Health insurance is too expensive because the politicians have made it that way. They’ve bowed to lobbyists who want to use the coercive power of government to mandate coverage for . . .
The medical equivalent of oil changes and tire rotations
Or things like maternity care for single males, infertility treatments for people who don’t want families, and alcoholism therapy for people who don’t drink.
These laws corrupt the very nature of insurance. Insurance is supposed to cover unlikely but expensive procedures, NOT simple blood tests, or massages, or acupuncture, or chiropractic adjustments, or anything else we could afford to pay out of pocket, if only so many of us weren’t being gouged by legally inflated insurance premiums. Read More »
The federal government is nationalizing and centralizing in all directions, including…
* Banks
* Insurance companies
* Car companies
* And, as we reported yesterday, they now fund the majority of state government expenditures
But it isn’t just companies and state governments. The Feds want to nationalize YOU too.
It’s important for our new members to know that Congress is weaving a net that will ensnare all of us in a centralized database that could not only track where you go and what you do, but also . . .
What YOU spend on health care, and the kind of treatment YOU receive.
This scheme started with the so-called REAL ID Act, which would standardize state drivers’ licenses to make a de facto National ID card. You’ll need this card to cash a check, hire a baby sitter, board a plane, or engage in countless other activities. You’ll need it TO BE A PERSON.
Now that may not sound so different from today. You already need a driver’s license and a Social Security number to do many things. But your drivers’ license isn’t centralized at the federal level, and that makes all the difference. Here’s why . . .
The federal government has a huge problem with the Medicare program. They’ve made trillions of dollars in promises they can’t keep. But they have a plan to control costs . . .
* All of us will have REAL ID cards, issued by the states, but tracked in a centralized database
* The Feds will then force us to have electronic medical records too (this process is underway now)
* Your electronic medical records will be connected to the centralized REAL ID database
* The government will then start dictating which medical treatments you can receive and which you cannot
This last stage in the process is also being planned now. The supposed purpose is to protect us from ineffective treatments, but the real purpose is to control costs. In effect, the politicians will turn the entire country into a giant HMO. Do you want your health care needs being dictated by the same Keystone Gang who passed . . .
Well, here’s where all the threads tie together to create a net that will eventually strangle you. Twenty two states have refused to comply with the first step in this disaster scenario, the REAL ID Act. But how long do you think they’ll hold out now that . . .
Michael Maresco pedaled across America in late 2007 spreading Ron Paul’s message of liberty to everyone who crossed his path. I spent those months following his effort on his site, RonPaulRiders.com. I warmly recall a video he shot POV-style while on his bike singing our National Anthem. He may hate me for linking to it, but here it is.
Fast-forward to 2009 and Michael is about to embark on another bike ride. This time he’s pedaling from the Statue of Liberty to Alcatraz as a warning to all about America’s trajectory from freedom to fascism. It is dubbed the Ride for Honesty.
Michael introduces his ride using one of my own favorite quotes of all time by Calvin Coolidge in a post on the new site, LibertyRider.com:
This time, in addition to casual encounters, and in response to the recent DHS Documents deeming peace-loving political activists as potential threats, I will be canvassing Sheriffs and Governors; presenting them with educational materials about our movement, providing background for sensible r3VOLutionary solutions to the problems we face as a nation. The packs will include: “The Revolution – A Manifesto”, by Congressman Ron Paul. “The County Sheriff – America’s last Hope”, by Sheriff Richard Mack. And a DVD of the speech, “The Powers of the Purse and Sword” by Dr. Edwin Vieira.
In doing so, I hope to build rapport and spark honest discussion, locally, about our great country’s apparent slide into some bizarre new form of fascism. To symbolize this, I am riding from The Statue of Liberty to Alcatraz; Freedom to Fascism. It is a grim goal to envision, a heavy to topic to carry. But, must. be. done. As Dr. Ron Paul said, July 10, 2003 on the floor of Congress, “Let it not be said that no one cared, that no one objected once it’s realized that our liberties and wealth are in jeopardy.”
Awakening the drowsy, energizing the awake, those are things I’m good at. Navigating the road, and targeting a message, are things I have a wealth of experience in. Putting them together in this trip is a natural. Following the advice of Calvin Coolidge, “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”, I’m pressing on.
We will be following his effort here at Liberty Maven, and we encourage all of our readers to participate in assisting Michael in this proud endeavor for liberty.
Ron Paul appeared on Fox Business News today to discuss the release of the Bank “Stress” test results. He calls the tests propaganda and a pretense for more central economic planning.
To me this seems like just more smoke and mirrors by the Obama administration to try to drum up support for using more tax payer money to prop up bad banks. How nice it is for them that right when these results get released the stock market is doing better and the main stream business news outlets are falling all over themselves acting like we are on the brink of an economic recovery. I heard an “economist” on TV yesterday make the claim that the bottom is in.
I hope the bottom is in, but the bottom for stocks doesn’t necessarily mean the bottom of the housing market and the overall economy. For instance did you know that the government does not include housing in the CPI number? Housing is a consumption good. If it were included the CPI would be at a 5% decline year over year right now.
We are supposed to accept the “truth” from the very organization that benefits from lying to us. Perception is not reality when the government is involved. We get smokescreen after smokescreen.
But I digress… Watch Ron Paul below. Note that the video cuts off abruptly at the end, but it ended right after. Thanks to MinnesotaChris for the video.
Quote of the Day: “Utopia is not one of the options.” — David Bergland, Author, DC Downsizer
Here comes yet another bailout, and more corporate welfare. The Obama administration wants to use your tax money to bribe banks to renegotiate second mortgages. Projected price tag: $50 billion.
This may benefit some banks, and some people behind on their payments, but should the rest of us have to pay for it?
Banks already have a strong financial incentive to renegotiate rather than foreclose on delinquent mortgages. If banks don’t renegotiate a mortgage you can bet that’s because it makes more financial sense to foreclose. But . . .
Politicians always assume they know better. They think they know the best way to run . . .
* A car company
* An insurance company
* A medical practice
* A bank
* Everything
There isn’t an area of human life where politicians don’t assume they know better than the people who actually work in that area.
We don’t need to believe the Utopian fantasy that business leaders are without error. But it’s even more Utopian to assume that politicians are competent to prevent such errors, or even to correct them after the fact. In fact . . .
The assumption should be that politicians are MORE prone to error than anyone else, because . . .
* They make judgements on more subjects than anyone could possibly master
* These judgements impact everyone
* They have little incentive to get it right
This last point is especially important because . . .
Another wonderful week of Freedom Watch with Judge Andrew Napolitano is in the bag. Attempts to unite Ron Paul and Daniel Hannan were met with technical difficulties, but both appeared on their own to great effect. Especially Hannan who had a quite eloquent answer to a question from the Judge about Constitutional responsibility. Watch that clip isolated here.
Or if you prefer to watch the whole darn show (and why not?) watch it all below.
Lew Rockwell, 2010 liberty loving candidate RJ Harris, Cody Willard, Free State Project founder Jason Sorens, Peter Schiff, and twitter-maven Shelly Roche also join the Judge.
Remember, all episodes are posted at http://freedomwatchonfox.com/ as soon as they are available. You can also find upcoming guest and topic lists as well as the latest news about the show there.
In another wonderful Op-ed piece Sheldon Richman dismantles the notion that the government can effectively protect us. In “Government Is The Systemic Risk” Richman writes:
The Obama administration and congressional leaders assure us that the government can protect us from the “systemic risk” posed by big banks, insurance companies, and hedge funds.
But who will protect us from the government?
In light of all we’ve learned about the national government’s conduct in both domestic and foreign affairs over recent years, there is clearly no greater risk to American society than the government itself. Yet people look to it for security. That, I submit, is the fruit of propaganda and popular complacency. When can we expect the “eternal vigilance” that was supposed to keep us free?
One could go on at length about how the government — which includes the Great Counterfeiter, the Federal Reserve — threw the economy into turmoil with the housing boom and subsequent bust. Blame, as the politicians will, “Wall Street,” the fact remains that none of the firms there could have engaged in such systemically risky behavior without the partnership of the government. When Congress and the White House push and facilitate the guarantee of bad mortgage loans on a wide scale, while the Fed provides at least some of the money and a safety net to banks that get into trouble, you have the makings of a disaster that could never have occurred in a free market. Those who blame greed and deregulation have willfully blinded themselves for ideological reasons. The facts are plain for all who are curious.
Chris Martenson, creator of the highly-recommended Crash Course on Economics and one of my personal heroes for putting his money where his mouth is by radically altering his lifestyle to conform to a minimalist one (to prepare for the coming economic meltdown), has written a scathing commentary on his blog in which he discusses the obvious looting operation going on by Timmy Geithner, Lawrence Summers and Rahm Emanuel.
As cynical as I am, I just can’t keep up.
That sentence is a paraphrase of a quote by Lily Tomlin that reads, “No matter how cynical you become, it’s never enough to keep up.”
I have long been a cynic of the bailouts, and, unfortunately, I cannot detect even the slightest sliver of daylight between the prior and current administrations. The reason, I fear, is captured by this quote from Simon Johnson, the former Chief Economist at the IMF and current professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management:
The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government—a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crises. If the IMF’s staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform. And if we are to prevent a true depression, we’re running out of time.
The unfortunate conclusion here is that our system and processes are fully “captured” by a tangled web of interests that serve themselves over everything else. Your future, my future, and our future is being systematically ruined by a self-interested group of insiders that can no longer distinguish between their good and the common good.
Here’s the latest string of outrages from this week. [Continue reading]
Ron Paul appeared on CNN today to give a response to Obama’s speech regarding the economy today. Ron Paul said a lot of what you’d expect him to say and then some.
“We’ve had a new deal and a fair deal and I think this is a bad deal!”
Ron Paul is asked if he is being “responsible” for tossing around the word fascism. He makes the case that we are experiencing economic fascism and there is a difference between military fascism and economic fascism. The host is clearly shocked at the use of “that” word.
My response to the host would be that Ron Paul is one of the very few people in government that is being responsible by exposing the truth in the sea of misdirection that the public always gets from their elected officials.
Wow, this one is a doozy! A ton of new bills were introduced in Congress on Friday: 188 in total. For those who haven’t read this series of articles from the beginning, there are a few things to keep in mind…
When taking a look at the list below, keep in mind that the U.S. Constitution, which created our Federal Government, clearly enumerated 18 specific functions that it is given. For all other things, the 9th and 10th amendment make it clear that the individual states have the power. Note that it states in the Constitution that it is the Supreme Law of the Land, which can be usurped by no other. This means that all opinions to the contrary made by the Supreme Court are technically invalid. Throughout the past couple of hundred hears the Supreme Court has rule one way or another on some “interpretation” of the Constitution, but in fact no interpretation is necessary, as the intention of the founding fathers are quite clear. For example, if the “general welfare” clause or the “interstate commerce” clause was intended to be used as a catch-all for any arbitrary piece of legislation, then the 10th amendments which reads:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
would be completely meaningless. So simple logic, in addition to the writings of Madison and other founding fathers, dictates the notion that the Federal Government was set up to have very little power, and that these United States are intended to be a loose federation of sovereign states.
Only due to politician’s greed and overwhelming desire for power does the Constitution get relegated to the trash heap.
So, despite the noble intentions of many of these bills, it doesn’t mean they are legal.
No one is bound to obey an unconstitutional law and no courts are bound to enforce it.
– 16 Am. Jur. Sec. 177 late 2d, Sec 256
Of the bills introduced yesterday, these are ones that are clearly not legitimate functions of the Federal Government [as always, my commentary will appear in red]:
HR1892 – To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 102 North Main Street in Cedarville, Ohio, as the “William ‘Brent” Turner Post Office’.
HR1929 – To establish the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Investigative Commission to investigate the policies and practices engaged in by officers and directors at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac responsible for making the decisions that led to the enterprises’ financial instability and the subsequent Federal conservatorship of such enterprises. [Keep in mind that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been basically nationalized, which is, of course, unconstitutional.]
HR1925 – To designate as wilderness certain Federal portions of the red rock canyons of the Colorado Plateau and the Great Basin Deserts in Utah for the benefit of present and future generations of Americans.
HR1924 – To amend the Indian Law Enforcement Reform Act, the Indian Tribal Justice Act, the Indian Tribal Justice Technical and Legal Assistance Act of 2000, and the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to improve the prosecution of, and response to, crimes in Indian country, and for other purposes.
HR1922 – To require the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to hold at least 1 public hearing before issuance of a permit affecting public or private land use in a locality.
HR1921 – To establish an Office of Public Advocate within the Department of Justice to provide services and guidance to citizens in dealing with concerns involving the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and for other purposes. [Fantastic! Create another layer of bureaucracy to help people deal with bureaucracy...]
HR1978 – To authorize the Attorney General to make grants to improve the ability of State and local governments to prevent the abduction of children by family members, and for other purposes.
HR1977 – To require the Consumer Product Safety Commission to study drywall imported from China in 2004 through 2007, and for other purposes.
HR332 – Providing that the House of Representatives will focus on removing barriers to a prosperous economy and therefore renew the dream. [Reading the full text of the bill it all sounds nice, but it's really nothing more than platitudes. Nothing will come of this. It's not recommending anything concrete.]
HR1971 – To provide for the elimination of duties on certain comforter shells
HR1970 – To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to exempt unsanctioned State-licensed retail pharmacies from the surety bond requirement under the Medicare Program for suppliers of durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS).
HR1969 – To promote freedom and democracy in Vietnam. [Oh god. Oh god, no! Haven't we gotten ourselves into enough jams with this interventionist crap?]
Liberty Maven
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