Liberty Maven

Stung by bad publicity, the TSA is making “reforms.” One of them is to give frequent fliers a “choice”: give up even MORE of your privacy for greater convenience!

Isn’t this just more evidence that the TSA should be ABOLISHED, instead of reformed?

I wrote a letter telling Congress to do just that, and I invite you to do the same.

You may borrow from or copy this letter… Read More »

As an avid political junkie, and a statistician, I’m particularly fascinated by polling. The trends of the most recent polls, and the speculation on cause and effect (Did Bachmann’s debate performance really lift her to front-runner status overnight?) are intriguing, if not in any way gratifying.

My background lends itself to picking out oddities, or outliers, as well. When a poll released by CNN and Opinion Research Center (ORC) in late May showed political afterthought Rudy Giuliani leading the race for the GOP’s presidential nomination in 2012, I thought it was a bit bizarre. Here we had a candidate who failed to register a single victory in the party’s 2008 primaries, despite spending more than Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul – two candidates who soundly defeated him at the polls – combined. A candidate who had registered at 9% in two independent polls released in the previous month – a 9% number that was well outside ORC’s 4.5% margin of error. Were they saying that Giuliani had received at least a 3% bump from April to May? Based on nothing except, perhaps, the death of Osama bin Laden?

Fast forward to today, when a new poll of the 2012 GOP race was released, showing Rick Perry with a commanding lead at 27% as compared with Mitt Romney’s 14%. Perhaps most shocking in this most recent poll was a precipitous drop in declared support for Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who received just 6% as compared with 12% in a poll by the same company and news agency not even three weeks prior – a drop that falls outside the margin of error of 4.5% for the Republican sample. Did Ron Paul – who received a mixed bag of media attention, from his near-victory at the Ames Straw Poll to his jabs at FEMA on the eve of a hurricane to the stories of his being a non-story – really experience a statistically significant drop in support over these past three weeks? I had to check the cross-tabs.

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The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday the 12th that Obamacare’s “individual mandate” violates the Constitution. This mandate, which is the foundation of Obamacare, requires individuals to purchase health insurance.

The Supreme Court must now rule on this question, but we shouldn’t have to wait for that.I sent a letter to Congress telling them to repeal Obamacare now.

The hard-wired message says simply, “Please repeal Obamacare.”

I added these comments… Read More »

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “The bill is mislabeled. This is not protecting children from Internet pornography. It’s creating a database for everybody in this country for a lot of other purposes.” – Rep. John Conyers

A dangerous bill has been approved by the Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee that would ELMINIATE your online privacy. That’s why I sent a letter to Congress using DownsizeDC.org’s Hands Off the Internet Campaign.

I urge you to send a letter. You may borrow from or copy this… Read More »

by Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, and host of The Peter Schiff Show, broadcasting live from WSTC Norwalk CT from 10am to noon Eastern time every weekday, and streaming at www.schiffradio.com.

By supposedly compromising to raise the debt ceiling, Congress and the President have now paved the way for ever higher levels of federal spending. Although, the nation was spared the trauma of borrowing restrictions, the actual risk of default existed solely in the minds of Washington politicians.  But the real crisis is not, nor has it ever been, the debt ceiling. The crisis is the debt itself. Economic Armageddon would not have resulted from failure to raise the ceiling, but it will come because we succeeded in raising it. This outcome falls along the lines that I had forecast (See my commentary, “Don’t Be Fooled by Political Posturing” from July 9th).

Both parties are now pretending that the promised cuts in spending outweigh the increase in the debt limit. But the $900 billion in identified cuts are spread over a decade and are skewed toward the end of that period. There are an additional $1.4 trillion in cuts that the plan assumes will be identified by a bi-partisan budget committee. But similarly empowered panels in the past have almost never delivered on their mandates.

More importantly, none of these “cuts” are actually binding. There is plenty of time for future Congresses to reverse what was so laboriously agreed to over the past few weeks. My guess is renewed economic weakness will be used to justify ultimate suspension of the cuts. In addition, most of the spending reductions were already scheduled to take effect before this agreement. So what did we really get?

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by John Browne, Senior Market Strategist at Euro Pacific Capital

President Obama has continued and increased the reckless spending of the previous Administration. Now, as the federal debt reaches its statutory limit, he is spreading fear and panic in the hopes of having it raised.

Many of the key people responsible for America’s historic mess, including the President, Treasury Secretary Geithner, former NEC Director Summers, and Fed Chairman Bernanke, have pronounced publicly that a failure to lift the debt ceiling will cause a catastrophic Treasury debt default.

This is simply not true. The US Treasury has tax revenues that cover the service of its current (staggering) debt of some $14.3 trillion.

Yet, that doesn’t mean the US government won’t be forced to default in other ways. Failure to pay the
nominal interest and principal on bonds is only the narrowest definition of “default.” When a broader definition is used – which includes the use of inflation to erode the real value of US debt – the US government has in fact been in a state of continuous default for almost a century.

A 2011 dollar is worth just four cents in terms of a 1914 dollar. As that new money circulates, your dollar will lose some 53% of its purchasing power, productivity increases notwithstanding. That’s just in the last three years!

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by John Browne, Senior Market Strategist at Euro Pacific Capital

Most people, provided they have a minimum of experience, know that taking a bone from a dog is a risky proposition. In terms of political power, few dogs are bigger than the American voting public. Taking away, or even threatening to take away, the major entitlements to which they have become accustomed could expose politicians to a mauling at election time. As the American leadership begins to grapple with very large issues of entitlement reform in “sacred” programs such as Medicare and Social Security, many may recoil from the task once the fangs begin flashing.

According to polls, 77% of Americans feel the U.S. Government must cut spending. But when it comes to specifics, the support melts away very fast. Until recently, the strongly Republican 26th District of upstate New York had elected only three Democrats since the Civil War. But in a special election held this month (to replace the resigned Republican Chris Lee) the district fell to the Democratic column for the fourth time in 150 years. Many have theorized that the political upset was based on fears that the budget plan put forward by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan would restrict entitlements, particularly Medicare.

If there is any truth to this, it shows how difficult the process may be for politicians who want to seriously trim the Federal budget. But any glance at the enormity of the problem should provide the necessary courage. This assumes, of course, that there is any courage at all left in Washington.

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Quote of the Day: “It was bad enough when the TSA agents would go through your underwear in your luggage. Now they’re going through your underwear while you’re wearing it.” –Jay Leno

The Texas House unanimously passed a bill holding Transportation Security Agency (TSA) agents accountable for touching people’s private parts without probable cause. In response, the Department of Justice threatened to ground flights in Texas. DoJ’s threat caused the bill to die in the Texas Senate.

It’s possible the bill will be revived in a special legislative session. While we support the purposes of this bill, we believe the best solution is for Congress to just get rid of the TSA altogether.

That’s why I sent the following letter to my Representative and Senators. We encourage you to send a letter as well, and you may borrow from or copy this . . . Read More »

Quote of the Day: “History clearly shows the government that stimulates the best, taxes, spends, and intrudes the least. In particular, the lesson from 1945-47 is that a sharp reduction in government spending frees up assets for productive use and leads to renewed growth.” – Economists Jason E. Taylor and Richard K. Vedder

On May 31, the House rejected President Obama’s request to raise the debt limit with no spending cuts. In addition to every Republican, 46% of Democrats opposed this bill.

* This demonstrates the power of polls, which shows even a substantial percentage of Democrats oppose raising the debt ceiling
* But it also demonstrate the power of your RELENTLESS PRESSURE on Congress

More and more Democrats realize the U.S. is on an unsustainable path and that reforms must be implemented NOW instead of putting them off any longer.

The vote was good news, but this is only the beginning of the fight. WE ARE HOLDING THE LINE . . .

NO increase on the debt ceiling.

Unless you tell your Representative and Senators where you stand, they may be tempted to cut a deal which will raise the debt limit while making only symbolic and marginal spending cuts.

Both Democrats and Republicans need to learn from history, particularly the Democratic Truman Administration. That’s why I sent this letter to Congress, from which you may borrow or copy . . . Read More »