Blog
Quote of the Day: “The economy is so bad the Mafia has started laying off judges.” — anonymous Internet joke
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Subject: The myth of good intentions
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A bill with a nice-sounding title, such as the “Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA),” passes Congress. Later, when its defects come to light, even the law’s victims assume that the bill had “good intentions,” but was “poorly written.” I saw this sentiment expressed often while reading blogs about the CPSIA.
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But I think these assumptions about “good intentions” are a little naive. After all, if Congress really had “good intentions” they would have taken the time and care to write a better bill that wouldn’t have deprived poor children of second-hand winter coats. The fact that they didn’t tells me that . . .
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Their motive was good publicity, not good intentions.
Quote of the Day: “The economy is so bad even people who have nothing to do with the Obama administration aren’t paying their taxes.” — anonymous Internet joke
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Subject: How the budget vote went, what it means, and what to do about it
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On Friday, April, 2 the House and Senate passed separate budget plans. These two budgets differ in detail, but what they share is far more important. Both versions . . .
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* Authorize spending on vast new programs
:::* Make multi-trillion dollar budgets a seemingly permanent condition
:::* Run multi-trillion dollar deficits far into the future
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But, lest we panic, its important to understand that
Quote of the Day: “…the burden of government is not measured by how much it taxes, but by how much it spends.” — Milton Friedman
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Subject: Budget vote due within 48 hours — TAKE ACTION!
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The new budget contains trillions in new spending programs, trillions in debt, and a trillion dollars in tax increases. Speak now against this massive outrage or hold your peace.
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It will do no good to complain to your friends, or the local radio talk show host, or shout at your TV. Tell it to your elected representatives! That can do a little good. Nothing else can.
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If you haven’t sent Congress a message opposing the budget, do so now, using our “cut spending” campaign.
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Use your personal comments to object to all the new spending programs and the big deficits.
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If you have sent such a message, do so again, this time using our “cut taxes” campaign.
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Use your personal comments to oppose the trillion dollars in new taxes that are included in the budget.
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If you’ve used our quick and easy Educate the Powerful System before,
Quote of the Day: “I, however, place economy among the first and most important republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.” — Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), Source: letter to William Plumer, July 21, 1816
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Subject: Oops! The real number may be $101 trillion, plus a bunch of other stuff
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Somewhere in the blizzard of budget numbers and grand spending plans flooding out of Washington, we missed last spring’s report from the Social Security Trustees. Their latest estimate of the unfunded liabilities for Social Security and Medicare is (hold onto your chair) . . .
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Add to that the $9.3 trillion in deficit spending over the next 10 years, as estimated by the Congressional Budget Office, plus the previous national debt of nearly $11 trillion.
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But that may not be the end of it. It’s unclear to us how much the various bailout programs will ultimately cost, and how many of these costs are included in the formal budget proposal. At least three issues complicate the calculation . . .
Quote of the Day: “The only things that are immortal in this world are government programs and cancer cells in petri dishes.” — Jim Babka, President, DownsizeDC.org, Inc.
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Subject: Day of Ruin
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Future historians may someday come to identify one day this week as a day of ruin. Here’s why . . .
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Congress will pass a budget this week. We believe this budget will create a condition of permanent annual TRILLION dollar deficits. Please follow our logic . . .
Quote of the Day: “The difference between death and taxes is death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.” — Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
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Subject: Budget Porn
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The federal government has been doing so well at so many things, such as protecting people from scam artists like Bernie Madoff, that President Obama thinks it can now take responsibility for all areas of human life. The President’s new budget will . . .
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- Expand federal control of your health care
- Expand federal control of your energy supply through “cap and trade”
- Help distressed home owners
- Monitor every morsel of food produced in America, as it moves from the ground to your kitchen
- Involve the federal government in “charity” through a national system of “public service” that may become mandatory for young people
- Expand federal involvement in education through a system of universal pre-kindergarten
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Health care, energy, housing, food, charity, education — that’s EVERYTHING!
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It gets worse.
Quote of the Day: “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”
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Subject: Prohibiting guns and drugs
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There’s a civil war going on in Mexico. It’s the drug cartels, funded by obscene black market profits, versus the government, funded by obscene taxes.
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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Mexico this week. She’s from the U.S. Federal Government and she was there to help. She promised . . .
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* More taxpayer money to fight Mexico’s war on drugs
:::* Gun control laws here in the U.S.A. . . .
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. . .to stop the flow of guns to the Mexican drug cartels.
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Ms. Clinton seems to think that gun prohibition is the way to enforce drug prohibition. She’s right about one thing. Drug prohibition and gun prohibition are
Quote of the Day: “Big Government isn’t the savior. It’s the devil, wearing a chicken suit.” — Jim Babka (Source: Positive Liberty blog, March 21, 2009)
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Subject: Dissecting yet another scam
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President Obama unveiled the latest government plan for buying up “toxic” assets on Monday, and the stock market soared by nearly 500 points. It’s not hard to see why. Investors get the reward, while taxpayers get the risk.
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Please use our quick and easy Educate the Powerful System to ask Congress to block this bailout.
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Here’s what you can say in your personal comments. This latest “toxic” asset bailout is yet another scam, because . . .
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For every $100 used to buy “toxic” assets, private investors will put up only $7, while taxpayers will put in a matching $7 plus $86 in loans. These are no recourse loans. In other words, if a “toxic” asset doesn’t pay off, taxpayers will eat the loss — potentially $93 out of every $100 invested.
Quote of the Day: “The legal tender quality [of money] is only valuable for the purposes of dishonesty.” — Justice Salmon Chase Chief Justice, formerly Secretary of Treasury in President Lincoln’s administration Source: in dissent of Knox vs. Lee (The Legal Tender Cases, 1871)
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Subject: Can we please make use of the 80-20 rule?
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Yesterday I criticized the misdirected public rage about the AIG bonuses. There is already some buzz on Internet about my “strong words.”
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I simply pointed out that these bonuses were authorized by Congress, signed into law by the President, and paid by a government appointed CEO. I also explained how the “Read the Bills Act” could have prevented this from happening.
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Which is more rage-worthy? The fact that Congress authorized the AIG bonuses, or the fact that many politicians didn’t know they had done this?
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We think the answer is obvious.
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That’s why we think people are focusing on the wrong thing.
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This same lack of focus is happening with the Federal Reserve.
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There’s a big push behind Ron Paul’s “End the Fed” bill. That’s good. But what isn’t good is the relative lack of effort on behalf of his far, far more important “Honest Money” bills.
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The “Honest Money” bills are more important because they would pave the way for passing the “End the Fed” bill. Here’s why . . .
Quote of the Day: “There are a thousand striking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.” — Henry David Thoreau
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Subject: Everyone is wrong about the AIG bonuses
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Democratic Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut inserted language into the scam-stimulus bill permitting the AIG bonuses that everyone is now bloviating about. He did so at the request of the Treasury Department. A Congressional majority then voted for the Dodd proposal, and President Obama signed it into law.
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Those upset about the AIG bonuses should focus on the fact that Congress authorized them. All the Congressional grand-standing about how bad the bonuses are is rank hypocrisy. One of two things is true . .
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- Either those who voted for the scam-stimulus bill knew about the bonus provision, in which case they ought to be “falling on their own swords,” instead of castigating the government-appointed CEO of AIG, or . . .
- They didn’t know about the bonus provision, in which case they ought to introduce DownsizeDC.org’s “Read the Bills Act,” so they’ll know what they’re passing before they cast their votes.
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