Liberty Maven

D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h

But for the sake of argument, let’s assume human-caused global warming is indeed happening. Conceding this, it turns out that . . .

The effort to curb carbon emissions will be far more harmful than global warming itself!

Please send Congress a letter demanding that they defeat the cap & trade bill and oppose any global climate treaty.

Here’s what I wrote in my letter . . .    Read More »

by John Browne – Senior Market Strategist, Euro Pacific Capital

The U.S. economy is in uncertain times. Analysts are split between those seeing recovery and those fearing a second downturn. This confusion is being echoed in the highest levels of government as President Obama simultaneously speaks about the need for more federal spending and warns of the dangers of increased debt. As the volatile markets indicate, investors are not only confused – they are seriously concerned.

The country appears to be going through a period of buyer’s remorse over the election of Barack Obama. The majority cobbled together by the President one year ago included the Democratic base, independents hoping for “change,” and many disaffected Republicans betrayed by the Bush Administration’s big-government neoconservatism. It is unlikely that most of these voters favored an overt push toward socialism; however, this is what they have received. As the ‘tea parties’ illustrate, voters are not only confused – they are seriously concerned.

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When all the high-fives, handshakes, and hip-hip hoorays finish dying down a bit of reality overcomes the Ron Paul, anti-Fed faithful. In order for Ron Paul’s full Federal Reserve audit to become law it requires Paul to swim in uncomfortable waters. He must compromise his principles. So the celebrations must be tempered with the hard truth that is DC politics. It is indeed a bittersweet symphony.

Ron Paul’s efforts at having HR.1207 voted on as a standalone bill never really had a chance. Instead, it will arrive to the House floor attached to Barney Frank’s little boy, his comprehensive financial regulatory reform bill. The draft legislation grants new powers to the Federal Reserve and creates more regulatory controls over the market. If the free market is god, this bill is the devil. However, the bill will now have something good attached to it now that HR.1207 was added to it as an amendment.

Ron Paul makes a name for himself by always considering the Constitution while weighing his votes. Should Paul supporters expect him to don his Dr. No mask when his 30+ year fight against the central bank finally comes to a vote on the House floor? Will Paul vote against auditing the Fed because it is attached to an obviously unconstitutional bill? The libertarian purists among us may expect him to do so, but I expect him to vote for the evil to get the good. In fact, I would expect most if not all Paul supporters will give him a pass on this one. Tell us what you think in the comments section to this article.

He has already indicated what he will do in his press release covering yesterday’s committee vote:

“While HR 3996, if passed, will grant sweeping new powers to the Federal Reserve, at least with this amendment attached, it won’t be acting in secret anymore. This is a major victory for Federal Reserve transparency and government accountability. I am very grateful to Congressman Bachus and all the other Members who were so supportive and helpful in this effort,” stated Congressman Paul.

An argument could be made (and Paul seems to be implying it by his quote) that the financial regulatory reform bill is going to pass anyway and with Paul’s audit included in it, the bill’s attack on the free market will be softened. If they gut Paul’s amendment (like Mel Watt and Barney Frank tried to do in committee) as it moves closer to a floor vote it wouldn’t be shocking to see Dr. Paul morph into Dr. No once again.

So it is certainly bittersweet, but at least it’s not all bitter and no sweet.

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UPDATE: It looks like Paul will still push for a separate vote on HR.1207 as a standalone bill. I don’t think those in power will let it happen, but I never thought his bill would get as far as it has already, so we’ll see.

Below is a link to the list of House Financial Committee members and how they voted on the Paul-Grayson amendment which passed committee earlier today. The amendment was a substitute for the evil Watt amendment. Paul’s amendment will now move forward along with the financial regulatory reform bill instead of Watt’s bill.

Of course, there is still ample opportunity for Paul’s bill to be gutted once again, but for now liberty-lovers should be quite happy that a big hurdle has been cleared.

Vote totals and details:

• 43 yeas / 26 nays

• 15 Democrats and 28 Republicans voted YES.

• All 26 nay votes were from Democrats. No Republicans voted NO.

The full list of names and the way they voted can be found here (PDF).

Ron Paul introduced a substitute amendment to replace Mel Watt’s amendment that would have “gutted” HR.1207’s intent. Dr. Paul’s substitute was later passed by the committee over the ‘nay’ votes of both Barney Frank and Mel Watt. It was passed by voice vote. The roll call vote is scheduled for this afternoon.

This was an important step in the process, but the amendment is going to be tacked on to the larger regulatory reform bill being deliberated now.

Watch Ron Paul introduce the bill earlier today in the committee in the video below.

The House Financial Services committee began debating Mel Watt’s amendment to Ron Paul’s HR.1207 bill to audit the Federal Reserve today. Watt’s bill is said to strip HR.1207 of it’s original purpose.

The clip below shows Alan Grayson arguing against Mel Watt’s amendment and then Watt’s rather angry response. Stay tuned for more clips…

This nifty short play is a reaction to the pending health care reform efforts being pushed by our lawmakers. Sometimes you reach a point when laughing is all you can do because it “hurts” less.

This was submitted to us by author, Clyde James Aragon. He writes:

THE HEALTH REFORM PLAN TOWN HALL MEETING – THE NON-MUSICAL is a ten-minute comedy play about the health care ‘reform’ bill and is a humorous way of looking at a very scary situation. Curious, but informed citizens, meet at a town hall meeting to ask questions of their representatives on Health Care Reform.

This play is being distributed free of charge and the author, Clyde James Aragon, only asks that should it be performed, no admission be charged and that the author be given credit as having written it.

The author is an Albuquerque, New Mexico humor writer and can be reached at bookhumor@yahoo.com

You may also download the PDF here for printing out and potentially performing it at your next Tea Party event.

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THE HEALTH REFORM PLAN TOWN HALL MEETING
- THE NON-MUSICAL -

a one-act play by © Clyde James Aragon

CAST OF CHARACTERS:

REPRESENTATIVE BULLHORN
REPRESENTATIVE FLOWMASTER
CITIZEN #1
CITIZEN #2
CITIZEN #3
CITIZEN #4

COMEDY: 10 pages. 6 characters to be played by: 3 men; 3 woman.

SYNOPSIS: Curious, but informed citizens, meet at a town hall meeting to ask questions of their representatives on Health Care Reform. This is a ten-minute comedy play about the health care ‘reform’ bill and is a humorous way of looking at a very scary situation.

PROPS: 6 folding chairs

* * * This play is being distributed free of charge and the author, Clyde James Aragon, only asks that should it be performed, no admission be charged and that the author be given credit as having written it. * * *

**************

THE HEALTH REFORM PLAN TOWN HALL MEETING
- THE NON-MUSICAL -

a one-act play by Clyde James Aragon

(on a bare stage, two politicians, seated in folding chairs, face four citizens intent on asking the politicians questions on their health reform plan)

CITIZEN #4 (addressing the audience and then sitting down): The other day there was a town hall meeting in Montana over the new health reform bill which was presented by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and passed by the House of Representatives. The public was invited and allowed to ask questions of the two members of the House of Representatives, Representative Bullhorn and Flowmaster, who showed up. Many things were said and, after adjourning quietly after three hours of questioning, these excerpts were extracted from the minutes of that meeting:

CITIZEN #1 (raising hand and then speaking): Representative Bullhorn, the new House health care plan is almost 2,000-pages long. How do you expect anyone to read it, let alone understand it?

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D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h

Please send Congress a letter using an anti-bribery argument to oppose the cancerous healthcare bill.

You can copy or borrow from my letter to Congress to write your own . . .

Please oppose the so-called healthcare reform bill. I especially object to the fact that my tax dollars are being used to bribe members of Congress to secure their votes, or to reward powerful Senators. For instance . . .

The Baucus bill has the federal government paying the entire cost for the mandated Medicaid expansion in the following states: Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island and Michigan. This is an attempt to bribe or reward the Senators and Representatives from those states using my tax money.

Other states aren’t getting this sweet deal. Citizens in the other 46 states will have to pay higher taxes to fund this scheme.

I’m sure the so-called heathcare bill is stuffed with other sweetheart deals, designed to win key votes. You guys call this logrolling. I call it bribery. The only reason Congressional leaders get away with it is because they’re using my tax money to do the bribing, but that makes it worse, not better.

Frankly, I think any Congressional leader who offers a tax-funded benefit for a state or district in order to secure a vote, and any member of Congress who negotiates to gain such a benefit, should be brought up on charges and go to jail for violating the anti-bribery law.

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D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h

Some good things have resulted from our past efforts . . .

I spoke at the Williamsport, PA Tea Party on August 29th. There were over 4,000 people there! The organizing committee had a scroll full of demands for Congress to move in a downsizing direction. Hundreds of people signed the scroll. Included among the demands were our Read the Bills, One Subject at Time, and Write the Laws proposals. Since then . . .

The Williamsport Tea Party Committee has been active, including delivering four busloads of people to the 9/12 rally in Washington, DC. They’ve met several times to plan their long-term strategy. The result . . .

They’ve decided to focus on our “transpartisan,” Downsize DC Agenda proposals, the Read the Bills Act (RTBA) and the One Subject at a Time Act (OSTA).

Tom Anderson, a member of our team and one of the leaders in the Williamsport committee, sent me the following message to describe their thinking . . .

” . . . we believe that this issue (RTBA and OSTA) is the most easily addressable, bipartisan, and most helps us achieve the other demands. In contemplating how to proceed to push this demand, we reviewed DownsizeDC’s efforts . . . and decided that the most effective means toward accomplishing it is to 1) make our community aware of the problem and our efforts, and 2) get them all to push their Congress critters to sponsor the DownsizeDC legislation.”

The Williamsport Tea Party committee gets it! RTBA and OSTA are levers we can use to restrain government excess in all areas. Passing these bills will make it easier to achieve other demands.

To support their efforts the committee has invited me to speak to them on Wednesday, November 18, and answer questions about RTBA and OSTA. More than 200 people are expected to attend this meeting.

If you’re in the area on Wednesday, you’re invited to attend the meeting. I’d love to meet you.
The meeting starts at 7:30 PM at the Cinema Center in downtown Williamsport, PA.

Now, for today’s action item . . .

It’s been awhile since we’ve asked Congress to repeal the REAL ID Act. We don’t want them to think we’ve forgotten about it, because that would make them think they’ve gotten away with it. Please send Congress a letter reminding them that you want REAL ID repealed:

You can use my letter to Congress as a model for you own . . . Read More »

by Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital and author of Crash Proof 2.0: How to Profit from the Economic Collapse

As the unemployment rate crossed the double digit barrier for the first time since Michael Jackson learned to moonwalk, President Obama announced that he will convene a “jobs summit” to finally bring the problem under control. Using all the analytic skill that his administration can muster, the President is determined to figure out why so many people are losing their jobs and then formulate a solution. That’s a relief; for a while there, I thought we were in real trouble! In fact, the absolute last thing our economy needs is more federal government interference. If Obama really wants to know what’s behind entrenched joblessness, he should start by looking at the man in the mirror.

Obama is pursuing, with unprecedented vigor, the same policies that have for decades undermined our industrial base and yoked us to an unsustainable consumer/credit driven economy. This doubling down on Washington’s past failures is destroying jobs at an alarming rate. Today we learned that the September trade deficit surged by 18.2%, the largest gain in ten years. Much of the deficit resulted from Americans spending Cash-for-Clunkers stimulus money on imported cars – or “American” cars loaded to the sunroof with imported parts. In exchange for more domestic debt, we have succeeded only in creating foreign jobs.

An article in this week’s New York Times by veteran writer Louis Uchitelle confirmed a fact that I have been alleging for years. Uchitelle pointed out that foreign outsourcing of component manufacturing has led to consistent overstatement of U.S. GDP and productivity. The connection goes a long way to explain why we keep losing jobs even as GDP is apparently expanding.

As our economy becomes less competitive due to higher taxes, burdensome and uncertain regulations, and capital flight, more manufacturing and services will be outsourced to foreign firms. However, the flaw in GDP calculation allows the output of those foreign workers to be included in our domestic tally. Since we count the output but not the worker responsible for it, government statisticians attribute the gains to rising labor productivity. To them, it looks like companies are producing more goods with fewer workers.

The reality is that we are producing less with fewer workers. The added “productivity” comes from higher unemployment and larger trade deficits. This is a toxic formula that will have lethal economic consequences.

Read More »