The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 29% of the nation's voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -11. That’s the first time his ratings have reached double digits in negative territory (see trends).
Interesting.... 29% of voters strongly approve of the way that President Obama is performing his role as President and, coincidentally, 29% of voters trust President Obama's judgement on economic issues more than their own. Imagine that - 29% of voters trust big Government more regarding economic issues than they do their own judgement. However alarming as these numbers are, the good news for freedom-loving Americans is that this trend is moving inexorably against Obama. 10% of voters changed there mind since February and now trust their own economic judgement more than that of Obama. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Washington’s got another bright idea that most Americans don’t like.
Just 18% of adults think it’s the government’s job to tell Americans what kind of light bulb they use, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Seventy-two percent (72%) say it’s none of the government’s business, and 10% are not sure. [Read that again...18% think it is the government's business to tell Americans what kind of light bulbs to use and 10% aren't sure if light bulb selection and regulation is a proper role of government...28%... hmmm...another trend]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paul Kedrosky reported on 7/24 "According to the latest data, the number of vacant U.S. homes touched 18.7-million in the second quarter. That is a daunting figure, of course, but it is more fun to put it in context. Assuming four people per household, the U.S. currently has enough surplus housing to put the entire population of the U.K., with room left over for Israel." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The day after our Orator-in-Chief took to the teleprompter to address America in prime time, presumably to convince Americans, with the use of nothing more than broad-brush, campaign-stump, class-warfare-based generalities, that we NEED to push forward his radical change to our health care delivery system, the Senate Majority leader announced that the Senate would not vote on a health care bill prior to the August Congressional recess, the arbitrary date set by Obama.
The coalition of House Blue Dog Democrats, not Republicans, is standing in the way of Pelosi's effort to cram through H.R. 3200 before the break. Democrats standing in the way of Democrats. Republicans are saying, "So you don't want our help crafting an acceptable bill? OK, then put your idea to a vote. Democrats own a 79 seat advantage in the House, right?"
Advertised as one of three-pillars (Education, Energy and Health Care) of his liberal agenda, reducing the cost of health care was a "must win" for the Obamaniacs. Unfortunately for the liberals, when the non-Kool-Aid drinking adult supervision of the CBO was asked to report to the American people what the cost impact of H.R. 3200 would be, well, let's just say the result was a little deflating for Team Socialism.
As Peggy Noonan stated in her "Common Sense May Sink Obama Care" piece in the Wall Street Journal on Saturday, "Resistance to the Democrat health-care plans is in the air, showing up more on YouTube than in the polls, but it will be in the polls soon enough." Obama cares mightily about his polls numbers...no wonder he's cramming every piece of the Liberal agenda from the last 30 years through Congress during his honey-moon period. When his numbers at the polls begin to tank (which is already happening) his political capital will vaporize before his eyes.
Supposedly our post-racial President is anything but that and he knows this week that he is being called on that claim by the American people. During the press conference on Wednesday, Obama stated, "Well, I should say at the outset that 'Skip' Gates is a friend so I may be a little biased here. I don't know all the facts....Now, I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that, but I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge Police acted stupidly...number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there is a long history in this country of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionally." The fall-out has been deliciously direct and unambiguous from the American people. We're not buying it the racial BS. When the audio tapes are released showing how disrespectful and disruptive Mr. Gates was to the public servants who were trying to do nothing but protect him and his property, Obama's comments are going to be seen as those of a complete racist jack-ass, the "beer-summit" notwithstanding.
So. now, Our Blessed Leader finds himself with a terrible Health Care Bill found in the toxic waste dump called H.R. 3200 and everyday common Americans (unlike Congressmen) are putting aside the other demands of the day to read this awful and dangerous bill to measure the chains that we will all wear should this bill be passed site-unseen (like the $787 billion second stimulus package in February)
If you view this bill on OpenCongress, you'll see the bill has been viewed 18,995 times (and counting fast) with 90% of people "casting a vote" on this bill voting "thumbs down". The message here is that people who take the time to read the bill hate it. But this is as we would expect. Liberals view the world as they would have it and don't bother reading the bill. Conservatives view the world as it is and pore over ever word. Liberals cannot be bothered with details when they prefer platitudes. Conservatives view ANY 1,017 page bill as a potential risk to our freedom. --------------------------------------------------------- So, what can you find in this bill?
While tort reform is soooo desperately needed, if the goal is, truly, to drive cost out of the health care delivery system, the words "tort" and "lawyer" appear nowhere in the 1,017 page bill. In fact, the word "malpractice" appears as often (once - page 263) as does the phrase "mentally retarded" (page 389). [Note: The term "mentally retarded" has not been in used in serious health care discussion in a generation. Care to guess how old the working papers are from which the monstrosity called H.R. 3200 are?]
The word "minority" appears on 11 different pages, like on pages 883 - 884, where we read "In awarding grants and contracts... the Secretary shall give preference to entities that have a demonstrated record of training...individuals who are from underrepresented minority groups or disadvantaged backgrounds..." Yup. H.R. 3200 perpetuates the picking and choosing of winners and losers based on race.
The words "insure" or "insurance" appear on 146 pages. Under Title I "Protections and Standards for Qualified Health Benefits Plans" (starts on page 14), we read "On or after the first day of Y1, a health benefits plan shall not be a qualified health benefits plan under this division unless the plan meets the applicable requirements of the following subtitles for the type of plan and plan year involved..." On page 19 we read, "A qualified health benefits plan may not impose any pre-existing condition exclusion or otherwise impose any limit or condition on the coverage under the plan with respect to an individual or dependent based on any health status related factors..."
So, if you like the health care package you have, then you can keep it? Right? Wrong. If your current health care package doesn't meet the new standards to be set by H.R. 3200 then that policy will no longer be adequate. The government will continue to ratchet-up the requirements for private health insurance coverage so as to drive private health insurance from the market. Furthermore, the price that a health care insurer charges for premiums must be the same for a 40-year old, overweight, smoker and drinker as it is for a 25 year old healthy person. On its face, does this make sense? Who do you think picks up the difference? The government's moral standard here is to punish people who make good decisions about their health.
The word "regulation" appears on 71 pages. For example, on page 651 we read, "Effective on January 1, 20011...the provisions of this section shall preempt any law or regulation of a State..."
The words "freedom" and "liberty" appear nowhere in the bill.
On page 936, we read "The Secretary, acting through the Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, shall establish a permanent task force to be known as the Task Force on Clinical Preventive Services". Among the far reaching power of this unelected Task Force include "review the scientific evidence related to the benefits, effectiveness, appropriateness, and costs of clinical preventative services identified...for the purpose of developing, updating, publishing, and disseminating evidence-based recommendations on the use of such services."
Among the many chilling aspects of this Bill, the creation of this Task Force, scares me the most. Our personal health history information will be shared with the government through this board and this data will serve as the Potemkin village when the government implements its utilitarian, eugenics-based policy of "cost reduction".
Not surprisingly, the word "abortion" appears on no page of H.R. 3200. However, just as the U.S. Constitution never mentioned the word "slavery", the context of H.R. 3200 is as supportive of abortion as the Constitution was of slavery while neither ever mentions the unspeakable by name. The National Right to Life, in a piece published July 16, 2009, states:
H.R. 3200 will result in federally mandated coverage of abortion on demand in virtually all of America's health plans.
Abortion advocacy groups and Barack Obama view "basic" health care as including abortion, and the health care reform bill as the vehicle for expanding access to abortion.
--------------------------------- Summary:
H.R. 3200 is a terrible bill based on a moral standard offensive to most Americans.
Health care is a commodity that first needs to be produced and then delivered. H.R. 3200 pre-supposes an adequate supply of this commodity, though it presumably increases the demand for this commodity by 18% (47 million increase on a base of 253 million people currently covered). Rather than stimulating the creation of this commodity, H.R. 3200, by its overt policy of price-fixing and service refusal, will reduce the quantity of this commodity as current and future doctors and nurses remove their consent to this extortion by exiting the field, refusing to provide care in exchange for anything but cash, or never entering the field to begin with.
"Universal healthcare coverage" does not create access to healthcare as the Liberals would have you believe. Think of the lines at the most popular rides at an amusement park. What would happen to those lines if the amusement park did not charge an admission fee? Now, to add to the analogy, what if the park reduced the time that the ride was operating, to simulate the reduction in the number of qualified doctors and nurses that government-mandated price-fixing will create, by shutting down the ride for 10 minutes every hour? The only way to reduce lines, given the premise of universal access (i.e no admission price to get into the park) is either to deny access to the ride (only people between the ages of 20 and 40 can ride) , reduce the quality of the service (shorten the ride) or ban the ride entirely. Common sense shows that for the reasons universal access doesn't work in amusement parks it won't work in health care.
The government will, under the Trojan Horse of "efficiency", have an unprecedented access to personal medical history of all Americans with or without their permission. Nowhere in the Constitution is such power granted. A law requiring the mandatory disclosure of private medical information to the US Government is inconsistent with the "necessary and proper" clause of Article I Section 8. As such, H.R. 3200 is unconstitutional and should be rejected by Congress, the President and / or the Supreme Court.
Our taxpayers will be required to fund abortions, a condition that is morally unacceptable to a large percentage of Americans. This element of H.R 3200 is so offensive and unforgivable to such a large percentage of voters, that when this aspect of the bill is picked-up in the media and in town halls across the country, every representative voting for this bill will be thrown-out of office in 2010.
For those of you looking for a summer thriller, I encourage you to grab your favorite beach chair, some SP30, a case of Bud and the 1,017 pages of H.R. 3200 which drew its first breath on 7/14/2009 and will hopefully expire before the only permanent damage done is to Obama and his thugs.
Call your Congressman today and tell him / her that, while we need to make some improvements to our health insurance system - improvements that provide less government involvement and more free choice - H.R. 3200 will be the most destructive policy ever enacted in the history of this country...and those that vote for its passage will face a hurricane of opposition in the 2010 elections. It will be an "eye for an aye" in no uncertain terms. Americans from across the country will organize and act and throw-out every representative who chooses to do the bidding of Obama and Pelosi rather than that of the men and woman who sent them to Washington to serve them.
This weekend we will break down Obama's press conference from 7/22 into a "What he said" and "What he meant" analysis... should be fun!
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. Abraham Lincoln
Here's a lovely piece from San Fran Nan from January of this year... the face and sound of the inherent contradiction in the liberal mind. She blames deficits during the Bush years on the 2003 tax cuts... I guess she forgot to look at the data (what liberal ever does? It just gets in the way of their perception of the world as they would have it.)
Deficits are created when spending exceeds income (slow me down if this is too much "Inside Baseball" stuff). So, when Congress goes on a spending spree during the Bush years, the reason for the deficit has NOTHING to do with spending, soooo, it must have been those Bad Bush Tax Cuts.
But what kind of "take" did the Feds grab in terms of taxes following the Bush tax cuts? Well, according to the IRS' "SOI Tax Stats - Internal Revenue Collections and Refunds...Table I" between 2003 and 2007, Federal receipts (corporate income taxes, individual income taxes, employment taxes [OASDHI, FICA, SEICA, etc], Estate and gift taxes and excise taxes) increased by 45% from a post-9/11 low of $1.65 trillion in FY03 to $2.40 trillion in FY07.
So, imagine in 2003 you found yourself making $85K... four years later, you were making $124K...but were up to your arse in debt. Income problem or a spending problem? Exactly. Put the credit card away and start minding your ass(ets).
The deficit problem, Madame Speaker, finds its root in the amount of spending, not in the amount of tax revenue. But because this inconvenient truth contradicts the liberals view of a world that doesn't respond to incentives, liberals spin TBL ("the Big Lie") and blame tax cuts for the deficit wracked up during the 2003 - 2007 Bush years. (As an aside, don't the Bush deficits look, well, bush league, compared to a REAL spending, uhm, "investing" machine like Pelosi, Reid and Obama?)
By the way, for those of you keeping score, if you really, really, really want to soak the rich and get "them" to pay even MORE money in taxes (by creating wealth, creating jobs from which employment taxes can be generated, and growing the economy)then Washington (and states) should lower tax rates, including capital gains taxes, and make a promise not to mess with the tax code for the next two years... and then watch the gusher of cash generated as tax receipts as we grow our country out of this socialist swamp in which we have been dumped...All we ask from our government is to get the hell out of our way and stay out of our way.
Enjoy the twisted, tortured, contradiction-laced lunacy of the women two heart beats from the presidency...
"You have heard it said that this is an age of moral crisis. You have said it yourself, half in fear, half in hope that the words had no meaning. You have cried that man's sins are destroying the world and you have cursed human nature for its unwillingness to practice the virtues you demanded.
"Since virtue, to you, consists of sacrifice, you have demanded more sacrifices at every successive disaster. In the name of a return to morality, you have sacrificed all those evils which you held as the cause of your plight. You have sacrificed justice to mercy. You have sacrificed independence to unity. You have sacrificed reason to faith. You have sacrificed wealth to need. You have sacrificed self-esteem to self-denial. You have sacrificed happiness to duty.
"You have destroyed all that which you held to be evil and achieved all that which you held to be good. Why, then, do you shrink in horror from the sight of the world around you? That world is not the product of your sins, it is the product and the image of your virtues. It is your moral ideal brought into reality in its full and final perfection. You have fought for it, you have dreamed of it, and you wished it..."
-- John Galt in Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
While many of us warned before the 2008 election that our very way of life would come under an irresistible attack should Obama win with control of the Congress, few of us every imagined the sheer audacity of his power grab. As many of us slog our way through the dog days of summer, wondering if the 7.3% run-up in the DJIA this week is a harbinger of good times to come, Obama looks to slice the hamstrings of America with his Health Care Evisceration Act. Should enough Americans fail to act; should enough Americans sit on the sidelines blissfully ignorant of the peril we face; should enough Americans cede the liberty of themselves and their posterity to a smooth-talking liar and to his thugs; should enough Americans not care enough to make a phone call or write a letter or stand in the streets, then no one should shrink in horror at the site that will be America in 2010. It will be nothing more than that which we allowed the Great Charlatan to steal from us.
I found this great video from The Gulch Dispatch. It should come as no surprise that Obama is waging class warfare and will increase the rhetoric of class warfare as his policies fail, as any sane, rational person knows they will. He will blame the "greedy rich" (aka "producers") for all of the ills that his socialist policies have unleashed on Americans. A dispassionate analysis of Obama's policies can only reach the conclusion that Obama is working 24/7 to create a voting majority that pays no taxes, has "no skin in the game", becomes increasing dependent on government hand-outs and is willing to carry the torch and bricks to hurl into the "shop window" of America.
It’s time to take the tea party movement directly to Washington, D.C. Please join thousands of local organizers and grassroots Americans from across the country as we gather in our nation’s capital to deliver a message to the politicians: Enough!
Thursday, 9-10 Morning: Liberty Summit with limited government advocates Afternoon: Grassroots lobbying visits on Capitol Hill Evening: Free time to tour Washington
Friday, 9-11 Morning: September 11th Never Forget Memorial Afternoon: Grassroots leadership training seminars Evening: Dinner Event
Saturday, 9-12 8:00am Set up for stages and volunteers 10:00am Event begins at West Front of the U.S. Capitol 2:00pm March on Washington Begins (details to come)
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano gave a press conference today that told Americans everything they needed to know about the competence and agenda of the Obamacrats. A stunning display of a person in over her head... excerpts below... here's the link to the full transcript for the regular patrons at Hugh Akston's Diner...
"As President Obama said this morning, swine flu is a cause for concern, but not a cause for alarm." So, let's see if I have this right. Spending gazillions of my money, my children's money and their unborn children's money, to pay off the liberal base, cripple another generation of Americans and turn America into a Commonwealth of Mediocrity is a cause for concern, but not a cause for alarm. Got it. "As I said yesterday, I issued a public health emergency declaration." Wait a minute. Hold on. OK. I've got it. You issued an emergency declaration for which I should be concerned but not alarmed. Damn, this stuff is starting to sound like the opening scene of the next Patton-like movie. Can't ya see it? A big American flag with 51 stars (one for Mexico, of course), our hero, the Secretary of Homeland Security steps forward in her flats, salutes the teleprompter and begins her inspiring speech... "Now, I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by issuing health emergency declarations. And I don't want to get any messages about being alarmed. Leave that to the Mexicans. We are not alarmed - we are concerned. We will scan THEIR heat signatures, ask them how THEY'RE feeling, ask THEM if they need any help cutting through our barbed wire."
Q & A from today's press conference with Secretary Sieve:
Q: "So, how many inbound people have been referred to authorities."
Napolitano: "Don't know yet."
Q: "How does that work? Someone comes to the border inspection person and is coughing or displays some sort of symptom, is there a health professional right there to see them?"
Napolitano: "It depends on which port you are entering.... Generally speaking, they're referred to or put in another room. I don't want to use the word "quarantine" because, technically, it's not a quarantine, but they're put in a separate room.... if it's ascertained that they may, indeed, have the flu, they'll make a decision about whether they can go ahead and enter the country and go to a place to get taken care of or whether they need to go back home."
Yea, right.
Q: "I think, at the next level, at level four, that there are possible....parts of the border could be closed or increased border surveillance of people coming across. Is that something that has been discussed at this point?"
Napolitano: "Well, as I said yesterday, we're already doing passive surveillance at the border. [Editor's note: Probably some of the most passive surveillance in the history of surveillance...] And with respect to closing the border, again, you would close the border if you thought you could contain disease, the spread of disease, but the disease already is in a number of states within the United States, so the containment issues doesn't really pay out."
Q: "You say that it takes about three to four days for the symptoms to show up. So people could come in by air, not know they have it because symptoms haven't shown up, and they'll be able to walk right in? I mean, is there any - any contingency plans for dealing with that? How - you know, how would you - how would you deal with - with something like that?"
Napolitano: "Well, if people are sick and if you have the flu, you believe you have the flu, you have a fever, you have a heavy cough, we're asking people..."
Folks - the liberals keep harping about giving this administration a chance, but how many Americans will die needlessly because Secretary Bumblefutz can't act... she probably spent more time parsing, from the Bill Clinton school of "Is", the arcane subtleties of the difference between 'concern' and 'alarm' and between 'quarantine' and that friggin room over there into which people go in and never come out, than actually clamping down the border and keeping Typhoid Miguel from bringing his whole infected family into our neighborhoods.
Madam Secretary - do the job your are being paid to do. Put the political correctness on the shelf for the week and act. Uphold the Constitution that you swore to defend. Protect the People who have provided you a sliver of our sovereignty to act on our behalf. Do what's right, or get out of the way.
I stumbled onto this one on YouTube.... an absolute riot...
Monday, April 20, 2009
On 1/9/09, Stephen Moore published a piece in the Wall Street Journal entitled, 'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years. I enjoyed Mr. Moore's piece and submitted the following to The Wall Street Journal:
During his 22 November radio broadcast, John Galt states:
“Drifters and physical laborers live and plan by the range of a day. The better the mind, the longer the range. A man whose vision extends to a shanty, might continue to build on your quicksands, to grab a fast profit and run. A man who envisions skyscrapers, will not. Nor will he give ten years of unswerving devotion to the task of inventing a new product, when he knows that gangs of entrenched mediocrity are juggling the laws against him, to tie him, restrict him and force him to fail…”
First the immediate crisis of liquidity in September that required emergency measures to get us through this “temporary” crisis… then the immediate crisis of the viability of the Big Three auto makers that required emergency measures to get us through this “temporary” crisis. Yesterday President-Elect Obama stated :
"I don’t believe it’s too late to change course, but it will be if we don’t take dramatic action as soon as possible… We won’t get out of it by…relying on the worn-out dogmas of the past.
"That is why I have moved quickly to work with my economic team and leaders of both parties on an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that will immediately jumpstart job creation and long-term growth. It’s a plan that represents not just new policy, but a whole new approach to meeting our most urgent challenges… It is time to finally change the ways of Washington so that we can set a new and better course for America."
Following this prelude, President Elect Obama proceeded to list the “new” spending plans with a promise that this “new” spending plan will be different in that it will “invest in what works”. An utter denial of reality. We are being extorted to deny what we think and know to be true and to believe the unreal. We are being extorted to suspend our reason and have mystic faith in “change”. We are being extorted to trust our lives to the new government.
Imagine, instead, if we heard the following yesterday:
“Stability and consistency of government policy being critical to the establishment of the trust necessary for every American to regain the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the following policies shall be implemented by the incoming Administration:
• “The current tax system, including payroll taxes, and the IRS will be eliminated effective 1 January 2011, replaced by the Fair Tax Act. This act will eliminate the gross distortion in the market caused by the government and will reward production instead of consumption;
• “The sale of Health Insurance will be disconnected from employers and shall be sold in an open market similar to auto insurance, homeowners and life insurance;
• “Pet projects / pork-barrel spending shall be outlawed. No longer will people from Montana have to pay for construction of water slides in Florida.
• “Effective 1 January 2012, the United States will return to the Gold Standard”
Too much of the blame for the current state of economic affairs finds its roots in Washington policy to suggest that more of the same will prove effective. It is a denial of reality that we can “fix” the pain with another dose of government spending morphine in the short term to get us through this “temporary” rough patch. How many more “temporary emergencies”, typically created by government intervention, must we suffer before we realize that we need to take the long view? Or, are we simply incapable or unwilling to take the long view? Are we no longer capable of building skyscrapers?
I wrote the following piece back on 10/26/08, admittedly from a dark vantage, and of course the Nashua Telegraph refused to run it...
Crossing the Rubicon (10/26/08)
In a chilling video I remember seeing several years ago, three young Bosnian men were being summarily executed by Serbians. As the first young man is shot, the correspondent narrates, “Note the equanimity and peace of mind of the boy on the left. He is already dead – and knows it – it’s just that the bullets haven’t passed through his body yet.”
I feel like that young man must have felt as we approach the coming election. Just as the young Bosnian knew his immediate fate, so do I. The election is already over, it’s just that the votes haven’t been cast yet. (Full disclosure – I am a republican, fiscal conservative and was a Romney supporter during the primaries).
On November 5th we will awaken to the realization that the Democrats will be in possession of the White House, the House of Representatives and a filibuster-proof Senate. Within two years it will have a Supreme Court that aligns with the liberal agenda. This unprecedented concentration of unchecked power will have profound and lasting impact on all Americans.
In an email entitled “Reaching 60” on 10/21, Hillary Clinton writes, “Sixty is the magic number. If we reach 60 Democrats in the Senate, then the days of Republican obstruction are over. With Barrack Obama and Joe Biden in the White House and a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish.”
She is correct. There will be no limits on the power of the Federal government until the election of ’10. Not since 1800, when the discredited Federalists were thrown out of office (with the exception of the Judiciary of John Marshall) will we have seen such a sweeping seizure of power in America.
Future historians will regard the Election of ’08 as an inflection point in American history. If, since FDR, we have been on an inexorable journey from one side of the river (capitalism, rugged individualism, personal accountability, upward mobility) to the other (re-allocation of earned wealth based on need), and we find ourselves already on the far side of the river, the Election of ’08 will signal the demolition of the bridges that could have brought us back to the America fought and died for by legions of our ancestors.
Americans will awaken on November 5th having crossed the Rubicon.
The rationale for every policy from November 5th onward will be based on “need”. Those that have a “need” (and can provide support to those in power – quid pro quo) shall be rewarded by the systemic taking and re-allocation from those who have earned this country’s wealth. Hard work and innovation will be rewarded with confiscation and vilification.
The targets in the first year will be the obvious “villains” of the liberals – Wall Street, Big Oil, Big Pharm, Big (fill in the blank). But what Americans have not thought through is what the Government will do when it has wreaked havoc on the biggest producers among us and “still” can’t understand why the country is dysfunctional. It will go after each of us. It will try to make us all into the cripples that are dependent on the government.
When “need” becomes the basis of claims against what we each earn, so long as there is a person who makes $1 less than you, your income is not safe. When Americans realize that THEY are the targets of the government’s next re-allocation scheme, it will be too late. After all, whom do we think will determine “need”? Within four years we will reach the goal of “fairness” that the current mob demands and that Obama seeks (it’s a good thing to spread the wealth around) – we will all be equally miserable and poor (except, of course, for those in Washington).
Yes, we are dead; it’s just that the bullets haven’t passed through us yet… unless we do not provide our consent on Election Day to our very extinction.
One of the reasons I started this blog was the frustration I felt see letter after letter rejected by the local newspapers. So, while some of the next few posts may be dated by a few months, I think there messages are as timely today as the day I pecked them out on my keyboard. Enjoy...
Atlas Shrugged - The Prequel (12/6/08)
For those of you grasping for an understanding of the tumultuous and seemingly contradictory times in which we live as 2008 draws to an end, the answer is much closer than you may be willing to admit.
We are writing the unwritten story that is the prequel to Ayn Rand’s 51-year old apocalyptic epic Atlas Shrugged.
As Rand taught in Atlas Shrugged, contradictions cannot exist. As Rand writes, “A is A”, “A cannot be not-A”. We can claim that ‘A is not-A’ but saying so does not make it true. To claim “A is not-A” is simply a lie – the language of idiots, brutes and tyrants – not the language of free, honest men and women.
The government tells us that if we take money from those who produce the most and give the money to those who produce the least (in other words, the “Stimulus Package” of 2008) then our problems will go away. Of course, as we know, the “Stimulus Package” did not “work”, because of the moral contradiction inherent, but unchallenged, in its premise.
A society does not create wealth through consumption; it creates wealth through production. Our government fed us the unchallenged lie that we can consume our way into prosperity. When in the history of the planet has a society ever consumed its way into prosperity?
The other contradiction in the original stimulus package is the definition of what defines “success”. What was the desired effect of the “Stimulus Package”? To consume our way into prosperity? We know that to be false. No, the true purpose of the “Stimulus Package” was for those in power to take money from a group of people that has few votes and give that ill-taken loot to a group of people that has more votes.
When viewed within this context, there is no contradiction. Our politicians took, at the point of a gun, earned money from those who produce most and gave this unearned loot to those who produce least (or not at all) to buy their votes. There is no other explanation that does not contain a contradiction.
The initial “Stimulus Package” is all the more sinister due to its secondary and tertiary effects. First, the precedent is set that the government possesses the power and moral right to take (at the point of a gun) earned income from one American and give it to another. Obama said, “it’s a good thing to spread the wealth around”.
Less than a year after the first “Stimulus Package” our politicians are tripping over each other to give the money earned by one to anyone with a tin cup (the bigger the tin cup, the better).
Secondly, the government looters demand the fruit of production but vilify those who produce it. Who are the greatest “villains” in the eyes of the government, media, and, I dare say, Americans under the age of 25? Big Oil and Big Pharmacy. We demand oil products and miracle drugs like crack addicts and then crucify the CEO’s of the companies that produce the products we demand most in sham kangaroo courts called Congressional hearings. Do we not see the contradiction here?
The Big Three auto manufactures, with their $34B tin cup, make good cars (and to argue otherwise is immaterial) but do so at a price that Americans have been unwilling to pay.
Congress, this week, entertained placing further demands, at the point of a gun, upon my money to force a purchase of automobiles from Detroit that I refused to buy in the free market. Upon what legal or moral basis do we allow this?
Pelosi, Reid et al will claim that the Big 3 situation represents a potential calamity for all Americans if the Big 3 are allowed to fail. It is a lie. The political class is willing to give my money to the Big 3 in order to pander to the unions and to provide a quid pro quo for political contributions. There is no other conclusion that does not contain a contradiction.
18 months from now, the failed economic policy of wealth re-distribution that we are witnessing today will have only accelerated the destruction of the freedom of honest Americans.
Pockets of violence will crop-up as frustration devolves into despair. A new special police force will be established due to the “temporary emergency conditions” and firearms will be banned “for the public good during these trying times.” High profile cases of “greed” will be brought, not before rump Congressional Hearings but in front of Federal District Courts.
Production levels will drop precipitously as we continue the policy of consumption vs production and continue to vilify those who produce most. We will tax the biggest producers at unheard of levels “due to these temporary emergency conditions” and because the highest producers “don’t need” money nearly as much as the useless.
At least 52% of Americans believe that they are entitled to that which they have not earned. Until we have at least 50% of voting Americans stand up and say, “I am entitled to no more than that which I can produce as valued by those who would pay money for my products”, then there should be no mystery as to where America is headed. Ayn Rand documented that journey in 1957.
Today I mailed a copy of Atlas Shrugged to President Obama, in the hopes that he will realize that we know what he is doing and that he will be held accountable. There is a nationwide campaign (click on the link to the left) to mail copies of Atlas Shrugged to our dear political leaders to let them know that their days in power are numbered if they continue on the perverse, disingenuous course they have set.
The "leaders" of our national government, and many of our state and local governments, are frantically working to cripple America and Americans as soon as possible. After all, cripples will forever be dependent on the table scraps from the national government and will forever be less inclined to vote for any candidate who speaks about individual responsibility, property rights, hard work, fiscal prudence, freedom and liberty.
Just as Ayn Rand taught that there can be no contradictions, it is only within the paradigm of "how can we cripple America before it catches on?" do the actions of the Obamacrats not produce a contradiction.
Spending our way to prosperity... increasing our taxes to stimulate us... respecting private property by taking ownership of private companies...by forcing companies to take federal "assistance" and then telling the companies how to run their businesses...
I am reminded of the wonderful line from Atlas Shrugged utter by Wesley Mouch, but words that very easily could come from the mouths of any Obamacrat: "The (Obama) Plan will reconcile all conflicts. It will protect the property of the rich and give a greater share to the poor. It will cut down the burden of your taxes and provide you with more government benefits. It will lower prices and raise wages. It will give more freedom to the individual and strengthen the bonds of collective obligations. It will combine the efficiency of free enterprise with the generosity of a planned economy."
Ayn Rand wrote those words 52 years ago but we are now hearing them, in some form, everyday from this cynically, corrupt and dangerous administration.
It's time for all us of to Go-Galt.
Below is my letter to President Obama
Dear President Obama:
As a US citizen, I am extremely concerned about the direction in which you and the Congress are leading this country.
The contradictions in your policies with both your campaign promises and with the principles that have made this country so great are deeply disturbing. Many of my constituents here in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, many of whom voted for you last November, have experienced a similar pattern of emotional response to your socialist policies. Hope gave way to wonder which gave way to rationalization, which gave way to disbelief which gave way to anger which has now, finally, given way to action. We will not be enslaved by your ambitious agenda.
The utter disregard you have displayed for private property, the proper role of government and the importance of job creation has not been missed by this nation’s voters. You have not only implemented policies that look to seize the fruits or production (higher taxes on the country’s most productive elements) but, now, with your takeover of AIG and GM (Government Motors) you are seizing the means of production.
Your disregard for the right of the individual to set the direction for his or her own life, and to retain the products of his or her own efforts, is generating a rising tide of resentment among the more productive members of society, which is fermenting into deep discontent, as witnessed by the recent flurry of Tea Party protests across the nation and by the outcry of numerous political commentators.
Banks across the country are desperately trying to give back the TARP money it wants off its books because of the demands your gang are placing upon them – yet you refuse to accept the taxpayer money back. Both Secretary Clinton and Mr. Emanuel displayed “the consciousness of the king” when they stated that they didn’t want to “waste” the opportunity of the current economic crisis. I need no other data to understand your true, socialist, motivations and will actively work to educate my fellow-countrymen to the risk your policies pose to our country.
The nature of our current problems and the consequences of these problems were identified by Ayn Rand in her novel, Atlas Shrugged, and that prophetic novel foretells a bleak future for us all should we continue along our current path. I am enclosing a copy of that book with this letter in the hopes that you will read it, take its message to heart, and that you will ultimately stop the damage that is being done to our country. Should you not “get out of our way” you will forever be known as President “Thompson”.
Today, Our Dear Leader nominated Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius to serve as the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
I spent some time crawling around the grand website for the largest-among-large Federal bureaucracies to see what kind of empire she is inheriting.
Some facts that I pulled off of this website:
The mission of the HHS is: To protect the health of all Americans and provide essentialhuman services, especially to those with the greatest need. The Department of Health and Human Services sponsors medical and social science research, approves the use of new drugs and medical devices, manages infectious disease prevention and response programs, administers Medicare, Medicaid and other programs that provide financial assistance and services to low-income families.
The FY2008 budget of $716 billion represented almost a quarter of ALL Federal expenditures. HHS administers more grant dollars than ALL other Federal agencies combined!
The Department of HHS was selected as the 18th best place to work in the US Government in 2007 and employed 52,799 persons in 2006. Assuming that this number did not grow between 2006 and 2008 (haa haa haaah haaa) this means that each highly trained member of the HHS team oversaw over $13 million in hand-outs. No possibility for corruption, graft, waste, fraud with these kinds of numbers...
On the GovBenefits.gov link with the HHS website we find all sorts of quick-links for the growing population of Americans who are living the dream of becoming wards of the state. Let's see..
"GovBenefits.gov is the official benefits website of the U.S. government, with information on over 1,000 benefit and assistance programs." (are you kidding me? Over 1,000? And the site is boasting about this?)
"There's truly something for everyone!" (everyone is entitled to the wealth earned by someone else)
There is a questionnaire that contains the request to document the number of times you have been married (a number 0 - 10). I wonder how many people type "9"?
On question 14, the questionnaire asks to identify your profession and "manufacturing" is not listed, but "practicing artist", "published writer / poet", "federal employee" and "aquaculture operator" do make the list.
Question 39 is a classic: "How much do you earn each month from working?" [I'm sorry, is this to differentiate the money I've made robbing liquor stores or the money I've gotten from other handouts? Apparently this question seeks to understand how much of one's income was actually earned the only way wealth can be earned - through work]
So, I filled out the questionnaire and was presented with a menu of 24 different hand-outs for which I may be qualified. Going on the dole, has never been easier...
"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on the objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents."
--- James Madison, Father of the US Constitution, 1792, in disapproval of Congress appropriating $15,000 to assist some French refugees
As the Obamacrats look to wage no-quarter class warfare on the production of wealth, we read today that Hillary has pledged $300 million in "humanitarian aid" to rebuild the hot-bed of America-haters known as the Gaza Strip and another $600 million to pay-off the Palestinian Authority ($200M of which is to shore up its "budget shortfall!" Budget Shortfall? Yea, the Palestinian Authority is worried about a "budget shortfall". Maybe they will hold a bake sale in one of their rocket manufacturing sites to bridge the gap...)
Given that only half of Americans pay Federal income taxes, those families-of-four, that actually pay taxes, just had their wallets raided for another $24. With all due respect, how in the hell is this kind of commitment consistent with any moral principle?
Message: Work hard, American-suckers, and we're going to take your money and give it to terrorists. How cool is it to be able to take as much money from Person A and give to it to person B and no one can stop you! Note: Despite the fact that $900 million was committed the AP headline mentioned only the $300 million in "humanitarian" aid... I guess the other $600 million wasn't worthy of mention in the headline... love that liberal bias in the press.
Does anyone want to bet against the probability that President Obama will commits hundreds and hundreds of millions dollars to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bail out Eastern Europe (which, it appears Western Europe would just as soon let twist in the wind)? Afterall, the folks from Eastern Europe are in need (the primary justification for confiscating wealth) and none of them are Republicans! :-)
I spent an hour or two this afternoon crawling around the website, recovery.gov that President Obama announced in his speech to Congress this week. This is the new website that will allow Americans to see where their money is being spent. Ahem.
On this website, Americans are invited to provide feedback in a section called Share your Recovery Story. "Tell us how the Recovery Act is affecting you. What's working? What isn't? We want to hear from you." So I clicked on the link and submitted the following: The "economic crisis" hasn't impacted me, but the government's response to it has. I am one of the few Americans who has met my responsibilities (reference para 7 of your 2/24 speech)...graduated high school though coming from a broken family having worked in the tobacco fields when I was 15 and in a restaurant kitchen my last two years of HS; graduated in the top 10% of my class at the United States Naval Academy; served my country as an F-14 RIO during the 80's during which time our Operations tempo broke the back of the USSR; left the service in 1990; put myself through an MBA program while working full time and raising a family and now looking forward to my older child graduating from Boston University in May '09 and my younger child graduating from UConn in May '11.
My pay has increased each year since I’ve worked because I produce and my results have been valued by my employer.
My family now finds itself approaching that now-dreaded annual income of $250,000. Of the $220,000 I earned last year, $71,000 will go to some taxing authority, $70,000 went to my children’s college tuition, $20,000 went to pay my mortgage honorably, leaving my family of four $59,000 for other expenses.
I have worked my butt off since I was a child and have achieved some level of prosperity, but have never been a pay-check or two away from hard-times. I don't have much in the bank, yet because of what I earn NOW, you view me as "wealthy" as if I inherited money from a rich uncle. What I have I have earned. I have invested in private schools for my children because the public schools are a failure. I live in the same small house I bought when I left the Navy and have never missed a mortgage payment. I paid full-price for college for my children because our government said I "earned too much". I could not even deduct any portion of the $70,000 I paid last year in tuition payments because I "earned too much". I have never asked for a hand-out and am not now, but your "recovery" plan will make many Americans beggars - begging for whatever scraps you throw them. I am sickened by the damage you have done to the fiber of this once-great nation by your systemic, comprehensive creation of a welfare state.
When I hear your oratory that you “fighting for the middle class” I sense that you are fighting me. Why? Aside from playing by the rules and having never asked for a hand-out, what have I done to incur the wrath of my government? Why is my example not the one that you want to show-case? Instead, you have waged war on me and are poised to tax me into chains. I also left a note asking if the feedback this site receives from Americans will be made public, ya know, in the interest of transparency. I mentioned that failure to do so would further expose the new Administration to the legitimate claim of hypocrisy regarding transparency.
While exploring this shallow, Potemkin Village of a website, I stumbled upon Vice President Joe "nobody messes with Joe" Biden's website for his Middle Class Task Force. I provided feedback to this website asking what this task force uses as its definition of "middle class". Is it an upper and lower income level based on a certain family size, an education level, an age bracket? I also left feedback asking about another term used on this website and in all of the stump speeches - ah, you guessed it, "Working American Families".... I work 60 - 70 hours per week, have never drawn a penny of unemployment relief and am an American and I have a family. Does that qualify me? Oh, by the way, I made over $200K last year...does that disqualify me? Am I a non-working American who works 60-70 hours / week? Hmmm.
Fortunately, this website has offered transparency as well as the socialism.gov website - I mean, recovery.gov website, so I'm sure I'll get an answer real soon - right about the time that we see the first wave of the 3-4 million jobs being created (approximately two weeks after NEVER!) ---------------------- Kimberley Strassel wrote a great piece in Friday's Wall Street Journal entitled Obama: The CliffsNotes Decoding the President, which I encourage you all to read. Building on the shtick she used in Friday's piece, here are my contributions to cutting through the doublespeak of socialism.
"We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than ever." Translation: We will create non-value-adding make-work jobs and extort more money from the productive sectors of the economy to pay for these sham jobs, we will win in the 2010 mid-term elections and we will exterminate any vestiges of independence, liberty or freedom by emasculating the nation's producers, enfeebling the minds of our school-age children and crippling all in-between with every conceivable form of welfare handout. "A surplus became an excuse to transfer wealth to the wealthy instead of an opportunity to invest in our future." Translation: Productive Americans created wealth and were allowed to keep more of it than they had prior to the Bush Tax cuts. Inadequate confiscation means during this time period prevented the seizing of this wealth by the government and the distribution of this looted wealth to prospective Democratic voters.
"put people back to work and put money in their pockets." Translation: Take an otherwise healthy young man and pay him 40 hours a week to dig holes from 7:30 am - 4:00 pm each day. Take another otherwise healthy young man and pay him 40 hours a week to fill-in holes from 4:00 pm - 12:30 am each evening. Pay them each a "living wage". Assign a local government supervisor and a bureau in Washington to report on the job growth.
"...as we make hard choices" Translation: Hmmm. Some choices are good for Americans but difficult for politicians and there are some choices which are hard on Americans but are good for politicians. Which do you think we're looking at?
"This plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs" Hey, hey, hey, what happened to just "create" 3.5 million jobs? And wasn't it north of 4 million jobs, too? Translation: When this pig of a spending bill bill flops over on its side and starts bloating in the summer heat, I can claim that millions and millions of - perhaps even a gazillion - jobs were saved even if not a single meaningful, productive, sustainable job was created.
"There are 57 police officer who are still on the streets of Minneapolis tonight because this plan prevented the layoffs their department was about to make." Translation: Producers from cities and towns nowhere near Minneapolis were forcibly required to empty their pockets and send the fruit of their labor to Minneapolis because the people of Minneapolis could find NO GOVERNMENT SPENDING - NONE that was less important than cops on the street. So instead, a baker in Manchester, NH, a plumber in Saratoga, NY and a manufacturing forman in Louisville, KY have less money to share with their families because of this bill.
"95% of the working households in America will receive a tax cut" Translation: If you make more than $250,000 then you can not number yourselves among the "working households" in America. If you are among the referenced 95% of the population, you will receive "a" tax cut (what was it, $13 / week?) but then you will be taxed in every conceivable manner. We will raise your electric bills through a CO2 cap and trade scheme, we will raise your gas tax, we will increase taxes on cigarettes, capital gains taxes on the few stocks you might sell...we will tax everything you do, BUT, because of this bill we will be able to claim that we provided you "a" tax cut. Enjoy it. Don't spend it all at once.
"The concern is that if we do not re-start lending in this country, our recovery will be choked off before it even begins." Translation: Yea, yea, yea so the Community Reinvestment Act encouraged (oh alright, coerced) banks into making loans to people they knew couldn't repay them, but that is sooooo 20th century... this time we'll do the same thing but we'll have super-duper government oversite so, what could possibly go wrong?
"These banks are now fearful of lending out any more money to households, to businesses, or to each other." Translation: The banks are calcified with fear that the government will, again, force them to make loans that are BAD loans, all under the banner of "the common good". When allowed to enter into only those loans that the bankers view as advantageous, there is NO fear. The fear is that the great unwashed Democratic base will not get "free" money loaned to it because the racist bankers actually insist on a down-payment for a mortgage and evidence that the mortgagee can pay-back the loan.
"We will act with the full force of the federal government to ensure that the major banks that Americans depend on have enough confidence and enough money to lend even in more difficult times." Translation: We will send in auditors with rectal-scopes for as long as is required for banks to display "confidence". If they don't willingly display that confidence, we will make them an offer that they cannot refuse. [Note to young readers: If you're wondering, "But, gee, Mr. Powers, I thought in a free society one conducts business transactions only by free will with the assumption of gain from such transaction. This doesn't sound like the bankers are being given a choice. Where is the freedom and liberty there?"]
"But I also know that in a time of a crisis, we cannot afford to govern out of anger, or yield to the politics of the moment." Translation: If you don't have a crisis, keep telling the media that there IS a crisis. This way one can use emergency measures and everyone will think the President is brave, courageous, bold and decisive. It is the perfect storm needed to seize and consolidate power. It's also the excuse to tell Republicans, "Talk to the hand. La laa laa". Take a peak at Dick Morris' piece from The Hill on 2/24, "It’s Obama spreading panic". "It's about helping people" Translation: It's not about getting out of people's way and letting their future be limited only by there aptitude and inclinations. Noooo. It's about identifying your potential voting base and giving them stuff and identifying your potential enemies and eviscerating them. If you can do the latter in order to accomplish the former, then you have created the perfect solution.
"We will double this nation's supply of renewable energy in the next three years." Translation: We will extract a gazillion dollars from producers' wallets to fund renewable energy science fairs across the country and increase the amount of renewable energy from zilch to insignificant.
"We will invest... " Translation: We will take from producers and spread this loot to our political base. We will force industries to make products that no one will buy.
"We can no longer afford to put health care reform on hold." Translation: If you thought health care was expensive now, wait until it is free. Health care is a commodity like shoes or automobiles for which there is a producer (your doctors, nurses, etc) and a consumer (the patient). Simply directing that everyone will have shoes ("Universal foot coverage") will not increase the supply of shoes. Now if we go beyond universal foot coverage and tell the shoe makers how much they can sell their shoes for, do we think we will have more shoes in the market or less? Hmmm... If you think free health care is a right that must be given to everyone, what does this say of the value we place in those who produce the commodity called health care? And why stop at health care? Why not say that every American has the right to a certain amount of money per hour of work regardless of its value? Ohh... right, we already have that... Read the great article from The Objective Standard entitled "Mandatory Health Insurance: Wrong for Massachusetts, Wrong for America" by Paul Hseih
Stayed tuned for next week's lesson...
------------------------ Before you go, you've got to read the great Review and Outlook piece from Friday's WSJ, entitled "The 2% Illusion - Take everything they earn and it still won't be enough". Summary: If the Administration is going to wage class warfare against those making over $250,000 per year, then why stop at 39% or 42% - take every penny above $250K... a marginal tax rate 0f 100%. Outlaw annual earnings above $250,000 - got the picture? So, take all of that loot and...it's still not enough to pay for the Obama spend-a-thon. So, 95%-of-Americans-who-will-get-a-tax-cut where do YOU think this money is going to come from? Even after taking ALL of the money earned above $250K, it's not enough... what will the government do when it can't soak the rich any further?
"Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong." - Ayn Rand
If the idea that the remedy to being $50,000 in debt is to go on a massive shopping spree seems contradictory to the nature of reality, you are not alone. Many Americans (but, not enough, regrettably) are trying to reconcile the apparent contradiction in the government's commitment of $787 billion of our money and its stated goal of creating jobs and enabling growth of the economy.
The long list of wasteful projects on which this money was committed can not be honestly defended by its advocates, not that many are actually trying (see video below of the cynical, pompous senior Senator from New York).
Today, our Blessed Leader, with the ink still wet on the Great Intergenerational Confiscation Act of 2009, stated that NOW we need to get serious about reining-in spending. And this time, he means it...
Huh? If nothing else, you need to admire Obama for his utter brazenness and ability to lie with such a straight face. His oratory today sounded like his oratory from the campaign trail. Hmmm, perhaps he always sounds like that when he's lying.
So, back to the contradiction. We take Obama at his word that he has just saddled the current and next generation with a trillion dollars of debt for no benefit that honest people would recognize. Paying someone a day's wage to dig a hole and then paying another person to fill-in that same hole certainly creates two jobs (on his way to, was it three million jobs?) but does it create wealth? The answer, of course is "no".
How does the systemic and government-enforced taking of money from our most productive workers and giving it to our least productive workers (or lay-abouts) create wealth? Have you ever worked for a person who made less money than you? No, I didn't think so. Me, neither.
If wealth is created through the vision and courage of bold men and women, willing to "make a better mousetrap" why would we think we could create more wealth faster by taking money from a business leader and giving it to someone who doesn't know how a mousetrap works?
Therein lay the contradiction. There is no data - none - to suggest that this pornographic plunder of America's wealth by the current ruling class will do anything that it claims it will. "Keynsian economics" has as solid a scientific foundation as does the debunked Global Warming theory spun by Gore. Both policies are the darlings of the Liberals because each enables a "fact" based policy that advances the destructive anti-life policies of the Left.
It is only when you check the premise of the contradiction with the Liberal spending platform and change the prism by which one views their actions does the contradiction disappear.
First of all, the Democrats want to cripple enough Americans, and make them dependent on the government, to enable a comfortable 53-47 win in every election from this point forward. Democrats wish to cripple Americans intellectually and economically. Democrats have destroyed the process by which our children are taught in our heavily-funded schools. By every objective standard our schools have failed our children and we are feeling the result of this systemic assault on our children in lower test scores and our competitiveness in industry.
Democrats loath the most productive among us and tax us, villify us, and parade us in front of kangaroo courts called Congressional hearings and then hand-over the ill-gotten wealth, obtained at the point of a gun, to the least productive among us for one purpose - to but their vote.
Democrats (and too many Republicans) favor opening the floodgates on the border with Mexico enabling the influx of millions and millions of future voters (all of whom will vote Democrat because the Democrats promise to take "give them stuff".)
Obama and his crowd don't want the "crisis" to go away. It is only under times of emergency that one can take emergency measures, after all. And if the current times aren't of an emergency nature, well, then tell the American people that we are in an emergency and keep repeating until enough believe the president.
What is so particularly perverse about the recent "stimulus" package is that, by any objective standard, it will fail to produce the favorable economic conditions presumably justifying its imposition and will delay the recovery of the economy. Obama is generating the winds that are creating the perfect storm that will result in "regrettable by necessary emergency measures necessary to address the temporary crisis facing every American."
This lie will justify in the next 18 months:
1. The confiscation of money in 401K plans with a promise of a guaranteed government pension, 2. The nationalization of the former "Big Three" auto makers, 3. The nationalization of domestic airlines, 4. The nationalization of all domestic banks and what is left of the investment-banking industry, 5. A tax on private schools that will result in the closure of over half of the private schools in America, 6. The passage of a national gun-registration law that will all but deny the availability of free American's to enjoy their 2nd Amendment rights, 7. The freeze on wages - first, this will start with those "bad" executives and then, in the dark of the night, will trickle-down to impact every American 8. Nationalized medical care - everyone will be entitled to free health care, meaning that the health care will be neither free, nor available to anyone. 9. The mandatory requirement that all teenagers "volunteer" to help people either unable or, more likely, unwilling to help themselves, and 10. The entry of the United States of America into the New Order of Global Partnership.
Viewed through the prism of the Democratic moral standard, I see no contradiction in the events of the first 30 days of Obama's presidency. His actions and those of his supplicants in the House and Senate are consistent with the book written in 1917 by Lenin and Trotsky. To seize power, lie to enough people to legitimize your power. To consolidate power, emasculate and eventually exterminate those people of talent and wealth who pose a risk to the cabal. To sustain power starve your people, deprive them of hope and live off their helpless consent.
Seem over the top? Seem unfair? OK. Show me another explanation that does not contain a contradiction...
In this engaging 1959 interview, her first on television, Ayn Rand capsulizes her philosophy for CBS's Mike Wallace. The discussion ranges from the nature of morality to the economic and historical distortions disseminated about the "robber barons." She also comments on her relationship with Frank O'Connor, provides some autobiographical information and gives her perspective on the future of America.
The yield on the 10-year note touched 3.056% on an intraday basis while the 30-year bond's yield hit 3.764%. Both are the highest levels seen since late November, according to data provider CQG. The two-year note's yield rose back above 1%.
We talked about this yesterday... stand-by for Treasurys to tank as the USG tries to pimp-out more bonds to fund the Inter-Generational Wealth Confiscation Act of 2009 coursing its way through the bowels of Congress like so much bad sausage.
On 12/19/08 , the 30-year Treasury closed at a yield of 2.55%. Less than two months later the yield on the long bond has skyrocketed to 3.754% and is just getting started. ThinkTr the stock market is swimming against a stiff current now? Wait until investors can get 6-7% in a 30 year bond and they pull money out of stocks for the "security" of a 30-year Treasury. Does anyone think, with all of the new Reserve Notes flooding the Money Supply, that we couldn't revisit 1981 which saw 15+% 30-year bond yields?
I forget who it was but a pithy market pundit recently said that before we hit bottom, the price of gold and the DJIA will merge.... Will gold rise to $8,000 an ounce? Will the DJIA drop to 950? The answer to both questions? Yes
Last Wednesday, the Treasury announced that it is bringing back the seven-year note and would be doubling the number of times it auctions 30-year bonds. So, instead of auctioning-off 30-year bonds to the Chinese - I mean, to investors - four times annually, Treasury now plans to do this eight-times a year.
This coming week, the government will auction $67 billion next week in three-year, 10-year and 30-year Treasury securities, a record amount at a quarterly refunding. (For those keeping score at home that is 1.5 million pounds of $100 bills)
So, if your eyes haven't glazed over yet, and you're still able to ask, "Who cares? What is the significance of this news?''
It's really simple. Our printing presses have been running 24-7, doubling the amount of Reserve Notes in the economy, in anticipation of the passage of the biggest government spending spree in the history of the planet. No cabal of power has ever gotten away with such an incredible plundering of private wealth as will the Obama-Pelosi-Reid clan. Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Brezhnev, Castro? Rank amateurs in the profession of plundering compared to the OPR gang.
This spending spree will need cash. When the US Government goes to transfer $3 billion to ACORN as a payoff - I mean, as part of a job creation package - it will need to give cash to ACORN. While the presses have been printing money non-stop, the government needs to vacuum-up that money , in $20's and $100's. It does so by selling promises to investors that if they hand over one form of worthless paper (Treasury notes, green backs, cash!), the government will give them a different form of worthless paper (a 30-year bond or a 7-year bond) with a promise to confiscate the wealth of future generations to pay off the bond in years to come.
So, we're going to flood the market with bonds - the largest offering at a quarterly refunding in history. And what do we think will happen? Do we think the Chinese or the oil states will line up dutifully, and accept our junk bonds as compensation for the mountains of cash they are sitting on?
They might. And they might not. They've got buckets of US dollars, the value of which is diminishing hourly as we flood the market with more Treasury Notes, so they may bet that a future dollar plus interest might be worth more than a current dollar. But, honestly, I don't know how any investor could reach such a conclusion, unless the interest premium gets jacked. This will be classic supply and demand (with of course back-room deals thrown in to encourage the Chinese to play along).
And that is what we are going to see next week... the story, that the yield that these bonds will need to pay to entice the Chinese and Middle Eastern investors will skyrocket, won't get any coverage in the news... If mentioned at all, it will be spun to show how dire our situation is and why, "this Congress needs to act now."
There aren't that many Micky Mantle rookie cards to be found on e-Bay and for that reason, a Mickey Mantle rookie card in mint condition charges a predictable premium. So, what would happen if we saw printing presses flooding the market with "brand new" Mickey Mantle rookie cards? The price would plummet. We would lose trust and faith that the card for which we were exchanging our cash was genuine. We would lose trust and faith that that card represented a value.
By printing money, we are not creating wealth....we are eroding the trust and faith in the currency that served as the communication of value. Our money used to represent the wealth that was created by us which we freely exchanged with others who, too, had created wealth as evidenced by their possession of wealth coupons (cash). Not so any more. We print money, forgetting what money really is. If money no longer serves as a representation of created-wealth, why do we think anyone will place a value in it?
Next week we will see how badly we have violated the trust that was once found in the sign of the dollar. $
"I didn't come here to be partisan, I didn't come here to be bipartisan. I came here, as did my colleagues, to be non-partisan, to work for the American people, to do what is in their interest."
-- Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) Speaker of the House, 1/29/09
"When you can't win on policy, you always turn to process, and then you turn to personalities."
-- Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) Speaker of the House, 1/29/09
"There's a pattern here of Republican economic mismanagement and Democrats stepping up to do what's needed for the good of the country while Republicans acted in a partisan and irresponsible manner."
-- Brendan Daly, Speaker Pelosi's top spokesman, in a memo handed to reporters 1/29/09
"And if nothing is done, this recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse."
"So then you get the argument, well, this is not a stimulus bill, this is a spending bill. What do you think a stimulus is? That's the whole point. No, seriously. That's the point."
-- President Barack Obama, 2/5/09 speaking to a House democratic retreat
"...if we don't move swiftly to put this plan in motion, our economic crisis could become a national catastrophe. Millions of Americans will lose their jobs, their homes, and their health care. Millions more will have to put their dreams on hold."
-- President Barack Obama, 2/7/09
"But at the end of the day, we are passing a bold and responsible plan that will help our economy get back on its feet, put people to work ad put more money in their pockets."
-- Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) Senate Majority Leader 2/7/09
"Legislation of such magnitude deserves the scrutiny that it's received over the last month, and it will receive more in the days to come. But we can't afford to make perfect the enemy of the absolutely necessary. The scale and scope of this plan is right. And the time for action is now."
To live and love life, one must live rationally. Lies and deception are the enemies of life. Lies and deception are the stock of death. Life cannot compromise with death. Nectar cannot compromise with poison.
The "porkulus" package that Obama is pushing, like a five year old holding his breath until he gets his way, is evil. It is the most singular violation of that which we hold dear as Americans - life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Americans in general, and Republicans in particular, would do well to continue to their resistance to this offensive redistribution of wealth. They should resist not because of their assessment of its utter lack of efficacy, although that is a sufficient argument. Instead, Americans should resist this bill because it is evil. We should never compromise with evil. We should never compromise with death.
Some good reading around the web... enjoy and keep fighting.
Whoo Hoo! You heard it here first! Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has declared that paying taxes in the US is now voluntary! Apparently it has been for some time but I guess I missed the announcement. Don't believe me? Just watch the interview below!
So, my liberal friends... Would you care to debate the merits of Senator Reid's argument? Nah, I didn't think so.
What's odd is that I don't see any evidence of blunt trauma to the head of Harry Reid or a barrel of empty Buds nearby...what else could explain this completely irrational fantasy that Reid seemingly believes that taxes are voluntary? Oh, yes! He's a liberal.
Reid is not just any liberal, he is the King of the Liberals. The proverbial Sugar Plumb Fairy of Liberalville.
In Reid's mind, "A is not A". "A is really B". Hot is cold and cold is hot. The reason that this comical clip is so scary is that Reid appears to genuinely believe that the decision to pay taxes or not pay taxes in the US can be described as "voluntary". But then again, look at how fast and loose the Dems use terms like "investment" and "stimulus" and "working Americans" and...well, you get the idea.
Rational, reasonable people who are guided by the product of their minds and not their feelings (or hopes or wishes or prayers) accept reality for what it is. If I drop a brick, currently suspended two-feet above my bare foot, I will soon feel extreme pain and will likely utter, uncontrollably, words I would not want my mother to hear. Liberals don't think that way. "Why does there have to be any pain in the world? Why don't we have a government program that provides steel-toed boots to all citizens of the world? How can we be so careless and cavalier with bricks when people around the world don't have any bricks?"
So, according to Senator Reid:
Paying taxes in the US is "voluntary" but if you don't do it, you can be imprisoned or fined, but paying taxes is still voluntary.
Paying taxes is "voluntary" because your employer only withholds some of your taxes (and if you don't have enough withheld you must pay a fine, unless you choose not to pay your voluntary taxes and are sent to prison and fined or both, twice.)
Paying taxes is "voluntary" because you can deduct mortgage interest before you pay your voluntary taxes.
Who thinks that the cynicism and treachery that characterized Bolshevik Russia in the late teens and early '20's was any more vile and wicked then that which we are hearing in this piece from the senior Senator from Nevada? Utter contempt for the people he is sworn to serve... Don't pee on my back and tell me it's raining.
So I'm left with the question... do 53% of American voters believe what Harry Reid is saying? Really?
Washington’s got another bright idea that most Americans don’t like. 
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