Cut, cap and balance

Cut, cap and balance is the best proposal in the mix if politicians are serious about the national debt and out-of-control spending. Most of them aren't serious, and this is why we witness games rather than fundamental solutions.

The best way right now to limit government power is to limit how much it can spend and how much it can tax. This falls short of a fundamental solution, but it's better than the symptomatic solutions being bandied about. Cut, cap and balance is a solution that addresses part of the fundamental problem --next should be comprehensive tax restructuring.

Who do they think they're kidding?

The propaganda spewing from the Obama administration might fool some people, but I can't imagine who, and I can't imagine they'd have much influence on the next election, seeing as how Obama has to fool independents, and I doubt they're buying the lies.

When Democrats whine about Bush's economy and how deep the hole was, the worst recession since the Great Depression, and how Obama has turned it around, but we have to be patience because we had so far to go from what Bush left, like losing 750,000 a month, and how the tax cuts put us so far indebt, and on and on, no one is buying the excuse. Obama has either continued what Bush started, or he doubled down and added his own statist touch -- and the Fed has tripled down on monetary policy.

On the other hand, when Republicans blame Obama for the economy, they are also one-sided and unbelievable. One reason why a Republican candidate for President hasn't caught on is that none of them are concentrating on the real cause of our economic problems -- years of statism practiced by both parties.

The public is going beyond the two party game of shifting blame and avoiding responsibility. The majority of active voters who are not blind partisans understand that government itself has failed. Congress as a whole is very, very unpopular, and all the polls show this. The Tea Party, for the most part, has stated  they will not automatically vote Republican.

Independents are the key to change in Washington, and just as they punished John McCain for not leveling with them about Bush's failure (he implemented statist policies to "save" the free market), they aren't going to believe politicians who put all the blame on the other party. The public is looking for someone who can articulate the problems with both parties and government itself, then provide a direction which leads away from statism. If such leaders emerge, they'll be able to talk directly to the American people regarding their contributions to entitlements and how government officials have lied about the viability of the programs, that their contributions are not sufficient and what they have paid in is gone, and how now we have to transition to free market solutions. Don't expect these leaders to rise in 2012 -- they still think the public believes their lies, if only they repeat them often enough.

Don't waste the crisis

As Thomas E. Woods has written about, and as has been warned by the likes of Ron and Rand Paul, Cato, Glenn Beck, Gary Johnson and others, especially libertarians, consequences from government intervention, promises made on the future regarding entitlements, and our incredible national debt, are looming over us like floating timebombs.

Now is the time, as the crisis forms, and as Woods recommends, to do something about it, to reassess what we want government to do, and, more importantly, not do.

Morning Joe 6/1/2011 -- debt ceiling

On Morning Joe today, with John Heileman, Peggy Noonan and Mark Halperin, there was discussion of the vote yesterday in the House to unconditionally raise the debt ceiling -- a vote which failed as the Republicans had planned. The consensus, except for Peggy Noonan, who wondered if catastrophe would befall the nation if the debt ceiling isn't raised, was that the debt ceiling has to be raised whether there are spending cuts or limits attached or not. To bolster their claims of inevitabilty, they referenced a movie -- Too Big Too Fail. I mean, didn't you see the movie? The Morning Joe gang have obviously taken the movie at face value as a truthful depiction of events during the "financial crisis". If it's in the movie, it must be true, therefore we can't question this crisis.

The idea behind the Morning Joe crew conclusion is that we can't allow the economy to adjust to reality, because it's political suicide for politicians. We all know that politicians getting reelected is more important than financial or economic reality. No, it's better to push the problem off into the future, but there are elections coming up every two years or so, and I don't know how we'll ever avoid complete collapsed if we can't stop spending more than we take in. No one in Washington has the guts to say that the stock market and 401K plans are inflated due to Fed manipulation of the money supply, and that the bubble will pop at some point -- instead, Washington is saying we only need the capability of borrowing more money, so that government can build roads and bridges and subsidize green energy, along with pouring billions more into education, then all will be well.

I know Washington will not say this, but it seems like the Morning Joe crew could say it.

Glenn Beck 3/7/2011 -- Oil

Judge Andrew Napolitano sat in today for Glenn Beck and the show began with Sen Rand Paul of KY and Mike Lee of Utah being interviewed regarding the deficit and debt, energy production and the possiblility of US military action in Libya. Paul and Lee are two senators who appear to understand classical liberal principles and both are pushing for Government to balance its books and cut back on regulations which block energy production in the US. Both senators are against US involvement in Libya.

The discussion regarding the energy problem highlighted rsing oil prices and our oil-dependence on a region which is in turmoil and has the potential of turning even more anti-American. Government intervention in energy production has produced a situation where our entire economy is at risk if the Mid-East cuts oil supplies. This is an insane position for our country to be in when we have the capacity to create enough energy to drastically bring down the cost of energy, not to mention the jobs it would create in a weak employment environment. How much longer will the public allow our government to block energy production?

The Judge also interviewed an ex-CIA employee who believes that Libya poses no threat to our national interest, and that we shouldn't get involved. The fact that the administration is even considering taking miltary action in Libya is ludicrous. Our involvement will put Americans over-seas at more risk, emotionally inspire the region to join together against America, and if our involvement leads to a threatening backlash, Obama would not have the will to use our military's full strength and we'd be forced to back out and look weak and foolish. Sec Gates had it right when he said any more military involvement in that region would call for a head examination.

It has never been clearer that the US has to reign in government power, development a non- intervention doctrine in foreign affairs and allow the private sector to produce without suffocating regulations so that new wealth is created rather than more debt.