Madison's Prescience

"If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their own hands; they may appoint teachers in every State, county
and parish and pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume the provision of the poor; they may
undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads; in short, every thing, from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of Congress. ... Were the
power of Congress to be established in the latitude contended for, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of the limited Government established by the people of America."
-- James Madison (1751-1836), Father of the Constitution for the USA, 4th US President

Capitalism disinfectant - Hydrogen Barackside

Thoughts for the Day

"Social Security is an unfunded pay-as-you-go system, fundamentally flawed and analogous in design to illegal pyramid schemes. Government accounting creates the illusion of a trust fund, but in fact, excess receipts are spent immediately. The government’s own actuaries predict the system will be bankrupt by 2030, but Social Security could face financial crisis as early as 2014. Moreover, Social Security’s relatively poor rate of return makes the program an increasingly worse investment for today’s young worker. ... The system design itself is fundamentally flawed and cannot be repaired. It must instead be replaced by one derived from free markets and operated by free citizenry making individual economic decisions in their own self-interest. ... Reform is long overdue. If we fail to act soon, our children will either inherit a bankrupt system or be forced to pay an impossibly high level of taxes. Only private pensions with individual property rights to accumulate fund balances can create a secure pension system. Chile, which privatized its system in 1981, provides evidence of such a system’s effectiveness."

Karl Borden
Professor of financial economics at University of Nebraska Source: The CATO Project on Social Security, DISMANTLING THE PYRAMID: THE WHY AND HOW OF PRIVATIZING SOCIAL SECURITY, August 14, 1995.

"I place economy among the first and most important virtues and public debt as the greatest dangers to be feared ... We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our choice between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude ... The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the disposition of public money. We are endeavoring to reduce the government to the practice of rigid economy to avoid burdening the people ..."

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President

"There is no difference in principle, ... between the economic philosophy of Nazism, socialism, communism, and fascism and that of the American welfare state and regulated economy."

Jacob G. Hornberger American author, journalist, politician, founder and president of the Future of Freedom Foundation Source: paraphrasing F. A. Hayek, Terrorism—Public and Private, THE TYRANNY OF GUN CONTROL, 74 (Future of Freedom Foundation 1997).

The Road to Socialized Medicine

Washington’s control of medicine has grown slowly, evolving piecemeal over decades. Even before ObamaCare, half of all heath care spending was controlled by the government.

The general pattern of the expansion works like this: advocates point to some group in real or alleged dire need and declare that Washington has a duty to act; Washington eventually does. It started with the poor (Medicaid) and the elderly (Medicare). Then came the uninsured in need of emergency care (Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act). Then came middle-class parents (S-CHIP).

http://blogs.forbes.com/objectivist/2011/02/10/the-road-to-socialized-medicine-is-paved-with-pre-existing-conditions/

Welfare State of the Union

The impact of food stamps, Section 8 housing subsidies, Medicaid, and other support programs has been to create a permanent welfare class which, in terms of skills and attitudes, is poorly equipped to return to work. Not only that, the children of welfare moms are nurtured in a mentality that perpetuates dependency from generation to generation. And liberal politicians are in no hurry to end this dependency since the system of welfare patronage serves their interests.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/02/the_welfare_state_of_the_union.html

Celebrating Black History Month

A black conservative's perspective on US history:

http://newzeal.blogspot.com/2011/02/black-conservatives-view-of-american.html

50th Anniversary of Ronald Reagan's speech on Socialized Medicine

Classic Reagan - how prescient!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYrlDlrLDSQ

Celebrating Ronald Reagan's 100th Anniversary

"It is not my intention to do away with government. It is, rather, to make it work -- work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it. It is no coincidence that our present troubles parallel and are proportionate to the intervention and intrusion in our lives that result from unnecessary and excessive growth of government. ... We shall reflect the compassion that is so much a part of your makeup. How can we love our country and not love our countrymen, and loving them, not reach out a hand when they fall, heal them when they are sick, and provide opportunities to make them self-sufficient so they will be equal in fact and not just in theory? ...We are a nation under God, and I believe God intended for us to be free. It
would be fitting and good, I think, if on each Inauguration Day in future years it should be declared a day of prayer."
Ronald Reagan Source: First Inaugural Address, 1981

"Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem."

Can Government manage the Economy?

Politicians of the 1930s created more bodies designed to stabilize the economy and build investor confidence: the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the National Credit Union Administration. The Depression deepened, becoming by far the longest and deepest economic downturn in the history of the United States.

This is the national pattern in economic policy: in the face of failure, we keep looking to government. Since the Great Depression, we’ve added more units designed to curb inappropriate behavior and ward off recession, including the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (1974), the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (1979), the Working Group on Financial Markets (1988), and the Office of Thrift Supervision (1989). Yet in 2008 we fell into another economic downturn.

http://www.thefreemanonline.org/headline/can-government-manage-the-economy/

Klavan on the Culture

Good intentions and consequences

http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=mpg&mpid=80&load=4808

Addressing our Debt

An illustration is worth a 1000 words (or 10,000 pennies). We need to understand the depth of our US debt and deficit and hold our legislators responsible and accountable for addressing the issue in a meaningful way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWt8hTayupE

James Madison on Obamacare

If it be asked what is to be the consequence, in case the Congress shall misconstrue this part of the Constitution, and exercise powers not warranted by its true meaning, I answer, the same as if they should misconstrue or enlarge any other power vested in them; as if the general power had been reduced to particulars, and any one of these were to be violated; the same, in short, as if the State legislatures should violate their respective constitutional authorities. In the first instance, the success of the usurpation will depend on the executive and judiciary departments, which are to expound and give effect to the legislative acts; and in the last resort a remedy must be obtained from the people who can, by the election of more faithful representatives, annul the acts of the usurpers.
-- James Madison
(1751-1836), Father of the Constitution for the USA, 4th US President
Source: THE FEDERALIST No. 44