A new poll from the independent firm Rasmussen Reports finds what Libertarians have said for years – Americans trust their own judgment on economic issues more than that of President Obama and Congress.
Rasmussen reports this week that sixty (60) percent of voters say they trust their own judgment on economic issues more than President Obama’s. Only 30 percent trust Obama more. Distrust of Obama is even higher now than it was when the same question was asked in February. Then, 49 percent trusted their own judgment more than Obama’s, while 39 percent trusted Obama more.
According to Rasmussen, Republicans trust themselves more than Obama by a 75% to 19% margin. The findings for voters not affiliated with either major party are virtually identical. But Democrats are much more closely divided, with nearly half trusting the president more.
Rasmussen also finds 74 percent of Americans trust their own judgment more than that of the average member of Congress when it comes to economic issues facing the nation. Only 13 percent trust the average Congress member’s judgment more, while 12 percent are not sure who knows best.
Distrust of Congress is higher among independents than it is among Republicans and Democrats. Seventy-nine (79) percent of independents trust their own economic judgment more than Congress, higher than Republicans at 77 percent and Democrats at 69 percent.
Libertarians aren’t surprised. They opposed the first round of Republican bailouts of banks, opposed Democrat bailouts of automakers and has opposed both older parties’ consistent record of economic meddling that has brought economic collapse and higher unemployment.
Libertarians were also early and consistent opponents of the Obama “stimulus” package. Sold as a means of keeping unemployment below eight percent, new figures from the Labor Department find Americans are now suffering from a 26-year high record of 9.4 percent unemployment.
That’s why Libertarians have a better idea. Restrain government to its role of policing fraud and force in economic transaction, cut taxes on investments, repeal unneeded and often anti-competitive regulations and free up America’s employers to create the jobs Americans need.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The awful truth about government-run care: It's rationing
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a physician and resident fellow at the independent, non-partisan American Enterprise Institute, writes in today's Wall Street Journal about the inescapable truth of government-run health care -- it can only make health care cheap by rationing your access to it.
You may click here or pick up a copy of the Journal to read Dr. Gottlieb's column. Dr. Gottlieb writes in part:
You may click here or pick up a copy of the Journal to read Dr. Gottlieb's column. Dr. Gottlieb writes in part:
President Obama objects when people use the word "rationing" in regards to government-run health care. But rationing is inevitable if we simply expand government control without fixing the way health care is reimbursed so that doctors and patients become sensitive to issues of price and quality.
Like Medicare's recent decisions to curtail the use of virtual colonoscopies, certain wound-healing devices, and even a branded asthma drug, the board's decisions will be one-size-fits-all restrictions. Such restrictions don't respect variation in preferences and disease, which make costly products suitable for some even if they are wasteful when prescribed to everyone.
Moreover, these health boards prove that policy makers know they'll need to ration care but want to absolve themselves of responsibility. Some in Congress and the Obama administration recently tipped their hand on this goal by proposing to make recommendations of the current Medicare Payment Advisory Committee (MedPAC) legally binding rather than mere advice to Congress. Any new health board's mission will also expand over time, just as MedPAC's mandate grew to encompass medical practice issues not envisioned when it was created.
The idea of an omnipotent board that makes unpopular decisions on access and price isn't a new construct. It's a European import. In countries such as France and Germany, layers of bureaucracy like health boards have been specifically engineered to delay the adoption of new medical products and services, thus lowering spending.
Who are 'the insured'?
Today's Washington Times editorial takes an eye-opening look into the Obama insinuation that America's 45 million uninsured are middle-class families who simply can't get health insurance unless Congress gives in to his proposed government takeover of health care.
Click here to read the editorial, or pick up a copy of the Times if you live in the metro D.C. area. The Times writes, in part:
Click here to read the editorial, or pick up a copy of the Times if you live in the metro D.C. area. The Times writes, in part:
This leads us to ask: Who are the uninsured? In 2006, the Census Bureau used a Department of Labor survey to estimate that there were 46.6 million uninsured people -- about 15.5 percent of the population.
Fourteen million of the 47 million are already eligible for government insurance, Medicaid, but have not signed up. (Pre-existing conditions do not exclude someone from joining Medicaid.) Those 14 million have not signed up because they do not want to pay the small monthly premium that Medicare charges. As a result, many who are eligible for Medicaid wait until they need care before they register. They are effectively insured at all times even when they are not formally enrolled in the program.
What about the uninsured who are not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid? Most are not in dire financial straits. After all, 27 million of the uninsured have personal incomes of more than $50,000.
True, there is a group of people who are borderline poor but not eligible for Medicaid, but the group is relatively small and many (if not most) of those people are illegal immigrants. Unfortunately, government surveys never ask respondents if they are legally in the United States.
If you exclude those who are essentially covered by Medicaid, nearly 70 percent of the remaining uninsured lack insurance for less than four months. Many of those temporarily uninsured are simply switching jobs and waiting for human resources departments to process their paperwork. In addition, two-thirds of the uninsured are between 18 and 34; these folks, on average, have few health problems and are uninsured by choice.
The truly uninsured are, thus, largely young people who can afford insurance but who make the decision to temporarily go without it as they move between jobs. This tends to be for very short periods of time.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Research: Government-run health care MORE expensive than private care
Health care researcher Dr. Jeffrey H. Anderson, writing in today's Investor's Business Daily, reveals the troubling findings of research into government-run health care programs. Despite Barack Obama's promises that his proposed government takeover of doctor's offices will somehow reduce costs, the facts show exactly the opposite is true.
You may click here to read the column. Dr. Anderson writes, in part:
Libertarians have a better idea to reduce costs and ensure quality, affordable, univerally-available care:
* Allow taxpayers to deduct the costs of their health insurance from their income taxes.
* Repeal health insurance mandates that force Americans to pay for treatments they won't ever use.
* Scrap unneeded and unnecessary regulations that keep life-saving drugs and treatments off the market. Such regulations are often supported by health care lobbyists and are intended to freeze out competing products and companies.
* Allow Americans to shop for health insurance across state lines, forcing insurers to compete.
You may click here to read the column. Dr. Anderson writes, in part:
The results are clear: Since 1970 — even without the prescription drug benefit — Medicare's costs have risen 34% more, per patient, than the combined costs of all health care in America apart from Medicare and Medicaid, the vast majority of which is purchased through the private sector.
Since 1970, the per-patient costs of all health care apart from Medicare and Medicaid have risen from $364 to $7,119, while Medicare's per-patient costs have risen from $368 to $9,634. Medicare's costs have risen $2,511 more per patient.
These conclusions are true despite very generous treatment of Medicare. My study counts Medicare's prescription drug expenditures as part of privately purchased care, rather than as part of Medicare. It counts health care purchased privately by Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries (including Medicare copayments and Medigap insurance) among the costs of private care, without counting its recipients among those receiving private care — thereby magnifying private care's per-person costs. And it doesn't adjust for cost-shifting from Medicare to private entities.
Libertarians have a better idea to reduce costs and ensure quality, affordable, univerally-available care:
* Allow taxpayers to deduct the costs of their health insurance from their income taxes.
* Repeal health insurance mandates that force Americans to pay for treatments they won't ever use.
* Scrap unneeded and unnecessary regulations that keep life-saving drugs and treatments off the market. Such regulations are often supported by health care lobbyists and are intended to freeze out competing products and companies.
* Allow Americans to shop for health insurance across state lines, forcing insurers to compete.
Washington Post: Time to privatize the Postal Service
From yesterday's surprising editorial in The Washington Post, which endorses positions long held by the Libertarian Party. You may click here to read the full editorial.
The Post concludes:
The Post concludes:
Europe's increasingly privatized mail services offer exciting examples of postal possibilities in the 21st century. They are leaner and greener than the U.S. service because they work with, not against, the Internet. Switzerland's Swiss Post, for example, employs green technology, providing customers with secure, address-linked online mailboxes where they can view scanned images of their mail and decide whether to virtually "open" it, discard it or have it physically mailed to them. This system has greatly increased efficiency, promoted recycling and decreased junk mail.
Such are the steps the U.S. Postal Service might take if it were a real company and not a hybrid hamstrung by a large and heavily unionized workforce, congressional management, and an antiquated business model. Instead of its short-term cost-cutting measures, it needs to reduce its giant fixed costs to continue its appointed rounds. The Postal Service must reinvent itself for the 21st century, starting with a plan that doesn't rely on the resurgence of traditional mail. To do this will require innovative leadership, freedom from congressional micromanagement and an understanding of the possibilities of new technology that goes beyond building a better Web site.
Monday, June 22, 2009
CBS, New York Times engineer poll to create pro-ObamaCare majority
A recent CBS/New York Times poll showing a majority of Americans wanted to pay higher taxes to fund a government takeover of the health care system clashed sharply with a multitide of polls showing Americans opposed the plan.
The independent, non-partisan Media Research Center reports on why -- CBS and the Times radically oversampled the polls with pro-Obama respondents. While Obama defeated Republican nominee John McCain by only a 53 percent to 47 percent margin, the poll had twice as many Obama voters as it did McCain voters.
Real polls don't lie. Americans agree with the Libertarian Party that the best way to guarantee affordable, quality health care for all is to foster competition in the system, remove unneeded regulations (supported by industry lobbyists) intended to freeze out competitors, allowing people to shop across state lines for insurance and allowing individuals to deduct the cost of their health insurance from their taxable income.
The independent, non-partisan Media Research Center reports on why -- CBS and the Times radically oversampled the polls with pro-Obama respondents. While Obama defeated Republican nominee John McCain by only a 53 percent to 47 percent margin, the poll had twice as many Obama voters as it did McCain voters.
Real polls don't lie. Americans agree with the Libertarian Party that the best way to guarantee affordable, quality health care for all is to foster competition in the system, remove unneeded regulations (supported by industry lobbyists) intended to freeze out competitors, allowing people to shop across state lines for insurance and allowing individuals to deduct the cost of their health insurance from their taxable income.
Barr: Federal regulatory burden hits $1.17 trillion
Over at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution website, 2008 Libertarian presidential nominee Congressman Bob Barr draws attention to one of the major hurdles facing our economic recovery -- the $1.17 trillion cost of complying with government regulations that must be carried by every American citizen and employer.
Removing unneeded and unnecessary regulations would be an important first step toward creating jobs -- and more effective than the Obama approach of throwing borrowed money at the problem.
Click here to read Barr's blog.
Removing unneeded and unnecessary regulations would be an important first step toward creating jobs -- and more effective than the Obama approach of throwing borrowed money at the problem.
Click here to read Barr's blog.
Government takeover of health care to cost $1 trillion over 9 years - for just one part
The Congressional Budget Office released a report last Monday outlining the projected costs of just part of the Democrat plan for a government takeover of the nation's health care system, and it isn't pretty.
Initial estimates have taxpayers forking over $1.07 trillion dollars between 2010 and 2019 for just part of the Democrat plan. Costs will escalate if Congress expands government-run insurance plans, as Obama promises.
"The 10-year cost of reform could approach $2 trillion if the projections are made from the date that proposals are fully implemented. While the projected cost for a new system may reach $1.5 trillion for 2010-2019, it could run significantly higher for 2013-2022, as healthcare costs rise steadily each year," The Hill, a non-partisan newspaper serving Congress, reports Tuesday.
Democrat leaders in Congress are expected to deal with the unaffordable cost projections by simply ignoring the numbers and intead using projections compiled by the White House that are intended to sell the program and not find true costs.
Initial estimates have taxpayers forking over $1.07 trillion dollars between 2010 and 2019 for just part of the Democrat plan. Costs will escalate if Congress expands government-run insurance plans, as Obama promises.
"The 10-year cost of reform could approach $2 trillion if the projections are made from the date that proposals are fully implemented. While the projected cost for a new system may reach $1.5 trillion for 2010-2019, it could run significantly higher for 2013-2022, as healthcare costs rise steadily each year," The Hill, a non-partisan newspaper serving Congress, reports Tuesday.
Democrat leaders in Congress are expected to deal with the unaffordable cost projections by simply ignoring the numbers and intead using projections compiled by the White House that are intended to sell the program and not find true costs.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Somewhere Ken Lay is smiling.
Democrat congressional leaders are expected to deal with the huge price tag of Barack Obama's government takeover of health care in a unique way -- ditching the estimates prepared by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office and replacing them with the nunbers prepared by the politically-appointed White House Office of Management and Budget.
That would be the same White House that prepared numbers showing Obama's hugely unpopular "stimulus" package would keep unemployment below eight percent. It has since grown to a 26-year-high of 9.4 percent.
"The unusual option would give Democratic leaders hundreds of billions of additional dollars to work with as they draft their plans," The Hill reports today. Keep in mind the hundreds of billions of dollars do not actually exist and were invented out of thin air to help sell Obama's increasingly unpopular government takeover of doctor's offices.
"We are going to look at OMB and CBO and make our own decision as to who is right," said California Democrat Senator Barbara Boxer. In other words, the decision as to who has the "right" numbers -- the non-partisan watchdog or the political office trying to sell the program they're studying -- will be made by the same people who thought the bailouts were a great idea.
Democrat promises to throw out non-partisan fiscal studies and replace them by political reports from the White House reminds many of the accounting procedures employed at Enron, the energy giant brought down in a 2001 scandal after is was revealed accountants used shell companies and falsified reports to make the company appear more profitable than it actually was.
That would be the same White House that prepared numbers showing Obama's hugely unpopular "stimulus" package would keep unemployment below eight percent. It has since grown to a 26-year-high of 9.4 percent.
"The unusual option would give Democratic leaders hundreds of billions of additional dollars to work with as they draft their plans," The Hill reports today. Keep in mind the hundreds of billions of dollars do not actually exist and were invented out of thin air to help sell Obama's increasingly unpopular government takeover of doctor's offices.
"We are going to look at OMB and CBO and make our own decision as to who is right," said California Democrat Senator Barbara Boxer. In other words, the decision as to who has the "right" numbers -- the non-partisan watchdog or the political office trying to sell the program they're studying -- will be made by the same people who thought the bailouts were a great idea.
Democrat promises to throw out non-partisan fiscal studies and replace them by political reports from the White House reminds many of the accounting procedures employed at Enron, the energy giant brought down in a 2001 scandal after is was revealed accountants used shell companies and falsified reports to make the company appear more profitable than it actually was.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Obama offers more change...in his positions
CANDIDATE OBAMA, ON VOTER-APPROVED MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAWS
"The Justice Department going after sick individuals using this as a palliative instead of going after serious criminals makes no sense." - Barack Obama, July 21 2007
"I would not have the Justice Department prosecuting and raiding medical marijuana users. It's not a good use of our resources." - Barack Obama, August 21, 2007
PRESIDENT OBAMA, ON VOTER-APPROVED MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAWS
"A federal judge sentenced the owner of a Central California medical marijuana dispensary to a year and a day in prison Thursday, spurning the Obama administration's push to give the defendant five years imprisonment in a test case of new federal policies toward state pot laws...Federal prosecutors in California, including U.S. Attorney Joseph Russoniello of San Francisco, have argued that marijuana dispensaries - even licensed businesses approved by local authorities - are commercial enterprises that violate state as well as federal law and can still be prosecuted under Obama administration policy." - "366-day sentence for pot dispensary owner," The San Francisco Chronicle, June 12, 2009
"The Justice Department going after sick individuals using this as a palliative instead of going after serious criminals makes no sense." - Barack Obama, July 21 2007
"I would not have the Justice Department prosecuting and raiding medical marijuana users. It's not a good use of our resources." - Barack Obama, August 21, 2007
PRESIDENT OBAMA, ON VOTER-APPROVED MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAWS
"A federal judge sentenced the owner of a Central California medical marijuana dispensary to a year and a day in prison Thursday, spurning the Obama administration's push to give the defendant five years imprisonment in a test case of new federal policies toward state pot laws...Federal prosecutors in California, including U.S. Attorney Joseph Russoniello of San Francisco, have argued that marijuana dispensaries - even licensed businesses approved by local authorities - are commercial enterprises that violate state as well as federal law and can still be prosecuted under Obama administration policy." - "366-day sentence for pot dispensary owner," The San Francisco Chronicle, June 12, 2009
Government proposes taxing cell phones as a "fringe benefit"
"If your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime." - Barack Obama, Feb. 24, 2009
If you take a call from your children on your company cell phone, the IRS now wants its cut.
Under a new proposal from the Internal Revenue Service, the use of employer-issued cell phones will now be federally taxed as a fringe benefit. According to The Wall Street Journal, a worker in the 28% tax bracket, whose wireless device costs the company $1,500 a year, could see $105 in additional federal income tax. To avoid the new tax, you must provide the IRS with proof you used personal cell phones, not the company phone, for non-business calls during work hours.
Sort of makes "not one single dime" sound a lot like "read my lips."
If you take a call from your children on your company cell phone, the IRS now wants its cut.
Under a new proposal from the Internal Revenue Service, the use of employer-issued cell phones will now be federally taxed as a fringe benefit. According to The Wall Street Journal, a worker in the 28% tax bracket, whose wireless device costs the company $1,500 a year, could see $105 in additional federal income tax. To avoid the new tax, you must provide the IRS with proof you used personal cell phones, not the company phone, for non-business calls during work hours.
Sort of makes "not one single dime" sound a lot like "read my lips."
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Obama's new GM head: "I don't know anything about cars."
Edward E. Whitacre, Barack Obama's appointee to run General Motors, admitted to Bloomberg News Wednesday "I don't know anything about cars." Upon taking over GM in March, Obama forced out then-CEO Rick Wagoner, credited by many for stabilizing losses and cutting costs but criticized by political and environmentalist groups for cutting back on the production of poor-selling hybrids to stem financial losses.
That isn't doing much to instill confidence among some investors and analysts. CBS News reports telecom industry analyst Victor Schnee called Whitacre's appointment "bizarre." Although Schnee admits that Whitacre has accomplished a great deal, he does not have much confidence in his ability to run GM better than previous management, according to CBS.
Whitacre's White House appointment as GM CEO follows Obama's announcement of Brian Deese as the White House's new auto industry consultant. Deese, 31, is currently attending law school and has never been in an auto plant, but was a loyal Obama campaign staffer.
Wouldn't it be a better idea to let people who know the auto industry run the auto industry and produce the kind of cars Americans like, instead of turning the industry into a politically-run exercise in producing politically-correct but poor-selling hybrid cars and keeping an important Democrat Party financier (the UAW) afloat with taxpayer funds?
That isn't doing much to instill confidence among some investors and analysts. CBS News reports telecom industry analyst Victor Schnee called Whitacre's appointment "bizarre." Although Schnee admits that Whitacre has accomplished a great deal, he does not have much confidence in his ability to run GM better than previous management, according to CBS.
Whitacre's White House appointment as GM CEO follows Obama's announcement of Brian Deese as the White House's new auto industry consultant. Deese, 31, is currently attending law school and has never been in an auto plant, but was a loyal Obama campaign staffer.
Wouldn't it be a better idea to let people who know the auto industry run the auto industry and produce the kind of cars Americans like, instead of turning the industry into a politically-run exercise in producing politically-correct but poor-selling hybrid cars and keeping an important Democrat Party financier (the UAW) afloat with taxpayer funds?
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
The stimulus isn't working
From the Tuesday Washington Times editorial, which clearly states what Libertarians have said since Obama revealed the details of his government spending explosion -- his "stimulus" won't create jobs, it will only destroy them and delay our eventual recovery.
You may read the entire editorial by clicking here:
You may read the entire editorial by clicking here:
The Obama administration was out in full force defending the stimulus this weekend. The mantra is that the economy is getting better but Americans need to be patient to see progress. The problem is that, so far, there hasn't been any economic progress.
White House economic adviser Austan Goolsbee promised on "Fox News Sunday": "It's going to take more than a few months to turn it around." That contradicts White House economic adviser Lawrence H. Summers' promise in January that the economy would start improving "within weeks" so long as the president's $787 billion stimulus was passed.
The stimulus actually has dampened economic projections. In January, before the stimulus was passed, 53 business economists and forecasters surveyed by the Wall Street Journal expected gross domestic product (GDP) for the third quarter (July through September) to rise by 1.2 percent at an annual rate. Predictions became gloomier after the stimulus passed in March. In May, these experts forecast only a 0.6 growth rate for the third quarter...
...The Obama administration is trying to rewrite history even as it is being made. The stimulus appears only to have delayed the recovery that economists were expecting before it was passed.
LA Times: Children achieving more in schools freed of government oversight
The Los Angeles Times takes a look at the American Indian Public Charter and its two sibling schools, independent charter government schools, are outperforming schools that operate under government supervision.
It's an eye-opening look into what education reform -- a top Libertarian issue and one championed by Nobe Prize-winning libertarian economist Milton Friedman -- can achieve. The Times reports, in part:
It's an eye-opening look into what education reform -- a top Libertarian issue and one championed by Nobe Prize-winning libertarian economist Milton Friedman -- can achieve. The Times reports, in part:
Not many schools in California recruit teachers with language like this: "We are looking for hard working people who believe in free market capitalism. . . . Multicultural specialists, ultra liberal zealots and college-tainted oppression liberators need not apply."...
...School administrators take pride in their record of frequently firing teachers they consider to be underperforming. Unions are embraced with the same warmth accorded "self-esteem experts, panhandlers, drug dealers and those snapping turtles who refuse to put forth their best effort," to quote the school's website.
Students, almost all poor, wear uniforms and are subject to disciplinary procedures redolent of military school. One local school district official was horrified to learn that a girl was forced to clean the boys' restroom as punishment...
...The oldest of the American Indian schools, the middle school known simply as American Indian Public Charter School, has an API of 967. Its two siblings -- American Indian Public Charter School II (also a middle school) and American Indian Public High School -- are not far behind.
Among the thousands of public schools in California, only four middle schools and three high schools score higher. None of them serves mostly underprivileged children.
At American Indian, the largest ethnic group is Asian, followed by Latinos and African Americans. Some of the schools' critics contend that high-scoring Asian Americans are driving the test scores, but blacks and Latinos do roughly as well -- in fact, better on some tests.
That makes American Indian a rarity in American education, defying the axiom that poor black and Latino children will lag behind others in school....
Monday Message: Alan Grayson's latest "Mickey Mouse" idea
Dear friend,
I hope you enjoyed your Memorial Day holiday, but should vacation be enforced by the government?
You may remember Congressman Alan Grayson as the camera-loving Florida Democrat who became a YouTube sensation after he was hammered in a nationally-televised interview for proposing a bill giving Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner sole power to decide for himself when private sector employees earned “unreasonable” paychecks and to confiscate the money -- and claiming such authority could be found in the Constitution.
Think of him as Joe Biden without humility, weighty intellect or quiet restraint.
Well, now he’s back with yet another economically illiterate bill that once again has the federal government micromanaging the business practices of private employers.
His newest power grab, H.R. 2564, The Paid Vacation Act, forces every private business in America with more than 100 employees to give everyone a free week of paid vacation. That government mandate increases to two weeks in subsequent years.
You may reach his office at 202-225-2176 to let him know what you think of forcing expensive new mandates on struggling employers during a recession.
You don’t need to conduct a study to see what havoc such laws wreak on the economy because they are already in force countries like France, where then-ruling Socialist Party lawmakers long ago instituted “free vacation” proposals like Grayson’s.
In case you’re not aware, France suffers from higher unemployment, slower job growth and a slower economic recovery than the United States. The shortages of jobs have even led to deadly riots in Paris.
Even more disturbing than Grayson’s belief that the same people who brought us the IRS, Indian reservations and the Hurricane Katrina response are fit to centrally plan the economy is what inspired him to propose the legislation.
Grayson tells The Politico he got the idea for the bill while visiting Disney World, and deciding the government should let everyone join him.
“There’s a reason why Disney World is the happiest place on Earth: The people who go there are on vacation,” said Grayson.
Really. He decided to try and force struggling employers to lose more money in a recession because he thinks the government should make sure we all spend more time in a children’s amusement park. Again, he can be reached at 202-225-2176.
While I’m sure we’d all like a free week at the “Happiest Place on Earth,” most people realize not only is his scheme “goofy,” but it would push already high unemployment even higher and thwart economic recovery.
It’s also a little troubling when a member of Congress looks to a fictional cartoon mouse for economic policy. No word yet as to whether he’ll file banking reform legislation based on an old episode of “DuckTales.”
Actually, the inspiration for this slump towards socialism may be a bit more cynical than Grayson’s stated desire to ride in oversized teacups at someone else’s expense.
Grayson represents the Orlando area, where the local tourist-reliant economy is taking a quite a hit in the current recession. Coming up with some way to get more people to visit vacation spots would be a nice way to buff those re-election credentials.
So just how do you get more people traveling and pumping money into tourist havens when the economy just doesn’t allow it? The best and proven way would be to lower taxes and curb government spending, and then grant regulatory relief.
But that’s hard. It also prevents you from buying really cool stuff with other people’s money and you can’t take personally credit for it. That’s why you just threaten employers with the force of government if they don’t pay for everyone to have a free vacation.
The tourism industry is already on board. Grayson spokesman Todd Jurkowski tells The Politico the U.S. Tour Operators Association and the Adventure Travel Trade Association are both on board. Other tourism and, unsurprisingly, labor groups are expected to sign on in the coming days.
As you can imagine, while dictating “free vacation” policies to an entire nation would drive down productivity and economic growth and spike unemployment as more struggling employers are pushed into bankruptcy, all that “free” vacation money would work out quite well for a few tourist havens.
At least for a little while.
As Margaret Thatcher brilliantly pointed out, the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money. While Grayson’s socialist ideas may do a passable job of redistributing other people’s wealth to his district for the short term, the large-scale economic rot will eventually spread to Orlando as more and more employers are forced out of business by the rising costs of regulation.
Few industries bear the brunt of economic slump worse than the tourist industry. Foreclosure, unemployment and “underwater mortgage” rates are often higher in hurting communities like Orlando and Las Vegas.
But while any possible short-term spike may help in the current economy, Grayson’s socialist policies will leave the Orlando area reeling as the national economy looks more and more like the French model he seeks to impose by force – high unemployment, little innovation, large job losses, frequent strikes and deadly riots and even slower recovery to downturns. It also thwarts efforts underway in many tourist-reliant communities to diversify the employment base and create jobs that aren’t as easily buffeted by economic spikes and slumps, hurting residents in places like Orlando.
The Society for Human Resource Management has already responded with a warning that “a one-size-fits-all, government-imposed mandate is not the answer,” The Politico reports.
National Small Business Association also warns of indirect consequences, pointing out companies will realize a few employees over the 100-employee mark will burden the company with massive personnel costs – and simply stop hiring.
Now I’m not sure whether Grayson looked at a country where workers spend more time turning over burning cars than turning out products and said to himself “we can do that,” or whether he gets his ideas from a talking mouse who wears a shirt with no pants, but both lead to economic suffering for all Americans, including his own district. If you’d like to know which, you may reach his office at 202-225-2176.
Real prosperity comes from an economy where employers, entrepreneurs and innovators are free to create widespread wealth and jobs without government interference. Economically underperforming European socialist states – or fantasylands inspired by children’s fiction – are no place to come up with more already-failed policies that compound human suffering by forcing more and more currently struggling employers out of business.
With optimism,
Donny Ferguson
Director of Communications
Libertarian Party
Donny.Ferguson@lp.org
I hope you enjoyed your Memorial Day holiday, but should vacation be enforced by the government?
You may remember Congressman Alan Grayson as the camera-loving Florida Democrat who became a YouTube sensation after he was hammered in a nationally-televised interview for proposing a bill giving Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner sole power to decide for himself when private sector employees earned “unreasonable” paychecks and to confiscate the money -- and claiming such authority could be found in the Constitution.
Think of him as Joe Biden without humility, weighty intellect or quiet restraint.
Well, now he’s back with yet another economically illiterate bill that once again has the federal government micromanaging the business practices of private employers.
His newest power grab, H.R. 2564, The Paid Vacation Act, forces every private business in America with more than 100 employees to give everyone a free week of paid vacation. That government mandate increases to two weeks in subsequent years.
You may reach his office at 202-225-2176 to let him know what you think of forcing expensive new mandates on struggling employers during a recession.
You don’t need to conduct a study to see what havoc such laws wreak on the economy because they are already in force countries like France, where then-ruling Socialist Party lawmakers long ago instituted “free vacation” proposals like Grayson’s.
In case you’re not aware, France suffers from higher unemployment, slower job growth and a slower economic recovery than the United States. The shortages of jobs have even led to deadly riots in Paris.
Even more disturbing than Grayson’s belief that the same people who brought us the IRS, Indian reservations and the Hurricane Katrina response are fit to centrally plan the economy is what inspired him to propose the legislation.
Grayson tells The Politico he got the idea for the bill while visiting Disney World, and deciding the government should let everyone join him.
“There’s a reason why Disney World is the happiest place on Earth: The people who go there are on vacation,” said Grayson.
Really. He decided to try and force struggling employers to lose more money in a recession because he thinks the government should make sure we all spend more time in a children’s amusement park. Again, he can be reached at 202-225-2176.
While I’m sure we’d all like a free week at the “Happiest Place on Earth,” most people realize not only is his scheme “goofy,” but it would push already high unemployment even higher and thwart economic recovery.
It’s also a little troubling when a member of Congress looks to a fictional cartoon mouse for economic policy. No word yet as to whether he’ll file banking reform legislation based on an old episode of “DuckTales.”
Actually, the inspiration for this slump towards socialism may be a bit more cynical than Grayson’s stated desire to ride in oversized teacups at someone else’s expense.
Grayson represents the Orlando area, where the local tourist-reliant economy is taking a quite a hit in the current recession. Coming up with some way to get more people to visit vacation spots would be a nice way to buff those re-election credentials.
So just how do you get more people traveling and pumping money into tourist havens when the economy just doesn’t allow it? The best and proven way would be to lower taxes and curb government spending, and then grant regulatory relief.
But that’s hard. It also prevents you from buying really cool stuff with other people’s money and you can’t take personally credit for it. That’s why you just threaten employers with the force of government if they don’t pay for everyone to have a free vacation.
The tourism industry is already on board. Grayson spokesman Todd Jurkowski tells The Politico the U.S. Tour Operators Association and the Adventure Travel Trade Association are both on board. Other tourism and, unsurprisingly, labor groups are expected to sign on in the coming days.
As you can imagine, while dictating “free vacation” policies to an entire nation would drive down productivity and economic growth and spike unemployment as more struggling employers are pushed into bankruptcy, all that “free” vacation money would work out quite well for a few tourist havens.
At least for a little while.
As Margaret Thatcher brilliantly pointed out, the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money. While Grayson’s socialist ideas may do a passable job of redistributing other people’s wealth to his district for the short term, the large-scale economic rot will eventually spread to Orlando as more and more employers are forced out of business by the rising costs of regulation.
Few industries bear the brunt of economic slump worse than the tourist industry. Foreclosure, unemployment and “underwater mortgage” rates are often higher in hurting communities like Orlando and Las Vegas.
But while any possible short-term spike may help in the current economy, Grayson’s socialist policies will leave the Orlando area reeling as the national economy looks more and more like the French model he seeks to impose by force – high unemployment, little innovation, large job losses, frequent strikes and deadly riots and even slower recovery to downturns. It also thwarts efforts underway in many tourist-reliant communities to diversify the employment base and create jobs that aren’t as easily buffeted by economic spikes and slumps, hurting residents in places like Orlando.
The Society for Human Resource Management has already responded with a warning that “a one-size-fits-all, government-imposed mandate is not the answer,” The Politico reports.
National Small Business Association also warns of indirect consequences, pointing out companies will realize a few employees over the 100-employee mark will burden the company with massive personnel costs – and simply stop hiring.
Now I’m not sure whether Grayson looked at a country where workers spend more time turning over burning cars than turning out products and said to himself “we can do that,” or whether he gets his ideas from a talking mouse who wears a shirt with no pants, but both lead to economic suffering for all Americans, including his own district. If you’d like to know which, you may reach his office at 202-225-2176.
Real prosperity comes from an economy where employers, entrepreneurs and innovators are free to create widespread wealth and jobs without government interference. Economically underperforming European socialist states – or fantasylands inspired by children’s fiction – are no place to come up with more already-failed policies that compound human suffering by forcing more and more currently struggling employers out of business.
With optimism,
Donny Ferguson
Director of Communications
Libertarian Party
Donny.Ferguson@lp.org
Obama's nationalization of automakers destroys local business
The following letter to the editor was penned by George C. Joseph, owner of Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu in Melbourne, Florida. The local newspaper reports on the destruction of his business here. His family will likely have to declare bankruptcy, and his 50 employees will now be unemployed.
My name is George C. Joseph. I am the sole owner of Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu, a family owned and operated business in Melbourne, Florida. My family bought and paid for this automobile franchise 35 years ago in 1974. I am the second generation to manage this business.
We currently employ 50+ people and before the economic slowdown we employed over 70 local people. We are active in the community and the local chamber of commerce. We deal with several dozen local vendors on a day to day basis and many more during a month. All depend on our business for part of their livelihood. We are financially strong with great respect in the market place and community. We have strong local presence and stability.
I work every day the store is open, nine to ten hours a day. I know most of our customers and all our employees. Sunshine Dodge is my life.
On Thursday, May 14, 2009 I was notified that my Dodge franchise, that we purchased, will be taken away from my family on June 9, 2009 without compensation and given to another dealer at no cost to them. My new vehicle inventory consists of 125 vehicles with a financed balance of 3 million dollars. This inventory becomes impossible to sell with no factory incentives beyond June 9, 2009. Without the Dodge franchise we can no longer sell a new Dodge as "new," nor will we be able to do any warranty service work. Additionally, my Dodge parts inventory, (approximately $300,000.) is virtually worthless without the ability to perform warranty service. There is no offer from Chrysler to buy back the vehicles or parts inventory.
Our facility was recently totally renovated at Chrysler's insistence, incurring a multi-million dollar debt in the form of a mortgage at Sun Trust Bank.
HOW IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CAN THIS HAPPEN?
THIS IS A PRIVATE BUSINESS NOT A GOVERNMENT ENTITY
This is beyond imagination! My business is being stolen from me through NO FAULT OF OUR OWN. We did NOTHING wrong.
This atrocity will most likely force my family into bankruptcy. This will also cause our 50+ employees to be unemployed. How will they provide for their families? This is a total economic disaster.
HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN IN A FREE MARKET ECONOMY IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?
I beseech your help, and look forward to your reply. Thank you.
Sincerely,
George C. Joseph
President & Owner
My name is George C. Joseph. I am the sole owner of Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu, a family owned and operated business in Melbourne, Florida. My family bought and paid for this automobile franchise 35 years ago in 1974. I am the second generation to manage this business.
We currently employ 50+ people and before the economic slowdown we employed over 70 local people. We are active in the community and the local chamber of commerce. We deal with several dozen local vendors on a day to day basis and many more during a month. All depend on our business for part of their livelihood. We are financially strong with great respect in the market place and community. We have strong local presence and stability.
I work every day the store is open, nine to ten hours a day. I know most of our customers and all our employees. Sunshine Dodge is my life.
On Thursday, May 14, 2009 I was notified that my Dodge franchise, that we purchased, will be taken away from my family on June 9, 2009 without compensation and given to another dealer at no cost to them. My new vehicle inventory consists of 125 vehicles with a financed balance of 3 million dollars. This inventory becomes impossible to sell with no factory incentives beyond June 9, 2009. Without the Dodge franchise we can no longer sell a new Dodge as "new," nor will we be able to do any warranty service work. Additionally, my Dodge parts inventory, (approximately $300,000.) is virtually worthless without the ability to perform warranty service. There is no offer from Chrysler to buy back the vehicles or parts inventory.
Our facility was recently totally renovated at Chrysler's insistence, incurring a multi-million dollar debt in the form of a mortgage at Sun Trust Bank.
HOW IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CAN THIS HAPPEN?
THIS IS A PRIVATE BUSINESS NOT A GOVERNMENT ENTITY
This is beyond imagination! My business is being stolen from me through NO FAULT OF OUR OWN. We did NOTHING wrong.
This atrocity will most likely force my family into bankruptcy. This will also cause our 50+ employees to be unemployed. How will they provide for their families? This is a total economic disaster.
HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN IN A FREE MARKET ECONOMY IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?
I beseech your help, and look forward to your reply. Thank you.
Sincerely,
George C. Joseph
President & Owner
Obama's economic lawlessness
“We spent a fortune to elect Barack Obama — $60.7 million to be exact — and we’re proud of it,” Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, bragged in the May 10 Las Vegas Sun.
And as George Will points out in the May 14 Washington Post, they're getting their money's worth -- and at taxpayer expense -- thanks to a corrupt, lawless Obama administration. He also delves into Obama's corrupt bullying of Chrysler's secured creditors, cowing them into accepting pennies on the dollar while the labor unions who spent millions to elect Obama got better deals despite being lesser creditors.
Click here to read Will's full column, or if it's offered in your area, pick up a copy of The Washington Post. Will writes, in part:
Click here to read George Will's column.
And as George Will points out in the May 14 Washington Post, they're getting their money's worth -- and at taxpayer expense -- thanks to a corrupt, lawless Obama administration. He also delves into Obama's corrupt bullying of Chrysler's secured creditors, cowing them into accepting pennies on the dollar while the labor unions who spent millions to elect Obama got better deals despite being lesser creditors.
Click here to read Will's full column, or if it's offered in your area, pick up a copy of The Washington Post. Will writes, in part:
Anyone, said T.S. Eliot, could carve a goose, were it not for the bones. And anyone could govern as boldly as his whims decreed, were it not for the skeletal structure that keeps civil society civil -- the rule of law. The Obama administration is bold. It also is careless regarding constitutional values and is acquiring a tincture of lawlessness.
In February, California's Democratic-controlled Legislature, faced with a $42 billion budget deficit, trimmed $74 million (1.4 percent) from one of the state's fastest-growing programs, which provides care for low-income and incapacitated elderly people and which cost the state $5.42 billion last year. The Los Angeles Times report that "loose oversight and bureaucratic inertia have allowed fraud to fester."
But the Service Employees International Union collects nearly $5 million a month from 223,000 caregivers who are members. And the Obama administration has told California that unless the $74 million in cuts are rescinded, it will deny the state $6.8 billion in stimulus money.
Such a federal ukase (the word derives from czarist Russia; how appropriate) to a state legislature is a sign of the administration's dependency agenda -- maximizing the number of people and institutions dependent on the federal government. For the first time, neither sales nor property nor income taxes are the largest source of money for state and local governments. The federal government is. ...
...The Obama administration's agenda of maximizing dependency involves political favoritism cloaked in the raiment of "economic planning" and "social justice" that somehow produce results superior to what markets produce when freedom allows merit to manifest itself, and incompetence to fail. The administration's central activity -- the political allocation of wealth and opportunity -- is not merely susceptible to corruption, it is corruption.
Click here to read George Will's column.
Your Monday Message: Independents not buying Obama's rhetoric
From May 11
Dear friend,
Not only is Libertarian Party membership growing, new polls show there are millions more potential Libertarians out there.
One poll released this morning by Rasmussen shows, despite a deep financial crisis and the election of a left-wing president since they last asked in 2006, political independents still see “big government” as a greater threat than “big business” by a two-to-one margin.
The poll asked 1,007 adults “which of the following will be the biggest threat to the country in the future –”big business”, big labor or “big government?” Fifty-nine percent (59%) of politically independent Americans viewed “big government” as the greatest threat, virtually unchanged from the 60 percent measured the last time the question was asked in 2006 – before the financial crisis and election of Barack Obama.
That’s great news.
Independent voters believed Candidate Obama when he said he would be mainstream. Their trusting votes gave him a narrow victory.
But now that the real Barack Obama has revealed himself, they’re not following his bootlegger turn toward the radical left. They still believe the same Big Government that Obama promises as our global salvation will be America’s undoing.
Here’s the better news.
Only one party in America agrees with independent voters, and that is the Libertarian Party. Republicans spent 14 years fattening government with their ever-escalating budgets. Even the Republican “alternative budget” called for massive deficits and bigger spending.
Once again, Libertarians are the only mainstream party in America. Only Libertarians will reduce the size and cost of government.
Opposition to “big government” grew among grassroots Republicans, though their party leadership doesn’t seem to share that view, based on their “alternative budget.” In 2006, Republicans feared “big government” more than “big business” by a 68 percent to 18 percent margin. That grew in 2009 to 80 percent to 10 percent.
It’s no secret grassroots Republicans -- and some Democrats -- oppose Big Government and want a party that agrees with them. Once again, the Libertarian Party is the only party that proposes cutting spending. We don’t follow the still-vibrant Republican tradition of making government bigger and costlier each year.
Are you on board with America’s only mainstream political party, the only party that still agrees with Americans that Big Government threatens our liberty and prosperity?
If you’re already a Libertarian Party member, thank you!
If not, click here right now to join today!
With optimism,
Donny Ferguson
Director of Communications
Libertarian Party
Donny.Ferguson@lp.org
Dear friend,
Not only is Libertarian Party membership growing, new polls show there are millions more potential Libertarians out there.
One poll released this morning by Rasmussen shows, despite a deep financial crisis and the election of a left-wing president since they last asked in 2006, political independents still see “big government” as a greater threat than “big business” by a two-to-one margin.
The poll asked 1,007 adults “which of the following will be the biggest threat to the country in the future –”big business”, big labor or “big government?” Fifty-nine percent (59%) of politically independent Americans viewed “big government” as the greatest threat, virtually unchanged from the 60 percent measured the last time the question was asked in 2006 – before the financial crisis and election of Barack Obama.
That’s great news.
Independent voters believed Candidate Obama when he said he would be mainstream. Their trusting votes gave him a narrow victory.
But now that the real Barack Obama has revealed himself, they’re not following his bootlegger turn toward the radical left. They still believe the same Big Government that Obama promises as our global salvation will be America’s undoing.
Here’s the better news.
Only one party in America agrees with independent voters, and that is the Libertarian Party. Republicans spent 14 years fattening government with their ever-escalating budgets. Even the Republican “alternative budget” called for massive deficits and bigger spending.
Once again, Libertarians are the only mainstream party in America. Only Libertarians will reduce the size and cost of government.
Opposition to “big government” grew among grassroots Republicans, though their party leadership doesn’t seem to share that view, based on their “alternative budget.” In 2006, Republicans feared “big government” more than “big business” by a 68 percent to 18 percent margin. That grew in 2009 to 80 percent to 10 percent.
It’s no secret grassroots Republicans -- and some Democrats -- oppose Big Government and want a party that agrees with them. Once again, the Libertarian Party is the only party that proposes cutting spending. We don’t follow the still-vibrant Republican tradition of making government bigger and costlier each year.
Are you on board with America’s only mainstream political party, the only party that still agrees with Americans that Big Government threatens our liberty and prosperity?
If you’re already a Libertarian Party member, thank you!
If not, click here right now to join today!
With optimism,
Donny Ferguson
Director of Communications
Libertarian Party
Donny.Ferguson@lp.org
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Obama sending nation into deficit spiral as his 'stimulus' fails to work
The Washington Post has the story:
President Obama's ambitious plans to cut middle-class taxes*, overhaul health care and expand access to college would require massive borrowing over the next decade, leaving the nation mired far deeper in debt than the White House previously estimated, congressional budget analysts said yesterday. (* - Donny notes: While some would receive a modest income tax cut, Obama's dramatic tax hikes everywhere else would leave them paying much more in other taxes, as well as prices for goods and services)
In the first independent analysis of Obama's budget proposal, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office concluded that Obama's policies would cause government spending to swell above historic levels even after costly programs to ease the recession and stabilize the nation's financial system have ended.
Tax collections, meanwhile, would lag well behind spending, producing huge annual budget deficits that would force the nation to borrow nearly $9.3 trillion over the next decade -- $2.3 trillion more than the president predicted when he unveiled his budget request just one month ago...
...The result, according to the CBO, would be an ever-expanding national debt that would exceed 82 percent of the overall economy by 2019 -- double last year's level -- and threaten the nation's financial stability.
"This clearly creates a scenario where the country's going to go bankrupt. It's almost that simple," said Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.), the senior Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, who briefly considered joining the Obama administration as commerce secretary. "One would hope these numbers would wake somebody up," Gregg said...
...Deteriorating economic conditions are a major cause of the darkening fiscal picture, according to the CBO. But other factors also are weighing heavily on the budget this year and next. For example, the $700 billion financial-system bailout is now expected to cost taxpayers at least $350 billion, by CBO estimates, because the investments the Treasury Department has made in banks and other financial institutions are worth considerably less than when the bailout was approved. In addition, Obama proposes to use a portion of the money to buy down troubled mortgages, a program that will provide no return to the taxpayer.
Portland Oregonian: Americans mixed on Obama's big government gamble
Portland Oregonian columnist Elizabeth Hovde writes today about rising skepticism of Obama's lurch to the left. She extensively quotes yesterday's Libertarian Party press release on polling showing political independents aren't buying into Obama's Big Government rhetoric.
The Oregonian is the largest newspaper in the Pacific Northwest. Hovde, a Sunday columnist, worked for a decade as an editorial writer and columnist for The (Vancouver) Columbian and is the winner of several Society of Professional Journalists awards.
Hovde writes, in part:
Hovde offers a link to the Libertarian Party website. You may read her column online here. If it's offered in your area, pick up a copy of The Oregonian.
The Oregonian is the largest newspaper in the Pacific Northwest. Hovde, a Sunday columnist, worked for a decade as an editorial writer and columnist for The (Vancouver) Columbian and is the winner of several Society of Professional Journalists awards.
Hovde writes, in part:
A press release from the nation's third-largest political party today says that independents reject Obama's "promises of prosperity through big government."
The release adds, "Despite a deep financial crisis and the election of a left-wing president, political independents still see 'big government' as a greater threat than 'big business' by an unchanged two-to-one margin."
The release quotes (Donny) Ferguson, Libertarian National Committee Communications Director, saying that political independents "still believe the same Big Government that Obama promises as our global salvation will be America's undoing," and adds, "Obama and the Republicans have us spiraling towards national bankruptcy."
The fuel for the Libertarian Party's fire is a Rasmussen Reports poll that shows 59 percent of politically independent Americans view big government as the greatest threat to the country, which is similar to the 60 percent of independents who said the same thing in 2006, before the financial crisis and before Obama's election.
Also in the study: Democrats in 2006 feared "big government" more than "big business" by a 55 percent to 32 percent margin. "Following in lockstep with Obama," the Libertarian Party writes, "they have flipped their views. Now, Democrats fear job creators more than government by a 52 percent to 32 percent margin."
As for Republicans, the Libertarian Party says, "Opposition to 'big government' grew among grassroots Republicans, though their party leadership doesn't seem to share that view, based on their 'alternative budget.' In 2006, Republicans feared 'big government' more than 'big business' by a 68 percent to 18 percent margin. That grew in 2009 to 80 percent to 10 percent."
Hovde offers a link to the Libertarian Party website. You may read her column online here. If it's offered in your area, pick up a copy of The Oregonian.
Monday, May 11, 2009
White House reveals deficit to be 4X the record as Obama promises prove empty
The Congressional Budget Office and other economic experts warned Barack Obama's economic performance predictions were miles off the mark, and his wild spending would saddle an already-weakened economy with crippling deficits.
Well, they were right on both points, and your children and grandchildren will pay a painful price as Obama deficits stunt job growth, cripple the dollar and send taxes spiraling upwards. The AP reports:
Well, they were right on both points, and your children and grandchildren will pay a painful price as Obama deficits stunt job growth, cripple the dollar and send taxes spiraling upwards. The AP reports:
With the economy performing worse than hoped, revised White House figures point to deepening budget deficits, with the government borrowing almost 50 cents for every dollar it spends this year.
The deficit for the current budget year will rise by $89 billion to above $1.8 trillion -- about four times the record set just last year. The unprecedented red ink flows from the deep recession, the Wall Street bailout, the cost of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus bill, as well as a structural imbalance between what the government spends and what it takes in.
As the economy performs worse than expected, the deficit for the 2010 budget year beginning in October will worsen by $87 billion to $1.3 trillion, the White House says. The deterioration reflects lower tax revenues and higher costs for bank failures, unemployment benefits and food stamps.
For the current year, the government would borrow 46 cents for every dollar it takes to run the government under the administration's plan...
SUPRYNOWICZ: Obama 'bitterly clinging' to his fake gun numbers
Vin Suprynowicz, author and noted libertarian columnist for the Las Vegas's daily newspaper, the Review-Journal, picks up on the Libertarian Party's call-out of Barack Obama over his misrepresentation of firearms statistics.
You can read Vin's column, "Obama 'bitterly clinging' to his fake gun numbers," at the Review-Journal website. If it's offered in your area, I'd also encourage you to pick up a copy of the paper or subscribe. Vin writes, in part:
You can read Vin's column online at the Review-Journal website, or by subscribing to the paper. Be sure to let them know Vin is the reason you read their paper.
You can read Vin's column, "Obama 'bitterly clinging' to his fake gun numbers," at the Review-Journal website. If it's offered in your area, I'd also encourage you to pick up a copy of the paper or subscribe. Vin writes, in part:
Meantime, the Libertarian Party points out even the statistics used by Mr. Obama to supposedly justify his "emergency need" to "block the flow of arms to Mexico" are bogus.
"Is Barack Obama 'bitterly clinging to falsified numbers' in his bid to push his anti-gun treaty?" asked the Libertarian Party in an April news release.
"This war is being waged with guns purchased not here, but in the United States. More than 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States," Mr. Obama said in a face-to-face April meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon in Mexico City.
But that claim, the LP points out, "is blatantly false. According to information supplied by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives the real number is closer to only 17 percent.
"There is a reason Obama is intentionally spreading false information about American firearm businesses," says Donny Ferguson, Libertarian National Committee Communications Director. "He ... promised anti-gun groups he would enact gun bans and is hoping to scare people into voting away their own rights. ...
..."Obama is 'bitterly clinging' to falsified numbers, hoping he can take away the constitutional rights of 'people who aren't like' him," The Libertarian Party concludes.
You can read Vin's column online at the Review-Journal website, or by subscribing to the paper. Be sure to let them know Vin is the reason you read their paper.
LP Progress Report: Membership growing, fundraising beating trends
The Libertarian Party is heading in a winning direction.
New membership and revenue numbers are in for 2009. While the weaker economy and the traditional post-presidential slump have hit all parties hard, the Libertarian Party is not only beating revenue projections, but membership is growing as well.
* Total active membership, which was declining, has reversed the trend and begun growing. We need your help to keep this trend growing upward. If you aren’t a member---or have let your membership lapse---join us today at https://www.lp.org/membership.
* New libertarians are joining the Party. Monthly new membership totals for the have topped themselves three of the last four months, and are bigger than they were for this period last year, a presidential election year.
* Old members are coming back. The number of lapsed donors plunged 28.6% last month and is down to its lowest point in five months. Renewals in the first quarter of 2009 are 16% higher than they were in the first quarter of 2008, a presidential election year.
* While the DNC, RNC and their campaign committees report a 40% plunge in individual contributions compared to the last post-presidential election year, 2005, the LP’s revenues are down only 30% compared to 2005, beating the two older parties. Clearly, Libertarians and libertarian-leaning Americans see something they like in the Libertarian Party.
* Libertarian Party revenues, as is the case for most parties, typically decline sharply the year after a presidential election. While revenues plummeted 35% after the 2004 presidential campaign, they've dipped only 19% after our 2008 campaign, despite a significantly weaker economy. Revenues are still, however, very tight. Please click here right now to rush us an urgent gift today so your Libertarian Party can re-elect our Libertarian officials and elect new ones.
* While major political direct mail fundraising agencies here in D.C. report a 15% drop in response rates compared to last year, the Libertarian Party has seen a 17.5% INCREASE in direct mail response.
With total membership growing, old members coming back, revenues beating projections and outperforming the two older parties, and response rates climbing while others’ decline, it’s clear that Americans aren’t just fed up with Republicans and Democrats, but they like what they see in the Libertarian Party.
Are you on board with The Party of Principle? Click here to join, or here to donate, today!
New membership and revenue numbers are in for 2009. While the weaker economy and the traditional post-presidential slump have hit all parties hard, the Libertarian Party is not only beating revenue projections, but membership is growing as well.
* Total active membership, which was declining, has reversed the trend and begun growing. We need your help to keep this trend growing upward. If you aren’t a member---or have let your membership lapse---join us today at https://www.lp.org/membership.
* New libertarians are joining the Party. Monthly new membership totals for the have topped themselves three of the last four months, and are bigger than they were for this period last year, a presidential election year.
* Old members are coming back. The number of lapsed donors plunged 28.6% last month and is down to its lowest point in five months. Renewals in the first quarter of 2009 are 16% higher than they were in the first quarter of 2008, a presidential election year.
* While the DNC, RNC and their campaign committees report a 40% plunge in individual contributions compared to the last post-presidential election year, 2005, the LP’s revenues are down only 30% compared to 2005, beating the two older parties. Clearly, Libertarians and libertarian-leaning Americans see something they like in the Libertarian Party.
* Libertarian Party revenues, as is the case for most parties, typically decline sharply the year after a presidential election. While revenues plummeted 35% after the 2004 presidential campaign, they've dipped only 19% after our 2008 campaign, despite a significantly weaker economy. Revenues are still, however, very tight. Please click here right now to rush us an urgent gift today so your Libertarian Party can re-elect our Libertarian officials and elect new ones.
* While major political direct mail fundraising agencies here in D.C. report a 15% drop in response rates compared to last year, the Libertarian Party has seen a 17.5% INCREASE in direct mail response.
With total membership growing, old members coming back, revenues beating projections and outperforming the two older parties, and response rates climbing while others’ decline, it’s clear that Americans aren’t just fed up with Republicans and Democrats, but they like what they see in the Libertarian Party.
Are you on board with The Party of Principle? Click here to join, or here to donate, today!
Will: Obama's auto takeover another exercise in government futility
In the May 7 Washington Post, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist George Will picks apart Barack Obama's futile plan to resurrect the American auto industry -- by placing it in the fumbling iron grip of the very government and unions that drove it into bankruptcy.
Will's conclusion, which you may click here to read, should be coming from the mouths of every elected official.
The recent announcement that Chrysler will go into bankruptcy after accepting billions in bailout funds -- leaving taxpayers at a loss succeeding in placing the company in the hands of government and Obama's campaign supporters -- is a crystallized example of Obama's folly. While it will fail in its stated mission of restoring General Motors and Chrysler to their former glory, it will succeed in its intended mission of shoveling billions of taxpayer dollars into a self-destructing union that funded Obama into office, giving the UAW a taxpayer-funded stay of execution.
Libertarians believe struggling automakers should isolate unprofitable operations, declare bankruptcy, reorganize finances and then focus on producing cars Americans want, not the cars Obama orders them to build.
Gulliver's travels took him to the Academy of Lagado, where "professors contrive new rules and methods" for everything: "One man shall do the work of ten; a palace may be built in a week, of materials so durable as to last forever without repairing. All the fruits of the earth shall come to maturity at whatever season we think fit to choose, and increase a hundredfold more than they do at present." There was, however, the "inconvenience" that "none of these projects" had yet come to fruition and "the whole country lies miserably waste." But "instead of being discouraged," people were "fifty times more violently bent upon prosecuting their schemes," which included "extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers."
At the Academy of Obama, professors and others devise plans for extracting a new and improved automobile industry from a semi-sort-of-bankruptcy arrangement that -- if it survives judicial scrutiny; that is not certain -- will give the United Auto Workers 39 percent of General Motors, with the government owning 50 percent. During future contract negotiations, will the union's adversary be an administration that the union helped to put in power...
...The president has chosen to blame "speculators" -- a.k.a. investors; anyone who buys a share of a company's stock is speculating about the company's future -- for Chrysler's bankruptcy and the dubious legality of his proposal. Yet he simultaneously says he hopes that private investors will begin supplanting government as a source of capital for the companies. Breathes there an investor/speculator with such a stunted sense of risk that he or she would go into business with this capricious government?
Its chief executive says: "If the Japanese can design [an] affordable, well-designed hybrid, then, doggone it, the American people should be able to do the same." Yes they can -- if the American manufacturer can do what Toyota does with the Prius: Sell its hybrid without significant, if any, profit and sustain this practice, as Toyota does, by selling about twice as many of the gas-thirsty pickup trucks that the president thinks are destroying the planet..
Will's conclusion, which you may click here to read, should be coming from the mouths of every elected official.
The recent announcement that Chrysler will go into bankruptcy after accepting billions in bailout funds -- leaving taxpayers at a loss succeeding in placing the company in the hands of government and Obama's campaign supporters -- is a crystallized example of Obama's folly. While it will fail in its stated mission of restoring General Motors and Chrysler to their former glory, it will succeed in its intended mission of shoveling billions of taxpayer dollars into a self-destructing union that funded Obama into office, giving the UAW a taxpayer-funded stay of execution.
Libertarians believe struggling automakers should isolate unprofitable operations, declare bankruptcy, reorganize finances and then focus on producing cars Americans want, not the cars Obama orders them to build.
Examiner: Arrogant politicans fuel Tea Party protests
The Washington Examiner, in another spot-on editorial, notes that while high taxes, big spending and out-of-control deficits piled the tinder for the heated "Tea Party" movement, it is the arrogant, condescending tone of Washington politicians that lit the match.
"But (House Speaker Nancy) Pelosi went beyond the pale to question the legitimacy of the protesters themselves, dismissing them as participants in an “astro-turfing initiative” covertly funded by a few powerful people seeking to preserve their wealth and privilege.
President Obama and aides went even further in attempting to marginalize and ridicule the Tea Party protestors and their issues. On the morning of the protests, Obama was said to be unaware of them. Then later in the day, Obama pointedly dismissed them as a bunch of “people waving tea bags around.” A few days later, Obama disdainfully promised to cut a whopping $100 million of wasteful spending from his 2010 federal budget, an amount equal to 0.007 percent of the projected $1.4 trillion deficit for the year. Obama’s condescension insulted his fellow citizens and demeaned the Oval Office. Obama, Pelosi, and other scoffers in Washington’s political establishment should heed the protestors’ warning that “mocking and demeaning well-intentioned, peaceful Tea Party Patriots who love their country is the height of arrogance, and a terrible mistake. The American people deserve better from their elected representatives, and are beginning to demand it."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
