Obama's Rock is Not Capitalism

In April, the president gave a speech where he used a "Jesus's Sermon on the Mount" analogy. His pillars upon which we would rebuild our economy include new rules to regulate Wall Street, and new government spending on health care, education and the environment. A capitalistic system would rely on competition and innovation to bring progress and lower prices. A socialist system allocates scarce resources relying on government coercion. Brian Wesbury's piece makes the case that Obama's model for restoring our economy is not capitalism. Read on:

http://spectator.org/archives/2009/06/06/obamas-rock-is-not-capitalism

The Stimulus Story

It is the month of August; a resort town sits next to the shores of a lake. It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. It is tough times, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.
Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town. He enters the only hotel, lays a 100 dollar bill on the reception counter, and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one. The hotel proprietor takes the 100 dollar bill and runs to pay his debt to the butcher. The Butcher takes the 100 dollar bill, and runs to pay his debt to the pig raiser. The pig raiser takes the 100 dollar bill, and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed and fuel. The supplier of feed and fuel takes the 100 dollar bill and runs to pay his debt to the town's prostitute that in these hard times, gave her "services"
on credit. The hooker runs to the hotel, and pays off her debt with the 100 dollar bill to the hotel proprietor to pay for the rooms that she rented when she brought her clients there. The hotel proprietor then lays the 100 dollar bill back on the counter so that the rich tourist will not suspect anything. At that moment, the rich tourist comes down after inspecting the rooms, and takes his 100 dollar bill, after saying that he did not like any of the rooms, and leaves town. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now without debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the United States Government is doing
business today.

Insights from the Wall Street Journal Editorial page

"Paygo" sounds like a great idea, until you understand it's history and how it works. Read on:

WSJ.com - Opinion: The 'Paygo' Coverup

With the current "crisis", the ill-conceived government reaction, and the ensuing economic downturn, the unfunded liabilities of the federal programs -- such as Social Security, civil-service and military pensions, the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, Medicare and Medicaid -- are over the $100 trillion mark. Get ready for inflation and higher interest rates. Do I have your attention yet? Read on: WSJ.com - Opinion: Get Ready for Inflation and Higher Interest Rates

Yet another perspective on socialized medicine and how we can stop it:

WSJ.com - Opinion: How to Stop Socialized Health Care

How did we get here?

Philosopher Bertrand Russell suggested that "Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education." And, it was Albert Einstein who explained, "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." So which is it -- stupidity, ignorance or insanity -- that explains the behavior of my fellow Americans who call for greater government involvement in our lives?

Who will you buy your next car from?

This article makes the case for boycotting any future purchase from Chrysler or GM.  There are some great insights into the Obama administration's handling of the auto bailouts.  

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/06/the_ethical_case_for_boycottin_1.html

Further perspectives on nationalized healthcare

Obama's Health Care reform "Paints the Roses Red"
http://townhall.com/content/f4972949-bab0-4195-a9a4-f35aca8165fd

Dear Mr. President, what does "health reform" mean?
http://townhall.com/content/3d1350df-8a85-4c3a-be62-79002d15c842

Articles of Interest

Over the next couple of months there will be fewer postings per week. I have to recertify(for the 3rd time) thru the American Board of Emergency Medicine and will be using much of my spare time for study. I will still try to post articles of interest as they cross my desk. Two such articles can be found by clicking on the links below. The first article discusses the threats of nationalized health care and the second discusses the threat that our impending debt will have on our economy and our way of life. I love paraphrasing Churchill when he said that a nation that tries to tax and spend itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. Here are the links:

http://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/962/nationalized-health-care-threatens-americas-future

EXPLODING DEBT THREATENS AMERICA
John TaylorPublished: May 26 2009 20:48 Last updated: May 26 2009 20:48
Standard and Poor’s decision to downgrade its outlook for British sovereign debt from “stable” to “negative” should be a wake-up call for the US Congress and administration. Let us hope they wake up. Under President Barack Obama’s budget plan, the federal debt is exploding. To be precise, it is rising – and will continue to rise – much faster than gross domestic product, a measure of America’s ability to service it. The federal debt was equivalent to 41 per cent of GDP at the end of 2008; the Congressional Budget Office projects it will increase to 82 per cent of GDP in 10 years. With no change in policy, it could hit 100 per cent of GDP in just another five years. This article can be found at:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/71520770-4a2c-11de-8e7e-00144feabdc0,_i_email=y.html
"FT" and "Financial Times" are trademarks of The Financial Times.
Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2009

Perspectives on Education

"That erroneous assumption is to the effect that the aim of public education is to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence, and so make them fit to discharge the duties of citizenship in an enlightened and independent manner. Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all, it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States, whatever the pretensions of politicians, pedagogues and other such mountebanks, and that is its aim everywhere else." -- H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American Journalist, Editor, Essayist, Linguist, Lexicographer, and Critic

"A tax supported, compulsory educational system is the complete model of the totalitarian state."
-- Isabel Paterson (1886-1961) Canadian-American journalist, author, political philosopher, literary critic

"Public educators, like Soviet farmers, lack any incentive to produce results, innovate, to be efficient, to make the kinds of of difficult changes that private firms operating in a competitive market must make to survive."

-- Carolyn Lochhead, American journalist

Thoughts regarding the Constitution and government

"Emergency does not create power. Emergency does not increase granted power or remove or diminish the restrictions imposed upon power granted or reserved.  The Constitution was adopted in a period of grave emergency.  Its grants of power to the federal government and its limitations of the power of the States were determined in the light of emergency, and they are not altered by emergency." -- Justice Charles Evans Hughes (1862-1948) Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Source: Home Building & Loan Assn v. Blairsdell, 1934

"The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace,
and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances. No doctrine, involving more pernicious consequences, was ever invented by the wit of man than that any of its provisions can be suspended during any of the great exigencies of government.  Such a doctrine leads directly to anarchy or despotism, but the theory of necessity on which it is based is false; for the government, within the Constitution, has all the powers granted to it, which are necessary to preserve its existence; as has been happily proved by the result of the great effort to throw off its just authority." -- Justice David Davis (1815-1886) U.S. Supreme Court Justice 1862-1877 Source: Ex parte Milligan 71 U.S. 2 (1866) DAVIS, J., Opinion of the Court

"It has been thought a considerable advance towards establishing the principles of Freedom, to say, that government is a compact between those who govern and those that are governed: but this cannot be true, because it is putting the effect before the cause; for as man must have existed before governments existed, there necessarily was a time when governments did not exist, and consequently there could originally exist no governors to form such a compact with. The fact therefore must be, that the individuals themselves, each in his own personal and sovereign right, entered into a compact with each other to produce a government: and this is the only mode in which governments have a right to arise, and the only principle on which they have a right to exist." -- Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

Thoughts for the Week

“Every collectivist revolution rides in on a Trojan horse of 'emergency'.  It was the tactic of Lenin, Hitler, and Mussolini. In the collectivist sweep over a dozen minor countries of Europe, it was the cry of men striving to get on horseback. And 'emergency' became the justification of the subsequent steps. This technique of creating emergency is the greatest achievement that demagoguery attains." -- Herbert Hoover (1874-1964), 31st US President

"A constitution is not the act of a government, but of a people constituting a government;
and government without a constitution is power without a right. All power exercised over a nation, must have some beginning. It must be either delegated, or assumed. There are not other sources. All delegated power is trust, and all assumed power is usurpation. Time does not alter the nature and quality of either." -- Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

"Can the real Constitution be restored? Probably not. Too many Americans depend on government money under programs the Constitution doesn't authorize, and money talks with an eloquence Shakespeare could only envy. Ignorant people don't understand The Federalist Papers, but they understand government checks with their names on them."
-- Joseph Sobran (1946- ) Columnist

There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly." -- Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
Source: On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, 1849 (original title: Resistance to Civil Goverment)

NO SOCIALISM bumper stickers

"Some socialists advocate complete nationalizaton of the means of production, distribution, and exchange; others advocate state control of capital within the framework of a market economy. Socialists inspired by the Soviet model of economic development have advocated the creation of centrally planned economies directed by a state that owns all the means of production."  The political class/government bureaucracy now controls portions of the banking, auto, energy and health care industries.  I believe our economic model is already more socialistic than capitalistic. With passage of Cap and Trade legislation and nationalization of our health care system(beyond Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP) we will be beyond the point of no return.  If you agree with me, share the message. If you would like a bumper sticker, send a self-addressed stamped envelop to:

                                                       Enlightened Republic, LLC

                                                       8531 S. 70th East Ave

                                                       Tulsa, OK  74133

                                                                  
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it." -- Thomas Paine

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! - I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! -- Patrick Henry

  

Ordering Orwellian Pizza

George Orwell's novel, "1984", published in 1949, portrayed a future totalitarian world, ruled by a seemingly omnipotent and omniscient Big Brother.  Imagine it is 2010 and we now all have National ID cards and nationalized healthcare and the government has access to our Electronic Medical Records.  Ordering a pizza might go something like this:

http://aclu.org/pizza/images/screen.swf