Author Archives: "Archives"

Congress, March 5-11

Today’s Downsizer-Dispatch . . .::::::Quote of the day:::::::“How did I go bankrupt? Two ways. Slowly, and then all of a sudden.”:::– spoken by a character from “The Sun Also Rises” by Ernest Hemingway::::::Subject: A lever, or a wand?::::::You have a choice. You can buy a lever to move a big object in the direction you want it to go, or a magic wand that will do it for you, with no muss or fuss. Which will you buy? ::::::It may depend on your perception of reality, but the outcome won’t. The outcome will be decided by reality alone, without regard to human perceptions. ::::::The reality is, levers work; wands don’t. ::::::Metaphorically speaking, DownsizeDC.org gets contacted by lots of people peddling magic wands. We hear it all the time . . .

Our Downsize DC project is predicated on a strategy. It’s the thing that matters most.
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:::In recent weeks, various suggestions have been made — issues we should be tackling and arguments we should be making. In fact, these statements have come from a variety of directions. It’s been impossible to respond to them all.
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:::There’s one thing that matters — one root strategy that is more important than all others.
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:::Just one. Only one.

Harry Browne tribute. Show description elsewhere on our blog. ::::::mp3, attached at the end of this blog post.

So far, so good

NOTE: I’ll be on the radio today. Details appear below . . .
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:::Today’s topic . . .
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:::THE LATEST OUTRAGE
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:::John Whitehead recently wrote a shocking but very important piece for the Rutherford Institute. I’m going to quote liberally from it.
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:::This stuff is truly horrifying . . .
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::: “Prior to the elections that transformed the makeup of Congress, the Bush Administration pushed for the inclusion of two stealth provisions into a mammoth defense budget bill. The additions made it easier for the government to declare martial law and establish a dictatorship.”
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:::Did you catch that? Key words: election time + mammoth + defense budget bill + stealth provisions. Yes, that’s a formula for something bad to happen. Sure enough, something bad did happen. Whitehead continues . . .

Today’s Downszizer-Dispatch . . .::::::Please bring this item to the attention of concerned friends . . .::::::There is no reason for the federal government to spend more than it takes in, except in the event of a truly national emergency, such as a _declared_ war. But . . .::::::The federal government has routinely spent more than it brings in, year after year, for many decades in a row, even when there was no war. This is irresponsible. ::::::Funding government through borrowing transfers the costs of today’s government to future generations. This is a sin.::::::Congress does this because it wants to be free to hand-out goodies without having to tax you for it.:::This is wrong.::::::And this behavior means that future taxes, that should go for future government expenses, will instead go to pay the ever-growing interest on the ever-growing national debt. This is bad. ::::::We must change the incentives. We must make Congress pay a personal cost today for doing the bad things they’re doing right now. We have an opportunity to do that, starting right now, and right here.

Right before Christmas, I did a show with Jerry Hughes, host of Straight Talk, on the Accent Radio Network. I’ve been meaning to post it for awhile. ::::::The topic? The War in Iraq. Here’s what I enjoyed about this show: Jerry challenged me every step of the way. It was a frank yet polite exchange. Jerry is a gentlemen. But he didn’t pull punches intellectually. ::::::I wish lots of people could hear this show because many of their concerns were voiced, and, I believe, answered. I wish every bit of the national debate was so focused, so issue-oriented, rather than the partisan grandstanding shoutfests we’re treated to on the talking head’s shows and talk radio programs. ::::::The file is attached in mp3 format to this blog post and has been edited for your listening convenience. My thanks to the Accent Radio Network for providing this clip. ::::::I’m on Jerry Hughes’ show most Fridays at 3 PM Eastern. I encourage you to listen.

No War With Iran Coalition

Today’s Downsizer-Dispatch . . .::::::DownsizeDC.org began life as RealCampaignReform.org (RCR). RCR opposed incumbent protection laws, disguised as do-gooder campaign finance laws. ::::::Our crowning achievement was assembling a group of plaintiffs (led by Congressman Ron Paul) to challenge the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA, a.k.a. McCain-Feingold). ::::::We took our unique, Constitutionally-grounded case, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. We lost, but four of the Justices seemed to resonate with our particular arguments. ::::::Now, we have an opportunity to regain some of the ground we lost to BCRA.