BILL OF RIGHTS DAY

Today is Bill of Rights day so I could not resist posting this brief B-of-R summary with comments by Tom Lynch of the Cato Institute (please take note of the Ninth and Tenth Ammendments):

The First Amendment says that “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech.” Government officials, however, have insisted that they can gag recipients of “national security letters” and censor broadcast ads in the name of campaign finance reform.

The Second Amendment says the people have the right “to keep and bear arms.” Government officials, however, make it difficult to keep a gun in the home and make it a crime for a citizen to carry a gun for self-protection.

The Third Amendment says soldiers may not be quartered in our homes without the consent of the owners. This safeguard is one of the few that is in fine shape — so we can pause here for a laugh.

The Fourth Amendment says the people have the right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures. Government officials, however, insist that they can conduct commando-style raids on our homes and treat airline travelers like prison inmates by conducting virtual strip searches.

The Fifth Amendment says that private property shall not be taken “for public use without just compensation.” Government officials, however, insist that they can use eminent domain to take away our property and give it to other private parties who covet it.

The Sixth Amendment says that in criminal prosecutions, the person accused is guaranteed a right to trial by jury. Government officials, however, insist that they can punish people who want to have a trial—“throwing the book” at those who refuse to plead guilty—which explains why 95 percent of the criminal cases never go to trial.

The Seventh Amendment guarantees the right to a jury trial in civil cases where the controversy “shall exceed twenty dollars.” Government officials, however, insist that they can impose draconian fines on people without jury trials.

The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishments. Government officials, however, insist that a life sentence for a nonviolent drug offense is not cruel.

The Ninth Amendment says that the enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights should not be construed to deny or disparage others “retained by the people.” Government officials, however, insist that they will decide for themselves what rights, if any, will be retained by the people.

The Tenth Amendment says that the powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states, or to the people. Government officials, however, insist that they will decide for themselves what powers they possess, and have extended federal control over health care, crime, education, and other matters the Constitution reserves to the states and the people.

OBAMA HURTS THE POOR (& EVERYONE ELSE TOO)

Obama's class warfare economics is harming the U.S.
Here is a brief explanitory video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Nvv5GBEHL9Q

SPEAKING OF PRESIDENTS

We citizens of the U.S. are better off today than we were in previous decades -- not because of our government leaders, but in spite of them. Here are a couple of videos from one leader who got it right (in my opinion).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6KXtspnYtLU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DSpoe4Zu-j8


DWD -- These videos came from the International Liberty blog.

WAR ON POVERTY: REPORT CARD

This stuff is from the International Liberty blog:

We spend about $60,000 [per year] on various welfare programs for every poor household in America [see chart below]. And what are we getting for that giant expenditure of money? Well, as the second chart shows our progress in the fight against poverty came to a screeching halt right about the time that the politicians in Washington launched the so-called War on Poverty.

This video contains more analysis, for those who want to learn about the best way of actually reducing poverty. It's important to remember, after all, that the welfare state has a human cost that is just as important as the fiscal cost.

DWD--As for the last sentence, the welfare state has needlessly created a culture of dependency for a large segment of the U.S. population.

 

THOUGHTS ON LIBERTY

The following came from Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute:

Barry Goldwater Quote --

"I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. … I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is 'needed' before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents’ 'interests,' I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can."

The bad news is that Barry got his you-know-what kicked in the 1964 election. On the other hand, America did elect a president that said “government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.”

And a 2011 poll that most Americans—unlike their European counterparts—do not believe it is government’s job to guarantee that “nobody is in need.”

DWD

MORAL PROBLEM WITH BIG GOVERNMENT

This video is about Socialism, however, it is fully applicable to big government in general--including the U.S. government. One of the biggest arguments against Capitalism is that it is immoral, but the opposite is true--it is big government that is immoral.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYeYPcougmA&feature=player_detailpage

THE BIGGEST PROBLEM WITH HEALTH CARE

This takes a few minutes but one cannot begin to understand our health care problems in a single political sound bite. Please invest a little of your time in the video below.

Thank you,

DWD


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Pl3LwMGFAFM

OF THEATERS AND LIBERTY

For those who may be interested, you can view my most recent editorial published in the Orange County Register by clicking on "OF THEATERS AND LIBERTY" on the lower right margin of this screen.

Have a nice day,

DWD

WHY IS SOCIALISM INEVITABLE

1. Voters by and large are poorly informed with respect good and bad government policy (liberals, independents, and conservatives alike)

2. Voter ignorance is rational because the cost of becoming well informed is far greater than the potential benefit received from casting a single vote that most certainly won't change the outcome of an election (this is an economic concept known as "rational ignorance")

3. Most voters consequently cast their ballots based on emotion and/or potential to receive a financial benefit from government

4. Therefore, politicians get elected by appealing to emotion (fairness, equalty etc.) and by promising government handouts or free services (healthcare, safety net, etc.) rather than by promoting policies that are for the general good or that promote personal freedom

5. Ever more programs (without limit) are needed to promote more "fairness" and provide more free services

6. Government must control ever more financial resources (i.e., increased socialsim) in order to deliver the promised benefits

There is only one remedy: voter education

The best blog that I know of to get the average voter educated about good vs. bad government policy is:  http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/ PLEASE give it a try. If you agree with me about its value, pass it on. We need educated voters!

THE MORAL CASE FOR TAX HAVENS

"Tax havens" are viewed by the average citizen as being corrupt and something to be eliminated. But that is the politically correct view instilled by bankrupt (or nearly so) nations (like the U.S.) and, of course, propogated by the media. Here is another point-of-view worthy of consideration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Xf14lkyH2dM

BYE BYE EXCEPTIONALISM

Here are some words of wisdom about American Exceptionalism from Nicolas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute.

From the founding of our nation until quite recently, the U.S. and its citizens were regarded, at home and abroad, as exceptional in a number of deep and important respects. One of these was their fierce and principled independence, which informed not only the design of the political experiment that is the U.S. Constitution but also their approach to everyday affairs. The proud self-reliance that struck Alexis de Tocqueville in his visit to the U.S. in the early 1830s extended to personal finances. The American "individualism" about which he wrote did not exclude social cooperation—the young nation was a hotbed of civic associations and voluntary organizations. But in an environment bursting with opportunity, American men and women viewed themselves as accountable for their own situation through their own achievements—a novel outlook at that time, markedly different from the prevailing attitudes of the Old World (or at least the Continent). The corollaries of this American ethos were, on the one hand, an affinity for personal enterprise and industry and, on the other, a horror of dependency and contempt for anything that smacked of a mendicant mentality. Although many Americans in earlier times were poor, even people in fairly desperate circumstances were known to refuse help or handouts as an affront to their dignity and independence. People who subsisted on public resources were known as "paupers," and provision for them was a local undertaking. Neither beneficiaries nor recipients held the condition of pauperism in high regard.

The U.S. is now on the verge of a symbolic threshold: the point at which more than half of all American households receive and accept transfer benefits from the government. (DWD-Compared to about 30% in 1980) From cradle to grave, a treasure chest of government-supplied benefits is there for the taking for every American citizen—and exercising one's legal rights to these many blandishments is now part of the American way of life. ...Citizens have become ever more broad-minded about the propriety of tapping new sources of finance for supporting their appetite for more entitlements. The taker mentality has thus ineluctably gravitated toward taking from a pool of citizens who can offer no resistance to such schemes: the unborn descendants of today's entitlement-seeking population. ...The U.S. is a very wealthy society. If it so chooses, it has vast resources to squander. And internationally, the dollar is still the world's reserve currency; there remains great scope for financial abuse of that privilege. Such devices might well postpone the day of fiscal judgment: not so the day of reckoning for American character, which may be sacrificed long before the credibility of the U.S. economy. Some would argue that it is an asset already wasting away before our very eyes.

—Mr. Eberstadt holds the Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute. Excerpted from "A Nation of Takers: America's Entitlement Epidemic," forthcoming from the Templeton Press. To read the complete essay, go to www.templetonpress.org.

 The above quote was extracted from a recent blog by International Liberty.

SOME THOUGHTS ON THE POVERTY ENIGMA

Most everyone wishes that we could eliminate poverty, but how? Here is one idea that has a strong following.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3weEy7pykPQ

HOW TO FIX CORRUPTION IN GOVERNMENT

There is only one real solution:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SovALlOhSg8&feature=player_embedded

THE MOST IMPORTANT ECONOMIC ISSUE OF OUR TIME

Please view this video and pass it along.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NfLUCBZ1is&feature=player_embedded

"YOU DIDN'T BUILD THAT" -- President Obama

Excuse me? Apparently our government leaders don't understand that fully 100% of ALL government was, and continues to be, fully dependent on private citizens and businesses. We built them, not the other way around. Yes, some of our taxes go to infrastructure, defense, etc., but government is far more of a burdon to business and job creation than a help. The following is a good depiction our president (and Congress):

THE CHINA SYNDROME

For those who are interested, you can view my most recent editorial published in the Orange County Register by clicking on "FREE TRADE -- THE CHINA SYNDROME" on the right margin of this page.

Have a great day.

DWD

HOW KEYNESIAN ECONOMICS WORKS

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Speaking of Alexis de Tocqueville who wrote the book Democracy in America back in 1835 -- "The Frenchman wrote that those in authority in American government thought they had to watch over the citizenry. Their use of power was 'absolute, attentitive to detail, regular, provident and gentle.' The 'sovereign,' he continued, puts its arms around us through 'petty regulations' too complicated for anyone to figure out. He added that it 'does not tyrannize; it gets in the way; it curtails, it enervates, it extinguishes, it stupefies,' ultimately reducing the people to timid animals 'of which the government is the shepard.' One day, said Tocqueville, the despotism will grow nastier and harder ...'"
-- Jay Ambrose, syndicated columnist.

That day has arrived -- DWD

SOCIAL SECURITY 101

For those interested, you can view my most recent editorial by clicking on "SOCIAL SECURITY 101" on the bottom right margin of this page.

Have a nice day.

DWD

DISCERNING CARTOONS

Very funny ... but no laughing matter -- DWD

THE ENTITLEMENT SOCIETY

For those interested, you can read the latest editorial that I have submitted to the Orange County Register by clicking on "THE ENTITLEMENT SOCIETY" on the lower right margin of this page.

Have a good day.

DWD

GOVERNMENT ECONOMIC AGENDA -- UPDATE

The government's central economic planners are not as smart as they profess themselves to be. Maybe they should leave us well alone instead of spending billions of our tax dollars for our "benefit." Witness their own projections and actual results (blue line=projections; brown dots=actual results):

WHEN WILL WE EVER LEARN?

This from the Cato Institute on the report of lavish spending by the GSA which caused the head of the agency to resign:

"As the politicians trip over one another to make empty promises to end such abuses, keep in mind that Bureaucrats Gone Wild is what you’re going to get when you give human beings the ability to spend gobs of other people’s money. The only sure way to stop government employees from wasting money is to stop giving them money in the first place..."

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence."
-- John Adams

RE: OBAMA -- I COULDN'T HAVE SAID IT BETTER (OR AS WELL)

This taken from a post by International Liberty:

Today, Mark Helprin ... in the Wall Street Journal, commenting on the wisdom (or lack thereof) of Obama's interest in the European economic model.

Both in his re-election campaign and as the core principle of his presidency, Barack Obama asks America to cast off reliance on the free market—because, in his characterization, the free market "doesn't work"—in favor of the European model of ever-tightening, ever-regulating, ever-expanding governance. This he does, astonishingly, at the very moment of the European model's long-predictable crisis, collapse, bankruptcy, and devolution. With his trademark certainty he proposes—indeed, at times commands—that we follow him over the Niagara to which his back is turned. ...Promiscuous endorsement of things European, inveterate in the president's academic coterie, has long been characteristic of American snobs. ...in suppressing and over-engineering their economies they court national bankruptcies. Just as reckless are their efforts to ameliorate economic stagnation via the all-guzzling welfare state. Shall we create more jobs by aping Europe, which since 1990 has averaged 9.16% unemployment while ours was 5.95%? ...like the leaders of the bankrupt states of Europe, President Obama believes that the key to prosperity is to regulate, engineer, and direct the economy; to raise taxes; to augment the powers of government; to substitute collective largess for family cohesion; to spend money that does not exist... In short, the president and his progressives are chasing after a specter. Because the president is apparently repelled by the principles of the American Founding and lacks an alternative other than the European model, nothing else is in his quiver as he is driven by the dread of a future absent his omnipresent intervention.

THE ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION 101

The government monopoly in education is harming our nation greatly (as this short video explains).

http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/school-choice-video-shows-why-government-education-monopoly-should-be-disbanded/

ONE WAY GOVERNMENT ACTUALLY CAN CREATE JOBS

"Even a small 5% reduction in the regulatory budget [could result in] an increase in employment by 1.2 million jobs annually."

That is the conclusion of a paper by the Phoenix Center. The following is from their executive summary:

"…we use fifty years of data and modern econometric methods to provide an estimate of the relationship between government spending on regulatory activity and economic growth and job recovery. We estimate that reducing the size of the regulatory bureaucracy may grow the economy and invigorate the labor market. Even a small 5% reduction in the regulatory budget (about $2.8 billion) is estimated to result in about $75 billion in expanded private-sector GDP each year, with an increase in employment by 1.2 million jobs annually. On average, eliminating the job of a single regulator grows the American economy by $6.2 million and nearly 100 private sector jobs annually. Conversely, each million dollar increase in the regulatory budget costs the economy 420 private sector jobs."

As stated by International Liberty: No wonder that even the pro-establishment crowd at the World Economic Forum ranks the United States as only 49th in the world when measuring “burden of government regulation.”

UPSIDE DOWN ECONOMICS

For those interested, you can read my latest editorial by clicking on "UPSIDE DOWN ECONOMICS" on the right margin of the page.

Have a great day.

DWD

HOW TO GET ELECTED 101 -- DEMOCRATIC PARTY

Try to get a majority of citizens receiving money from the federal government, then cry that the opposition party (Republicans) will cut your benefits if they are elected.

P.S. -- About half of all American households are now receiving payments from the federal government and the number is rising.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

The bigger the Big Government, the smaller everything else: First, other pillars of civil society are crowded out of the public space [religion, etc.]; then, the individual gets crowded out...
-- Mark Steyn

GOVERNMENT DICTIONARY: "SPENDING CUTS"

According to the politically correct government dictionary, "spending cuts" means "increasing federal government expenditures by billions of dollars, just not by as many billions as we had previously hoped."

Witness the following chart -- before and after the "drastic cuts."

WE ARE OBSESSED WITH GOVERNMENT

Anyone interested can read my most recent editorial by clicking on "OBSESSION WITH GOVERNMENT" on the right margin of this page. Have a great day.

DWD