Government | Kevin Colby: News and Political blog

John Stossel talks about jobs and eminent domain

March 8th, 2009

john-stossel Some interesting articles by John Stossel:

Real Jobs Create Wealth

So, President Obama got his stimulus bill. For a mere $787 billion, he has pledged to “save or create” 3.5 million jobs. That’s only $224,857 and change per job! (If I still have my job next year, will he take credit for saving it?)

But wait. Only 3.5 million jobs? Why so few? It’s not like creating jobs is difficult.

Egypt built more than 100 pyramids beginning sometime in the third millennium B.C. to house the corpses of the pharaohs and their significant others. Think of all the jobs that project created. I’ll bet the unemployment rate was something any pharaoh could have proudly campaigned for re-election on — if he faced election, that is. Pyramid-building is one heck of a public works project.

Its economic significance was not lost on that great advocate of full employment through public works, John Maynard Keynes. The British economist, so in vogue today, famously wrote in “The General Theory” (1936), “Pyramid-building, earthquakes, even wars, may serve to increase wealth.” Read the full story.

Obama the Spender Goes to Washington

How lucky we are to have Barack Obama as president. He’s already come up with a revolutionary idea that escaped his predecessors: He’s going to scour the budget for … “waste and inefficiency” “… go line by line through the federal budget in order to eliminate wasteful and ineffective programs.”

It’s astonishing that no one has thought of this before. Who knew programs could actually be eliminated just because they don’t work and waste taxpayers’ money?

And he’s making progress.

“[W]e have already identified $2 trillion in savings over the next decade.”

How will he do it? Here’s an example: “Agriculture Secretary [Tom] Vilsack is saving nearly $20 million with reforms to modernize programs and streamline bureaucracy.”

Amazing! “Modernize and streamline.” It is indeed a new day. Read the full story.

Eminent Domain Run Amok

Susette Kelo, now 52 years old, had hoped to stay in her little pink house forever. She bought her New London, Conn., home in 1997 and fell in love with the neighborhood.

Then she learned that the government can just take your property, if doing so will improve the common good of the community. City officials said Kelo would be “fairly compensated” but said she didn’t have a choice about whether or not she would sell. Some people would call this stealing, but it’s not. It’s called “eminent domain,” a legal term that means “supreme lordship.”

Traditionally, governments use eminent domain to clear space for highways or railroads. In New London, town officials wanted the space for private developers. Chris Riley, who in 2001 represented the New London Development Corp., said that construction would bring in more than 5,000 jobs and $12.5 million in new local taxes. The city hired lawyer Wesley Horton to defend the redevelopment plan. Read the full story.

Weighing Obama words and awaiting his deeds (Cleveland.com)

February 1st, 2009

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Found this great article from Cleveland.com and I just had to post it:

by Kevin O’Brien

As Barack Obama looked out at the throng assembled Tuesday to witness his swearing in, it might have been wise to revive the Roman tradition of stationing a slave behind him to whisper, “Remember, thou art mortal.”

But we don’t have slaves in this country anymore, thank God. Rather, we have a president whose race was not so long ago enslaved here. And that is a wondrous thing.

More fitting for this occasion, perhaps, would have been 50,000 volunteers circulating throughout the adoring crowd to whisper, “Remember, he is mortal.”

During the campaign that won Obama the honor of putting his hand on Abe Lincoln’s Bible to swear his oath to the Constitution, the loftiness of his rhetoric and the force of his personality raised expectations to heights that most mortals would despair of matching with their deeds.

If things are on schedule, for instance, the rise of the oceans ended at noon on Tuesday.

Well. We’ll see.

What certainly did end on Tuesday was President Obama’s liberty to speak in generalities. Now, specifics matter.

So where do we think this speech, and this mortal man, might lead?

Americans should appreciate the call in Obama’s inaugural address to remain “faithful to the ideals of our forebears, and true to our founding documents.”

But his interpretation of those ideals and his choices of forebears to serve as his examples bear watching.

“The question we ask today,” he declared, “is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end.”

And new programs will begin in an administration predisposed to seek all solutions in government.

The forebears who wrote our founding documents would tell Obama the same thing they would have told his predecessors all the way back to Teddy Roosevelt: The finding of jobs, the setting of wages, the provision of health care and the safeguarding of dignity in retirement are not the province of government.

They would say that government today is most definitely too big, and far too invasive and influential in the lives of individuals and the conduct of business. What we have today isn’t what Adams and Hamilton had in mind. Jefferson and Madison may have glimpsed it, but only in their nightmares.

When Obama declares that “the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply,” he’s wrong. The day the argument about the relationship between the individual American and his government ends — the same argument those forebears failed to settle — is the day this republic is lost forever.

“Nor,” Obama continued, “is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control . . .”

Unfortunately, the watchful eye of government rarely comes without a “helping” hand.

The recent mortgage crisis, for example, occurred not because the regulators’ rules were broken, but because the rules were followed: Lenders obeyed government directives to put cash in the hands of people who were lousy risks for paying it back. “Wall Street greed” would have had nothing to latch onto had the government left the credit market to its own sane methods.

Mankind has never conceived of a more powerful self-regulating mechanism for improvement than the free market. If only we would let it work, we’d probably be able to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost, and harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories.

Instead, we’re going to make those government projects, thereby wasting a great deal of money to confirm an eternal truth: Government crushes innovation to protect favored interests.

But today, all of those things are merely speculation. No one can know what kind of administration this will be.

And I should note that my applause for one thing Obama said is unrestrained:

“We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.”

George W. Bush could have said that. He did say that. But Obama said it better.

I just hope he means it.

Government Spending vs. Tax Cuts vs. Tax Rebates

January 28th, 2009

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dollar_sign_melting14 Parts of the United Kingdom are becoming so heavily dependent on government spending that the private sector is generating less than one-third of the regional economy. A new analysis found that the government’s share of output and expenditure is more than 60% in some areas of England and over 70% in some parts of the UK.

And that is what the United States is currently headed towards. All the bailout spending between the banks and the automakers and now the economic stimulus package. Currently, US federal government spending comprises about 26% of our economy. But compare that to the fact that before the FDR’s New Deal, that number was only 3%. Remember, the government is choosing where to spend the money, not you. Where is the FREEDOM in that?

As of right now, consumer spending in the US accounts for 70% of our economy. Not government spending, but spending from you, the consumer. And we are about to pass the largest spending bill in the history of this country. But where is the government going to get this money? From you, the hardworking taxpayers. A pie can only be worth 100%. Right now, the consumers are spending 70% of that pie. If the government wants to increase its spending, guess who has to decrease their spending - you! Eventually in this country, we will reach these levels of parts of the UK, where government spending account for two-thirds of the economy. Just remember to thank your kids and grand kids for picking up the tab for your stupid ass!

If you don’t believe me when I say that government spending isn’t going to stimulate the economy. Well here is a report that will prove me to be correct. Now this report is a bit long, but here are some of the highlights. Our government actually has access to these reports, it’s to bad that they are so power hungry that they are willing to sink this country more just to keep their power and constituents.

Most government spending has historically reduced productivity and long-term economic growth due to:

Taxes. Most government spending is financed by taxes, and high tax rates reduce incentives to work, save, and invest–resulting in a less motivated workforce as well as less business investment in new capital and technology. Few government expenditures raise productivity enough to offset the productivity lost due to taxes;
Incentives. Social spending often reduces incentives for productivity by subsidizing leisure and unemployment. Combined with taxes, it is clear that taxing Peter to subsidize Paul reduces both of their incentives to be productive, since productivity no longer determines one’s income;
Displacement. Every dollar spent by politicians means one dollar less to be allocated based on market forces within the more productive private sector. For example, rather than allowing the market to allocate investments, politicians seize that money and earmark it for favored organizations with little regard for improvements to economic efficiency; and
Inefficiencies. Government provision of housing, education, and postal operations are often much less efficient than the private sector. Government also distorts existing health care and education markets by promoting third-party payers, resulting in over-consumption and insensitivity to prices and outcomes. Another example of inefficiency is when politicians earmark highway money for wasteful pork projects rather than expanding highway capacity where it is most needed.

And then, you might want to take a look at some of these:

Mountains of academic studies show how government expansions reduce economic growth:

Public Finance Review reported that “higher total government expenditure, no matter how financed, is associated with a lower growth rate of real per capita gross state product.”
The Quarterly Journal of Economics reported that “the ratio of real government consumption expenditure to real GDP had a negative association with growth and investment,” and “growth is inversely related to the share of government consumption in GDP, but insignificantly related to the share of public investment.”
A Journal of Macroeconomics study discovered that “the coefficient of the additive terms of the government-size variable indicates that a 1% increase in government size decreases the rate of economic growth by 0.143%.”
Public Choice reported that “a one percent increase in government spending as a percent of GDP (from, say, 30 to 31%) would raise the unemployment rate by approximately .36 of one percent (from, say, 8 to 8.36 percent).”

Read this article from the Heritage Foundation on why Tax Cuts are better than Tax Rebates.

There is only one thing that will solve all of our economic and tax issues, it’s called the Fair Tax Act. Do you know what the Fair Tax is?

* Ensures Social Security and Medicare funding
* Enables workers to keep their entire paychecks
* Enables retirees to keep their entire pensions
* Refunds in advance the tax on purchases of basic necessities
* Allows American products to compete fairly
* Brings transparency and accountability to tax policy
* Closes all loopholes and brings fairness to taxation
* Abolishes the IRS

For more information visit www.fairtax.org.

All information was obtained from boortz.com

Taxpayers for Common Sense needs your help

January 12th, 2009

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As a group that watchdogs the federal budget, Taxpayers for Common Sense plate is pretty full. That’s they need your help to keep Congress and the administration accountable and to stop wasteful spending. Here are some ways you can help:

Take Action to Eliminate Earmarks
Congress is about to begin debate on a massive economic stimulus bill. President-elect Obama and others have stated they want to keep the legislation free of special interest earmarks. Take action now to help us make sure your representatives commit to keeping any stimulus free of earmarks.

Contact your representatives today

Help us find and fight waste
Send them your tips about wasteful spending you’ve uncovered. They need your help finding waste, fraud, and abuse.

Click here to send us your tips

Give us feedback
Please comment about your thoughts and concerns about our government. They would love to hear your concerns. You can email them.

Sign up for the Wastebasket
The Wastebasket is our weekly e-commentary on government waste, fraud, and abuse. Sign up to be the first to hear of their most recent discoveries, new projects, and stories flying under the radar. Sign up here.

Contribute
As a small, independent organization, TCS depends on support from people like you. Any donation you can make is welcome and greatly appreciated.

Click here to donate to their work

Herman Cain wants you to join the Intelligent Thinkers Movement

January 4th, 2009

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INTRODUCTION

The voice of “we the people” has been hijacked by partisan politics, government bureaucrats, and the influence of money on elections and legislation. To take backour government, we must be able to un-elect members of Congress on a timely basis, and dramatically influence their decisions while they are in office.

Because of the proliferation of biased media reporting, gullible voters, and too many in Congress who willingly and intentionally make deceptive and misleading statements about proposed legislation, “we the people” must be able to provide succinct and intelligent feedback to Congress frequently and persistently. We can then hold them accountable intelligently at election time, which is our only leverage for holding their feet to the fire.

We don’t need all 306 million citizens to be successful. We only need 100,000 voters per Congressional district for them to “see the light”.

“We the people” can and will take back our government and the strategic direction of this Nation. It is our right and responsibility.

This is NOT a republican, democrat, libertarian, conservative, liberal, or progressives movement. This is a “we the people” movement.

MISSION

Take Back Our Government (TBOG)

STRATEGY

Create a technologically empowered citizen’s activist movement to put “heat” on Congress and the President on “KEY” actions.

TACTICS

Create a rapid response network of citizens
Email, phone calling post, ready to send post cards
Organize citizens by Congressional districts (435)
100,000 activists per district
Issue C.A.I.N. Alerts on key initiatives moving through Congress relating to HITM key issues

KEY ISSUES (NEET)

National Security, Economy, Energy Independence, Tsunami Spending,
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

NATIONAL SECURITY

Our highest national priority

A strong military – Defense spending should be used more effectively, but never cut below 4% of GDP.

The fight against Islamic Fascism is global. Fight it wherever it is a threat to the United States of America. Let our intelligence agencies do their jobs.

ECONOMY

No new or higher taxes

Replace the current income tax with the Fair Tax.

In the interim, make the current tax rates permanent

ENERGY INDEPENDENCE

Maximize the use of all our natural resources in the USA

Don’t go broke just to go “green”

Major oil producing countries are not our friends

TSUNAMI SPENDING

Federal spending is out of control (Tsunami)

Cap all federal spending indefinitely (Restructure Medicare/Medicaid)

Restructure Social Security with personal retirement accounts

LIFE, LIBERTY and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

Defend the Constitution and all of its Amendments

MEMBERSHIP

Your name, email address, phone number, mailing address (optional)

This information will not be sold or used for marketing, promotional or advertising purposes. Your mailing address is not needed unless you prefer to respond to your congressman only by post card.

There is NO membership fee. A little bit of your time is all that’s required. This movement is supported by individuals not looking for a tax deduction.

C.A.I.N. Alerts

Citizen Activists Informed Network Alerts will be sent out periodically requesting you to respond to your congressman about a specific issue or legislation. The Alerts will be sent out by email and or phone. You will receive it by phone only if you are using the post card option.

We will keep the Alerts simple, which is the exact opposite of the legislative process. The Alerts will be activated at critical times in the legislative process, and on HITM key issues or related pieces.

Few legislative proposals move through Congress “clean”. They are usually a hodgepodge of proposals attached to major proposals using a procedural mechanism called earmarks. “We the people” never hear about most of these until after the fact, because they can not be easily explained in a media sound-bite.

This is why bad laws continue to get passed and federal spending has only an upward momentum.

To prepare for the Alerts you must do some homework. The common sense strategic principles on each key issue shown above are a start. Credible links to organizations which provide ongoing analysis of issues and related aspects are listed on the left of this page under “Intelligent Thinkers Allies”. You are encouraged to study their content from time to time.

In other words, check “stupid” at the door, because you just might learn something.

JOIN Hermanator’s Intelligent Thinkers Movement (HITM)

You must know your nine digit postal zip code. Those 9-digits can be found on incoming mail to your home or business. This information will allow you to correctly identify your U.S. Representative and Senators. JOIN NOW!