Obama Says Debt is Good

In a speech at Georgetown University recently, President Obama explained why it was more important to bail out banks than it was to bail out the American people directly:

The president also defended the massive and unpopular government programs enacted under the Bush administration and expanded under Obama to bail out banks
and other financial institutions. He acknowledged that sending money directly to taxpayers might be more palatable — but said it wouldn't be as effective.

"The truth is that a dollar of capital in a bank can actually result in eight or ten dollars of loans to families and businesses, a multiplier effect that can ultimately lead to a faster pace of economic growth," Obama said.

I have two counterpoints for Obama's statement.

1) It's true that there is a multiplier effect by capitalizing banks. However, instead of just handing a bunch of money to the banks, it would have been just as effective to use the bailout funds to pay down the mortgages held by these banks, which would be a huge benefit to the American people.

2) The economy is in free fall mode because it was over-leveraged. In other words, consumers, businesses, and banks racked up too much debt. Now that credit is not as readily available, people are spending less and living more within their means. Another term for the multiplier effect mentioned by Obama is leverage. So rather than let the economy find a new natural balance with less debt, our president wants us to increase our debt levels again!! And he's starting with the banks, the cause of the entire problem in the first place!!!

Don't fall for it. Beware of the debt trap. It sounds as if our government is out to enslave us financially.



Questioning Politics

2nd Report in Recent Weeks Warns of Violence by “Right Wing Extremists”

The following is a news release from the Constitution Party.

In the report, issued on April 7th, the DHS warns of potential violence by “right-wing extremists” who, the report says, can be found among those against illegal immigration, increased federal power and taxation, gun control, abortion and the loss of U.S. sovereignty. The report mentions returning war veterans as being particularly threatening, saying the “recession” is fueling radical “recruiting” of the military.

“This propaganda coming from the United States government should enrage each and every hard working American across the political spectrum”, said Constitution Party National Committee Chairman Jim Clymer.

“Especially the demonizing of veterans who gave so much while fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s reprehensible that those brave men and women are being eyed with such unwarranted suspicion,” Clymer added.

The DHS report comes on the heels of a report in Missouri which made similar mischaracterizations last month, saying those who follow third party candidates like Constitution Party presidential candidate Chuck Baldwin and Libertarian Bob Barr should be suspect. The Missouri Information Analysis Center’s (MIAC) warning to law enforcement was compiled with the help of the DHS but was later denounced by the Missouri State Police Chief as a “political attack”(http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=93067).

The Constitution Party calls on Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to likewise acknowledge her department’s April 7th report as a political attack, and rescind the damaging document.

“This is an egregious case of political profiling. The timing of this report - to coincide with tax protests across the country - should not be lost on Americans. It’s indeed a frightening reality when those who subscribe to a Constitutionally- based political view are characterized as potentially “violent,” Clymer noted.


Questioning Politics

It's Okay for the Government to Steal

The text below comes from a Libertarian Party communication From the Desk of Robert Kraus.

...if Congress gets its way, an unelected political appointee will soon have the power to solely decide what constitutes “excessive compensation” and forcibly confiscate it.

I’m talking about the so-called “Pay for Performance Act.”

Sponsored by Florida Democrat Rep. Alan Grayson, it gives the Treasury Secretary
unprecedented powers to confiscate the pay of ANY employee at ANY company that
received bailout funds if he thinks they didn’t really earn it – even if the compensation was required by a legal contract.

If it passes, the federal government would have the power to forcibly dictate the salaries of millions of private employees.

It’s another step towards the “maximum wage” law many socialists have been demanding for years.

And it doesn’t define what unearned pay actually is. It gives Tim Geithner, a man who decided to exempt himself from taxes, sole power to write whatever rules he pleases.

It also applies to ANY employee, not just a manager or someone who lost money. If you do ANY work for ANY company that accepted funds – even if you were a profitable employee who did everything right – the government would have the power to steal your paycheck from you.

And it’s retroactive, allowing the Treasury Secretary to use force against people for doing something that was perfectly legal at the time and required by contract.

The Soviet Union didn’t even allow its agents to do that to its citizens!

Now, no one should be getting rich off the taxpayer, but if allowing unelected bureaucrats unchecked authority to steal paychecks with no standard or procedure isn’t scary, I don’t know what is.

Giving the Executive Branch unchecked, uncontrolled and unconstitutional powers was a bad idea under the Bush administration, and it’s still a bad idea under Obama.

And this kind of federal power grab – allowing the Treasury Secretary to invent his own rules and steal paychecks from even profitable and low-level employees for any reason whatsoever – is exactly what the Libertarian Party was founded to fight.

Again, no one’s arguing that incompetent managers should be entitled to taxpayer cash. But this bill would hand an unelected bureaucrat undefined and uncontrolled powers to override legal contracts and decide for himself what private citizens should earn.

It’s another frightening step towards a totally nationalized economy.

This so-called “Pay for Performance Act” is nothing more than another step towards a virtual “national salary cap.”

EVERYONE is at risk.

Please fight back today.

Yours in liberty,

Robert Kraus

Acting Executive Director, Libertarian National Committee

I am amazed by the lack of uproar across our country at how powerful our government continues to grow. These are scary times, and with each baby step our government is taking, it gets more and more frightening.

Where is the outrage?!!


Questioning Politics

The Problem with Socialism

I received the following e-mail forward and enjoyed the analogy.

An economics professor at Texas Tech said he had never failed a single student before but had, once, failed an entire class. The class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said OK, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism.

All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A. After the first test the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. But, as the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too; so they studied little. The second Test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame, name calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for anyone else. All failed to their great surprise and the professor told them that socialism would ultimately fail because the harder to succeed the greater the reward; but when a government takes all the reward away, no one will try or succeed.

The problem with Socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.

-Margaret Thatcher

Questioning Politics

Secret Report Targets Americans

I received the following Constitution Party e-mail newsletter dated March 17, 2009. Take it for what it's worth.

While I agree with a lot of what the Constitution Party stands for, if they really want to be taken seriously as a political party, they are going to have to do something about their grammar and punctuation in their communications.


Secret Report Targets Americans

Police Told Which Political Beliefs to Consider “Dangerous”

Lancaster, PA: A secret police report targets millions of Americans as potential “domestic terrorists” if they support the Constitution, oppose unlawful taxation, supported 2008 presidential candidates Republican Ron Paul, Libertarian Bob Barr or Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin (Seen here on Lou Dobbs program ), or if they are opposed to abortion, are against unconstitutional gun control, if they display pro-Constitution bumper stickers or own copies of certain books and documentaries.

The report is part of an ongoing attempt by a number of organizations (http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/intrep.jsp) and movements to characterize law-abiding citizens as “white supremacists”, members of “hate groups” or, more recently as “terrorists”.

The report was generated by the Missouri Information Analysis Center

The Center is described as “the mechanism to collect incident reports of suspicious activities to be evaluated and analyzed in an effort to identify potential trends or patterns of terrorist or criminal operations within the state of Missouri. MIAC will also fun c tion as a vehi c le for two-way c ommuni c ation between federal, state and lo c al law enfor c ement c ommunity within our region.”

The se c ret report, distributed to Missouri law enfor c ement, lists as dangerous legitimate organizations in c luding those who follow a Constitutionally-based ideology in regard to states’ rights, firearm ownership, free spee c h and san c tity of life.

The Constitution Party , the fastest- growing third party, subscribes to the Constitutionally- based, limited role of the federal government and calls on members of all political ideologies to voice strong opposition to smear campaigns that demonize Americans because of their political beliefs.

The Constitution Party made numerous c alls to MIAC and was told an “offi c er” would respond to questions regarding this report.

No one at MIAC returned our c alls.

The MIAC report states “rightwing” militia movements “ c ontinuously exploit world events in order to in c rease parti c ipation in their movements. Due to the c urrent e c onomi c al and politi c al situation, a lush environment for militia a c tivity has been c reated.”

The terms “ c onstitutionalist” and “white suprema c ist” are often used inter c hangeably.

Page 7 of the report warns law enforcement that “militia members most commonly associate with 3rd party political groups. It is not uncommon for militia members to display Constitutional [sic] Party, Campaign for Liberty or Libertarian material. These members are usually supporters of former presidential candidate:[sic] Ron Paul Chuck Baldwin and Bob Barr.”

Issues of c on c ern to those listed by MIAC as reason for law enfor c ement to label them “terrorists” in c lude: Opposition to illegal immigration, implementation of RFID (radio frequen c y identifi c ation) and the planned merger of the US, Canada and Mexi c o (North Ameri c an Union). The so- c alled “militia movement” c ontains people who own c opies of the late Aaron Russo’s anti-tax do c umentary Ameri c a: Freedom to Fas c ism.

Members of a so- c alled “patriot movement” are des c ribed as being “dangerous” to poli c e in a se c tion of the report titled “You Are the Enemy” whi c h states:

“The militia subs c ribes to an anti-government and NWO mindset, whi c h c reates a threat to law enfor c ement offi c ers. They view the military, National Guard, and law enfor c ement as a for c e that will c onfis c ate their firearms and pla c e them in FEMA c on c entration c amps.”

The MIAC report distributed to Missouri law enfor c ement is a more virulent version of a similar report c ompiled by the FBI in Phoenix, AZ during the Clinton administration (see page one and page two of the do c ument). The Phoenix FBI do c ument c alls “defenders” of the Constitution “right-wing extremists.”

Constitution Party 2008 presidential and vi c e presidential c andidates Chu c k Baldwin and Darrell Castle, along with CP National Chairman Jim Clymer, are available to dis c uss this disturbing report and the severe limitations it seeks to impose on free speech.

Inquiries regarding this se c ret report may be made to: MIAC at 866 362 6422.

To see where c itizens are en c ouraged to submit a report that someone c ould be a “terrorist” c li c k HERE.

###

Take Action Now!

1. Call the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce and say you will not be visiting Missouri out of concern of being PROFILED.
(314) 231-55552. Call the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission and tell them you won't visit Missouri because of "political profiling". (800) 325-79623. Call the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) and tell them their smear campaign is not acceptable.(866) 362-6422 and (573)-526-6115


Questioning Politics