“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” – H. L. Mencken
I’m tired of the health care debate. It’s not much of a debate anymore when the Republican lawmakers are arguing for socialism-lite and the Democrats are arguing for maximum strength socialism. It’s like asking the patient, “Do you want a government doctor or do you want a government physician?”
I’m tired of everyone calling it health “insurance”. It should be called health welfare. Medicare and medicaid are welfare programs. The proposed health care reform is nothing more than medicare on steroids. It’s certainly not insurance. Does auto insurance cover oil changes and tune-ups?
I’m tired of the argument that we should force insurers to cover preexisting conditions. We don’t force home owner’s insurance companies to cover a house already engulfed in flames. Forcing this upon insurers marks the beginning of the slow regulatory death of private insurance. This reeks of progressive incrementalism–a phasing out of private insurance to create a monopoly for government insurance. In other words, the public option becomes the only option. Obama highlighted his plan for this back in 2003 (see the video).
I’m tired of many arguing that health care is a “right”. Calling health care a right is a patently absurd and immoral logical fallacy. One cannot have a right to property or labor owned by someone else. Rights can only be based upon an individual’s own action. Leonard Peikoff put it best during the Hillary-care debate back in 1993.
Observe that all legitimate rights have one thing in common: they are rights to action, not to rewards from other people. The American rights impose no obligations on other people, merely the negative obligation to leave you alone. The system guarantees you the chance to work for what you want — not to be given it without effort by somebody else.
I’m tired of hearing Obama and his minions claim that the health care reform proposals will lower health care premiums and costs. My fatigue forces me to be blunt. If you buy in to this argument, find a mirror, look into it, and you will see an “It takes a village” idiot. After you wipe the drool from your chin and lumber away from the mirror, ponder the following 5 items:
We already have partial socialized medicine in the form of Medicare (elderly) and Medicaid (poor).
As of 2008 the number of people on these government-provided plans totaled 87.4 million.
Medicare will run out of money in 2017 according to last year’s government statistics. The previous year the government said it would be insolvent in 2019. I wonder what next year’s numbers will reveal, considering the rising unemployment and the struggling economy (less payroll taxes).
As of 2008 there were 46.3 million people without health insurance. About 36 million of these people are promised coverage with the House health welfare bill passed on Saturday evening.
How can anyone claim with a straight face that increasing demand for a product by nearly 50% in a newly taxed and regulated market will lower prices? (Better go find that mirror again)
I’m tired of writing about national health care. Part of me thinks that those of us fighting against it should just cave in and give the thieving looters what they want. They would certainly get it “good and hard”.
I then look into the faces of my children and see their complete innocence on display. They deserve better. In fact, we all do.
We may be beaten down and tired, but we must never stop fighting.
Yesterday I gave a fast-paced lecture on constitutional money and the Federal Reserve to the Lehigh Valley Tea Party. The playlist can be found below, and the PDF of the presentation here. I am also available to present this material at a much slower rate, with plenty of time for Q&A to groups. Monetary economics is very crucial to understand as it underlies EVERYTHING that is going on with the economy.
We live in a time when government is a form of theater; that is, it manages us by appearing to manage us. The current administration, perhaps because it came in with so much support, has broken new ground in what I’m calling Fantasy Government. It rails against health insurance companies, after giving them everything they want; it makes a show about debating our presence in Afghanistan, when all that is debated is the number of troops; it bemoans excessive bonuses on Wall Street, after making those bonuses possible. And now, it demands that public schools “reform” themselves, in terms so vague that any school can appear to comply while doing nothing.
The latest administration push is to promote merit pay for public school teachers rather than the guaranteed pay scales achieved by teachers unions. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is using the $4.35 billion “Race to the Top” funds as incentive for “progress towards” merit pay.
It is at this point that the reader will be wondering whether I’m a pro-union stooge defending the status quo or a “change agent” who sees how merit pay works in the private sector to enhance performance, and wants to extend that benefit to teaching.
Sorry to disappoint: I’m not really in either camp. I write here to suggest only that the Obama administration, and the states reacting to its efforts, are not promoting a policy on teacher merit pay, but merely broaching the subject, or, if you will, making noise. In pursuance of the Race to the Top funds, the California state legislature and Governor Schwarzenneger have eliminated a law that forbade use of student test scores in evaluating teachers. That’s the easy part.
* Thank the 215 Representatives who voted against the cancerous health care bill
* Spank the 220 House members who voted for it
* Copy our Senators on these messages so they will be reminded of where we stand
You can use what I wrote to my Representative as a model for a “spank” letter . . .
Ms. Giffords, I am very angry that you voted for HR 3962. I am copying my Senators on this message because I want them to take note of it, and oppose similar legislation in the Senate.
You failed in your responsibility to read this legislation before voting yes. You cannot possibly really know or understand what you passed, but I will be responsible for all 2,000 pages of it. I am extremely angry that, because of your irresponsibility, I may soon be forced to pay for and submit to a monstrous scheme I do not want!
Please be clear about this — legislation like this is based on force. I am threatened with violence by policemen, bureaucrats, and tax collectors if I refuse to pay for or comply with your grand designs for re-engineering my life.
This complex piece of legislation will entangle my health care in ever-expanding nets of government control, pave the way for a complete government take-over of my health care, bankrupt many businesses, foster unemployment, and increase my taxes, either directly or indirectly, despite promises that this would not happen.
Jake Towne, running as an independent private citizen for United States Congress in Pennsylvania’s 15th District encompassing the Lehigh Valley and parts of Berks and Montgomery counties challenged Republican incumbent Charlie Dent, and Democrat challenger John Callahan to a public debate on the issues facing the district and the nation.
In his letter, Towne noted a great need for a healthy public debate on topics ranging from our health care, the wars abroad, the economy, and the stability of the dollar. He related that many people in the district are hurting financially, and they want answers from their candidates for government now.
Towne is a Lehigh Valley native raised in Nazareth and holds a chemical engineering degree from Lehigh University. He returned home earlier this year from a nearly 4-year stint in Shanghai, China working in the semiconductor industry to run for Congress. His experiences living abroad have given him a deep appreciation for America’s freedoms and quality of life.
Towne strongly believes that the actions of career politicians in Washington, DC, are leading our country down a path of both moral and economic ruin. He has created a novel-yet-simple plan of transparent and accountable government called the “Our Open Office” concept which can be read in detail at the campaign website, www.TowneForCongress.com.
Last week Towne raised over $2700 from 74 donors in a single day in an online “money bomb” created by grassroots supporters not affiliated with the campaign. This week he will be interviewed by Judge Napolitano at the FOX News studios in New York. Two weeks ago, Towne was part of a panel of FOX’s Freedom Watch show taped on the campus of Drexel University. Towne extends an invitation to any local group to invite him to meet their members, listen to their concerns, and explain his campaign. Talks given to past groups can be viewed at [link edited for length].
On Wednesday, October 28th, I traveled down to the Drexel University campus to appear on FOX New’s Freedom Watch with Judge Napolitano, Drexel’s Student Liberty Front, Pennsylvania State Representative Sam Rohrer, and Jacob Hornberger of the Future of Freedom Foundation. I was a panel member for the first two sessions covering the concept of “just war” and also the current “financial fiasco” which can be seen below, or watched on this playlist link.
On the first session, my plank on the Iraq War can be read here, and the “War is a Racket” essay by USMC General Smedley Butler can be read here. In the second session, my plank on the Federal Reserve is here, and I highly recommend “Fractional Reserve Banking in Pictures” to understand the current fraudulent monetary system.
Earlier today Judge Andrew Napolitano was the guest host on the Glenn Beck show. Four liberty-loving guests appeared on the show with the Judge. Peter Schiff, John Stossel, Ron Paul, and Rand Paul all appeared. When the Judge hosts Beck’s show it almost turns into an episode of Freedom Watch.
If you don’t know what Freedom Watch is then please check out http://freedomwatchonfox.com/. It’s an online only show hosted by the Judge catering to freedom-loving people everywhere.
Check out the excellent discussions from the show today below.
Two dissatisfied customers comment about a restaurant. One says, “The food here is terrible.” The other replies, “I know, and such small portions!” In many ways, they could be describing our current employment picture. Not only are the portions shrinking, but the jobs themselves are steadily losing quality.
Today’s release of the October jobs report showed the loss of another 190,000 jobs had pushed the official unemployment rate to 10.2%, only the second time since the Great Depression that unemployment was quoted in double digits (factoring in workers who had given up job hunting altogether or have settled for part-time work would push that rate to 17.5%). That didn’t stop Wall Street pundits from trying to fashion a silk purse of this sow’s ear. The ‘green shoots’ crowd focused on the slowing pace of job losses, the nascent economic ‘recovery’ (even if it is jobless), and the projected improvement in 2010. No mention was even made of the quality of what few jobs were being created.
The analysts completely ignored the continued trend of replacing goods-producing jobs with those jobs that require production from other sources. For example, we lost 61,000 manufacturing jobs last month, but added 45,000 jobs in education and health services. In particular, the addition of health workers is nothing to celebrate. Just as a family’s economic position is not improved by higher medical bills, the country as a whole does not benefit from increased health-care spending. Until this trend reverses, our unbalanced economy will not regain its stability, a real recovery will never take hold, and the overall job outlook will get much bleaker.
We need your help to join an amicus brief to the Supreme Court arguing that the right to keep and bear arms is not only a right to self-defense against criminals, but also against tyrannical government.
Statism is the belief that politicians and bureaucrats should have broad powers to use force against citizens. In its most virulent forms Statism killed more people in the 20th Century alone than all of the individual non-governmental murderers in the history of the world, COMBINED!
Not even the Black Death of the Middle Ages, or the Flu epidemic of 1918, can approach these numbers, even if you combine the totals from those two epidemics and reduce the estimate for the total number of murders committed by governments.
But the terrible statistics for Statist murder still only tell part of the story. We must add to them the statistics for the mass theft, imprisonment, and torture committed by governments against innocent people. These measurements of State criminality are even more vast, so much so that they are literally incalculable.
The State, and the belief-system that fosters its criminality — Statism — are the great scourges of human existence, against which no other source of death and destruction can remotely compare.
Of course, in reaction to all of these blood-curdling facts the fool argues that such things could never happen in this country. The same foolish belief was held by people in Russia, Germany, China, Cambodia, and a hundred other places, before such things DID happen in those countries. But such naivety is also exposed by one other crucial fact . . .
Murderous and violent crimes by the State have already been committed by our government, on a massive scale. A partial list would include . . . Read More »
Ron Paul appeared on MSNBC this morning to discuss the latest developments on his Federal Reserve Audit bill, which now has 310 cosponsors in the House and 30 in the Senate.
Liberty Maven
by Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital and author of 
Loading ...
