Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Fannie Med? Why a "Public Option" Is Hazardous to Your Health

by Michael F. Cannon

President Obama and other leading Democrats have proposed creating a new government health insurance program as an option for Americans under the age of 65, within the context of a new, federally regulated market — typically described as a "National Health Insurance Exchange." Supporters claim that a new government program could deliver higher-quality health care at a lower cost than private insurance, and that competition from a government program would force private insurers to improve.

A full accounting shows that government programs cost more and deliver lower-quality care than private insurance. The central problem with proposals to create a new government program, however, is not that government is less efficient than private insurers, but that government can hide its inefficiencies and draw consumers away from private insurance, despite offering an inferior product.

A health insurance "exchange," where consumers choose between private health plans with artificially high premiums and a government program with artificially low premiums, would not increase competition. Instead, it would reduce competition by driving lower-cost private health plans out of business. President Obama's vision of a health insurance exchange is not a market, but a prelude to a government takeover of the health care sector. In the process, millions of Americans would be ousted from their existing health plans.

If Congress wants to make health care more efficient and increase competition in health insurance markets, there are far better options.

Congress should reject proposals to create a new government health insurance program — not for the sake of private insurers, who would be subject to unfair competition, but for the sake of American patients, who would be subject to unnecessary morbidity and mortality.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE POLICY ANALYSIS

Ron Paul in 1988

Watch this video in a new window GERALD CELENTE ON LEW ROCKWELL SHOW APRIL 26TH 2009 PART 2 OF 2

Mark Calabria Discusses Transparency on CNBC

Wendy Jones Reaching Out To Delaware Voters

posted by Donny Ferguson on Jul 27, 2009

Voters in Delaware's 19th State Senate District will have two more chances to hear from Libertarian candidate Wendy Jones. Jones is running in the Aug. 3 special election to succeed Senate President Pro Tem Thurman Adams Jr., who died last month from pancreatic cancer.

Jones will appear on Bill Colley’s radio program this Wednesday, at 5:00 p.m. on WGMD, and Jeff Gartman’s radio program on Saturday morning from 7:00 to 8:00 a.m. You may listen on the radio, or via the broadcast live from their website.

Jones will also speak with voters on Thursday at the League of Women Voters forum for this special election. All four candidates have bene invited to the event, which will be held at the Sussex County Council Chambers at the Circle in Georgetown.

The 7:00 p.m. event will be broadcast live on the County Council’s webcam, which can be viewed here. Follow the instructions if you need a plug-in to make it work. The audio link is separate from the video link, so you have to click both to see and hear.

Jones will share with voters her plans on several important issues:

Job Creation is top priority. Small businesses create the most jobs. Cut taxes and give business credits to encourage expansion of private businesses with good jobs in Sussex County.

Cut Government by cutting taxes and privatizing. Let private businesses compete to provide the greatest choices and efficiencies for Delawareans.

Health Reform: Government should not be authorized to limit our free choices for our healthcare providers.

Self Defense: Everyone should have the right to self defense and to protect our families. I am a lifetime member of the NRA, and the state representative for the Pink Pistols, advocating self defense for women.

Support School Vouchers: Parents should be free to choose their children’s schools: private, public, parochial, charter, or homeschooling.

Del Pointe: It is immoral and irresponsible for the state to partner with gambling and other special interests, to compete with private businesses in Sussex County. It is unfair for the state to reward a few, politically privileged people at the expense of all − Delaware’s taxpayers.

You may visit Wendy's campaign online at http://www.delawareliberty.com.


-- Post From My iPhone

Monday, July 27, 2009

Monday LP Message


Have a sick child? Then you’d better get used to putting her on a government waiting list.

That’s because while Barack Obama is trying to sell his proposed federal takeover of the entire health care system with promises of lower costs and more choices, it’s about as honest a pitch as that ad in the back of comic books for x-ray glasses.

The truth is his scheme outlaws private insurance (page 16 of the 1,018 page draft bill,) sends government employees to your home to monitor your parenting (page 838) and forces the sick and elderly to submit to “end of life counseling” (page 425.)

On page 167, and elsewhere throughout the draft, it also calls for compulsory “shared responsibility payments,” clearly defined as a “tax on individuals without acceptable health care coverage.” The government would confiscate thousands of dollars from your paycheck if they don’t like your choice of coverage. In other words, you have no choice.

And those are just a few of the atrocious provisions of the draft bill. The Congressional Budget Office has found the plan is economically unsustainable. Since “free” care leads to people using the system every time they get the sniffles, it cannot work unless you are put on a miles-long waiting list or get approval from the government to meet your doctor.

That’s commonly called “rationing.”

As more and more information leaks out, Obama’s approval ratings are plummeting. His “strong approval” rating has plunged to a paltry 29 percent. His “strong disapproval” rating has ballooned to 40 percent. A majority of Americans oppose his health care plan.

But Obama will not be deterred by such facts. Why?

Just look at the mail senior citizens get right before an election. With many dependent on the socialized Medicare system for treatment, Democrats use their very lives as campaign fodder.

Every election year, senior citizens are inundated with mail, phone calls and personal visits from Democrat campaign personnel warning them if they don’t show up on Election Day and vote Democrat, the other side will cut off their access to health care and – literally – leave them to die. Terrified because government controls their access to care, most show up to cast their votes for the Democrat…any Democrat!

Obama would love to extend that campaign ploy to all Americans. His goal is a nation where Democrats can make people vote for them simply because Democrats hold their access to medical care in their iron grip, as they already cruelly do to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid recipients.

That’s why your Libertarian Party is leading the charge against the Obama health care takeover. We’ve launched an aggressive media campaign to inform millions of Americans of this expensive, ineffective and ultimately dangerous scheme to force an entire nation onto rationed welfare care.

It’s working. The Kansas City Star admitted the LP is helping defeat Obama in way that can “cling tightly to its principle and still fit comfortably in the political mainstream.

"That's why our job is hard," wailed a Democrat pollster. "It's always easier to use words to defeat something." For the record, our “words” were nothing more than the facts about the Obama plan.

Even Rush Limbaugh is now reading from Libertarian Party press releases on the air. Dr. Richard Kerr, a West Virginia Libertarian Party member and retired 36-year doctor is publicly asking Obama to apologize to doctors after the president publicly accused them in his press conference last week of deliberately giving the wrong treatments to sick children to make more money.

No matter what you think of Limbaugh, his 22 million listeners are politically active -- and many are independents and libertarians. They’re looking for someone, anyone, to fight back. It’s not like the Republicans, with their profligate spending and Bush Medicare prescription drug entitlement, are much of an alternative.

That kind of media campaign is why we’ve seen a spike in candidate inquiries and e-mailed questions from interested independents, libertarians and former Republicans this week.

We’ve also made it abundantly clear we will hold supporters of the Obama plan accountable the only place it counts – at the ballot box. Libertarian candidates will campaign on their support of proven free-market reforms to make health care affordable and accessible. And they will hold their opponents’ feet to the fire for supporting a radical government takeover that bloats costs, degrades the quality of care and leads to waiting lists and rationing.

As it stands right now, the Obama plan will probably pass in Congress. But you can do something to change it.

Will you join the Libertarian Party’s growing citizen army against the Obama health care takeover?



-- Post From My iPhone

I AM LIBERTARIAN

Ron Paul on Obamacare It's Monstrous: Scrap It


Former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has a frank prescription for the health care plan making its way through Congress: Scrap it.

"I think it's monstrous," Paul said.

"I don't think it will improve medical care in this country. I think it's very, very costly and we don't have any money. And they don't have any way of paying for it."

The libertarian GOP congressman and physician was in East Grand Rapids today for a private reception for what was touted as a "conservative comeback luncheon."

Paul is skeptical of estimates that peg the 10-year cost of the plan backed by President Barack Obama at $1 trillion. He puts it much higher.

He noted that cost estimates for Medicaid and Medicare are often below the mark.

"On average, it's two or three times more expensive than they say. This is going to be incredibly expensive."

Paul has introduced a bill that would provide tax credits and medical savings as a means of expanding health insurance coverage.

Paul believes Republicans must return to core principles if they are to resurrect themselves from their losses in 2008, an election that saw the Democratic Party seize the White House and both houses of Congress.

To Paul, that means less government, at home and abroad.

"They are going to have to earn that trust back. They should be more concerned about personal liberties. They shouldn't be the great defenders of government secrecy and torture..."

"The young people aren't supporting Republicans. The worst group for the Republicans is (age) 15 to 25. If they can't appeal to that group, what kind of future is there for the party?"

Paul, who opposed the Iraq war, asserts the United States should pull its troops out of Afghanistan in addition getting out of Iraq.

"I'd come home, from all of it, the sooner the better. The greatest incentive for the recruitment of al-Qaida and the Taliban is occupation. The sooner we realize that and come home, the better."

E-mail Ted Roelofs: troelofs@grpress.com

How Government Grows

"Government does not grow by seizing our freedoms, but by assuming our responsibilities. "

Michael Cloud

Health Care Quotes

"National Health Insurance means combining the efficiency of the Postal Service with the compassion of the I.R.S. … and the cost accounting of the Pentagon. "

Louis Sullivan/Connie Horner quoted by Novak in _Forbes_

Health Care Reform Coming Down to the Wire

Michael D. Tanner

President Obama and the Democratic congressional leaders are pushing hard to finish and vote on legislation that will effectively lead to a government takeover of the health care system.

Health care reform is needed. However, reforms that increase the role of government and an already massive federal budget deficit – as many proposals would – are bad medicine. The Cato Institute is undertaking nationwide outreach on how free-market reforms increase consumer choice and improve health care's quality and affordability.

The Cato Institute is running ads in major newspapers and on radio stations nationwide to inform the public that health care reform is necessary – but only the right kind of reform. These ads aren't cheap, so please consider making a contribution to support Cato's health care reform efforts.

As part of the campaign, Cato health care analysts are working to dispel myths about health care reform. Writing in the New York Post, Cato senior fellow Michael D. Tanner outlines the three big lies of Obamacare:

1 "If you like your current health-care plan, you can keep it."

"In the end, millions of Americans would be forced out of the insurance they have today and into the government plan. Businesses, in particular, would have every incentive to dump their workers into the public plan. The actuarial firm the Lewin Group estimates that as many as 118.5 million people, roughly two-thirds of those with insurance today, would be shifted from private to public coverage."

2 "You will pay less."

The Congressional Budget Office has made it clear that the reform plans now being debated will increase overall health-care costs. … The final health-care bill is expected to cost more than $1 trillion over the next 10 years. That means much higher taxes, and not just for the wealthy."

3 "Quality will improve."

"Anyone who thinks a government takeover of the health-care system will improve quality of care has only to look at the health-care programs the government already runs: The Veterans Administration is overwhelmed with problems, Medicaid is notorious for providing poor quality at a high cost — and Medicare has huge gaps in coverage."

Libertarian Quote of the Day

"The legacy of Democrats and Republicans approaches: Libertarianism by bankruptcy. "

Nick Nuessle, 1992

Sunday, July 26, 2009

States Rights vs. Obama: Texas Rediscovers the 10th Amendment

Gov. Rick Perry, raising the specter of a showdown with the Obama administration, suggested Thursday that he would consider invoking states’ rights protections under the 10th Amendment to resist the president’s healthcare plan, which he said would be "disastrous" for Texas.

Interviewed by conservative talk show host Mark Davis of Dallas’ WBAP/820 AM, Perry said his first hope is that Congress will defeat the plan, which both Perry and Davis described as "Obama Care." But should it pass, Perry predicted that Texas and a "number" of states might resist the federal health mandate.

"I think you’ll hear states and governors standing up and saying 'no' to this type of encroachment on the states with their healthcare," Perry said. "So my hope is that we never have to have that stand-up. But I’m certainly willing and ready for the fight if this administration continues to try to force their very expansive government philosophy down our collective throats."

Perry, the state’s longest-serving governor, has made defiance of Washington a hallmark of his state administration as well as his emerging re-election campaign against U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the 2010 Republican primary. Earlier this year, Perry refused $555 million in federal unemployment stimulus money, saying it would subject Texas to long-term costs after the federal dollars ended.

Interviewed after returning from a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, Perry spoke out against President Barack Obama’s healthcare package less than 24 hours after the president used a prime-time news conference Wednesday night to try to sell the massive legislative package to Congress and the public.

'Not the solution'

"It really is a state issue, and if there was ever an argument for the 10th Amendment and for letting the states find a solution to their problems, this may be at the top of the class," Perry said. "A government-run healthcare system is financially unstable. It’s not the solution."

Perry heartily backed an unsuccessful resolution in this year’s legislative session that would have affirmed the belief that Texas has sovereignty under the 10th Amendment over all powers not otherwise granted to the federal government. Read The Rest

Sunday Truth

"As libertarians well know, each new extension of government power should be examined under a presumption of error."

Richard A. Epstein

Watch Who You Call Extremist

Some Orange County GOP leaders think Ron Paul and libertarians are America-hating crazies, but they are the ones who are nuts!
by Steven Greenhut

My idea, put forward in last week's column, to break California into four separate states was met with an overwhelmingly positive response, which leads me to believe that Californians might have an amicable geographic breakup that allows our various regions to go their separate ways. This week, I'm writing about another political divorce, albeit one sure to be full of bitterness and custody disputes. It involves the future of the Republican Party and the conservative movement, following the GOP's well-deserved November election drubbing. Based on a revealing debate among Orange County bloggers last week, I can guarantee that this is going to be one nasty split.

Quite simply, as the vanquished GOP struggles to find its voice and reach out to voters, some party activists and right-wing leaders have decided that the real problem isn't just President Barack Obama, but the small-"l" libertarians who still remain within their midst. Local activists, writing in an establishment GOP Web site, accused me of "jumping the shark" – i.e., of no longer being relevant – because of my July 4 column that poked fun at U.S. military adventurism and the possibly illegal policies of U.S. spy agencies. But it's not about me, really. The article, written by GOP/Red County honcho Chip Hanlon, uses my column as an example of the supposed extremism and America-hating found within the libertarian movement and takes pot shots at former GOP presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul.

Hanlon goes for the easy straw man: "They argue – with the benefit of hindsight – that we should never have gotten involved in World War II, that Abraham Lincoln is one of history's worst war criminals … . Their 'philosophy' is really pretty simple: Libertarians hate government, period, and the government they hate the most is their own. … When their full belief system is known, however, support of Libertarians like Paul cannot be defended. But folks like Paul are learning, becoming better at hiding their extremist views."

The GOP establishmentarians mocked the (mostly calm) libertarians who commented on such mischaracterizations. One of the Republicans actually blamed libertarians for the GOP's defeat, as if we're the ones who had spent the last eight years abusing presidential and congressional powers. Like totalitarians, they invited us to renounce our "extremism," make a public apology and join their cause to limit government, which is akin to a drunk calling on members of Alcoholics Anonymous to join him at the bar if they really want to fight alcoholism. READ THE REST AT LEW ROCKWELL


Truth That is Hidden

"Because the government cannot permit Fannie and Freddie to default, their obligations are part and parcel of the full-faith-and-credit obligations of the United States. Thus, the national debt, usually viewed as the $5 trillion held by the public, is really $10 trillion once we add the Fannie and Freddie obligations and the mortgage-backed securities they guarantee."

William Poole

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Some Weekend Legal Reading.....

IMS Health v. Sorrell, July 14, 2009 (PDF, 234 KB)
Vermont passed a law prohibiting the exchange of a variety of socially important information. Most notably, the law outlaws the transfer of doctors' prescription history to facilitate drug companies' one-on-one marketing — a practice known as "detailing" — because it believes detailing drives up brand-name drug sales and, in turn, health care costs. The state knew that the First Amendment prevented it from banning detailing itself, so it made the practice more difficult indirectly. Yet data collection and transfer is protected speech — think academic research, or the phone book — and government efforts to regulate this type of speech also runs afoul of the First Amendment. See, e.g., Solveig Singleton, "Privacy as Censorship: A Skeptical View of Proposals to Regulate Privacy in the Private Sector". The First Circuit had earlier upheld a similar New Hampshire law, somehow finding that the statute regulates conduct rather than speech and that, in any event, the judiciary should defer to the legislative branch's judgment. When the Supreme Court declined to review that case (which cert petition Cato supported), Cato joined Pacific Legal Foundation, the Progress & Freedom Foundation, and two trade associations on a brief asking the Second Circuit to split with its First Circuit brethren and reject this dangerous narrowing of protection for free expression. Our brief argues that the Second Circuit should strike the Vermont law for three reasons: 1) the law regulates speech, not conduct, and thus is worthy of First Amendment protection; 2) the law abridges a range of expression that is not "commercial" speech — which, by Supreme Court precedent, is not fully protected; and 3) even if the law regulates "commercial" speech, that speech merits protection under the Court's Central Hudson test.

Posted on Cato.org

President Obama's Dishonest Demagoguery on So-Called Tax Havens

Bad Reform Is Worse Than No Reform

by Michael D. Tanner
This article appeared on cato.org on July 24, 2009.

President Obama came to Cleveland yesterday to sell his health care reform plan. As usual, he was deeply eloquent in describing the problems facing the American health care system and the need for reform. But the actual reform proposal that he is pushing is a deeply flawed product that even the best salesman can't disguise.

If one totals up all the new taxes in the House Democratic health reform bill–the income tax surtax, the penalties on businesses that fail to provide and individuals who fail to buy the governments prescribed health care plan, as well as other frees and taxes–the cost to American taxpayers will top $800 billion. On top of that, studies suggest that the plan could increase insurance premiums by 75-95 percent.

Combined with President Obama's plan to allow President Bush's tax cuts to expire and state taxes, Ohio residents would face a top marginal tax rate of 51.2 percent. That's a big price tag for a health care plan that will likely lead to Americans receiving less and lower quality health care.

Let's look at what Ohioans would be buying.

First, the president supports an individual mandate — a requirement that every American buy health insurance. And not just any insurance but insurance that includes all the benefits government thinks you should have. That insurance could be more expensive or include benefits that people don't want or are morally opposed to, such as abortion services.

And that doesn't just affect those without insurance today. The bills now before Congress say that while you won't be immediately forced to switch from your current insurance to a government-specified plan, you'll have to switch to satisfy the government's requirements if you lose your current insurance or want to change plans. READ THE REST @ CATO

New Documentary on Brooklyn Eminent Domain Abuse

Posted at Reason.com on July 24, 2009, 6:27pm | Damon W. Root

Filmmakers Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky have just released a 6-minute trailer for their new documentary Battle of Brooklyn, which tells the story of a group of Brooklyn, New York property owners who have waged a five-year battle against state and local officials that want to seize their land on behalf of real estate developer Bruce Ratner. The cause of this eminent domain abuse is the so-called Atlantic Yards project, a 22-acre redevelopment boondoggle centered on a new sports arena for the New Jersey Nets, a professional basketball team that just happens to be owned by Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner. Watch the trailer here. And click here for Reason's Atlantic Yards coverage.

Paying the Price for Obama's Lack of a Trade Policy

by Daniel J. Ikenson and Scott Lincicome
This article appeared in the Los Angeles Times on July 24, 2009.

President Obama is neither a committed free-trader nor a hard-core protectionist. But his continuing failure to commit to a pro-trade agenda amounts to de facto protectionism and subverts his economic and foreign policy objectives.

Reacting recently to a provision in the climate change bill that would impose trade penalties against nations that do not limit carbon emissions enough, the president said, "At a time when the economy worldwide is still deep in recession and we've seen a significant drop in global trade, I think we have to be very careful about sending any protectionist signals."

In that mild rebuke of protectionism lingers the essence of the administration's nascent trade policy: conditional, ambiguous and not particularly reassuring.

Earlier this year, the president suggested that Congress avoid language in the stimulus bill that could provoke a trade war. Congress responded by pruning the bill's most overtly protectionist provisions. But "buy American" fever has nonetheless permeated the government procurement market. Uncertainty surrounding the arcane rules has caused contractors to render their own judgments about what qualifies. Not only have eligible foreign firms been excluded from the market, but U.S. firms that use imported raw materials (including California's entire steel industry) also have been shut out. READ THE REST @CATO

Friday, July 24, 2009

MATT WELCH AND NICK GILLESPIE ON WHY THE OBAMA HONEYMOON IS OVER

2nd Amendment Fridays - Dedicated to the Gunpowder Chronicle

2nd Amendment Fridays is dedicated to The Gunpowder Chronicle. Tim has good article up right now. Check it out.

Government care in action: Oregon recommends suicide for patients

posted by Donny Ferguson on Jul 24, 2009

Patients turning to Oregon's state-run health program for assistant were denied treatment and urged to consider suicide instead.

53-year-old Randy Stroup of Dexter, Ore., looking for assistance to pay for his prostate cancer treatment, turned to the state-run Oregon Health Plan. Plan administrators responded with a letter informing Stroup the goverment would not cover his treatment, but it would pay for physician-assisted suicide.

"It dropped my chin to the floor," Stroup told FOX News. "[How could they] not pay for medication that would help my life, and yet offer to pay to end my life?"

The letter, which follows guidelines set by Oregon's state legislature, has been sent to other cancer patients, urging them to consider suicide rather than compete with other patients for the limited pool of taxpayer money.

The Obama health care takeover currently being written in the House includes a section requiring the sick and elderly to attend meetings on "end of life planning."

CNN: Five freedoms you'd lose to Obama's health care scheme

posted by Donny Ferguson on Jul 24, 2009

CNN and Fortune posted an interesting blog today titled "5 freedoms you'd lose in health care reform." Editor-at-Large Shawn Tully lays out the case against Barack Obama's proposed government takeover of medicine, writing in part:

"If you prize choosing your own cardiologist or urologist under your company's Preferred Provider Organization plan (PPO), if your employer rewards your non-smoking, healthy lifestyle with reduced premiums, if you love the bargain Health Savings Account (HSA) that insures you just for the essentials, or if you simply take comfort in the freedom to spend your own money for a policy that covers the newest drugs and diagnostic tests -- you may be shocked to learn that you could lose all of those good things under the rules proposed in the two bills that herald a health-care revolution.

"In short, the Obama platform would mandate extremely full, expensive, and highly subsidized coverage -- including a lot of benefits people would never pay for with their own money -- but deliver it through a highly restrictive, HMO-style plan that will determine what care and tests you can and can't have. It's a revolution, all right, but in the wrong direction."

He goes on to list five specific freedoms you would lose if Obama is granted his expensive government takeover, the freedom to choose what's in your plan, the freedom to be rewarded for healthy living, the freedom to choose high-deductible coverage, the freedom to keep your existing plan and the freedom to choose your doctors.

Click here to read Tully's blog.

Paul Harvey Tackles Gun Control & Health Care

"They have gun control in Cuba. They have universal health care in Cuba. So why do they want to come here?"

Paul Harvey 8/31/94

Texas and Montana Tell the Government "Get your damned hands off our guns!!"

Bernanke doesn’t know where $500 billion went

Taxpayer Confronts Democrat Senator Ben Cardin on Barack Obama Health Care Plan FOX News

WASHINGTON -- Dr. Richard S. Kerr, M.D., a West Virginia Libertarian Party member and a retired doctor with 36 years experience, asked President Barac

posted by Donny Ferguson on Jul 23, 2009

Richard Whitehead, Washington County, Ore. Libertarian Party Treasurer, was recently elected to the Local School Committee for Beaver Acres Elementary, Position 3. Whitehead accomplished the rare feat of being elected as a write-in candidate.

Libertarians now hold seats in four School Committees in Washington County. Libertarians are especially needed on school boards, where the majority of government spending takes places in most localities, where the Party's commitment to fiscal responsibility and quality education best serve our friends and neighbors.

"Voting Rights and Wrongs" featuring Abigail Thernstrom

Doctors demand Obama apology

Pitching government control, President falsely accuses doctors of conspiring to make children sicker


WASHINGTON -- Dr. Richard S. Kerr, M.D., a West Virginia Libertarian Party member and a retired doctor with 36 years experience, asked President Barack Obama Thursday to apologize for comments made in his Wednesday night press conference accusing doctors of conspiring to make children sicker for profits.

“President Obama should be ashamed of himself for trying to scare Americans into supporting his government takeover of medicine by falsely accusing doctors of making children sicker. I have never heard a more disgusting or blatantly phony conspiracy theory. We treat our patients with the respect, care and concern you will never find in Obama’s government-run rationed care bureaucracy,” said Dr. Kerr.

“On behalf of my colleagues, I respectfully ask President Obama to apologize for such a slanderous lie and ask him to stop engaging in sickening conspiracy theories to push his government-run scheme. These cheap scare tactics are beneath the dignity of the office of The President and perfectly illustrate why more and more Americans are losing faith in Barack Obama.”

In his Wednesday night press conference, Obama claimed, “…you come in and you've got a bad sore throat, or your child has a bad sore throat or has repeated sore throats, the doctor may look at the reimbursement system and say to himself, you know what, I make a lot more money if I take this kid's tonsils out.”

“For President Obama’s information, pediatricians do not perform tonsillectomies. If he doesn’t know that, then he has no business centrally planning your family’s health care,” said Dr. Kerr.

For more information on this issue, or to arrange an interview with the Libertarian Party, please call Director of Communications Donny Ferguson at 703-200-3669 or 202-333-0008, x. 225, or email Donny.Ferguson@lp.org.

The Libertarian Party is America's third-largest political party, founded in 1971 as an alternative to the two main political parties. You can find more information on the Libertarian Party by visiting http://www.LP.org. The Libertarian Party proudly stands for smaller government, lower taxes and more freedom.

Wisdom from Thomas Jefferson

"Take note my fellow Americans, before it's too late! With guns, we are 'citizens'. Without them, we are 'subjects'."

Thomas Jefferson

Ron Paul: "The Federal Reserve is a Government Unto Itself"

NRA News Minute

2nd Amendment Quote of the Day

"The conclusion is thus inescapable that the history, concept, and wording of the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, as well as its interpretation by every major commentator and court in the first half-century after its ratification, indicates that what is protected is an individual right of a private citizen to own and carry firearms in a peaceful manner."

Report of the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 97th Congress, Second Session (February 1982)

Ron Paul on CNN American Morning

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Health Care News on Cato

Remember to stay up to date with the TRUTH on Health Care visit the CATO Institute's Health Care Section. In depth studies and analysis on the Health Care issue include Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

What most in this argument forget is that in a few years the baby boomers begin to retire and drawing on the system. This is approaching fast and it is one that politicians do not have the intestinal fortitude to face. Unfortunately it may be too late to save the failed system.

Libertarians decry defeat of concealed carry amendment

S. 845 would have protected constitutional rights

WASHINGTON -- America’s third largest party Wednesday criticized senators voting against an amendment establishing concealed carry reciprocity between all states and reminded them voters have a record of holding gun rights opponents accountable on Election Day.

“Libertarians are no-compromise defenders of your constitutionally-protected right to keep and bear arms,” said Donny Ferguson, Libertarian National Committee Communications Director. “I find it ironic that many of the senators who rightfully believe one state’s same-sex marriage licenses should be recognized in all states are now not willing to extend that same courtesy to concealed carry licenses.”

“Your rights of free speech, free worship and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure do not end at the state line. Neither does your right to keep and bear arms without government infringement,” said Ferguson.

S. 845 follows Congress’ congressional authority to enforce "full faith and credit" so states recognize the "public acts, records, and judicial proceedings" of every other state (Article IV). The bill protects a citizen’s right to carry when traveling to another state if the traveler has “a valid permit or if, under their state of residence ... are entitled to do so."

It failed narrowly, 58-39, two votes short of the 60 needed to adopt the amendment under Senate rules.

“We look forward to holding those 39 senators accountable for once again treating America’s gun owners as second-class citizens,” said Ferguson. “America’s 90 million gun owners vote, and you can bet Libertarian candidates will be discussing their unabashed support of the Second Amendment.”

Voting against the amendment were Democrats Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Roland Burris (D-IL), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Thomas Carper (D-DE), Christopher Dodd (D-CT), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Al Franken (D-MN), Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Edward Kaufman (D-DE), John Kerry (D-MA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Herb Kohl (D-WI), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Carl Levin (D-MI), McCaskill (D-MO), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Patty Murray (D-WA), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Jack Reed (D-RI), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Arlen Specter (D-PA), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) Independents Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Republicans Richard Lugar (R-IN) and George Voinovich (R-OH).

For more information on this issue, or to arrange an interview with the Libertarian Party, please call Director of Communications Donny Ferguson at 703-200-3669 or 202-333-0008, x. 225, or email Donny.Ferguson@lp.org.

The Libertarian Party is America's third-largest political party, founded in 1971 as an alternative to the two main political parties. You can find more information on the Libertarian Party by visiting http://www.LP.org. The Libertarian Party proudly stands for smaller government, lower taxes and more freedom.

Libertarians respond to Obama press conference

WASHINGTON -- Libertarian National Committee Communications Director Donny Ferguson issued the following statement Wednesday night, in response to President Barack Obama’s press conference:

“Tonight’s press conference by President Obama, complete with scare tactics and wildly inaccurate claims, perfectly illustrated why more and more Americans are losing faith in his promises of prosperity through government control.

“Libertarians, and all Americans, aren’t buying President Obama’s ludicrous claim that handing control of your health care over to the federal government keeps costs down. Congressional Budget Office reports show the Obama health care takeover sends costs skyrocketing and further explodes his own record-shattering budget deficits. That not only thwarts job growth but also threatens health care itself. The fiscally irresponsible core of government-run health care is why virtually every such system must eventually resort to cruel rationing to contain its unsustainable and damaging costs.

“Under no rational model whatsoever does the Obama government takeover reduce costs and make health care affordable. The damage the Obama plan does to our economy, however, is real and hits Americans directly.

“Americans also lost trust in President Obama when he accused doctors of conspiring to intentionally let children with illnesses get worse, and that government must seize control of health care to stop doctors from performing medical procedures he doesn’t approve of. President Obama was perfectly clear. He wants the government to seize control of your health care because he thinks government accountants in Washington are better at medicine your own family doctor.

“As he did with the so-called “stimulus” package, President Obama is exploiting people’s fears and insecurities to push his agenda of unquestioned and economically unsustainable government expansion. That is yet another disappointing failure from the man who promised to end “the politics of fear.”

“But no amount of wild claims and inaccurate statements can hide the facts. Along with making health care rationed and unaffordable, the Obama government takeover currently being written in Congress outlaws private insurance (page 16,) sends government agents to your home to monitor your parenting (Section 44) and forces the sick and elderly to sit through meetings with government employees on how to end their life (page 425.)

“Libertarians have a better idea to make health care accessible and affordable. To start with:

* Allow taxpayers to deduct the costs of their health insurance from their income taxes.
* Repeal health insurance mandates that force Americans to pay for treatments they won't ever use.
* Scrap unneeded and unnecessary regulations that keep life-saving drugs and treatments off the market. Such regulations are often supported by health care lobbyists and are intended to freeze out competing products and companies.
* Allow Americans to shop for health insurance across state lines, forcing insurers to compete.

“Americans deserve health care that is affordable, effective and universally available. President Obama’s plan fails that test on every count, and he fails our trust. Only Libertarians are proposing the reforms we need to fix our broken health care system.”

For more information on this issue, or to arrange an interview with the Libertarian Party, please call Director of Communications Donny Ferguson at 703-200-3669 or 202-333-0008, x. 225, or email Donny.Ferguson@lp.org.

The Libertarian Party is America's third-largest political party, founded in 1971 as an alternative to the two main political parties. You can find more information on the Libertarian Party by visiting http://www.LP.org. The Libertarian Party proudly stands for smaller government, lower taxes and more freedom.

As Cat announces factory shutdowns, Libertarians want Obama explanation

More jobs lost as ‘stimulus’ bill delays economic recovery

WASHINGTON -- America’s third largest party Wednesday asked President Barack Obama to explain to the American people why his $787 billion “stimulus” government expansion plan has once again failed to deliver on even its most basic promises.

“If he has time to explain why Congress should outlaw private health insurance and force Americans into expensive, rationed care he has the time to explain why exploding the deficit and expanding government isn’t creating prosperity,” said Donny Ferguson, Libertarian National Committee Communications Director.

“...if Congress passes our plan, this company [Caterpillar] will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off...,” said Obama in a Feb. 11 speech at Caterpillar’s Peoria, Ill. corporate headquarters, promising that passage of the government expansion plan meant “a new wave of innovation, activity and construction will be unleashed all across America.”

That promise contrasts sharply with statements released Tuesday by Caterpillar, not only announcing the company would suffer a "challenging" third quarter,” but that it would begin a rolling shutdown of its factories. The Dow Jones industrial average fell and the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 added losses upon hearing the news.

“This week’s news that Caterpillar continues to suffer losses, instead of the great leap forward Obama promised, proves yet again the so-called ‘stimulus’ bill must be repealed,” said Ferguson. “Obama promised jobs, but has only produced rising unemployment, rolling shutdowns of factories and a record-shattering federal deficit that will only destroy more jobs. We will eventually recover. The only question is how long will Obama delay our recovery by exploiting fear to radically expand government.”

“Libertarians have a better idea to create the jobs Americans need. Cut taxes on employers and consumers, cut taxes on investments, pursue more open markets to sell American goods and repeal unneeded and unnecessary regulations that prevent job creation,” said Ferguson.

Caterpillar earlier laid off 2,450 workers in three states Mar. 17, one month after Obama got his government expansion plan that was supposed to spur hiring at that company and others. The White House report created to sell the “stimulus” program said passage of the bill would keep the national unemployment rate below eight percent. It has instead sent unemployment rates skyrocketing to a 26-year high of 9.5 percent.

For more information on this issue, or to arrange an interview with the Libertarian Party, please call Director of Communications Donny Ferguson at 703-200-3669 or 202-333-0008, x. 225, or email Donny.Ferguson@lp.org.

The Libertarian Party is America's third-largest political party, founded in 1971 as an alternative to the two main political parties. You can find more information on the Libertarian Party by visiting http://www.LP.org. The Libertarian Party proudly stands for smaller government, lower taxes and more freedom.

Obama Hopes No One Realizes a Long-Winded Question-Dodge is Still, In Fact, a Dodge

Obama's prime-time health-care press conference tonight only lasted an hour, but it felt longer than a double screening of Gone With the Wind next to a date you're planning on dumping the minute it's over. But Obama rambled on and, like Rhett Butler, just didn't seem to give a damn whether or not anybody else cared.

Of course, the long-winded responses seemed to be part of strategy. According to the American Spectator's Phil Klein, he answered only ten questions during the hour—or, perhaps more accurately, he responded to only ten. Obama seems to have decided ahead of time that when faced with an uncomfortable question, the best idea is to grind away at tangentially related statistics, anecdotes, and talking points until everyone's forgotten what the actual question was anyway. Faced with a number of unpleasant facts about his administration's lack of transparency, for example, Obama did a little dance, sang a song, performed a magic trick, and then said "next question." Well, not really, but the dodging, non-answer he did give was roughly as useful as if he had.

Meanwhile, much of what he did say—particularly about the deficit—was rather suspicious. Over at the Spectator, Phil Klein even goes so far as to call Obama a liar. We'll see tomorrow when the transcripts come out. In the meantime, the truly dedicated can waste bandwidth watching the President's Festival of Dull in stuttering streaming video form here.

Great American Quotes

"We need a national refresher on the theory of democratic government, which tells us that secret government is always undemocratic and generally unwise."

Benjamin H. Friedman

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Libertarians: No need for ‘Iraq war rush’ to government-run medicine

Obama demands for immediate action, little transparency are hallmarks of bad legislation


WASHINGTON -- America’s third largest party Tuesday urged Congress to take its time deliberating the proposed government takeover of the nation’s health care system amid pressure from the White House to quickly adopt the troubled proposal quickly and with minimal debate. Libertarians oppose the plan, which deepens the federal budget deficit and leads to the rationing of basic health care.

“As confidence in President Obama’s plans for a federal government takeover of medicine plunges, the White House is pressuring legislators to rush to judgment while the plan can still be salvaged,” said William Redpath, Libertarian National Committee Chairman. “We urge Congress to deliberate this massive government takeover carefully, take their time to allow Americans to read the full bill and then vote down this legislative disaster.”

A poll conducted independently by the Gallup organization, not for any party or group, and released today shows disapproval of the Obama plan tops approval among adults by a 50 percent to 44 percent margin. Among political independents, the gap grows. Fifty-five percent of independents disapprove of Obama’s plan. Only 40 percent approve.

“The more we find out about the Democrat plan, whether it’s the language on page sixteen outlawing private insurance or Section 440 empowering government to visit your home and monitor your parenting, the more obvious it becomes why President Obama wants as little transparency as possible. As we saw during the rush to the Iraq war, nothing good can happen when the president demands Congress give him what he wants immediately and without debate,” said Redpath.

For more information on this issue, or to arrange an interview with the Libertarian Party, please call Director of Communications Donny Ferguson at 703-200-3669 or 202-333-0008, x. 225, or email Donny.Ferguson@lp.org.

The Libertarian Party is America's third-largest political party, founded in 1971 as an alternative to the two main political parties. You can find more information on the Libertarian Party by visiting http://www.LP.org. The Libertarian Party proudly stands for smaller government, lower taxes and more freedom.

Healthcare Is a Good, Not a Right


Political philosopher Richard Weaver famously and correctly stated that ideas have consequences. Take for example ideas about rights versus goods. Natural law states that people have rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. A good is something you work for and earn. It might be a need, like food, but more “goods” seem to be becoming “rights” in our culture, and this has troubling consequences. It might seem harmless enough to decide that people have a right to things like education, employment, housing or healthcare. But if we look a little further into the consequences, we can see that the workings of the community and economy are thrown wildly off balance when people accept those ideas.

First of all, other people must pay for things like healthcare. Those people have bills to pay and families to support, just as you do. If there is a “right” to healthcare, you must force the providers of those goods, or others, to serve you.

Obviously, if healthcare providers were suddenly considered outright slaves to healthcare consumers, our medical schools would quickly empty. As the government continues to convince us that healthcare is a right instead of a good, it also very generously agrees to step in as middleman. Politicians can be very good at making it sound as if healthcare will be free for everybody. Nothing could be further from the truth. The administration doesn’t want you to think too much about how hospitals will be funded, or how you will somehow get something for nothing in the healthcare arena. We are asked to just trust the politicians. Somehow it will all work out.

Universal Healthcare never quite works out the way the people are led to believe before implementing it. Citizens in countries with nationalized healthcare never would have accepted this system had they known upfront about the rationing of care and the long lines.

As bureaucrats take over medicine, costs go up and quality goes down because doctors spend more and more of their time on paperwork and less time helping patients. As costs skyrocket, as they always do when inefficient bureaucrats take the reins, government will need to confiscate more and more money from an already foundering economy to somehow pay the bills. As we have seen many times, the more money and power that government has, the more power it will abuse. The frightening aspect of all this is that cutting costs, which they will inevitably do, could very well mean denying vital services. And since participation will be mandatory, no legal alternatives will be available.

The government will be paying the bills, forcing doctors and hospitals to dance more and more to the government’s tune. Having to subject our health to this bureaucratic insanity and mismanagement is possibly the biggest danger we face. The great irony is that in turning the good of healthcare into a right, your life and liberty are put in jeopardy.

Instead of further removing healthcare from the market, we should return to a true free market in healthcare, one that empowers individuals, not bureaucrats, with control of healthcare dollars. My bill HR 1495 the Comprehensive Healthcare Reform Act provides tax credits and medical savings accounts designed to do just that.

Rob McDonald on the Founding of the United States & The Desire to be Left Alone

Those Awful Afghans

by Lew Rockwell on July 21, 2009 03:25 PM

From the London Times:

“There is barely an important piece of land in Afghanistan that has not been occupied by one of our soldiers at some time or another,” the commander said. “Nevertheless, much of the territory stays in the hands of the terrorists. We control the provincial centres, but we cannot maintain political control over the territory that we seize.”

He added: “Our soldiers are not to blame. They’ve fought incredibly bravely in adverse conditions. But to occupy towns and villages temporarily has little value in such a vast land, where the insurgents can just disappear into the hills.”

They could have been the words of a Nato general in the past few days. In fact they were spoken by Marshal Sergei Akhromeyev, commander of Soviet armed forces, to the USSR’s politburo in the Kremlin on November 13, 1986.

Those awful Afghans; they don’t want to be occupied by alien armies, Russian or Nato. Imagine that. (Via Antiwar.com)

Quoted


"[L]abour union lobbies and their political friends have decided that the ideal defence against competition from the poor countries is to raise their cost of production by forcing their standards up, claiming that competition with countries with lower standards is “unfair”. “Free but fair trade” becomes an exercise in insidious protectionism that few recognise as such."

Jagdish Bhagwati,
"Obama and Trade: An Alarm Sounds," Financial Times. January 9, 2009.

Is Your iPod Unpatriotic? Why America Shouldn't "Buy American"

What Is Justice?

"Every man loves justice at another man’s expense."
~ Anonymous

One of the emptiest words in our culture is "justice." Its vacuous quality is what makes it so popular: it requires little in the way of focused, intelligent explication to employ it. To those on the political "left," justice" gets translated into a demand for money to be taken from some and bestowed upon others. Those on the political "right" use it as a plea for the building of more prisons and the hiring of more police officers to ferret out more persons to fill them. When people tell me "I demand justice," my response is to warn them to temper their insistence, as they might just get it!

When pressed for a definition, I reply that justice is the redistribution of violence. In its simplest form, X commits a wrong upon Y, for which Y demands retaliation against X. In its more complex form in our collectivized world, fifteen Saudis, two men from the United Arab Emirates, one Egyptian, and one Lebanese join in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center buildings. As these men were killed in the process, the demands for "justice" led most Americans to accept the bombing and killing of innocent men, women, and children in such unrelated places as Afghanistan and Iraq! Justice and rationality have little to do with one another.

The death of Robert McNamara brought home the meaningless nature of this concept. This war criminal – like so many others of the home-grown type – was, perhaps more than any other, responsible for the deaths of more than a million innocent victims during the Vietnam War. He knew the war to be bogus and unwinnable, yet continued to insist upon more lives being invested in this evil scheme. His co-conspirator, Lyndon Johnson, helped to cover up their evil deeds by awarding McNamara with a Medal of Freedom. If Americans had been as self-righteous in punishing the crimes of their own leaders as they insist inflicting upon foreign monsters, both these men would have ended their careers on the gallows.

The same fate would have awaited the likes of Churchill, Truman, Stalin, and other perpetrators of "allied" crimes. The head of the British RAF Bomber Command in the latter half of World War II was Arthur "Bomber" Harris (also known as "Butcher" Harris even within the RAF). Harris – later awarded a knighthood – was responsible for the saturation bombing of German cities that had not the slightest military significance; his purpose, rather, being to inflict massive death as an end in itself. The firebombing of the beautiful city of Dresden – so well captured in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five – was rationalized on the grounds that there were no other German cities left to bomb. Harris, along with Churchill, would surely have swung from the gallows if "justice" had meant anything other than sanctimonious revenge visited upon the losing side, or what others have called "victor’s justice."

Harry Truman’s decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki for the purpose of warning the Soviet Union of the state of American destructiveness, merited his trip to the scaffold. Octogenarians – with their "U.S.S. Missouri" baseball caps – continue to babble the line that this act of butchery inflicted upon a civilian population was necessary to end the war and save American lives. That Japan was trying to surrender before these cities were attacked, and that American POWs were among the thousands of victims of this attack, refutes the lie.

A date with the hangman should also have awaited the likes of Henry Kissinger, Madeleine Albright, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and . . . well, you begin to see the pattern: deaths visited upon the men, women, and children of other countries are to be excused, even honored, when carried out by American political leaders. READ THE REST AT LEW ROCKWELL

Juan Carlos Hidalgo discusses Honduras on CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight

Dan Mitchell discusses taxing the rich on CNN's Your Money

An Open Letter to Sarah Palin

by William L. Anderson

In the wake of your decision last week to step down from the governor’s chair in Alaska, I must admit to feeling somewhat relieved. Despite the regular hatefest aimed at you from the New York Times and the Huffington Post for the past year, you were standing gamely, as there really was a constituency out there that liked and respected you.

Even though David Letterman thought you were an idiot, you wowed the crowds last year, giving some life to the moribund John McCain campaign, which before your appearance was playing to a few hundred diehards at the regular stops. Now, I cannot exactly praise you for accepting McCain’s nomination, given that McCain is a person for which no good deed goes unpunished.

You were a breath of fresh air to the political scene, dominated by women who have had their shares of facelifts or catty writers like Maureen Dowd who in saner times at best would have been writing obits for a small-town weekly in Iowa. Unfortunately, the modern political times are not conducive to decent people entering the political ring; look at the abuse that Ron Paul has received (and continues to receive) at the hands of the media and other Republicans.

(If Paul ever becomes a real electoral threat to his party, look for every ethics investigation, not to mention an attempt by U.S. attorneys to frame him. Being that federal criminal law is little more than a tool for politicians to eliminate their competition, I believe that if Ron’s ideas every truly catch on, the government will come after him with all guns blazing.)

In my letter to you, I am going to advise you to do something that would be unthinkable in modern politics: leave the political arena altogether. The United States no longer is salvageable, and no politician – not even Ron Paul – can save this country. The original American Experiment in limited government with constitutional boundaries is over, and has been over for many years. Like you, the Constitution could not survive the assaults that were thrown at it beginning in the early years of the Republic and continuing on to the present day.

Moreover, as John Fund so aptly noted in his recent article, the political classes have so many weapons to use against anyone who threatens them that one person cannot bust through the system. From ethics complaints to federal prosecutors looking for a Big Scalp, it is impossible today for anyone who might be seen as going against the grain.

Now, I am not saying that you were another Ron Paul. You never have articulated the kind of understanding of economics and politics that we have seen from him, and you were the running mate of a man who made sure that any public support of Paul shown at the Republican National Convention last year would be mercilessly stamped out. You seem to have some good instincts, but you don’t have the same solid compass that Paul and others of free-market orientation have, and the semi-conservative populism that you seem to have embraced easily morphs into outright tyranny. Moreover, your support for the disastrous U.S. interventions abroad demonstrates a lack of understanding of just what these wars are doing to us. READ THE REST AT LEW ROCKWELL

Americans oppose Obama takeover of medicine

posted by Donny Ferguson on Jul 21, 2009

A poll released just minutes ago by the Gallup organization is the lastest to highlight a troubling trend for the White House. Among all Americans, disapproval of Obama's proposed government takeover of medicine tops approval by a 50 percent to 44 percent margin.

The news gets worse for Obama. Among voters not affiliated with either party -- the voting bloc that delivered him the White House and whose support is needed to get anything done -- disapproval grows to 55 percent and approval drops to only 40 percent, a disapproval gap of 15 percent on what is supposed to be Obama's best issue.

Keep in mind those numbers are among "adults." Polls of registered voters, and then likely voters, typically show even less support for expansions of government. Even among the best possible statistical sample, Obama cannot muster majority support for his radical experiment in government-run medicine.

The more people find out about the Obama health care scheme, whether it's page sixteen outlawing private insurance, Section 440 empowering the government to enter your home and monitor your parenting or the Congressional Budget Office research showing it explodes the deficit or the countless studies showing similar proposals always lead to rationing of care and higher death rates from treatable diseases, the more people agree with the Libertarian Party. The best way to make health care affordable and universal is to repeal regulations implemented by health care lobbyists to preserve profits and remove the barriers between patients and doctors.

Rob McDonald on Thomas Jefferson, Slavery & the Declaration of Independence

Libertarian Quote of the Day

"We consistently elect people to Congress and the Senate who become nothing more than patsies for their lobbyists and party bosses. We have given these two parties too many chances and we simply cannot afford them anymore."


Muir Boda

Dem governors: Obama health care scheme is a massive "unfunded mandate"

posted by Donny Ferguson on Jul 21, 2009

The Washington Times editorializes today on the Obama plan for government-run medicine, pointing to Congressional Budget Office reports showing it radically explodes the size of the federal budget deficit and achieves so-called "savings" only by forcing doctors and hospitals to make less.

Click here to read the editorial, or if you are in the metro D.C. area, pick up a copy of The Washington Times. The Times writes, in part:

...States are worrying about the fiscal impact of changes to the health care system. Governors from across the political spectrum realize they will have to pick up a major part of the tab for these supposed cost savings. In the Senate Finance Committee plan, the federal government would pay for the expanded Medicaid costs of the new health care benefits for possibly five years. After that, the states would have to carry their normal Medicaid cost share of 43 percent.

Gov. Haley Barbour, Mississippi Republican, warned at the annual National Governors Association meeting on Sunday that the change to expand the Medicaid system, "would increase spending on Medicaid by 50 percent, and that's money we don't have. And other states don't have it either." Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen of Tennessee worried the program would be "the mother of all unfunded mandates."

Montana's Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer hit the nail on the head. "The governors are concerned about unfunded mandates. . . . Well if they want to reform health care," he said about big spenders in Washington, "they should figure out what the rules are and how they are going to pay for it." Unfortunately, that's not how policy is made in the nation's capital.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Micahel Swartz vs. Frank Kratovil - The Cap & Tax You Some Bill

Michael Swartz at Monoblogue goes blow by over Frank Kratovil's response to his vote on "Cap & Tax" and why he voted for it. I truly believe this vote puts Frank in trouble. We will see where he falls with Health Care soon and if he will be a part the "Ramrod" legislation.

Check out Michael's article.

Audit the Fed Update

The Virtues of Supreme Silence

Why Supreme Court nominees should avoid their own confirmation hearings

Steve Chapman | July 20, 2009

Millions of Americans tuned in last week to Sonia Sotomayor's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. What did they learn? "Nothing," Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe told The New York Times. Actually, we did learn something—that we should stop inviting Supreme Court nominees to testify in confirmation hearings.

Sotomayor is reputed to be a lively woman with strong opinions and a sometimes aggressive demeanor on the bench. But appearing in place of the veteran federal judge was an android copy of her, lacking any recognizably human quality except extreme caution. She makes Ben Stein look like Jim Cramer.

Her appearances before the committee proved a couple of things. One is that she can look interested while listening to a pinstriped gasbag declaim at length about some topic that a dozen other pinstriped gasbags have already pronounced upon.

Another is that pointed questions bounce off of her as though she has a personal anti-missile system. Someone could have asked, "Do you think the Constitution gives the Department of Motor Vehicles the power to deep-fry parking violators in vats of lard?" and Sotomayor would have paused thoughtfully and replied, "Senator, I think it would be inappropriate for me to address hypothetical questions on a matter that may come before the court."

Sotomayor declined to answer any inquiry in a way that would reveal anything. Asked about affirmative action, the Second Amendment, foreign law, and abortion rights, she smothered each question in thick blankets of gray verbiage. READ THE REST AT REASON

Perils of Obamacare: The Three Big Lies

by Michael D. Tanner Added to cato.org on July 20, 2009

This article appeared in the New York Post on July 20, 2009.

In making his case for a government takeover of the US health-care system, President Obama is going far beyond the usual Washington truth-stretching.

Take a look at just a few of the most common claims:

"If you like your current health-care plan, you can keep it." Even White House spokesmen have said that Obama's oft-repeated pledge that you can keep your current insurance isn't meant to be taken literally. The reality is that millions of Americans — perhaps most Americans — will be forced to change insurance plans.

First, the president supports an individual mandate — a requirement that every American buy health insurance. And not just any insurance but insurance that includes all the benefits government thinks you should have. That insurance could be more expensive or include benefits that people don't want or are morally opposed to, such as abortion services.

And that doesn't just affect those without insurance today. The bills now before Congress say that while you won't be immediately forced to switch from your current insurance to a government-specified plan, you'll have to switch to satisfy the government's requirements if you lose your current insurance or want to change plans.

Plus, the president supports the creation of a government insurance program that would compete with private insurance. But because this ultimately would be subsidized by American taxpayers, the government plan could keep its premiums artificially low or offer extra benefit.

READ THE REST AT CATO


Checking Workers, Binding Employers

Union bosses will be the only winners under the Employee Free Choice Act

Shikha Dalmia | July 20, 2009

Big Labor is on a roll. With the installation of Minnesota Democrat Al Franken to the Senate, and another change of heart by Sen. Arlen Specter, the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) has just scored two more votes. To secure the remaining votes for a filibuster-proof majority, unions staged a massive rally in Arkansas to pressure Blanche Lincoln, the state's Democratic senator who has withdrawn her support for the bill, to pull a Specter and change her mind yet again.

Arkansas is ground-zero for unions because it is a right-to-work state with low union enrollment. EFCA's elimination of secret ballot elections for unionization has garnered most of the critical attention. But the bill contains another controversial provision: compulsory arbitration. This would be no less destructive to the rights of employers and workers, and the economy as a whole. Exhibit A: Michigan.

In 1969, the Wolverine State embraced a form of compulsory arbitration nearly identical to the one proposed in EFCA to resolve disputes with its police and firefighters. Years later, Detroit mayor Coleman Young—who had authored the original law as state senator—rued what he had done. "We now know that compulsory arbitration has been a failure," he lamented to the National Journal in 1981. "Slowly, inexorably, compulsory interest arbitration has destroyed sensible fiscal management and has caused more damage to the public service than the strikes it was designed to prevent."

Most citizens agree. Just seven years ago 54 percent of Michigan voters turned down a union-sponsored ballot proposition to extend compulsory arbitration to all state employees. Nearly every newspaper in the state—liberal and conservative—editorialized against it. Why?
READ THE REST AT REASON

Libertarians are coming to bookstores and TVs near you

posted by Donny Ferguson on Jul 20, 2009

YOUR MONDAY MESSAGE FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY

Dear friend,

For Republicans and Democrats, the summer is often a slow time. Not for Libertarians.

Wayne Allyn Root, the Libertarian Party’s 2008 vice-presidential nominee, has a new book out today. “The Conscience of a Libertarian” lays out the case for libertarianism and lets you know what you can do to help build a free country.

“The Conscience of a Libertarian” won’t be one of those books you have to be on an obscure website to find. Not only is it a brisk seller on Amazon.com. it will be on special display in 300 Barnes and Noble stores, right where millions of people can see it.

Root will also be a guest on Sean Hannity’s radio program July 30th to promote the “The Conscience of a Libertarian” and spread the libertarian message.

That means that not only will libertarianism be on display in one of America’s busiest bookstores, but also on America’s second-biggest talk radio program. If you’ve ever had a friend ask you just what the Libertarian Party is all about, tell them to pick up Root’s book.

But Root isn’t the only one spreading the libertarian message in the mainstream media with “The Conscience of a Libertarian”. Glenn Beck, popular Fox News Channel personality and host of one of the country’s biggest radio programs now proudly declares he’s becoming “more and more libertarian.”

Judge Andrew Napolitano, an avowed Libertarian, hosts a weekly program called “Freedom Watch” on FoxNews.com’s Strategy Room. In fact, if enough people watch the online broadcast each Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. Eastern, Fox News will consider broadcasting it to millions on the Fox News Channel.

Yep, an explicitly libertarian show with libertarian guests and libertarian topics could be on the nation’s most-watched news channel.

Here at LPHQ, we are scoring big coverage in some of the nation’s largest newspapers, and we are talking with producers about upcoming appearances on major cable news networks.

With a hot new book out and some of America’s most popular broadcasters giving air time to libertarian principles, more and more Americans are finding out about the Libertarian Party’s principled message of smaller government and more freedom.

If you haven’t yet become a Sustaining Member of the Libertarian Party, click here to join a growing number of your friends and neighbors. If you’re already a Sustaining Member, don’t be surprised to see your principles on display in bookstores and on the air as talented libertarians spread our message.

With optimism,

Donny Ferguson
Director of Communications
Libertarian Party
Donny.Ferguson@lp.org