16 December 2009
Today’s Tabbloid
PERSONAL NEWS FOR [Link]+webnews@[Link]
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
“Last Train Leaving the Station” Legislators Still Pushing for
Appears to be a Ghost Train Tobacco Tax Hike [Americans
[Americans for Tax Reform] for Tax Reform]
DEC 15, 2009 05:37P.M. DEC 15, 2009 04:44P.M.
The following is cross-posted at [Link]: As The year has not come to an end, yet lawmakers are already planning on
Democrat negotiators continued to hash out the details relating to their how to take more of your money during 2010. Legislators in both Utah
unfinished legislative business for 2009 on Tuesday, House l... and Kansas are both looking for ways to fix thei...
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Op-Ed: More Mandates the Last Obama, American Nationalism,
Thing We Need [Americans for and the Weird Anti-Materialism
Tax Reform] of the Foreign Policy Elite [Cato
DEC 15, 2009 05:23P.M.
at Liberty]
Ryan Ellis and Patrick Gleason of Americans for Tax Reform penned an DEC 15, 2009 04:32P.M.
op-ed in the OC Register, which was published today. It is entitled “More
Mandates Last Thing we Need.” From the article... By Justin Logan
Matt Yglesias puts down the bloody shirt long enough to make the
modest-on-its-face claim that “actions, not words, will clarify Obama’s
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS foreign policy.” I don’t think that’s quite right.
Baucus Earns Place on 2009
“Naughty” List [Americans for
Tax Reform“Naughty” List]
DEC 15, 2009 04:49P.M.
Sen. Max Baucus has earned a place under the “Naughty” column on
Americans for Tax Reform’s 2009 Naughty and Nice List after being
caught telling a brazen lie on the floor of the Uni...
In one sense, of course, it is. For the bean counters among us, the
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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [Link]+webnews@[Link] 16 December 2009
outcomes are the real metric: whether the United States remains the sole exceptional, no one is.
superpower on the planet; whether a diplomatic resolution can be
reached with Iran; whether Obama can (assuming he has has any Reading this, I was reminded of Conor Cruise O’Brien’s observation that
intention to) get our military out of Iraq; whether his spun-like-cotton-
candy Afghanistan policy can stabilize that sorry land — these are the Ideally those responsible for international affairs ought to be
things we’ll be looking at. able to understand and moderate the holy nationalism of
their own country and to discern, even when disguised, the
But the more important thing in the short term for Obama is probably to operations and limits of holy nationalism in rival countries as
slake the nearly-unquenchable thirst of the David Brookses of the world well as in third-party countries.
— and probably the American people — to have their identities stroked.
To take the most recent example, Brooks, William Kristol, Robert Kagan, Unfortunately this may be too much to hope for. There are
and the Foreign Policy Elite of whom they are avatars were in desperate serious cognitive difficulties involved. Any nationalism
need of a cold shower and a trip to the nearest confessional after Obama inherently finds it hard to understand any other nationalism
indulged them by unsheathing the Mighty and Awesome Totem of or even to want to understand it. This is particularly true of
American nationalism — before a crowd of peacey Norwegians no less. holy nationalism. Rejection of the other is part of the
To take another example, witness the veritable panic, the hysterical and holiness.
fluttering response to the imaginary Obama “apology tour” that didn’t
exist and had no affect on anything in any event. All of this is enough to make you wonder then — if Obama wanted to,
could he just keep the opinion columnists — and the American people —
Indeed the Foreign Policy Elite is so captivated by the rhetoric, imagery, happy with a regular genuflection at the altar of American nationalism
and perhaps most importantly the identity surrounding U.S. foreign rather than by providing them with actual wars and actual crusading?
policy it hardly has time to think seriously about the material realities. Would he if he could?
There are of course examples where analysts simply misrepresent
material reality — witness this ridiculous characterization of Obama’s
boost in defense spending as an “assault” on the defense budget — but in
general the foreign policy commentariat seems more interested in how FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
American power makes them feel than it is on the outcomes it produces.
And witness the frenzy over the Oslo speech, the “apology tour” claptrap, Cell Phone Searches? There’s an
or the whining about Obama’s restraint from calling on the Iranian
people to start a revolution. App for That. [Cato at Liberty]
DEC 15, 2009 04:17P.M.
Charles Krauthammer, in a recent essay, went so far in the anti-
materialist direction to claim that “decline is a choice.” “Decline — or By Julian Sanchez
continued ascendancy — is in our hands.” Of course, it isn’t always a
choice, says Krauthammer. The British had it coming, for example, but Police hoping to rummage through a suspect’s cell phone after an arrest
the crucial factors in Krauthammer’s telling weren’t imperial must apply for a warrant, the Ohio Supreme Court has ruled. That
overxtension and the relative waning of its latent power but rather “the apparently makes it the first court to address a question I first wrote
civilizational suicide that was the two world wars, and the consequent about two years ago, after Adam Gershowitz broached it in a law review
physical and psychological exhaustion.” Thus, nations decline in large article.
part because of sapped will — perhaps this would be the foreign policy
equivalent of the “mental recession” we heard about a year ago. If this is Normally, when police arrest someone—and recall that even trivial
right, keeping a careful eye on will-sapping things is more than a parlor offenses may provide formal grounds for arrest—they’re entitled to
game. conduct an incidental search of the person and their immediate vicinity,
nominally for the purpose of uncovering any weapons and preventing the
But of course Krauthammer’s charge that Obama is willfully destruction of contraband. The new wrinkle as Gershowitz noted, is that
precipitating American decline cannot be substantiated by reference to we’ve begun routinely carrying vast stores of personal data around with
material factors, so it’s perhaps no coincidence that he takes aim us in our pockets: photos, correspondence, music and movies, Internet
primarily at Obama’s “demolition of the moral foundations of American browsing histories, even whole libraries of books. What’s more, these
dominance.” Krauthammer’s central piece of evidence is telling: little archives are typically connected, sometimes automatically, to still
more personal information held remotely: mailboxes, calendars, bank
In Strasbourg, President Obama was asked about American accounts, purchasing histories, or in principle just about anything
exceptionalism. His answer? “I believe in American accessible online.
exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in
British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek Suddenly a narrow, reasonable-sounding exception to the ordinary
exceptionalism.” Interesting response. Because if everyone is Fourth Amendment warrant requirement starts looking like a pretty
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huge loophole. The quantity of personal “papers and effects” that can be Richard Esguerra of the Electronic Frontier Foundation says in this
stored in an ordinary phone would have filled a house just a few decades Wired article that REAL ID “threatens citizens’ personal privacy without
ago. But if those smartphones are subject to “search incident to arrest,” actually justifying its impact or improving security.”
there’s no longer any need to bother with judicial authorization for the
search of a private home. And since a legal system governed by precedent REAL ID remains a dead letter. All that remains is for Congress to
subjects digital technologies to the tyranny of bad metaphors, there’s a declare it so. And it may be dawning on Congress that passing it a second
disarmingly strong argument to be made that smartphones should be time under the name “PASS ID” will not work.
treated like any other physical “closed container”—a digital backpack or
purse, at least with respect to the data stored locally on the phone.
This case involved more conventionally phone-like information: calling FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
records. But the Court nevertheless saw the danger inherent in treating
portable data storage devices as mere “containers,” holding that searches Senate Dems Reminded of
of phones were reasonable only to the extent they could be linked to the
twin justifications of safety and preventing destruction of evidence. But Obama’s “firm pledge” on Taxes
as the ruling and dissent both note, there are a handful of precedents
that appear to cut in the other direction. The question now is whether [Americans for Tax
other courts will follow Ohio’s lead or remain mired in inapposite
comparisons to knapsacks and cigarette packs. Reform“firm pledge” on Taxes]
DEC 15, 2009 01:58P.M.
The Senate healthcare bill contains at least six tax increases on
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS Americans making less than $250,000 per year, putting the bill in direct
violation of President Obama’s “firm pledge&rdquo...
REAL ID Retreats Yet Again
[Cato at Liberty]
DEC 15, 2009 02:10P.M. FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
By Jim Harper ATR Will Rate A Vote In Favor
Several different outlets are noting the quiet passing of a Department of Of Crapo Motion on Working
Homeland Security deadline to implement our national ID law, the
REAL ID Act. Family Tax Hikes [Americans
In May of 2008, with many states outright rejecting this national for Tax Reform]
surveillance mandate, the DHS issued blanket waivers and set a new DEC 15, 2009 12:58P.M.
deadline of December 31, 2009 by which states were supposed to meet
several compliance goals. This afternoon, the United States Senate will be casting a series of votes
on the Reid-Obama government health bill. One of these motions is
They have not, and the threat that the DHS/Transportation Security sponsored by Senator Mike Crapo (R-Id.). His mo...
Administration would prevent Americans from traveling has quieted to a
whimper.
The reason why? The federal government would be blamed for it. As
Neala Schwartzberg writes in her review of the push and pull over REAL
ID:
If I was a betting person (and I am from time to time) I’d bet
the backed-up-down-the-corridor traveler who is then turned
away after presenting his or her state-issued, official
complete with hologram ID will blame Homeland Security.
Does the ongoing collapse of REAL ID leave us vulnerable?
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FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Please join us. The Kudlow Report. 7pm ET. CNBC.
On CNBC’s Kudlow Report
Tonight [Larry Kudlow’s Money
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Politic$]
DEC 15, 2009 11:55A.M. Deficits are Bad, but the Real
Problem is Spending
[Americans for Tax Reform]
DEC 15, 2009 11:45A.M.
A new video from the Cato Institute’s Dan Mitchell describes how ‘deficit
reduction’ isn’t the real goal—limited government is. It’s worth
watching. ...
This evening at 7pm ET:
IS THE FED FIGHTING THE WRONG BATTLE?
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Why are they fighting deflation?
Panel:
The Problem Is Spending, not
*Vincent Reinhart, American Enterprise Institute Resident Scholar
Deficits [Cato at Liberty]
DEC 15, 2009 11:35A.M.
*Lee Hoskins, Pacific Research Institute Senior Fellow; Fmr. Cleveland
Federal Reserve Bank President; Fmr. Chairman of Huntington National
By Daniel J. Mitchell
Bank
*Peter Navarro, “The Coming China Wars” Author; University Of
Reckless spending increases under both Bush and Obama have resulted
California - Irvine Business Professor
in unprecedented deficits. Congress will soon be forced to increase the
nation’s debt limit by an astounding $1.8 trillion. Government borrowing
OBAMA’S “CASH FOR CAULKERS”
has become such a big issue that some politicians are proposing a deficit
reduction commission, which may mean they are like alcoholics trying
NBC’s Steve Handelsman has the story.
for a self-imposed intervention.
On to debate:
But all this fretting about deficits and debt is misplaced. Government
borrowing is a bad thing, of course, but this video explains that the real
*Christian Weller, Center For American Progress
problem is excessive government spending.
*Dan Mitchell, CATO Institute Senior Fellow
BOEING 787 TAKES FLIGHT
CNBC’s Phil LeBeau reports.
Fixating on the deficit allows politicians to pull a bait and switch, since
they can raise taxes, claim they are solving the problem, when all they
RENTECH/AIRLINES SYNTHETIC FUEL
are doing is replacing debt-financed spending with tax-financed
Joining us to discuss will be Rentech CEO Hunt Ramsbottom.
spending. At best, that’s merely taking a different route to the wrong
destination. The more likely result is that the tax increases will weaken
THE NEW NORMAL FOR STOCKS?
the economy, further exacerbating America’s fiscal position.
Vince Farrell, Soleil Securities Chief Investment Officer; CNBC
Contributor will be aboard.
SUZE ON THE FUTURE OF AMERICA
Optimism & stocks for the long run?
Suze Orman, Financial Guru; host of “The Suze Orman Show”
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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [Link]+webnews@[Link] 16 December 2009
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS and Senator Bunning raising serious questions about monetary policy —
it is extraordinary to think that the Fed is tilting at the exact wrong
More Data Confirm that windmill. Growth and inflation are going to beat the Bernanke Fed’s
forecasts. And if it doesn’t change its easy-money stripes, it’s going to
Bernanke Is Wrong [Larry repeat the same easy-money mistake that has plagued the Fed for ten
years. Why is it that these central bankers always err on the side of ease?
Kudlow’s Money Politic$] And why do they seem completely disinterested in making dollars
DEC 15, 2009 11:31A.M. scarce?
The Fed is fighting the wrong battle. Helicopter Ben Bernanke still As Wayne Angell has taught me down through the years, scarce money
believes that deflation is an economic threat. As a result, tomorrow’s increases the greenback’s value. That keeps inflation near zero, and
FOMC meeting is not likely to produce any shift in the key phrase that’s a tax cut for economic growth.
“extended period,” which has been used by the central bank to signal a
continuation of its free-money, zero-interest-rate policy. Tomorrow’s FOMC announcement will be at 2:15 p.m. I’m not excited
about the outcome.
The economic data show that Bernanke is wrong. Today’s producer price
report for business wholesale inflation unexpectedly jumped 1.8 percent.
That leaves a 6.3 percent annual rate over the past three months and a
2.4 percent rate over the past year. FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Taking out food and energy — which really shouldn’t be taken out — Tuesday Links [Cato at Liberty]
today’s PPI jumped 0.5 percent. Wholesale prices for consumer goods DEC 15, 2009 11:05A.M.
climbed 2.3 percent in the November report, and 0.6 percent excluding
food and energy. Tomorrow’s CPI report also might disappoint on the By Chris Moody
high side.
• Whether you’re insured, uninsured, get health insurance on your
Of course, until very recently, gold has been soaring and the dollar own or through an employer, own a small business or work for
declining. Commodity baskets also have been rising. These market-price someone else, this is what the health care bill means for you.
indicators are not signaling deflation. They’re suggesting a higher
inflation rate at the end of 2009 and spilling over into next year. • An update on the hidden taxes in the health care bill.
Meanwhile, industrial production for November surged 0.8 percent, • Why Obama should order the DEA to make more pot available for
leading to an annual rate of 5.6 percent over the past three months. This medical research.
is a key economic-recovery indicator. The industrial report registered
strong gains for durables, non-durables, consumer goods, business • The U.S. Constitution mentions only three federal crimes (treason,
equipment, and construction supplies. There’s also the strong retail-sales piracy, and counterfeiting). Today, there are more than 4,000.
report for November that came out last Friday. Business sales are rising,
as are inventories. • Podcast: “Myths of Health Care Reform.”
Former Fed governor Wayne Angell, a dedicated commodity-price-rule
advocate, believes that real economic growth in the next few quarters
could run 5 to 7 percent, with 2 to 3 percent inflation. And he notes that
with the clear warning from commodity indicators, there is simply no
reason for the Fed to let inflation drift higher. He believes Bernanke
should start an exit strategy immediately. That includes tomorrow’s
policy meeting, where the Fed should remove the extended-period
language and mark the beginning of the end of ultra-easy money.
Personally, I think the Fed’s target rate should be 0.5 percent right now,
not zero. And I think the Fed should be moving toward 2 percent next
year. The Fed should quit printing money by putting an end to the
mortgage purchase program.
In the midst of Ben Bernanke’s reconfirmation vote — which is still up in
the air in terms of its timing, with powerful voices like Senator DeMint
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FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Curtain Call for the ‘Public Tuesday’s Daily News [The Club
Option’ Sideshow [Cato at for Growth]
DEC 15, 2009 10:05A.M.
Liberty‘Public Option’
The recession is over, no thanks to the stimulus, says economists Brian
Sideshow] Wesbury and Robert Stein. The Wall Street Journal has a great collection
DEC 15, 2009 10:08A.M. of past editorials and op-eds about ObamaCare. Is the America Public
smarter than pro-Obama economists? The Democrats have dropped
By Michael F. Cannon their plan to expand Medicare. Byron York explains why Democrats are
pushing healthcare, even if it kills them. The crazy s John Miller provides
Senate Democrats now appear to be jettisoning the idea of creating a new a rundown of the 2010 Senate races.
government program to snuff out compete with private insurance
companies. It was an audacious proposal from the start, as it made their
health care plan even more left-wing than the Clinton plan, which voters
soundly rejected for being too statist. FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Yet it was always a sideshow that helpfully distracted the Left, the Right, Bill of Rights Day [Cato at
and the mainstream from what shrewd Democrats and their allies at
AHIP have really wanted all along: an individual mandate forcing all Liberty]
Americans to purchase health insurance under penalty of law. DEC 15, 2009 09:54A.M.
As I argue in this Cato study, an individual mandate gives government By Tim Lynch
more (and more immediate) control over Americans’ health care than
even the so-called “public option” would. As it has in Massachusetts, an
individual mandate will allow government to control what kind of
insurance you buy, how much you pay, how insurers pay doctors, where
doctors report to work, how doctors practice medicine, and what kind of
medical care you get.
The question now is whether the Left, the Right, and the mainstream will
recognize the Senate health care bill for what it is: a massive $450 billion
bailout for private insurance companies that will drive health insurance
premiums and taxes higher while reducing quality, all for the benefit of a
small cadre of Democrats with a preternatural need to control other
people’s health care.
(Cross-posted at Politico’s Health Care Arena.)
Since today is Bill of Rights Day, it seems like an appropriate time to
pause and consider the condition of the safeguards set forth in our
fundamental legal charter.
Let’s consider each amendment in turn.
The First Amendment says that Congress “shall make no law … abridging
the freedom of speech.” Government officials, however, insist that they
can make it a crime to mention the name of a political candidate in an ad
in the weeks preceding an election. They also insist upon gag orders in
thousands of federal investigations.
The Second Amendment says the people have the right “to keep and bear
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arms.” Government officials, however, insist that they can make it a of people around the world have — nothing at all.
crime to keep and bear arms.
Another important point to remember is that while we ought to be
The Third Amendment says soldiers may not be quartered in our homes alarmed by the various ways in which the government is attempting to go
without the consent of the owners. This safeguard is doing so well that under, over, and around our Bill of Rights, the battle will never be “won.”
we can pause here for a laugh. The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. To remind our fellow citizens of
their responsibility in that regard, the Cato Institute has distributed
The Fourth Amendment says the people have the right to be secure in more than three million copies of our “Pocket Constitution.” At this time
their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches of year, it’ll make a good stocking stuffer. Each year we send a bunch of
and seizures. Government officials, however, insist that they can storm complimentary copies to the White House, Congress, and the Supreme
into homes in the middle of the night after giving residents a few seconds Court so you won’t have to.
to answer their “knock” on the door.
Finally, to keep perspective, we should also take note of the many
The Fifth Amendment says that private property shall not be taken “for a positive developments we’ve experienced in America over the years. And
public use without just compensation.” Government officials, however, for some positive overall trends, go here.
insist that they can take away our property and give it to others who
covet it.
The Sixth Amendment says that in criminal prosecutions, the person FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
accused shall enjoy a speedy trial, a public trial, and an impartial jury
trial. Government officials, however, insist that they can punish people FAA Says Wasteful Spending
who want to have a trial. That is why 95% of the criminal cases never go
to trial. The handful of cases that do go to trial are the ones you see on ‘All Good’ [Cato at Liberty‘All
television — the late Michael Jackson and Scott Peterson, etc.
Good’]
The Seventh Amendment says that jury trials are guaranteed even in DEC 15, 2009 08:56A.M.
petty civil cases where the controversy exceeds “twenty dollars.”
Government officials, however, insist that they can impose draconian By Tad DeHaven
fines against people without jury trials. (See “Seventh Amendment Right
to Jury Trial in Nonarticle III Proceedings: A Study in Dysfunctional It’s not uncommon to hear the claim made that the “stimulus” would
Constitutional Theory,” 4 William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal 407 have had a greater economic impact had the money been focused on
(1995)). infrastructure. But proponents of public “investment” in infrastructure
seem to forget that the government allocates capital on the basis of
The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishments. politics rather than economics. Government is naturally inefficient
Government officials, however, insist that jailing people who try in ingest because it is immune to the market signals that guide private actors who
a life-saving drug is not cruel. stand to lose their own money should an investment not pan out.
The Ninth Amendment says that the enumeration in the Constitution of A perfect example is federal spending on airport infrastructure. The USA
certain rights should not be construed to deny or disparage others Today’s Thomas Frank has been doing good work looking at how the
“retained by the people.” Government officials, however, insist that they Federal Aviation Administration distributes funds to the nation’s
will decide for themselves what rights, if any, will be retained by the airports. In his latest piece, Frank analyzed FAA records obtained under
people. the Freedom of Information Act and found that taxpayer money is being
put to questionable use:
The Tenth Amendment says that the powers not delegated to the federal
government are to be reserved to the states, or to the people. Airports have spent $3.5 billion in federal money since 1998
Government officials, however, insist that they will decide for themselves on projects the Federal Aviation Administration rated as low
what powers are reserved to the states, or to the people. priority because they do little to improve the most pressing
needs in the nation’s aviation system…The money comes
It’s a depressing snapshot, to be sure, but I submit that the Framers of from a program that is supposed to improve aviation
the Constitution would not have been surprised by the relentless safety…But the program also has funded terminals at little-
attempts by government to expand its sphere of control. The Framers used airports, hangars to store private jets, and parking areas
themselves would often refer to written constitutions as mere that are free to customers.
“parchment barriers” or what we would describe as “paper tigers.” They
nevertheless concluded that putting safeguards down on paper was For example, Frank reports on Pellston Regional Airport in Michigan,
better than having nothing at all. And lest we forget, that’s what millions which “used $7.5 million in federal funds to build a terminal with stone
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fireplaces and cathedral ceilings. The airport averages three departures a FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
day.”
Conrad: Just Don’t Cut My
But the FAA sees it differently:
Programs! [Cato at Liberty]
‘They’re all good projects,’ said Catherine Lang, FAA acting DEC 15, 2009 08:52A.M.
associate administrator for airports.
By Chris Edwards
C@L readers who get stuck in congested airports this holiday season may
wish to keep that quote in mind. Prompted by my blog on Senator Kent Conrad’s Task Force to reduce the
federal deficit, my assistant Amy Mandler dug up some interesting
In a sister piece, Frank quotes Lang as saying that the terminals at these information on the good senator.
airports are “crumbling, loaded with asbestos and have no other source
[of money].” If airport infrastructure in this country is truly crumbling, Conrad has nurtured his image as a “deficit hawk” for decades, but when
then why is the FAA expending scarce resources on stone fireplaces? it comes to subsidies for millionaire farmers he demands that the federal
gravy keep flowing.
Frank cites more examples:
Earlier this year, for example, President Obama proposed cutting one
• Lake Cumberland Regional Airport in Kentucky got $3.5 million to type of farm subsidy (”direct payments”) for farmers earning over
build a glass-fronted terminal in 2004 that was largely unused $500,000 a year. I suspect that about 95 percent of Americans would
until the first passenger flights began this June. The airport now support that tiny nod toward fiscal sanity and deficit reduction. But not
has six flights a week. Senator Conrad, who helped shoot the proposal down. See here and
here.
• Montgomery Regional Airport in Alabama got $22 million to build
a $35 million terminal with a sloping glass facade and a rotunda
topped with a domed ceiling that reflects the historical architecture
of the state Capitol. FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
• Halliburton Field Airport in Duncan, Okla., got $700,000 for a Hell Freezes Over (Or At Least
terminal with a pilot room and a reception room. The airport, open
only to private planes, has 24 landings and takeoffs a day, mostly Gets Cooler) [Cato at Liberty]
local pilots in piston-engine planes. DEC 15, 2009 08:51A.M.
We should be looking to privatize infrastructure as this Cato op-ed By Sallie James
states:
Well here’s an interesting, if three-weeks-old, story. Apparently the
First, privatization would reduce the responsibilities of the North Dakota Farm Bureau’s annual convention recently passed a policy
government so that policymakers could better focus on their calling for the elimination of all agricultural programs. Reading between
core responsibilities, such as national security. Second, there the lines of the original press release indicates that the call was part of a
is vast foreign privatization experience that could be drawn broad political position by the NDFB to move away from government
upon in pursuing U.S. reforms. Third, privatization would intervention in many areas of the economy apart from farm programs,
spur economic growth by opening new markets to including cap-and-trade and health care:
entrepreneurs.
“As people in this country expect more from the government
I suppose the drawback would be that politicians would be denied the and less from themselves, our delegates are urging everyone,
fun of spending other people’s money, not to mention the campaign including farmers, to step away from the public trough and
contributions. get back to the principles of individual responsibility and
initiative,” said NDFB President Eric Aasmundstad….
The only way government can get money is to take it from its
citizens. We don’t believe raising taxes to pay for health care
or climate change will help our country get out of our
economic slump or even improve health care or the
environment. And the more they take, the less we have to find
the innovative solutions to the problems we face.
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He sounds like a Catoite.
To what extent the NDFB’s position flows through to the rest of the farm
lobby remains to be seen, so hell hasn’t quite frozen over yet. But this is
positive news. At the very least it spells sweet, sweet trouble for long-
time free trade nemesis and farm bill supporter Sen. Byron Dorgan (D),
who is up for reelection next year.
HT: Chris Edwards.
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Happy Bill of Rights Day [The
Club for Growth]
DEC 15, 2009 08:49A.M.
George Mason, arguably my favorite founding father, is considered the -
George Mason
