Barney Frank’s Confession

Remember my arguments about the cause of the recession?

Now compare what I wrote almost a year ago with Barney Frank’s confession in this video.

Word-for-word, he’s saying almost exactly what I wrote! He doesn’t specifically name the CRA, but talks extensively about the policies which Clinton’s 1995 expansion of the CRA created. I never thought I’d be saying this, but I completely agree with Barney Frank on the cause of the crisis.

On the other hand, we begin to differ again when it comes to the proposed solution. I say abolish Fannie and Freddie and end federal involvement in the housing market. He says abolish Fannie and Freddie and replace it with something entirely government-owned, and this time he’ll use policies that won’t fuck it up because he’s learned his lesson.

So there you have it: once the facts line up, it all comes down to a difference in faith in the government.

EDIT (8/5/11): But of course, Barney Frank’s faith is horribly misplaced.

Should America Bid Farewell to Exceptional Freedom?

Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin gave this speech on March 31st:

Last week, on March 21st, Congress enacted a new Intolerable Act. Congress passed the Health Care bill – or I should say, one political party passed it – over a swelling revolt by the American people. The reform is an atrocity. It mandates that every American must buy health insurance, under IRS scrutiny. It sets up an army of federal bureaucrats who ultimately decide for you how you should receive Health Care, what kind, and how much…or whether you don’t qualify at all. Never has our government claimed the power to decide when each of us has lived well enough or long enough to be refused life-saving medical assistance.

This presumptuous reform has put this nation … once dedicated to the life and freedom of every person … on a long decline toward the same mediocrity that the social welfare states of Europe have become.

Americans are preparing to fight another American Revolution, this time, a peaceful one with election ballots…but the “causes” of both are the same:

Should unchecked centralized government be allowed to grow and grow in power … or should its powers be limited and returned to the people?

Should irresponsible leaders in a distant capital be encouraged to run up scandalous debts without limit that crush jobs and stall prosperity … or should the reckless be turned out of office and a new government elected to live within its means?

Should America bid farewell to exceptional freedom and follow the retreat to European social welfare paternalism … or should we make a new start, in the faith that boundless opportunities belong to the workers, the builders, the industrious, and the free?

We are at the beginning of an election campaign like you’ve never seen before!

We are challenged to answer again the momentous questions our Founders raised when they launched mankind’s noblest experiment in human freedom. They made a fundamental choice and changed history for the better. Now it’s our high calling to make that choice: between managed scarcity, or solid growth … between living in dependency on government handouts, or taking responsibility for our lives … between confiscating the earnings of some and spreading them around, or securing everyone’s right to the rewards of their work … between bureaucratic central government, or self-government … between the European social welfare state or the American idea of free market democracy.

What kind of nation do we wish to be? What kind of society will we hand down to our children and future generations? In the coming watershed election, the nature of this unique and exceptional land is at stake. We will choose one of two different paths. And once we make that choice, there’s no going back.

This is not the kind of election I would prefer. But it was forced on us by the leaders of our government.

These leaders are walking America down a new path … creating entitlements and promising benefits that model the United States after the European Union: a welfare state society where most people pay little or no taxes but become dependent on government benefits … where tax reduction is impossible because more people have a stake in the welfare state than in free enterprise … where high unemployment is accepted as a way of life, and the spirit of risk-taking is smothered by a tangle of red tape from an all-providing centralized government.

True, the United States has been moving slowly toward this path a long time. And Democrats and Republicans share the blame. Now we are approaching a “tipping point.” Once we pass it, we will become a different people. Before the “tipping point,” Americans remain independent and take responsibility for their own well-being. Once we have gone beyond the “tipping point,” that self-sufficient outlook will be gradually transformed into a soft despotism a lot like Europe’s social welfare states. Soft despotism isn’t cruel or mean, it’s kindly and sympathetic. It doesn’t help anyone take charge of life, but it does keep everyone in a happy state of childhood. A growing centralized bureaucracy will provide for everyone’s needs, care for everyone’s heath, direct everyone’s career, arrange everyone’s important private affairs, and work for everyone’s pleasure.

The only hitch is, government must be the sole supplier of everyone’s happiness … the shepherd over this flock of sheep.

Am I exaggerating? Are we really reaching this “tipping point”? Exact and precise measures cannot be made, but an eye-opening study by the Tax Foundation, a reliable and non-partisan research group, tells us that in 2004, 20 percent of US households were getting about 75 percent of their income from the federal government. In other words, one out of five families in America is already government dependent. Another 20 percent were receiving almost 40 percent of their income from federal programs, so another one in five has become government reliant for their livelihood.
…

It continues. I urge every American to read the entirety of the article and ask yourself the rhetorical questions posed in it. Paul Ryan is a smart man- he had Obama on his toes at the Health Care Summit  and he’s the one who exposed the deceitful gimmicks used by the Democrats to get the answer they wanted from the CBO. I don’t agree with everything in Rep. Ryan’s proposed solution, but he is right that we are at the tipping point, where we have a choice between a nation built on individual freedom and a nation hanging from the precarious limb of government support. We are approaching the end of an era, and it’s up to all of us to decide what the future will look like.

I, for one, choose freedom.

Treasurer of Massachusetts Bashes ObamaCare

…And goes even further, saying that it will “threaten to wipe out the American economy within four years.”

Did I read that right? Timothy Cahill, a Democrat (until just recently), the Treasurer of Massachusetts no less, is saying that the similar legislation passed in Massachusetts 4 years earlier “has nearly bankrupted the state.” This man, who (I repeat) runs the Massachusetts Treasury, says that the only reason Massachusetts is not yet bankrupt is the state is “being propped up so that the federal government and the Obama administration can drive [the legislation] through.”

How much more damning can you get? The one empirical test of ObamaCare (from back when it was RomneyCare) on US soil, and the state’s own Treasurer is saying that without the politically-motivated federal aid, they wouldn’t be able to make ends meet because of it.

Consider also the fact that the cost to individuals in Massachusetts has been skyrocketing as well, and this piece of national health care legislation is absolutely devastated. Under such a plan, health care costs everyone more.

How can anyone still support this folly? How can anyone still support the Democrats’ efforts to ram this thing through Congress with little regard for the Constitution?

Government Buyouts and Bailouts to Become Permanent Policy?

The Democrats of the House of Representatives recently passed a bill which would give the President and the Federal Reserve Board members that he appoints the authority to take over and/or liquidate any financial company deemed “in danger of default,” so long as failure of the company may cause “adverse effects” to the economy or to the welfare of minorities. The language of the bill is actually that vague.

The process of acquiring a company goes something like this:

Step 1: The Secretary or Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board requests a vote by the Board (all of these people are appointed by the President) on whether or not the default of a financial company poses some risk to the economic “conditions or stability” of the United States, or to the economic “conditions or stability” of minorities.

Step 2: The Secretary of the Federal Reserve (who originally requested the vote) takes the recommendations and goes to deliberate with the President (who appointed all these people to begin with). Together, the President and Secretary make a determination as to whether the financial company is “in danger of default” and whether this default would have “adverse effects on financial stability or economic conditions in the United States.” Together, they determine what to do about the company.

Step 3: At this point the Secretary appoints a “Corporation” which takes financial control of the company, eliminates its management, and liquidates it, as seen with GM. This Corporation expires after a year, but there is no bar against the Secretary appointing a new one, extending the time frame of its control indefinitely.

All of this information can be found in sections 1603 and 1604 of H.R. 4173 at the Library of Congress Database.

With the language as to what constitutes a “danger of default” and what constitutes “adverse affects” left so vague and entirely at the discretion of the President and his appointees, under this bill, the President could hypothetical engineer the liquidation of any company which does not adhere to some set of policies. This leaves absolute control of the policies of financial institutions in the hands of the President. Control of all financial lending institutions means control over anyone who would ever want to take out a loan, which is pretty much everyone.

“What’s that? Your business doesn’t engage in affirmative action hiring? Well, we’re just going to have a conversation with your lenders, who might be in danger of default. Might you want to reconsider your hiring practices?”

“Oh? Your media station is going to criticize our administration? Well, let’s see what your lenders and investors have to say about that.”

“Well, we’ve decided that the voting record of your demographic poses a threat to the State, so financial institutions aren’t going to be letting you take out mortgages anymore.”

Signing of this bill into law would truly mean a total government takeover of our nation’s economy, and by proxy, our lives. Absolute control of everyone would be in the hands of the President. This would be Fascism.

Is Health Insurance a Right?

One reason why some people think that we have a legal right to health insurance (note that health insurance is not the same thing as health care) is because the costs for medical care necessary for good health sometimes make people go bankrupt. Does this choice of “health care vs. bankruptcy” in some cases make health insurance a need rather than a luxury?

The thing is, people go bankrupt for a lot of reasons. People go bankrupt because they bought houses or cars they can’t afford. They go bankrupt because they make poor decisions with their credit. Sometimes they just go bankrupt because of bad luck in the stock market. Should the government be insuring all of these things as well?

In general, you can certainly have the medical treatment that you need, possibly at the cost of some financial stability. But if financial stability is considered a need, and not a luxury, then where’s my taxpayer-funded general bankruptcy insurance to cover me in case of poor investment decisions, credit abuse, or bad luck in stocks?

If health insurance is really a basic human right, then does that mean that countries like Ethiopia and Uzbekistan where people can barely even afford to eat should create national health insurance programs so that everyone can get the latest and greatest medical treatment while being taxed into starvation? Forget economic development of luxuries like industry and improved agricultural methods; These people need MRIs!