Yearly Archives: 2009

Quote of the Day: “Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of government. The history of liberty is the history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of the limitation of governmental power, not the increase of it.” — Woodrow Wilson

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Editorial comment: He didn’t practice what he preached, but we should

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Subject: Stunning poll results

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The politicians and pundits keep telling us the Era of Big Government has returned. For instance, the Washington Post claims that increased confidence in government is fostering economic recovery.

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But what happens when Americans are given a real choice to accept or reject government growth? California just had that chance when they voted on several Big Government propositions. The results are stunning…

Media Alert: Downsize DC President Jim Babka will appear on the Liberty Roundtable this Friday. See the details below my signature.

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Quote of the Day “The thing that gets me is we don’t learn a thing from history. We want our institutions to be pure and not corrupt, but yet we do the things we know is going to corrupt them.” Chief Jerry Cameron, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

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Subject: Exporting corruption

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Last month, a South Tucson, AZ, cop who ran his department’s asset forfeiture program was convicted of stealing over $560,000 from it.

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This month, the cop who handles asset forfeiture funds in Spring Lake, NC, was arrested for stealing $2,900. Another cop was arrested for having seized the money in a hotel room under false pretenses.

Quote of the Day: “A political leader must keep looking over his shoulder all the time to see if the boys are still there. If they aren’t still there, he’s no longer a political leader.” — Bernard Baruch

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Editorial comment: What our so-called political leaders need most is leadership from us, their supposed followers.

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Subject: Ask Representative Shadegg and Senator DeMint to reintroduce (and improve!) their health insurance bills

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Last Thursday we started asking Congress to enable Americans to buy health insurance regulated by states other than the one in which they live. Doing this would make health insurance instantly affordable for millions of people. Remember, some states make health insurance vastly more expensive by mandating things like…

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* Maternity care for single males
:::* Infertility treatments for people who don’t want families
:::* Alcoholism therapy for people who don’t drink

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Congress could give millions of people the freedom to sidestep these kinds of state regulations. Now here’s what we didn’t tell you last week…

Quote of the Day: “The layman’s constitutional view is that what he likes is constitutional and that which he doesn’t like is unconstitutional.” — Justice Hugo L. Black Source: New York Times, 26 February 1971.

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Editorial Comment: Justice Black must have been a layman

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Subject: New co-sponsors!

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DC Downsizers have pounded Congress with 32,067 messages in support of the “Enumerated Powers Act” (EPA). Now there’s more good news. EPA has gained another 3 co-sponsors during the past week! Let’s keep pushing…

Quote of the Day: “Security is mostly superstition.” — Helen Keller (1880-1968)

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Subject: Bailouts for trucking companies?!!!

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When we predict bad results from new government programs some people tell us our fears are exaggerated, or misinformed. It happened when we opposed the Iraq war with our “Truth About War” website, and dared to claim that Hussein had NO weapons of mass destruction.

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But we were right.

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Recently, many said we were wrong to oppose the TARP bailouts. It was a crisis after all. Sadly, our fear that TARP would be the proverbial camel’s nose in the tent, seems also to be coming true. Get this…

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A trucking firm, YRC Worldwide, has applied for a TARP bailout (see the third item in this linked blog post).  

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Will they get the $1 billion they’re asking for? Many say no, but we’re not so sure. Here’s why…

MEDIA NOTICES: Downsize DC President Jim Babka will appear on two radio shows this weekend, one today (Friday), and one tomorrow (Saturday). Check below his signature to learn how you can tune in.

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Quote of the Day: “Two roads diverged in a wood. I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” — Robert Frost (1874-1963)

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Subject: Are you serious?

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I hear it all the time, in the emails that flood my In-Box and on the radio shows I do. Everyone thinks we need to replace our current Congress with better people. I always have the same reaction — “Are you serious?”

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What would it take to get even ONE “good person” elected? You’d need . . .
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:::* A good candidate
:::* A great campaign
:::* A ton of money

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And you’d still probably lose because incumbents have powerful natural advantages. But even if you did win, one politician can’t pass or repeal laws. You’d need . . .

Downsize DC President Jim Babka will be joining host Martha Montelongo on KION AM-1460 in Salinas, California on Saturday, at 11:30 AM Pacific Time (2:30 PM Eastern).
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:::Listeners outside of the area can hear the interview on CRN Digital Talk Radio, Channel 5, on the net at www.CRNTalk.com.

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