Liberty Maven

Senator John McCain has introduced S. 3002, the Dietary Supplement Safety Act (DSSA).

This bill will . . .

* control your ability to use vitamins,
* for the benefit of the major sports leagues

The following welfare queens endorsed McCain’s bill within hours of its introduction . . .

* The National Football League
* The National Basketball Association
* Major League Baseball
* National Hockey League
* The NCAA
* The Professional Golf Association
* The U.S. Olympic Committee

Nearly all of these entities receive tax funding to build the stadiums they play in. Now they want to make your supplements more expensive so that none of their rich athletes will accidentally ingest anything banned by league rules. But you can take action to kill this bill.

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The polls are clear. Most Americans hate the Democrats’ healthcare plan. But Obama and Pelosi don’t care what you think. They want to use an obscure process called reconciliation to bypass the need for a super-majority in the Senate.

This foolish move may cost the Democrats their majority control of Congress, but it will also be hazardous to your health, if they get away with it. Here’s the key to stopping them . . .

Obama and Pelosi lack the votes they need in the House for their reconciliation scheme to work. Very few House Democrats are as suicidal as the President and the Speaker. We must keep it that way by maintaining the pressure.

We know you must be tired of this issue, but you must not relent. Temporary fatigue can lead to a permanent bad outcome. Please send Congress another letter using our quick and easy Educate the Powerful system.

Just cut and paste the following simple letter . . . Read More »

Whether you call it ObamaCare, PelosiCare, HarryReidCare, DemocratCare, or just plain stupid, Socialized Medicine is the Holy Grail to the president and his Democrat Party. They just can’t stop talking about and are as fixated with it as a puppy with its own tail.

But the more Mr. Obama talks about his plans, the worse it gets for him. The problem is that he hasn’t presented it properly. As an aid to Democrats everywhere, these are the positions they should be pushing to make this dream reality:

1) Socialized Medicine is free. I don’t know how they do it, but, by golly, nobody has to pay for it. Now if they could do something about the rising cost of cigarettes, gas, sodas, and my tanning bed treatments.

2) Socialized Medicine protects medical professionals and hospitals from extraordinary lawsuits. Right now Republicans and many physicians are  pointing out that to control medical costs, tort reform needs to be initiated to rein in the runaway costs of medical malpractice lawsuits. With Socialized Medicine there would be no need for this legislation. As the government would run the health care system how would anyone be able to sue Uncle Sam? Especially if he wasn’t in the mood to be sued. Socialized Medicine means never having to say “Oops!”.

3) Socialized Medicine covers all diseases. Time and again we see insurance companies denying care for unusual diseases or treatments. Now everything will be covered up to and including euphoria, apoplexy, and miner’s squint. And you won’t have to pay for those pills and medical devices you saw advertised on late-night TV.
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In Barack Obama’s latest health care plan is a proposal to give the Health and Human Services secretary the power to block price increases in premiums by health insurers. That power, on its face, would be subjective and political. However, it would complete the take-over of American companies by this increasingly relentless socialist administration.

Look at the facts, these days government dictates how to make a product, the government dictates what to put in a product, the government dictates shipping methodology if the U.S. Postal Service is used, the government dictates working conditions with OSHA, the government dictates minimum pay for employees and who to hire with EEOC laws, the government dictates salaries and bonuses for management in some industries, and, at the end of the day, for its efforts, the government will be on hand to collect its fair share of the company’s profit through taxation if a company is fortunate enough to make a profit on its transactions.

Now the government wants to dictate to companies what they will charge for their products. 

What decision making is left for a company under this administration? Helping pick the color of tablecloths in the company mess hall?

This proposal will be the final nail in the de facto take-over of American business. And it neatly avoids the messiness and expense of actually having to buy or run companies ala General Motors or AIG. Free companies! What socialist politician wouldn’t be giddy with excitement over the prospect?

You just gotta admire that crazy Capitalist Socialism.

President Obama thinks he can revive healthcare reform with yet another new bill and a televised February 25th conference with Republican opponents. His bill blends the House and Senate bills, introduces price controls, and still includes the unconstitutional requirement for individuals to purchase health insurance.

Tell Congress to stop wasting our time and start working toward real reforms that will preserve freedom and help the economy.

You may borrow from or copy this letter . . .

I wish the President and Congress would stop wasting our time with their pet healthcare schemes.

* economic recovery, deficit reduction, and ending the wars should be higher priorities right now
* the President’s proposed price controls will force private insurers to deny coverage for more services http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2010/02/22/obamas-best-idea-rationing-care-via-clinton-esque-price-controls/
* the individual mandate to carry health insurance is an unconstitutional “direct tax” that won’t withstand judicial scrutiny http://www.heritage.org/research/legalissues/lm0049.cfm
* which means if Congressional opponents don’t derail the bill, the Supreme Court probably will

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Ron Paul participated in a short but quite good interview with Bankrate.com in its “Fame and Fortune” series. With one answer Paul sums up the health care debacle.

Bankrate: What do you think of the health care reform package?

Ron Paul: It’s a disaster! As a matter of fact, it was in the early ’70s when the Republicans started accelerating intervention and having managed care. That’s when the tax codes changed and there were mandates. It was the government all of those years that has participated in pushing the cost of medicine up and causing it to become bureaucratic and causing the charity hospitals to go out of business. Managed care has been around (since) about the same time as we lost the gold standard, and it’s managed care that we should blame.

The real problem with medical care is it costs too much. Nobody would complain if it didn’t cost so much. But it costs so much because of inflation plus the bureaucracy we’ve created.

Read the full interview here.

What do the Federal Reserve and the Democrats’ health care reform proposals have in common? No, it’s not the start of a bad joke nor a rhetorical question. It’s all about the role of government.

Some question whether or not the Federal Reserve is a government entity. I don’t. It has government written all over it. It was created by the government and, like most government creations, it is a failure.

Congress created the Federal Reserve primarily to stabilize the dollar and the U.S. economy. Prior to the creation of the Fed the dollar was relatively stable. Following the creation of the Federal Reserve the dollar has declined nearly every year, but especially since the early 1970′s. By this rather essential measure, the Federal Reserve is a colossal bust.

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The Virginia State Senate voted today 23-17 to add a provision to the Virginia State Code that would exempt Virginians from being forced by the federal government to participate in any health care plan. Furthermore, the provision exempts Virginians from having to pay a fine or fee for not participating.

The text of the legislation sponsored by Jill Holtzman Vogel reads as follows:

No resident of this Commonwealth, regardless of whether he has or is eligible for health insurance coverage under any policy or program provided by or through his employer, or a plan sponsored by the Commonwealth or the federal government, shall be required to obtain or maintain a policy of individual insurance coverage.  No provision of this title shall render a resident of this Commonwealth liable for any penalty, assessment, fee, or fine as a result of his failure to procure or obtain health insurance coverage.

This is a big win for Virginians, the 10th Amendment, and liberty. The fight is not over though. I highlight the word “individual” above because it worries me. Does this mean the federal government can mandate family coverage?

Hopefully this ambiguity will be remedied as the bill moves further along in the legislative process.

Five Democrats voted for the bill. You can find the vote tally on the bill’s tracking page here and more information is available here.

Originally published January 29, 2010 at http://towneforcongress.com/economy/economic-aspects-of-the-pension-problem-by-antal-fekete

The pension problem is not well understood by the general public or the media. Neither will I claim to be an expert, but for those who are unaware, a pension is a payment plan made to retirees in return for past work and contributions to the plan. While many defined-benefit pensions plans have now been replaced by 401k-type tax-deferred government plans (defined contribution plans), much of the work force, including government bureaucrats, is retiring on defined-benefits, and these plans are woefully underfunded. Addressing these shortfalls has been avoided and postponed over the past several decades. Many pensions operate on the assumption of consistent 8% returns, which is obviously not sustainable. The consequences include a projected $1,400 annual increase in Pennsylvania state taxes by 2012-2013 in order to compensate on state pensions per the Commonwealth Foundation. Private sector pensions shortfalls will have a direct effect on retirees as well.

While those in younger generations may shrug their shoulders believing the pension problem will not directly effect them, to the contrary, I predict this may become a prime source of political and social unrest and generational strife as the Baby Boomer generation attempts to retire. This is IN ADDITION to the $85 trillion in unfunded liabilities in the Medicaid plans, and $17 trillion in unfunded liabilities for social security. In the bailout era, choose your politicians wisely – this is no time for Republocrat bickering, the times approaching require statesmen and stateswomen willing to listen and able to make tough decisions and effectively solve problems…. in other words, we need to fire both the federal and state congresses.

I do not have all the answers, though this is the second warning – see also “Pennsylvania’s Pension Crisis Approaches” from last month where I pointed out that the already underfunded pension plans lost ~30% last year. McAlvany discusses this in this audio track, and another great source for education specifically on Pennsylvania is this webpage from the Commonwealth Foundation, especially the presentation “Pensions and Politics: Why Your Taxes Will Skyrocket.”

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Originally published January 22, 2010 at http://towneforcongress.com/economy/scott-brown-just-another-republocrat-1

I first heard the name of Scott Brown at a local political mixer, and several folks had mentioned they were going to send a few bucks his way just because he might be able to help stop the current health care tax if he won the special run-off election against a Democrat, Martha Coakley. Not knowing much about Brown, I took a closer look at him this week.

Brown is a career politician who has been in the Massachusetts state congress for 11 years. His Issues page is full of run-of-the-mill generalizations (although briefer than mine, something I am working on). There is zero mention of the most important foreign policy topic – the simultaneous wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, while he absurdly devotes a section to support Israel’s border walls. Even on health care, while taking a direct stance against the Democrat plan, he supports nationalizing health care and has voted for the Romney health care tax solution which he offhandedly ADMITS is ailing, as I pointed out in my health care plank last summer.

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