Monthly Archives: May 2009

Quote of the Day: “If Obama scews up health care where will the Canadians go?” — sign seen at a protest event

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Subject: NEW CAMPAIGN! The dirty secret about expensive health insurance

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Do you need health insurance coverage for . . .

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• Maternity care, if you’re a single male

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• Infertility, if you don’t want a family

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• Alcoholism, if you don’t drink

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If you live in New York state then you (or your employer) must pay for all these things, by law,

Quote of the Day: Do not let these 545 people (Congress, President, and Supreme Court) shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take it. . . . Those 545 people and they alone are responsible. – Charley Reese

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Subject: Who’s responsible for the $13,000 tax?

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Every year, politicians and activists unveil plans to make taxes more simple and fair, but they never say anything about the worst tax of all.

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It’s a tax that Clyde Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute estimates will cost $1.3 trillion this year, which is about $13,000 for the average American family.

Quote of the Day: “A centralized democracy may be as tyrannical as an absolute monarch.” — James Anthony Froud (1818-1894) British author and historian Source: Short Studies on Great Subjects, 1872

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Subject: Will YOU be nationalized next?

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The federal government is nationalizing and centralizing in all directions, including . . .

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* Banks
:::* Insurance companies
:::* Car companies
:::* And, as we reported yesterday, they now fund the majority of state government expenditures

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But it isn’t just companies and state governments. The Feds want to nationalize YOU too.

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It’s important for our new members to know that Congress is weaving a net that will ensnare all of us in a centralized database that could not only track where you go and what you do, but also . . .

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What YOU spend on health care, and the kind of treatment YOU receive.

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This scheme started with the so-called REAL ID Act, which would

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Source: http://www.wordle.net/, presented by DC Downsizer Hal Dunn

Quote of the Day: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” — 10th Amendment, U.S. Constitution

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Subject: Your state belongs to the feds

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For the first time ever federal aid now funds the majority of state government spending.

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It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

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* Government was supposed to be local, close to the people
:::* Federal government was supposed to be small compared to the combined states
:::* The 10th Amendment limits the federal government to 20 functions, leaving all other matters to the states and the people. To see the list of these functions, go to DownsizeDC.org’s Enumerated Powers Act campaign
:::Then, click on the “Talking Points” tab.

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It’s bad enough that Congress has exceeded its constitutional limits. It’s potentially worse that they now fund the majority of state spending too. Funding usually means control, so the consequences are huge . . .

MEDIA NOTICE: Today (Friday), Jim Babka is scheduled to appear on “Straight Talk w/ Jerry Hughes,” starting at 3:05 PM Eastern. Details can be found on the DownsizeDC.org blog.

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Quote of the Day: “If it was easy, everyone would do it.” — Hugh Butler, businessman and friend of Downsize DC

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Subject: Membership spiking upwards!

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You hear about it constantly — some organization explodes overnight through the viral power of the Internet. How come that hasn’t happened to Downsize DC yet?

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Well, we constantly hear about people winning the lottery too, but how many winning tickets have you bought? Fact . . .

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There are millions of websites and mailing lists on the Internet. All of them are trying to hit the viral jackpot. Few ever do. Worse . . .

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Some of the things that go viral are inane, while great ideas languish. At Downsize DC we believe that if something of ours ever goes massively viral, it will probably be the silliest or least important idea we ever offered.

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That’s the way of the world.

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In fact, some of the most popular ideas in the small-government movement truly are poor ideas (some are things we’ve tried ourselves in the past). We name no names; point no fingers. We’re NOT the movement’s quality control department. Nit-picking is too common and produces nothing.

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We also understand that members of underdog movements are naturally drawn to “magic bullets” and “get-powerful-quick” schemes. But we must break the cycle if we want results. 

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If building big political movements was easy, everyone would do it. Like a baseball team, we build incrementally – hitting a series of singles, or piling up walks. That produces lots of runs over time. This is our approach. And it’s working . . .

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Downsize DC membership is spiking upwards. Why?

Quote of the Day: “I’ve come to expect that even nobly conceived laws will be manipulated and distorted for private ends. But once in a while I hear a story that gives me the queasy feeling that I’m nowhere near cynical enough.” — Christopher Hayes, The Nation

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Subject: Congress could mess up a train wreck

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One intent of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 was to reduce the use of fossil fuels. But now, because of this law, the paper industry is using more fossil fuels than before.

DownsizeDC.org is pleased to join over sixty other organizations in signing a letter to all members of House of Representatives urging passage of H.R. 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act. The letter appears as a full-page ad on page A5 of today’s Washington Times. Here is the letter:

Quote of the Day:  “Central banking is almost entirely a phenomenon of the 20th century . . . . created as a means of financing the government. . . . If you say central banking is essential to a free market economy, I have to ask you about Hong Kong, which has no central bank at all . . . Yet it does quite well in terms of economic growth and stability.” — former Federal Reserve Chair Paul Volcker, speaking in August, 1990, at a symposium sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City

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Subject: Federal Reserve Counterfeiting Update

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Most counterfeiters don’t confess their crimes, but the Federal Reserve does. The Fed has just revised its March counterfeiting confession UPWARDS.

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When last we reported the basic money supply as of March stood at 1.644 trillion

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Now, as of an update on May 1st, the Fed has increased this number to 1.647 trillion, an increase of 3 billion additional counterfeit dollars.

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The January and February numbers have also been revised . . . HIGHER!

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Remember what this means — every time the Fed creates new dollars your money becomes less valuable. Also remember that those who get the money first (mainly banks, borrowers, and those with government contracts) profit from this legalized counterfeiting at YOUR EXPENSE.

:::How do you stop this? The easiest plan is to

Quote of the Day: “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined.” — James Madison, Federalist No. 45

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Subject: Good news about the “Enumerated Powers Act”

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Representative John Shadegg (R-AZ) has re-introduced The Enumerated Powers Act (EPA). This bill would force Congress to cite the specific constitutional authority for every law they pass. This will be hard, because . . .

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The Constitution only authorizes 20 federal functions. Plus . . .