Author Archives: "Archives"

An RTBA Sponsor in Congress?

Today’s Downsizer-Dispatch . . .::::::Media notice: Tune-in to hear Jim Babka on the Jerry Hughes show today. Details below my signature.
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:::Quote of the Day:
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:::”The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced.” – Frank Zappa
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:::Subject: Unrelated bills rolled into one
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:::H.R. 2642 was introduced in June, 2007 to finance military construction and Veterans Affairs. Since then, Congress has added 230 pages of amendments to what was once a 50-page bill. Among the additions is the “Iraq Supplemental” to fund the the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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:::H.R. 2642 is bad, but it could have been worse . . .
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:::Two weeks ago, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to add a 100-page amendment granting amnesty to over a million illegal immigrant farm workers. However, Democrat Sen. Robert Menendez raised a point of order against the amendment, and Majority Leader Harry Reid agreed to remove it.
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:::Perhaps they remembered the backlash when Congress added the REAL ID Act to the Iraq Supplemental in 2005. Perhaps they’re feeling pressure to pass the One Subject At A Time Act (OSTA) and know that adding an unpopular amnesty bill into the Iraq Supplemental would only intensify calls to pass OSTA.
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:::In any case, H.R. 2642 still contains numerous unrelated provisions:

Change the political environment. Recruit more DC Downsizers. Share this message with others.
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:::Quote of the Day:
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:::Remember, it used to be global cooling they worried about . . .
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:::”The continued rapid cooling of the earth since WWII is in accord with the increase in global air pollution associated with industrialization, mechanization, urbanization and exploding population.”
:::—Reid Bryson, “Global Ecology; Readings towards a rational strategy for Man”, (1971)
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:::Subject: The Senate read the bill!
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:::Something incredible happened last night. The U.S. Senate actually read the so-called “Climate Security Act” and a substitute amendment — out loud, word for word.
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:::500+ pages. 10 hours to read!
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:::This legislation, which would impose a huge tax and regulatory system on all carbon emissions, is about 300 pages long. Congress constantly passes bills this large, or larger, without reading them. If it took 10 hours to read this one bill, just imagine what would happen if they had to read ALL their bills.
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:::The pace of legislation, and the growth of government, would slow down. It might even be possible for a citizen group (like DownsizeDC.org), or a reporter, or a talk-show host, or even just an ordinary citizen, to keep up with all the things Congress is doing.
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:::For the very few people who oppose DownsizeDC.org’s “Read the Bills Act” (in our experience, that’s not even one out of every ten people who hear about it) this would be a bad thing. These people think we need more government, even if it must come at the cost of passing legislation that the members of Congress haven’t read, let alone understood.
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:::We think this is irresponsible. Remember,

CORRECTION: In our rush to keep up with the Senate yesterday we provided you with the wrong bill number for the “cap and trade” legislation currently pending for a vote. This won’t matter for those of you who sent messages to Congress. The politicians knew what bill you were talking about. We’ve corrected the number in our campaign. It is S. 3036.
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:::Quote of the Day:
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:::”While commonly known as cap-and-trade, which sounds pithy and free-market oriented, a more accurate but less sexy-sounding name would be a system of tradable rationing coupons. In plain English, that would mean putting a price on greenhouse gas emissions, which would raise costs for anyone burning fossil fuels, whether in a gasoline tank, a coal-fired power plant, or a natural gas stove.”
:::– Steve Mufson, energy reporter for the Washington Post
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:::Subject: Regulating your gas stove
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:::Notice the last words in our quote of the day: “gas stove.” This gives you a good idea of how far-reaching and intrusive the so-called “Climate Security Act” could be. In the short run it may only regulate fossil fuels at their source. In the long-run the regulations are likely to extend to every aspect of life, from the large to the small.
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:::Notice also the name of the bill, and its use of the word “security.” This name reflects the politician’s standard operating procedure. First they incite fear, and then they promise security. It would have been more honest to call it something straightforward, like the “Anti-Global Warming Act.”
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:::More honest still would be something like

Quote of the Day:::::::I love to go to Washington, if only to be near my money.:::~Bob Hope::::::Subject: Urgent danger from “cap and trade” bill in the Senate::::::The U.S. Senate is debating a bill to impose a “cap and trade” system on the U.S. economy. This bill, S. 2191, the “Climate Security Act” would . . .

• Place a cap on the level of CO2 emissions
• Sell permits to businesses that would allow them to emit CO2 in amounts equal to the cap
• Allow businesses to trade and/or sell these permits to each other — allegedly creating a market to encourage innovations that would reduce CO2 emissions
• Use the proceeds from the sale of these permits to create a vast new research bureaucracy designed to help corporations cope with the cap

  As a practical matter, S. 2191 will . . .

Today’s Downsizer-Dispatch . . .::::::Quote of the Day:
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:::In a truly free market, there is no restriction, imposed cost, or arbitrary subsidy on peaceful and honest enterprise. The U.S.A. has never in its history had a truly free market. – Economist Fred Foldvary
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:::Subject: Real Regulation
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:::In a true free market (something we’ve never had) businesses have a clear incentive to provide safety, so they won’t lose customers and employees to their competitors. More importantly . . .
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:::In a true free market businesses are legally liable for the safety of their products, services, and work-places. To limit this liability businesses seek insurance. The insurance providers then do oversight to limit their own risk of loss by making sure that products, services, and work-places, are in fact safe.
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:::This free-market approach to safety regulation is what funds the existence — even in our current un-free market — of something like Underwriter’s Laboratory (UL). UL tests product safety in order to protect insurers from losses. The result is increased safety for you.
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:::The other approach to safety is one driven by top-down regulations and inspections provided by unaccountable bureaucrats and paid for with tax dollars. The problem with this system is that it greatly muddies the water as to whom is actually liable for safety failures.

On today’s (Sunday) Downsize DC Conference Call (radio show), “America’s Health Care Crisis Solved.” It’s the name of a new book by J. Patrick Rooney and Dan Perrin. Mr. Perrin, President of the HSA Coalition, will be my guest.
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:::”Solved” is a big claim — like truth, justice, and the check is in mail. But the plan outlined in this book is quite compelling. Rooney and Perrin apply practical, transitional “market magic” to solve pressing problems, like insuring all Americans and bringing hospital prices down and under control, all while reducing the cost to and involvement of both the federal government and insurance companies.
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:::One might think that a book on health care might be a stale polemic or just plain complicated — a bunch of political double-talk. Well, this book is very practical and the authors “put the cookies on the lowest shelf.” So if you call in today, you can expect a REAL answer that you can understand and use from my guest, Dan Perrin. Here’s how you can participate . . .
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:::Toll-free 1-800-259-9231, or type this address to email me, “CALL at DOWNSIZEDC dot ORG”
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:::My TWO (2) hour show starts at 3:06 PM Eastern (2:06 PM Central, 1:06 PM Mountain, and 12:06 PM Pacific), and I really want to encourage you to tune in, because. . .
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“You can’t beat something with nothing.”
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There is tremendous pressure and, I believe, a likelihood that the next President and the next Congress will dramatically change how health care is financed. Frankly, the system should be changed. It’s too complex, too expensive, and too often a serious illness can destroy a family’s finances. But the changes being proposed by the current politicians will, inevitably, mean greater government involvement, and that will

Quote of the Day:
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:::”I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
:::– Mark Twain
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:::Fact of the Day:
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:::Most mass transit systems cause more greenhouse gas emissions per passenger mile than the average automobile. For example, the Washington Metro produces almost 20 percent more CO2 per passenger mile than the average car. The cost of cutting a ton of emissions through more fuel-efficient cars is near zero. The cost of doing so through rail transit is nearly $5,000 per ton.
:::– Courtesy of Randal O’Toole at the Cato Institute
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:::Subject: May Achievements
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:::In May . . .
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:::* DownsizeDC.org recruited 625 new DC Downsizers which brings us to 4,110 new recruits for the year — 992 ahead of last year’s pace
:::* YOU sent 47,580 messages to Congress, bringing us to 230,298 messages for the year — 83,556 ahead of last year’s pace
:::* We distributed 342,878 copies of the Downsizer Dispatch, bringing us to 2,116,793 for the year — 71,355 ahead of last year’s pace
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:::This is a lot of Education, Recruitment, and Action, achieved at a very low cost, both in time and money. In addition . . .

Quotes of the Day:
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:::”The quotes on your emails keep me checking back. — E.K., SD
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:::”Thank you for the information you are continuously giving. I wish everybody would read it.” — M.B., CA
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:::”I love your positive messages… I send out your emails to 80 friends.” — A.D., CA
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:::”Excellent work. The writing is surperb.” — L.G., IL
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:::Subject: A Free Newsletter For You
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:::Do you value the Downsizer-Dispatch? We want each of these messages to be informative to you. In today’s Dispatch, for example, you’ll learn something new about ethanol and solutions to the challenge of CO2 emissions.
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:::We devote a great deal of time and thought to these Downsizer-Dispatch messages. We strive to present you with the most essential details, using lively and direct sentences placed in crisp paragraphs.
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:::I guess you could say we’re on a constant quest for clarity. Issues must be clear to us before we can make them clear to you. This can be difficult, and we don’t always hit our mark.
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:::Agriculture subsidies are a case in point. The issue itself is clear. Subsidies are bad. But the legislation that generates these subsidies is huge and incredibly complex. We found it challenging to dig out the essential facts and arguments. Even more surprising, that digging led to an unexpected place — a campaign against ethanol subsidies.
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:::But even an issue as seemingly clear as ethanol subsidies is fraught with complexities.

Quote of the day:
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:::”Fear can only prevail when victims are ignorant of the facts.”
:::– Thomas Jefferson
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:::Subject: Good News and Bad News
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:::I have bad news and good news.
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:::We devoted all last week to combating warrantless surveillance and retroactive telecom immunity. We had reason to believe the issue would be shelved if we could prevent a vote before the weekend. No vote was held, but the issue hasn’t been shelved yet.
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:::Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) says a deal is close. We don’t know all the details. We only know what Bond and a couple of his Republican allies have chosen to share with the world. But what we do know isn’t good. Here’s what we’re hearing about the proposed “compromise” . . . 
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:::* If the Executive Branch wants to spy on the private conversations of American residents and businesses with friends, family, colleagues, and service members abroad, MOST OF THE TIME the Executive Branch will need a general order, rubber-stamped by a Secret Court and certified by the Attorney General (AG). This will permit the Executive Branch to monitor and acquire international communications, by Americans, even if they have no ties to groups like al Qaeda.
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:::* But if there are “exigent circumstances,” then the standard will be lowered. The Senator didn’t provide his devilish details. Perhaps no Secret Court would be required. Maybe all the Executive Branch will need is the AG certification of the surveillance.
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:::* Who will define exigent circumstances? Apparently, under Senator Bond’s proposal, the Executive Branch will do that. 
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:::This is a rogue prosecutor’s fantasy.
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:::Senator Bond considers his proposal to be a compromise on the subject of retroactive telecom immunity. So how would Bond handle the existing court cases against the telecom companies? 
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