More Hopey Changey Goodness

Connect the dots:

Obama Calls Bonuses Shameful
Personally, I think bailing out these companies is what's shameful. Show me anywhere in Article I, or Article II where we have granted the federal government the power to do this. You remember the Constitution; that pesky little document that We the People signed on to limiting the powers of the federal government to those expressly granted to it and reserving all others to the states or the people?

New York City Budget Cuts
You see, when the folks that receive those large bonuses don't get them, the .gov doesn't get to take any taxes from them. That means that all those "little people" the .gov supposedly care about won't be getting the services they expect, and the workers who would have provided those services will be looking for work.

Citigroup Cancels Jet
No we can't let ourselves appear as anything other than egalitarian. We won't talk about the Speaker's travel arrangements. That wouldn't be polite.

Want another example of what happens when you demonize spending money? The people who depend on that money for their livelihoods don't have their jobs.
Cessna Layoffs

It is long past the time for the government of this country to get the hell out of the way. They cause the mess, and then try to convince people that they're the only ones able to fix it. They can't. Ever.

Have a Dose of Shut the F up

I, however, place economy among the first and most important of republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared. -- Thomas Jefferson

But, ah, think what you do when you run in debt; you give to another the power over your liberty. -- Benjamin Franklin

And here is today's news of the day. This is a clear warning by the Chinese; shut up, or risk our displeasure. What should be the major news article of the day will be left to wither on the weekend news cycle vine because it is inconvenient to the plans of our betters.

Our freedom and liberty are being mortgaged every day by the ever growing federal leviathan. What do we worry about; whether the latest Osmond stands a chance on Idol, and who will win the Superbowl?

I grieve for my country.

Freedom Must Be Defended

How Modern Law Makes Us Powerless

There's much to agree with here. I would submit, however, that the answer lies in applying the ideas that went into making the Constitution. It was designed to limit the scope and power of the federal government, reserving the powers not specifically delegated it to the states and to the people.

The massive growth of the administrative state since the New Deal have left few areas of life untouched by federal regulation and with each regulation come penalties for violation. From the moment I turn on my federally mandated compact fluorescent light bulb when I wake up, the amount of waste water I flush, the nutritionally labeled food in my breakfast, the federally taxed gas powering my CAFE standarded vehicle getting me to my government funded job at a federally mandated maximum speed, on federally standardized tires, wearing my federally mandated seat belt, I am at the mercy of federal regulation. And that's only the first hour of my day. It continues non-stop until the moment I turn out the light and sleep on my federally standardized size mattress with a federally mandated label. Three of my hobbies even require federal licenses. It is impossible to escape.

On Democracy in America

De Tocqueville made a comparison which I wonder is still valid. Listen to what he says in these two paragraphs:

What is understood by a republican government in the United States is the slow and quiet action of society upon itself. It is a regular state of things really founded upon the enlightened will of the people. It is a conciliatory government, under which resolutions are allowed time to ripen, and in which they are deliberately discussed, and are executed only when mature. The republicans in the United States set a high value upon morality, respect religious belief, and acknowledge the existence of rights. They profess to think that a people ought to be moral, religious, and temperate in proportion as it is free. What is called the republic in the United States is the tranquil rule of the majority, which, after having had time to examine itself and to give proof of its existence, is the common source of all the powers of the state. But the power of the majority itself is not unlimited. Above it in the moral world are humanity, justice, and reason; and in the political world, vested rights. The majority recognizes these two barriers; and if it now and then oversteps them, it is because, like individuals, it has passions and, like them, it is prone to do what is wrong, while it discerns what is right.

But the demagogues of Europe have made strange discoveries. According to them, a republic is not the rule of the majority, as has hitherto been thought, but the rule of those who are strenuous partisans of the majority. It is not the people who preponderate in this kind of government, but those who know what is good for the people, a happy distinction, which allows men to act in the name of nations without consulting them and to claim their gratitude while their rights are trampled underfoot. A republican government, they hold, moreover, is the only one that has the right of doing whatever it chooses and despising what men have hitherto respected, from the highest moral laws to the vulgar rules of common sense. Until our time it had been supposed that despotism was odious, under whatever form it appeared. But it is a discover of modern days that there are such things as legitimate tyranny and holy injustice, provided they are exercised in the name of the people.

Does this distinction between Europe and the United States still hold true? I have my doubts.

In the campaign just concluded, how much deliberate discussion of the issues was there? Precious little by either side. How much consideration of morality, and by this I mean of programs and policies offered, which was the most moral? That answer is easy, none. How then, can honest choices be made?

Consider the second paragraph. Have we not become a nation ruled by "those who know what is good for the people?" Look at the large scale abdication of legislative functions by Congress to the unelected bureaucrats of the Executive branch. What about the insistence that those in power are our leaders rather than our servants? We see evidence of abuse around us every day, regardless of which party is in power at the moment. I am unabashedly a conservative/libertarian, but I am often appalled by the actions of "my" party. It is no comfort that I find its opponents more often in error.

The establishments of both sides have come to see themselves as the rightful heritors of power, rather than the heirs of a democratic tradition holding sovereign power in the people's hands. These are not Republican or Democrat issues. They are issues we must consider as a free people. We purport to have a government of, by, and for us. If we are to heed the  President's call to a new era of responsibility, we must accept the necessity of self-government, lest we lose it forever. Political arguments are nothing new in our history, and to dismiss them as the old tired dogmas of the past, does us a disservice. Political argument is the essence of democracy and the life-blood of our republic. We abandon them at our peril.

On a Special MLK Day

It should be obvious to readers of this blog that I'm no fan of Barack Obama. What may come as a surprise is that I memorized the following while I was in high school. It still speaks to me today and I post it here knowing that tomorrow we come one step closer to the day that we can all be "free at last."


Text from American Rhetoric.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

Reason Magazine on a Stimulus Package

This by Anthony Randazzo is worth a read. Five reasons why stimulus spending doesn't work:

1. Stimulus packages frequently misdirect national resources
2. Stimulus packages don't increase aggregate consumption
3. Stimulus packages don't create sustainable jobs
4. Stimulus packages increase national debt or cause rapid inflation
5. Stimulus packages are pork-laden and caught up in federal bureaucracy

Read the whole thing.

In the Company of Friends

My parents always taught me that you're known by the company you keep. Add this one to the list belonging to the president-elect. Seems our soon-to-be president likes to hang around with people hang with people who like to kill soldiers: Bill Ayers and Bernadette Dorn, now Greg Craig. Somehow, I'm not surprised.

Some Questions about The Speech

I was going to post something else today, but the president-elect's speech on the economy begs discussion. I'm going to be excerpting heavily and trying to make sense of the often self-contradictory contents.

We start 2009 in the midst of a crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetime – a crisis that has only deepened over the last few weeks. Nearly two million jobs have now been lost, and on Friday we are likely to learn that we lost more jobs last year than at any time since World War II. Just in the past year, another 2.8 million Americans who want and need full-time work have had to settle for part-time jobs. Manufacturing has hit a twentyeight year low. Many businesses cannot borrow or make payroll. Many families cannot pay their bills or their mortgage. Many workers are watching their life savings disappear. And many, many Americans are both anxious and uncertain of what the future will hold.

I haven't verified the statistics, but this all rings true. A quick side note on the twenty-eight year low in manufacturing. We have a very productive, but high cost labor force and the second highest corporate tax rate in the world. Is there any doubt why our manufacturing has gone off-shore? No statement yet on the causes of the crisis, but we're getting there next.

This crisis did not happen solely by some accident of history or normal turn of the business cycle, and we won’t get out of it by simply waiting for a better day to come, or relying on the worn-out dogmas of the past. We arrived at this point due to an era of profound irresponsibility that stretched from corporate boardrooms to the halls of power in Washington, DC. For years, too many Wall Street executives made imprudent and dangerous decisions, seeking profits with too little regard for risk, too little regulatory
scrutiny, and too little accountability. Banks made loans without concern for whether borrowers could repay them, and some borrowers took advantage of cheap credit to take on debt they couldn’t afford. Politicians spent taxpayer money without wisdom or discipline, and too often focused on scoring political points instead of the problems they were sent here to solve. The result has been a devastating loss of trust and confidence in our economy, our financial markets, and our government.

Well, the statement of who's to blame for this fiasco is certainly inclusive. It does, however, seem to place more responsibility outside Washington than the truth would allow. Blaming politicians for unwise, undisciplined spending doesn't tell the whole story.

Those politicians do much more than spend, they also legislate. As one example among many, Congress created the Community Reinvestment Act intended to end the process of "red-lining" in the lending industry. It then went on to actively encourage the unwise lending Mr. Obama decries as the fault of the banks. It further created both FannieMae and FreddieMac which got the credit crisis really rolling by packaging the sub-prime loans encouraged by Congress into derivative securities which were widely believed to have an implicit government guarantee. Then, in the face of rapidly rising energy costs, exacerbated in no small degree by decades of Congressional prohibitions on the exploitation of domestic energy sources (all the while promising to do something about America's dependence on foreign oil), those least able to absorb those costs started to default on their loans. The collapse of institutions heavily invested in those derivative, and now worthless, securities soon followed, again exacerbated by government mandated accounting practices specifying that asset values set at current market prices.

Now, the very fact that this crisis is largely of our own making means that it is not beyond our ability to solve. Our problems are rooted in past mistakes, not our capacity for future greatness. It will take time, perhaps many years, [emphasis mine] but we can rebuild that lost trust and confidence...

I'll certainly agree that this was a created crisis, and if the "our" refers collectively to Washington politicians, I'll also agree. I do not, however, accept any other blame. I've worked hard, lived within my means, and saved for a rainy day so I wouldn't have to ask for a hand out unless I really needed it. (like after six months of unemployment the last time I applied for government aid fifteen years ago)

Now, pay particular attention to that "perhaps many years" clause. Let's see what else he has to say about time-lines. In the same paragraph he says this,

...And we are still the nation that has overcome great fears and improbable odds. If we act with the urgency and seriousness that this moment requires, I know that we can do it again.

That is why I have moved quickly to work with my economic team and leaders of both parties on an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that will immediately jumpstart job creation and long-term growth.

So, we seem to have a moment which will last for years while we rebuild trust and confidence, the loss of which helped to cause our current troubles, but through the now wise actions of the very same people who, while they thought they were acting wisely at the time, got us into this mess, will now immediately get us out of it. Did I get that right? Anyway, continuing on.

It’s a plan that represents not just new policy, but a whole new approach to meeting our most urgent challenges. For if we hope to end this crisis, we must end the culture of anything goes that helped create it – and this change must begin in Washington. It is time to trade old habits for a new spirit of responsibility. It is time to finally change the ways of Washington so that we can set a new and better course for America.

Well, this is something that I can agree with wholeheartedly. I would love to see a spirit of responsibility in Washington. Perhaps we could hope to see some acknowledgment of policies which have failed around the world, along with those which have actually worked. At this point in the speech, I have high hopes for meaningful change. Let's see how we're going to get there.

There is no doubt that the cost of this plan will be considerable. It will certainly add to the budget deficit in the short-term. But equally certain are the consequences of doing too little or nothing at all, for that will lead to an even greater deficit of jobs, incomes, and confidence in our economy. It is true that we cannot depend on government alone to create jobs or long-term growth, but at this particular moment, only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe. Only government can break the vicious cycles that are crippling our economy – where a lack of spending leads to lost jobs which leads to even less spending; where an inability to lend and borrow stops growth and leads to even less credit.

That is why we need to act boldly and act now to reverse these cycles. That’s why we need to put money in the pockets of the American people, create new jobs, and invest in our future. That’s why we need to re-start the flow of credit and restore the rules of the road that will ensure a crisis like this never happens again.

Not much to disagree with here, other than knowing that for the goverment to put money in the pockets of some people, it has to take it from others, typically those who would otherwise have that money to invest. If government helped cause the problem, surely government can help us get out of it. How does Mr. Obama see that happening?

That work begins with this plan – a plan I am confident will save or create at least three million jobs over the next few years. It is not just another public works program. It’s a plan that recognizes both the paradox and the promise of this moment – the fact that there are millions of Americans trying to find work, even as, all around the country, there is so much work to be done. That’s why we’ll invest in priorities like energy and education; health care and a new infrastructure that are necessary to keep us strong and competitive in the 21st century. That’s why the overwhelming majority of the jobs created will be in the private sector, while our plan will save the public sector jobs of teachers, cops, firefighters and others who provide vital services.

This is where I have some trouble with the plan. Government doesn't invest, it spends. I could go on with a paragraph by paragraph dissection of the speech, but you get the drift of where it is heading. Now, I'm not an economist, so perhaps someone smarter than I can explain a few things I have questions about.

If there is a private sector credit crisis, how will government borrowing money to pay for the planned increases in spending do anything to make private capital more generally available? Doesn't the government actually compete for private capital? It seems to me that if I, as an investor, choose to put my money into treasury notes or government bonds, that money is no longer available for investment in corporate stock or a bank where it could be used to finance job growth or expansion. If that's the case, just how will private loans become easier to obtain?

Further, if the government chooses to print more money rather than borrow it, doesn't that punish those who invest looking for a good rate of return at the expense of those who borrow? Wouldn't that discourage the availability of private capital for investment rather than encouraging it? Doesn't it also punish those who've tried to save for their own needs while rewarding the profligate?

Finally, wouldn't cutting corporate and individual tax rates have a broader and more immediate effect on the economy than future spending by the government? Doesn't government spending, by its very nature, pick winners and losers in the economy? How is this more effective at stimulating the economy as a whole than allowing individuals and corporations choosing for themselves what is best for their individual situations?

One last quote.

I understand that some might be skeptical of this plan. Our government has already spent a good deal of money, but we haven’t yet seen that translate into more jobs or higher incomes or renewed confidence in our economy. That’s why the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan won’t just throw money at our problems – we’ll invest in what works. The true test of the policies we’ll pursue won’t be whether they’re Democratic or Republican ideas, but whether they create jobs, grow our economy, and put the American Dream within reach of the American people.

I saw a statistic the other day which said that each dollar of taxes cut produces three dollars of increased economic activity, while each dollar of increased spending produced only forty cents. So, I ask one simple question; why are we talking about massive increases in government spending when we know it's not the most efficient way to accomplish the stated goals?

Lazy Mornings

We had another two inches of snow overnight. I'd already planned to take the day off and do some reading (Neal Stephenson's Anathem, if you're interested), but with the snow, work was delayed for the spouse. Bless her, she decided to just take the whole day, so we've got another nice, lazy day together. We've got a pot of coffee on, some beans soaking for soup later in the day, and another loaf of homemade bread to snack on. It's gonna be a good day.

Reflections and Resolutions

The new year is always a time to reflect on both the year past, and the year ahead. As I look back on 2008, I'm struck by how far we have come from the vision of our founders as a collection of states with a limited federal government. Certainly there were those, like Adams, who wanted a strong role for the federal government, but the Constitution provides the structure for a representative democracy with a strong role for both the states and their citizens and strictly limited and delineated roles for the branches of the federal government. Today, the states have almost no role in the federal government, and the entire federal structure seems disconnected from the citizenry it purports to represent and heedless of the limits the Constitution rightly places upon it.

My goal for 2009 is to use this blog to examine these issues for myself and to become an articulate voice for a return to limited government of, by and for the People. There are other voices out there that certainly know how to say these things better than I do; Mark Levin springs immediately to mind, but this is more a self-education vehicle that a site for proselytizing. In other words, I'm not going to worry about it, but just going to do it. I have my copy of Democracy in America and my pocket copy of the Constitution. I definitely need to finally get off my duff and read The Federalist Papers . These should form a good baseline to build from. Then there are books like Conscience of a Conservative and The 5000 Year Leap, as well as Upstream that beg to be read. I certainly need to read some economics too, but I'm not sure where I'll start there.

It's going to be a busy year.