With gas prices pushing $4 a gallon, a declining dollar and a mortgage crisis that refuses to go away, our nation’s economy is becoming the number one issue for the 2008 presidential campaign. There should be, however, some healthy skepticism regarding any candidate who implies that such things can be successfully controlled from Washington. Experience has clearly shown- centralized control under the operation of federal busybodies doesn’t make for a successful scenario. More times than not, it does more harm than good.
For example: the current Ethanol food crisis is a obvious demonstration of how government intervention proves to be a cure that’s far worse than the disease. Instead of improving a situation, government activism has the propensity for producing the opposite result. The pundits call this effect- “the Law of Unintended Consequences.” It is a very real phenomenon indeed, and issues forth most readily from that vain impulse of Liberal do-goodism.
One of the worst cases of this abuse is the federal government’s hidden tax that emanates from over-regulation. The cost of complying with all of our nation’s spider web of federal dictates was estimated by the U.S. Small Business Administration to be $1.14 trillion in 2006. That’s almost half of the expressed, total budget for 2006. Amazingly, this inflicted abuse on the part of unelected bureaucrats is an amount equal to about 10% of our GDP. Combined with the normal budget items, that’s a total tax burden of almost a full third of our economy’s productivity. Given our current economic struggles, perhaps the best thing Washington can do now is ease off the oppression!
Naturally, these expenses we struggle to pay now originally came to us by some smiling politician who simply wanted to grace us with benevolent gifts of government largesse. How sweet. Fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice…
These rules taxing almost every conceivable behavior imaginable are published in the Federal Register. In 2006, the Register grew to a massive 75,000 pages and issued almost 4,000 Nanny State guidelines on how we best behave. God gave Moses 10.
The EPA, the Dept. of Commerce, the Dept. of Agriculture, the Dept. of Interior and the Dept. of Treasury accounted for 44% of all new additions in 2006.
A report from last year says that the 60-plus federal departments, agencies and commissions are not content with what they have. They are busy creating about 4,000 more rules that will cost an additional $100 million to individuals and small business.
The worst aspect of this growing tyranny is the attending political unaccountability. There’s very little influence at the ballot box over these governmental authorities. Our elected leaders come and go, but these bureaucrat turf warriors remain forever entrenched and beyond our reach.
How can we possibly reverse this trend? Well, it’s certainly not by adding more agencies through Big Government programs like Universal Healthcare. We should lobby our representatives for more transparency and disclosure in government. We should also begin holding Congress accountable for the bad things these departments do. Finally, there should be a requirement that Congress and the President give signed authority before a new rule goes into effect.
Our Constitutional form of government was never intended to be administered by unelected bureaucrats with this type of power over the people. This is “regulation without representation” and a condition of servitude that a free people should never permit.
The cost we face now in unmonitored and unlimited regulation is more than the total federal budget of 1987. Something is desperately wrong with this trend. This election year, we should try to reverse it. The first step-- not falling prey to that old, Liberal, siren song that says, “more government is the answer!” (send comments to: WFC83197@aol.com, or mail to POB 114, Jacksboro, TN 37757)
Monday, April 28, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
The “Leave Us Alone” Conservative Coalition
Conservative-activist Grover Norquist, (founder of Americans for Tax Reform), has written an enlightening new book entitled, “Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government’s Hands off our Money, our Guns, our Lives.”
In this in-depth study, Norquist attempts to fundamentally define the components that have driven the conservative, Reagan coalition over the past 25 years.
It’s a very informative examination of the competing motives behind our political system. As I have written before, there are only three motivating factors, outside what Norquist calls “Legacy Voters” who blindly vote out of loyalty to their parents, which determine one’s affiliation: the Ideology of the Left, the Ideology of the Right and Patronage.
Patronage is easy, it’s the method by which you selfishly choose the politician that promises you the most benefits. It’s the static, “fixed pie” scenario of carving up the goodies. But, as Reagan so rightly said, “America is about more than who gets what.”
The Ideology of the Left offers the option of what Norquist terms a “Takings Coalition,” where people put forward a thinly disguised patronage system under the philosophy of “working together for a better world.” This is the home of socialistic, egalitarian reformers, otherwise known as: trial lawyers, labor unions, Utopian micromanagers, big city political machines and the welfare industry (both dependents and deliverers). They are all united by one thing-- their desperate appetite for other people’s money through ever-increasing taxes.
The “Takings Coalition” turn JFK’s famous quote on its head by asking not what they can do for their country, but asking what the country can do for them. The “country,” after all, can’t spend one dime without forcibly taking it from another private citizen. Some call it charity, but this transfer of wealth is really “legalized plunder,” as the philosopher Frederick Bastiat noted in his landmark book “The Law.” Charity invokes the idea of Free Will, but the last time I checked, the IRS doesn’t permit “no” for an answer. In addition, it’s a fundamentally flawed system. The more one taxes and transfers wealth, the more one damages the incentives that create wealth in the first place. That’s why all socialist experiments around the world ultimately fail. Socialism simply cannibalizes the wealth that capitalism creates.
The Ideology of the Right offers the option of “Being Left Alone.” These are people united in their desire to have lower taxes, fewer regulations and greater freedom to live their lives without government intrusion. It’s not an anti-government coalition however, because these people want a responsible government that will provide for a valid criminal justice system and an adequate national defense. These principles of security are the very reason why governments are organized. These safeguards help to make “Being Left Alone” more accessible for all because they allow people to live their lives free from the threats of domestic crime or foreign aggression. By contrast, the “Takings Coalition” erroneously believes that the existence of laws and armies, by themselves, is the sole reason why we have bad behavior. Their political answer is always based upon capitulation and appeasement that favors the aggressor at the expense of the innocent victim.
Some people question whether this Center-Right “Leave Us Alone” coalition truly aims to advance liberty when some regard the Religious Right as a type of Theocratic tyranny. Norquist tackles this question openly and honestly. In his book, he relates how the religious conservatives first became aligned with this Coalition. It wasn’t when prayer was taken out of school or when Roe v. Wade legalized abortion. It happened after the Carter administration attempted to raise taxes on Christian schools and regulate religious radio with the Fairness Doctrine- something that Hillary Clinton has vowed to utilize if she becomes President. So again, it was religious people who wanted to be left alone in their schools and radio stations that first created the so-called Religious Right movement. Ironically, this happened only a few years after Jimmy Carter had built a strong, Christian coalition for his campaign in 1976.
Norquist sees a bright future for the “Leave Us Alone” coalition. More and more Americans are becoming investors in the stock market. Their mutual funds, IRAs and 401Ks are making them converts to the Center-Right Republican Party. Every time a “Takings Coalition” politician talks about raising taxes “on the rich,” they begin to lose Democrats who’ve come to realize there’s a target now drawn on their retirement accounts. A recent Rasmussen poll demonstrates how, over time, stock market investors become 20% more likely to vote Republican. The trend toward individual stock ownership will continue to erode elements of the “Takings Coalition” in the future.
The bottom line for the “Leave Us Alone” coalition is Individualism and Independence. Norquist defines the top agenda items as: school choice; personalizing both Social Security and Healthcare; outsourcing government work to the private sector; and, advocating “transparency” in government. These are all initiatives for greater self-empowerment and less overall dependency on government.
Texas is one of several states that has recently placed all of their state business online for everyone to see. In Texas, every check written by the state can now be tracked on the web. This movement portends an ill fate for old-style political machines that are full of corruption, sweetheart deals and slush funds, i.e. the “meat and potatoes” of the “Takings Coalition.”
Norquist insists that his book is an accurate portrayal of the current political players. He states that the Conservative Movement has always been about conserving our Founding Father’s concept of God-given, Individual Rights to life, liberty and property. The Ideology of America’s Constitutional Framers was based upon limited government, because they understood that only by limiting government, can one maximize freedom. (send comments to WFC83197, or mail to POB 114, Jacksboro, TN 37757)
In this in-depth study, Norquist attempts to fundamentally define the components that have driven the conservative, Reagan coalition over the past 25 years.
It’s a very informative examination of the competing motives behind our political system. As I have written before, there are only three motivating factors, outside what Norquist calls “Legacy Voters” who blindly vote out of loyalty to their parents, which determine one’s affiliation: the Ideology of the Left, the Ideology of the Right and Patronage.
Patronage is easy, it’s the method by which you selfishly choose the politician that promises you the most benefits. It’s the static, “fixed pie” scenario of carving up the goodies. But, as Reagan so rightly said, “America is about more than who gets what.”
The Ideology of the Left offers the option of what Norquist terms a “Takings Coalition,” where people put forward a thinly disguised patronage system under the philosophy of “working together for a better world.” This is the home of socialistic, egalitarian reformers, otherwise known as: trial lawyers, labor unions, Utopian micromanagers, big city political machines and the welfare industry (both dependents and deliverers). They are all united by one thing-- their desperate appetite for other people’s money through ever-increasing taxes.
The “Takings Coalition” turn JFK’s famous quote on its head by asking not what they can do for their country, but asking what the country can do for them. The “country,” after all, can’t spend one dime without forcibly taking it from another private citizen. Some call it charity, but this transfer of wealth is really “legalized plunder,” as the philosopher Frederick Bastiat noted in his landmark book “The Law.” Charity invokes the idea of Free Will, but the last time I checked, the IRS doesn’t permit “no” for an answer. In addition, it’s a fundamentally flawed system. The more one taxes and transfers wealth, the more one damages the incentives that create wealth in the first place. That’s why all socialist experiments around the world ultimately fail. Socialism simply cannibalizes the wealth that capitalism creates.
The Ideology of the Right offers the option of “Being Left Alone.” These are people united in their desire to have lower taxes, fewer regulations and greater freedom to live their lives without government intrusion. It’s not an anti-government coalition however, because these people want a responsible government that will provide for a valid criminal justice system and an adequate national defense. These principles of security are the very reason why governments are organized. These safeguards help to make “Being Left Alone” more accessible for all because they allow people to live their lives free from the threats of domestic crime or foreign aggression. By contrast, the “Takings Coalition” erroneously believes that the existence of laws and armies, by themselves, is the sole reason why we have bad behavior. Their political answer is always based upon capitulation and appeasement that favors the aggressor at the expense of the innocent victim.
Some people question whether this Center-Right “Leave Us Alone” coalition truly aims to advance liberty when some regard the Religious Right as a type of Theocratic tyranny. Norquist tackles this question openly and honestly. In his book, he relates how the religious conservatives first became aligned with this Coalition. It wasn’t when prayer was taken out of school or when Roe v. Wade legalized abortion. It happened after the Carter administration attempted to raise taxes on Christian schools and regulate religious radio with the Fairness Doctrine- something that Hillary Clinton has vowed to utilize if she becomes President. So again, it was religious people who wanted to be left alone in their schools and radio stations that first created the so-called Religious Right movement. Ironically, this happened only a few years after Jimmy Carter had built a strong, Christian coalition for his campaign in 1976.
Norquist sees a bright future for the “Leave Us Alone” coalition. More and more Americans are becoming investors in the stock market. Their mutual funds, IRAs and 401Ks are making them converts to the Center-Right Republican Party. Every time a “Takings Coalition” politician talks about raising taxes “on the rich,” they begin to lose Democrats who’ve come to realize there’s a target now drawn on their retirement accounts. A recent Rasmussen poll demonstrates how, over time, stock market investors become 20% more likely to vote Republican. The trend toward individual stock ownership will continue to erode elements of the “Takings Coalition” in the future.
The bottom line for the “Leave Us Alone” coalition is Individualism and Independence. Norquist defines the top agenda items as: school choice; personalizing both Social Security and Healthcare; outsourcing government work to the private sector; and, advocating “transparency” in government. These are all initiatives for greater self-empowerment and less overall dependency on government.
Texas is one of several states that has recently placed all of their state business online for everyone to see. In Texas, every check written by the state can now be tracked on the web. This movement portends an ill fate for old-style political machines that are full of corruption, sweetheart deals and slush funds, i.e. the “meat and potatoes” of the “Takings Coalition.”
Norquist insists that his book is an accurate portrayal of the current political players. He states that the Conservative Movement has always been about conserving our Founding Father’s concept of God-given, Individual Rights to life, liberty and property. The Ideology of America’s Constitutional Framers was based upon limited government, because they understood that only by limiting government, can one maximize freedom. (send comments to WFC83197, or mail to POB 114, Jacksboro, TN 37757)
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