WFB Jr. Sums Congress Up

Fire of Liberty

I was over at Richard Brookhiser's(a fine historian, author, and writer) blog Right Time, Right Place and came across a forty year old statement by William F. Buckley Jr. on Congress that rings true today. Here's the quote:

"decisions made between nine and five in Washington office rooms, where the oligarchs of the Affluent Society sit, allocating complaints and solutions to communities represented by pins on the map"

Masters of the Universe Strikes Again

Fire of Liberty

Well the video below of Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee(D-TX) speaking on her cell while a voter asks her a question just reinforces the fact that a lot of members of Congress who are advocating Obamacare are not interested or even listening to the concerns and fears of everyday Americans. The people attending these various town halls have already gone through the task of E-Mailing, snail mailing, and the telephone and being stopped by the representative or the senator's staff and feel that a public forum is the most direct contact with their elected official. For years upon years I've heard members of the media complaining about the travesty of low voter turnout and a how the American people are apathetic about politics, and after seeing the video one can understand why such an feeling exists amongst the American people.

Masters of the Universe get mad

Fire of Liberty

I guess members of Congress are having a hard time understanding of who works for who. Just look at the disdain that Rep. David Scott(D-GA-13TH)has towards one of his voters who asked a respectable question of the Congressman on health care. The members of Congress need to learn to get out of their Masters of Universe mentality and start listening to all their voters not folks who are like you or have the same political ideology. Here's a look of an 11 Alive news report on the event:

Fire of Liberty

Fire of Liberty

From the looks of recent town halls on health care, it looks like the Democrats in Congress have run themselves into some soft territory with its efforts to sell President Obama's health care policy to the American people. I guess the large majority of American voters who have health care are very much satisfied with the coverage they have and enjoy the freedom to choose their doctors and make decisions pertinent to their well being.

These individuals can't be too happy about what awaits them when politicians and various special interest groups(you know who you are) keep on insisting on a "Public Option," which is a non threatening term for government paid and run health care. One only has to look at a recent analysis by the Lewin Group, which points out that once the House bill was passed and fully implemented around 2015 individuals and employers would be able to participate in the public option. According to the report, an estimated 103.9 million people would be covered under the public plan due to some 83.4 million being forced out of their current private insurance coverage.

Even more, the elder and disabled voters who are already on Medicare are very fearful of rationing and diminished care due to a massive influx of millions being forced to leave their current plan because lawmakers insist on a "Public Option," as well as a decline in payments to various providers. Much like Medicaid, these individuals would find it more and more harder to be covered by their current doctor(who would most likely stop participating(if they're allowed to)), greater government restrictions on who you can see, or a diminished to shabby medical care from the lack of good doctors who stop practicing and seek greener pastures.

All in all, one can see why the American people are turning sour on Obama's health care plans. You don't have to take my word for it, just look at what the pollsters over at Pollster.Com and the daily tracking polls over at RealClearPolitics.com are showing about the President's fall from grace with regards to this horrible health care proposal. See here:






I for one hope for the American people push this legislation to an deeply dug grave.

Problems selling Obamacare

Fire of Liberty

Well it looks like the Dems and Obama are having a hard time selling or even finding someone to sell the health-care bill. Just look at how this AARP town hall turned out:

Obama Healthcare hell, prt. 2

Fire of Liberty

Here's a great demonstration of what our "health care" has in store for us if the Obama/Pelosi/Kennedy "health care" bill passes.

A Regime of Terror

Fire of Liberty

The video below is a clear demonstration of why the Obama administration and future administrations shouldn't have a inkling to have any "talks" with the mullahs of Iran and their 30 year reign of terror. See here:

Busting through political double-speak

Fire of Liberty

If you want to break through the Obama double speak on "Health Care Reform" then I suggest that you read Shikha Dalmia's terrific column "Obama's Top Five Health Care Lies." Take a look.

Healthcare Hell

Fire of Liberty

I've been looking for a good visual presentation of the extended waiting times that the citizens of this country will face if Congress passes the Kennedy/Obama Healthcare Bill, and I believe that I've found it in the following YouTube clip. Take a look:



So make sure you see it and voice your opposition to this extra step down The Road to Serfdom.

Why they Call it "The Great Depression"

Fire of Liberty

I know that the MSM, President Obama, politicians, and talking heads seem to find the time to say the we're in "the worst economy since the Great Depression," but I wish they'd take some time and look at some economic facts before they imply that our economic rough patch is anywhere near the horrific economic times of the 1930's. Someone who has taken the time to provide such facts in perspective is economist Donald Marron(formerly of the President's Council of Economic Advisers). In a well organized chart(see below), Marron points out the small declines in previous recessions going back to 1929/33 and one can clearly see from the declines in GDP that no economic downturn so far in breaks a sweat compared to the declines during the Great Depression. Here's a look:




*Hat tip to David Marron at http://dmarron.com/

Obama's Tax Games Prt. II

Fire of Liberty

Here's the Cato Institute's take on the issue.



*Hat tip to Veronique de Rugy over at The Corner.

Obama's Tax Games

Fire of Liberty

About a week or so ago, President Obama came before the American people and noted that he was closing the "tax loophole," on the various American corporations that have factories our operations in foreign countries. Now a lot of people in this country might think that this is action is good news because the government is going after "tax dodging corporations," but when you remove the ribbon and wrapping paper from this gift you soon realize that the present is mere socks and underwear. Now while I'm don't claim to be an economist, I do know that this move on behalf of the Obama administration will create far more trouble for this nation and our economy for a paltry some of tax dollars. Luckily, we've got the columns of Robert Samuelson to set the record straight on the economic impact that such an action will bring about. Samuelson lays out a "user friendly" observation on what will occur in his most recent column "The Great Tax Dodge Demystified." Here's what caught my eye:

Myth: Aided by those overpaid lobbyists, American multinationals are taxed lightly -- less so than their foreign counterparts.

Reality: Just the opposite. Most countries don't tax the foreign profits of their multinational firms at all. Take a Swiss multinational with operations in South Korea. It pays a 27.5 percent Korean corporate tax on its profits and can bring home the rest tax-free. By contrast, a U.S. firm in Korea pays the Korean tax and, if it returns the profits to the United States, faces the 35 percent U.S. corporate tax rate. American companies can defer the U.S. tax by keeping the profits abroad (naturally, many do), and when repatriated, companies get a credit for foreign taxes paid. In this case, they'd pay the difference between the Korean rate (27.5 percent) and the U.S. rate (35 percent).

Myth: When U.S. multinationals invest abroad, they destroy American jobs.

Reality: Not so. Sure, many U.S. firms have shut American factories and opened plants elsewhere. But most overseas investments by U.S. multinationals serve local markets. Only 10 percent of their foreign output is exported back to the United States, says Harvard economist Fritz Foley. When Wal-Mart opens a store in China, it doesn't close one in California. On balance, all the extra foreign sales create U.S. jobs for management, research and development (almost 90 percent of American multinationals' R&D occurs in the United States) and the export of components. A study by Foley and economists Mihir Desai of Harvard and James Hines of the University of Michigan estimates that for every 10 percent increase in U.S. multinationals' overseas payrolls, their American payrolls increase almost 4 percent.

Myth: Plugging overseas corporate tax loopholes will dramatically improve the budget outlook as multinationals pay their "fair" share.

Reality: Dream on. The estimated $210 billion revenue gain over 10 years -- money already included in Obama's budget -- represents only six-tenths of 1 percent of the decade's tax revenues of $32 trillion, as projected by the Congressional Budget Office. Worse, the CBO reckons that Obama's endless deficits over the decade will total a gut-wrenching $9.3 trillion.

Now is the time to reform our corporate taxes to a system of lower rates and more economic freedom to place us at a comparative advantage and attract more multi-national corporations to base their operations here. Unfortunately, the Obama administration is willing to destroy the economic recovery and put American multi-national corporations at an economic disadvantage with the other multi-nationals around the world to get some huzzahs and greater taxes.

Obama's Run

Fire of Liberty

One thing that I'm highly concerned about the "nationalized health care" policy being proposed by the Obama administration is the fact that it will place pointy-headed bureaucrats in charge of our medical care thus pushing our decisions and that of the Dr. aside. One only has to look at Canada or the UK to see how such a system has led to a scarcity of "miracle drugs", top of the line and timely cancer care, state of the art technology, not to mention excessive waiting lines. Even more this system leads to the rationing of medical care to the folks who are deemed "eligible" or "viable" for this procedure or that medicine by a government bureaucrat sitting in D.C. I believe that Hugh Hewitt summed up what could be coming down the pike in his May 5, 2009 op/ed "Flu pandemic today, health care rationing tomorrow," in which he noted":

Almost anyone familiar with the push for what is euphemistically called “health care reform” knows that many experts on the left believe that far too many dollars are spent on providing health care to people in the final weeks or months of their earthly lives. If controls can be placed on these expenditures, then more of the government’s resources will be available for younger and much healthier people.

Thus, rationing’s first target is going to be the expensive demands made by the elderly. The new system will simply scoff at the idea of a liver transplant for anyone over the age of 65. Or 60. Or maybe even 55. Liver transplants are expensive.

Rationing’s second target will have to be those very expensive services laid out for the profoundly disabled. Any ideology which rejects the value of even completely healthy late term fetuses (and support for late term abortion rights absolutely means the rejection of that value) is simply not going to be able to support the expenditure of scarce resources on hugely expensive medical interventions on behalf of the severely handicapped.

After the easy cuts are made at the beginning and end of life, expect the government to begin to squeeze on disfavored behaviors via the minimization or withdrawal of medical care for, say, lung cancers in smokers or heart disease among the obese.

I for one hope that such legislation will fall to the wayside, but such can only happen if the American people become aware of what President Obama and his supporters have in store for us.

*Now being a Sci-Fi fan, one can imagine this progressive inspired utopian dream world emerging in our near future.

Mere Pennies

Fire of Liberty

I have to say that President Obama's has added insult to injury to the American tax payer(Amongst them the attendees of the April 15th "Tea Party" protest against high taxes/runaway spending) when he offered to trim a mere $100 million from his whopping$3.6 trillion budget. Now while I could write on and on about the audacity of this proposal, but I figure that folks get so used to reading about such large numbers of money that they lose all perception of how minute the "cut" is to the whole budget. Thankfully, I found the following video that gives an excellent demonstration. Take a look:

An "Outlawing" Mood

Fire of Liberty

Now here's a good column by George Jonas in Canada's National Post that points out how President Obama has entered the planet of the absurd by swearing to the world that the US and the Russians will work at eliminating nuclear weapons by a dramatic amount in the near future. As Jonas notes, the Obama administration might be talking a good game at "eliminating" nuclear weapons, but in reality they are of the opinion that it's in the world's best to outlaw these weapons. Try as they might, the Obama administration will play into the hands of the criminal/terrorist/dictatorial states like North Korea, Iran, China, Russia, Venezuela, and countless others to continue clandestine programs on the development and building of nuclear weapons while allowing nations that follow through on "outlawing" their weapons to fall pray to the threat of elimination by bad actors. Once we start outlawing something that provides us an armor of safety, the more likely someone will use the law against you. Just look at what happened to the folks Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and other places after their respective governments instituted a ban on firearms. (One can even look at the horrific violence being conducted daily in Mexico(a nation with highly prohibitive gun laws) to see how outlawing the citizens rights to a means of self defense can result in greater dangers.) Anyway, check out the column by Jonas for an thought provoking read.

Tea in the Harbor

Fire of Liberty

Aside from the tax code madness, I really believe the American people are becoming fed up with the pols in DC when they turn on the news, pick up a deadtree or online newspapers and read about expensive spending bills, the increase of our taxes(openly or hidden/embedded), extending or creating burdensome/expensive regulations, bailout and "stimulus" extravaganza started by President Bush and kicked in overdrive by President Obama. Such disgust is truly evident with rise of the grassroots Tea Parties throughout the nation and subsequent Tax Day Tea Party on April 15th. So I raise my glass and give a huzzah to those who have grown tired this non-sense going in DC.

Getting Fired Up

Fire of Liberty

With April 15th just around the corner, I felt that the video(via Reason.tv) below would get your blood pumping and raise your animosity towards our inane tax code and the nit-wit politicians that make them and are pushing for more onerous tax laws on top of them. Here's the video:

Animal Spirits

Fire of Liberty

I found this interesting article over at CNN.com about how a the management of Target, Kohl's, and Dollar General have decided to continue the expansion of their stores throughout the nation. Such might not be sage advice during this economic decline to most folks, but for me I applaud folks in the private sector who are willing to make their own financial decisions and avoid the government queue. It'd be nice if a lot more of the companies would take some notes and avoid the intrusive federal government. The only sad thing is that the White House and Congress are passing bills and writing regulations that creates an environment that promotes government subsidies in the billions and government/private partnerships that wipe aside the whole spirit of entrepreneurism and the concept of risk for the safety of the Federal Reserve. Until folks move away from this statist mentality, expect a long haul out of his economic morass. So God's speed to the folks of the private sector who are pushing ahead with plans to get our economy charged back so we can get back on the economic superhighway.

A Econmic Killer

Fire of Liberty

Here's a clip of an interview of President Obama with the San Francisco Chronicle(about to be defunct) in which he notes that under his "cap & trade" program the citizens of the country will face a significant hike in their utility bills in the near future. Now he goes to say such pain will be front loaded and will result in great gains on the future generations, I can't fathom a President placing such draconian measures on the American public during our economic down-turn. Expect a great fight on this one.

Go Bobby, Go !!!

Fire of Liberty

Now while Gov Jindal seemed a little bit stiff when he began his response(Everyone isn't a teleprompter king like "the Messiah") to the President's message to Congress, I have to say that I really like his words. Unlike Obama's general Orwellian double-speak, Gov. Jindal laid out a down to earth talk with clear-cut policies. It's refreshing to hear a politician who believes in the power of the American citizens making the right decisions with their money and life rather than handing down from on high massive tax-bills and and a more intrusive federal government. So the MSM might not like it, I believe it will resonate with a large portion of this nation who sees the response speech. For those who haven't seen it, take a look:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Seek you Inner Reagan

Fire of Liberty

I'd say that today's passage of this absurd $800 billion boondoggle of a "stimulus package", the Obama administration has cranked up the car of state and pulled it out of the drive and onto the "Road to Socialism." This should be the clarion call to all conservatives and our libertarian-leaning brethren to push forward our ideas and promote leaders who believe and vocally express such ideas. I say that we should embrace our "inner Reagan" and start taking back lost ground before the Dems and Obama take to the point of no return. This quest for the "inner Reagan" seems to have spurred the good folks over at the blog Texas Rainmaker who posted a debate between Reagan and Obama. Here's a look:



I sure look forward to a future politician who is willing to tackle our current day problems through a philosophy of economic and political liberty and move us from the socialistic tendencies occurring in D.C. these days.

The Life of a Recession

Fire of Liberty

As I was doing my daily readings today, I came across a link to a blog post over at Reason's Hit & Run by Nick Gillespie which points an excellent chart prepared by author/economist Bruce Bartlett that shows how the government has generally passed anti-recession legislation("stimulus" in our case) right after or shortly after the recession comes to an end. Here's a look:



I realize that Bartlett has the added benefit of hindsight in constructing his chart, but the simple fact is that he makes a good observation on the fact that our political leaders push through legislation in a hurry to demonstrate that they're "doing something" even when they probably should cool their jets and study a proper course in relieving the recession. I'd be nice if we have a larger sample of politicians who think real hard about the consequences of their actions before they act. I just hope we survive financially after the passage of this monster of a "stimulus bill" Congress just pushed through.(Here's hoping the GOP and others vote no on final passage.)

Stimulus fever in Washington

Even though the Democrats seem to have reached a compromise on the "economic stimulus" with some of the more liberal Republicans from the Northeast, the folks over at Reason are having a darn good time poking fun on how politicians can be with regards to a near $1 trillion(twice or even larger) boondoggle. Even worse is the fact that these rascals in DC are quick to claim almost any spending increase and pet-project as needing a stimulus. It reminds of President Reagan's old adage:

"[G]overnment's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."

I just wished Obama and company would follow the Gipper and fight against this natural order of things in DC (and government in general), rather than the same ole song and dance. Obama was offering "Hope and Change" to the enthralled masses during the election but at the look of thing folks will be hoping they have some change in their pockets come four years from now.

Anyway, here's the ad by Reason:

Soft Money

Fire of Liberty

I thought it'd be good to show an excellent chart from the St. Louis branch of the Fed that shows how the "soft-money" policy being pushed by Fed Chairman Bernanke and his predecessor Alan Greenspan has finally brought us before our current economic troubles. I just wish we had an economic duo like Reagan and Volker who kept the money tight, reduced taxes, and kept a firm hand on the spending tiller rather than the spend-a-thon Obama White House/Democratic led Congress, and the soft-money fed. Lord help us all. Here's the chart:

A 21st Century Roadway

Fire of Liberty

Now before Obama & Company gear up on their "new-New Deal" road building projects, they should be paying special attention to projects that will provides us roads and byways that will be beneficial for the nation for many years to come. I myself would suggest that the Obama team pay attention to the work of Robert Poole, Director of Transportation Studies at the Reason Foundation. Here's a good video on Poole's recommendations:

Making Matters Worse

Fire of Liberty

If you want to see how a massive government intervention in our economy during a time of a recession can lead to greater economic woes, then you should take a look at this video from Michael Moynihan of Reason magazine.




Thank God we have the good folks at Reason for providing some sanity during a time in which Congress pushes for greater government largess in our economy.

Ghosts of the New Deal

Fire of Liberty

If you want to see what kind of impact that the $1 trillion massive "prime-pumping" spending policies/projects being proposed by President-Elect Obama and the Democrats, then I suggest you check out the following pieces here and here.

Obama's New Deal Dreams

Fire of Liberty

After looking at the chart below, I believe that Obama shouldn't be so quick to place all his hopes in the effectiveness of the federal government solving our economic woes.(Hat tip to the Corner and Heritage foundation.)

Richard John Neuhaus, 1936-2009 - RIP

Fire of Liberty

I'm praying for Father Neuhaus as he makes his long and awaited journey to the Kingdom of the Lord. Now while I'm a practicing Baptist, I have to say I learned a lot about my own faith and life in general by reading his writings over at First Things. Even with a tough subject like death, Father Neuhaus was able to cut through the sadness and demonstrate why people shouldn't be fearful of their demise but embrace the facts and prepare youself for the day that you hopefully meet the Lord. His best piece on this issue can be found in a article titled "Born Toward Dying" in the February 2000 issue of First Things. So with a saddened hart I send my regards to the family of Father Neuhaus and wish him God's Speed to his heavenly home.