and potentially American capitalism itself.
I hope this new war finds the opposing side victorious.
912candidates.org has posted on their front page their endorsement of my candidacy. Following their press release and posting of my contract, I will post an article explaining how I will enact their principles and values during my campaign.
I will be attending the 9/12 Rally in Washington, D.C. More details are under “Upcoming Events” here.
Michael McKay and Meghan O’Toole of RadioFreeMarket.com conversed with me over health care economics with an Austrian school, free-market perspective on September 5th. Meghan and I are both graduates of Mises University 2009. [FYI - The entire set of lectures is available at Mises.org at this link.]
Our topic was health care and I must say it was a pleasure to interview with Michael and Meghan, due to their keen insights into the subject. The discussion was somewhat centered around the current national debate and also my campaign’s health care plank.
In Part 1, we discuss the “general Welfare” clause of the Constitution (previously covered in a discussion started by user Jgecik here), the difficulties of economic calculation in a socialized market, state mandates, and more!
In Part 2, we discuss medical tort reform, and Meghan elaborates on how there is “no free lunch” when it comes to health care.
In Part 3, we started off by discussing Hans-Hermann Hoppe’s very short article “A Four-Step Health Care Solution.” Mandated licensing versus voluntary accreditation, insurance portability over state lines, and the current form of risk-pools versus free market risks pools are the key topics discussed.
In Part 4, I explained how the free market could itself solve the “pre-existing condition” issue that we have in today’s HMO-based, annual renewal system. Michael covers the difference between the State’s required mandates by force, and all of the features that would evolve in a free market by adding a fabulous analogy using the evolution of automobiles. Michael then gave a brief history of government intervention and control in the health care industry, and Meghan followed up with a great example of “needs” and “food socialism” that is well worth listening to.
In Part 5, I was given the chance to wrap up the talk by explaining how the insidious effects of inflation are making us poorer – and hence how health care appears to get more and more expensive each year.
by John Browne – Senior Market Strategist, Euro Pacific Capital
Politicians often find scapegoats for America’s economic woes. It is rare – if ever – that they point the finger at themselves. Yet, the basic cause of the current severe economic problem lies in the machinations of government.
It is clear to even a casual observer that Congress has abused its power to tax and spend. It has taxed success to subsidize failure. It has purchased votes by enacting an unending stream of entitlement programs, financed by taxation, foreign debt and a progressive degradation of the U.S. paper dollar.
This cynical boosting of consumption at the expense of production has resulted in the American consumer now accounting for some 70 percent of United States GDP. By consuming three times what it produces, America has become the largest debtor in history. The Administration now forecasts annual deficits of trillions of dollars for the next decade. This is all the direct responsibility of Congress.
The executive branch is also to blame. Under President Bush II, the United States entered a Global War on Terror, with a mission so ambiguous it was almost sure to bankrupt its executor. To this day, and despite campaign pledges to the contrary, President Obama continues to waste massive amounts of blood and treasure on two fatally flawed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and on maintaining over 1,000 military installations in 135 countries abroad. No one should forget that the assumption of an international military role depleted the wealth of Rome, Great Britain and the former Soviet Union.
But at least the Republican president slashed domestic spending to compensate, right? Actually, Bush II passed cherry-picked tax cuts for special interests and spearheaded a new prescription drug program for Medicare recipients, at a cost of some $40 billion per year. This was a capstone of sorts to a century-long experiment in entitlement and intervention.
This federal spending went from a drag on the economy to a true albatross by the 1970s. After former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker and Ronald Reagan courageously bought our currency a new lease on life, Alan Greenspan was given the helm at the central bank. Colluding with Presidents Clinton and Bush II to simulate economic growth for political gain, Greenspan, and his chosen successor Ben Bernanke, unleashed a torrent of new dollars into the banking system, where they were leveraged to finance the largest asset boom in history.
We are now in the process of deleveraging from this boom. It is painful, but it represents an opportunity. A government genuinely interested in economic restructuring could be focusing on cutting spending, lowering taxes, and reducing corruption, instead of playing ‘pin the blame on the capitalists.’
Quote of the Day: “Stare into the abyss and the abyss stares into you.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
Former Vice President Dick Cheney has been celebrating the supposed success of torture as an interrogation method to protect us from terrorism. Cheney claims that . . .
* Waterboarding and sleep deprivation turned Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) into the C.I.A.’s best source on Al-Qaida.
* KSM then provided information that led to the arrest of Iyman Faris, an alleged Al-Qaida sleeper agent sent to the U.S. to plan attacks on New York landmarks such as the Brooklyn Bridge.
* The C.I.A. officer who interrogated KSM, Deuce Martinez, said he used traditional interrogation methods, and not the infliction of pain and panic.
* And Ali Soufan, a former F.B.I. agent who oversaw the interrogation of another major terrorist, Abu Zubaydah, says that Mr. Zubaydah talked before he was subjected to waterboarding and other abuse, and that “using these alternative methods on other terrorists backfired on more than a few occasions.”
Whom should we believe — Mr. Cheney, or the agents who did the interrogations? The answer seems obvious. However, we believe there’s an even greater argument from principle to be made here. Even if torture were the most effective and reliable interrogation method possible, it would still be wrong to use it, both morally and practically.
* We must not become that which we claim to oppose.
* We must set an example for the world of how people should behave.
* And we must count all the costs and risks to which we subject ourselves when we violate our own most sacred values.
The whole world now knows that the supposed “land of the free and home of the brave” . . .
* Kidnaps people and sends them abroad to be tortured
* Holds people in captivity without due process
* Practices acts of torture for which it has prosecuted others
* Does not practice what it preaches
Our hypocrisy has undoubtedly recruited far more terrorist candidates than have ever been caught by using torture. The Cheney-Bush policy was, and is, self-defeating, even if it could really be demonstrated that torture occasionally results in useful information. Sadly . . .
Alan Greenspan has been dubbed “The Maestro”, but of what? He became what he once despised. He “sold out”. He’s the geeky kid who just wanted to have all the cool kids like him. So he did what they wanted rather than what was morally responsible.
It turns out he was not much more than the architect of the housing bubble which contributed greatly to the economic mess we are suffering through right now. He was the maestro of moral hazard.
Greenspan’s successor, along with his partner in the Treasury are traipsing down the same path. Bernanke and Geithner are the Dukes of Moral Hazard. Bernanke is Luke and Geithner is Bo.
While they tinker with the economy (General Lee) they are making life hell for the rest of us. We are a bunch of Rosco P. Coltranes to them.
Moral hazard is the prospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk.
So the Dukes continue their bailouts, money printing, and money laundering just to keep the moral hazard government-sponsored Ponzi scheme afloat.
Meanwhile the dollars we are left with purchase less with every passing day. This is how our dearly beloved government can utilize the hidden tax of inflation to raise taxes. And they can do it without major public scorn since most do not understand that inflation is as evil a tax as the income tax.
There are a few things we can do to help people understand. First, make sure you contact your representative and request they cosponsor HR1207 or S604 to audit the Fed. Next, read Ron Paul’s newly released book, “End the Fed“. It will give you a deeper understanding of The Federal Reserve and arm you with persuasive arguments for abolishing it. Paul effectively ties the Fed to the general persistent growth of government and its intrusion in our lives.
With the Fed around there is no such thing as “limited” government. Government is a perpetual growth industry.
Aren’t we tired of this constant heavy hand regulating us into oblivion? It is high time for the people to stand up and regulate the government.
If you tell someone that government-controlled healthcare will lead to rationing, they may respond by saying, “Healthcare is already rationed, by prices. If you can’t afford a treatment, you can’t get it.”
This seems like a powerful argument, but it isn’t. Here’s why . . .
* Free market prices are flexible, negotiable, and respond to consumer choice
* Prices set by the government are inflexible, non-negotiable, and respond only to back-room lobbying, or to the whims of the bureaucrats who set the prices or do the rationing
Free market price send signals to produce more or less of things, according to consumer demands. By comparison, government rationing only reflects what the politicians want.
Is healthcare different? It is not. Healthcare responds to free market prices, or to government dictates, in exactly the same way as all other goods and services. Consider . . .
“Our nation’s monetary policy over the past century is the most despicable hoax ever committed against the American people in our history. If I can help the people of our district understand the utter immorality, the sheer evil, of this system and how it restrains the prosperity of our society, we will and can succeed.”
- Jake Towne
The Federal Reserve is a quasi-private banking cartel that has a monopoly on the currency and credit of the United States. The FED is often referred to as the “fourth branch of the government.” FED Chairman and oligarch Ben Bernanke ultimately answers to no one in government on monetary policy. Congress has completely reneged on their constitutional duty to the American people to maintain the integrity of our currency, the dollar.
Quote of the Day: “A danger foreseen is half avoided.” –Thomas Fuller (1608-1661)
Politicians keep responding to your pressure by pretending to do what you want. The “responding” part is evidence that pressure works, while the “pretending” part is evidence that we need a larger Downsize DC Army. Here’s the latest response that we think could have a bit of pretense to it . . .
A bill numbered H.R. 3471 calls itself “The REAL ID Repeal and Identification Security Enhancement Act of 2009.” The bill was introduced by Representative Steve Cohen, a Democrat from Tennessee. Here’s the good part . . .
H.R. 3471 would actually repeal the REAL ID Act. Thus, the REAL ID scheme to create a national identity card would be gone.
Here’s what we consider the pretend part . . .
H.R. 3471 also restores the identity security provisions of the “Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act.”
“Similar to the Akaka-Sununu Senate bill of 2007 and the Allen House bill of 2007, Rep. Cohen’s bill would eliminate most of the requirements that laid the foundation for a National ID card, such as the obligation that all data and systems be standardized. The proposal also requires a collaborative approach, called negotiated rulemaking, which would advise the Department of Homeland Security on how to maximize driver’s license security while minimizing the administrative burden on the states.”
The troublesome words are “most of the requirements that laid the foundation for a National ID card,” and “negotiated rulemaking.”
“Most of the requirements” doesn’t mean “all of the requirements.” In addition . . .
The fact that these rules would (as we understand it) be negotiated with other unelected bureaucrats in the various states doesn’t make it much better, and it might even make it worse. Likewise . . .
Liberty Maven
Dear Friends of Liberty -
“. It will give you a deeper understanding of The Federal Reserve and arm you with persuasive arguments for abolishing it. Paul effectively ties the Fed to the general persistent growth of government and its intrusion in our lives.
The Federal Reserve is a quasi-private banking cartel that has a monopoly on the currency and credit of the United States. The FED is often referred to as the “fourth branch of the government.” FED Chairman and oligarch Ben Bernanke ultimately answers to no one in government on monetary policy. Congress has completely reneged on their constitutional duty to the American people to maintain the integrity of our currency, the dollar.
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