Author Archives: Quincy

An Open Letter To Jan Schakowsky

Dear Representative Schakowsky –

I’m a taxpayer.  The Tea Partiers are also taxpayers.  We are the people who make the enterprise of government possible.

People in government would object to that statement.  They would say that the US Government has multiple revenue streams:  the income tax, other federal taxes, the Social Security Trust Fund, other intergovernmental funds, external bond sales, bond sales to the Federal Reserve.  They’re right, on a technical level.  Year to year, the full burden of federal spending doesn’t rest on the taxpayers.

There’s more to the story, though.  Any money borrowed by the US Government is borrowed in the name of its taxpayers.  The more than $2 trillion that will be borrowed to close the deficit in Obama’s first budget is being borrowed in our name.  The same goes with the undisclosed billions borrowed to pay for the Bush bailout plan.  We currently have a national debt of $11,194,472,663,030 that the Congressional Budget Office projects will grow to over $20 trillion under the Obama spending plan.  As one of the approximately 138 million Americans who paid taxes last year, I look at the Obama deficit of $2 trillion and realize that almost $15,000 was borrowed in my name alone, just this year.  Over 10 years, the Obama plan will borrow over $65,000 in my name.  As scary as those numbers are in the aggregate, they are frightening when made personal.

I imagine it must be a pretty amazing job, being one of the 536 people that direct an enterprise with a limitless credit card that will be paid off by others.  Unlike every corporation and citizen in the country, Congress and the President don’t have to worry about where the money’s going to come from.  You have the authority to fund anything you want by pretty much any means you want.  Max out the credit card?  Just write a bill that increases the credit line!

From the perspective of this ordinary, hard-working taxpayer, that authority has gone to your heads.  You never bother to stop and ask us whether we want your spending anymore.  When Obama debuted his budget, it faced severe opposition from the taxpayers of this country.  Instead of wielding the power granted to him responsibly and reconsidering based on that opposition, he began moving to ram his budget down our throats without even a moments pause.  He tried to sic his campaign machine on us to “persuade” us that the irresponsible borrowing and spending was for our own good and that we should take it with a smile.

Between that and Bush’s TARP debacle, it became clear to ordinary taxpayers all across the country that we had no voice in Washington anymore.  Democrats and Republicans were spending all their time pandering to core constituencies and special interests while ignoring the people who pay the freight.  In fact, it’s gotten so bad that we taxpayers are not even perceived as an independent group anymore.  This is shown so clearly in your own comments on the Tea Party protests:

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) blasted “tea party” protests yesterday, labeling the activities “despicable” and “shameful.”

“The ‘tea parties’ being held today by groups of right-wing activists, and fueled by FOX News Channel, are an effort to mislead the public about the Obama economic plan that cuts taxes for 95 percent of Americans and creates 3.5 million jobs,” Schakowsky said in a statement.

“It’s despicable that right-wing Republicans would attempt to cheapen a significant, honorable moment of American history with a shameful political stunt,” she added. “Not a single American household or business will be taxed at a higher rate this year. Made to look like a grassroots uprising, this is an Obama bashing party promoted by corporate interests, as well as Republican lobbyists and politicians.”

We are in an age of taxation without representation. The taxpayer has no voice in Washington. The charade of democracy fostered by the two major parties has no place at the table for ordinary, hard-working Americans.  If you’re a Wall Street executive or an ACORN organizer, you have a say in how much money is borrowed and spent in America.  If you’re a simple plumber, electrician, or office worker, you have none.

You and the rest of Congress are gambling with our futures and you couldn’t care less what we have to say about it.  That’s why the Tea Parties are happening.  You want to deny us our voice?  Our place at the table?  Fine.  We’ll take it back from you.  Tea Party after Tea Party, letter after letter, column after column, we will make ourselves heard again.

The only shameful and despicable thing here is the fact that we have to take back our voice at all.  You and the rest of the ruling class have ignored the people who make your existence possible for far too long.  I’m sure your comments will be the first in a long line of bleating on the part of the ruling class, that we will have to endure rhetorical slings and arrows far worse than yours before we are heard again, but it doesn’t matter.  We WILL be heard, whether you like it or not.

No more irresponsibility.  Not in our name.  Not without a fight.

Sincerely,

A Taxpayer

Debts, Deficits, Taxes, and Tea Parties

In watching the MSM coverage of the Tea Party protests, the following arguments are used to try and debase the factual arguments of the protests:

  1. Obama plans to lower taxes on the majority of Americans while raising them on the rich.
  2. Obama’s budget cuts the deficit in half over the next 10 years.
  3. Right now tax rates are the same as they were when Obama took office.
  4. Most Americans are OK with their taxes.

These are all true, but none invalidate the point of the protests.  The protests are not talking about current taxes, they are talking about future taxes.  Each and every dollar borrowed today is a dollar taxed out of the economy at some point within the next 30 years.  This is a simple, undeniable fact.

When trying to figure out bad our future tax burden is, one number concerns us:  The National Debt.  This number is staggering, standing at $11,176,642,012,673 at the moment I type this.  According to the CBO, Obama’s budget will increase this debt by over $1,800,000,000,000 in just the next year.   So, while Obama is correct that his budget cuts the yearly budget deficit in half by 2019, that means that his spending plan will add a mere $900,000,000,000 to the national debt that year.  If the CBO estimate holds, the debt will top $20,000,000,000,000 in 2019.  This means that between 2009-2019, the amount of money borrowed against the full faith and credit of the US taxpayer will almost have doubled.

Say it to yourself… twenty trillion dollars.  That’s the massive future tax liability for the citizens of the United States being protested today.  The anger about this future tax liability is very real among those who see it.  While the tea party movement might get co-opted by big-spending Republicans and fade away, the sentiment that started it is as genuine, grassroots, and truthful as any protest movement in American history.

Government and Cyber-Security

News came out this week of a deeply troubling new bill from Sens. Jay Rockerfeller (D – WV) and Olympia Snowe (R – ME):

The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 introduced in the Senate would allow the president to shut down private Internet networks. The legislation also calls for the government to have the authority to demand security data from private networks without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule or policy restricting such access.

According to the bill’s language, the president would have broad authority to designate various private networks as a “critical infrastructure system or network” and, with no other review, “may declare a cyber-security emergency and order the limitation or shutdown of Internet traffic to and from” the designated the private-sector system or network.

The 51-page bill does not define what private sector networks would be considered critical to the nation’s security, but the Center for Democracy and Technology fears it could include communications networks in addition to the more traditional security concerns over the financial and transportation networks and the electrical grid.

Maybe it’s not so bad. I mean, this could only be used in regards to our “critical security infrastructure” in a “state of emergency”, right? Yes, but (from Legal Insurrection):

The standards in the Act as to what constitutes an emergency, and what the President can do with the information, are unacceptably vague.

This is as bad as it looks. Once a president, whether it be Obama or a successor, wants to invoke these powers, a suitable emergency will be found. Any bets on what the first one will be? Obama is already using Chicago mob-like tactics to keep control over the banking system.

Actually, it’s worse. Not only does the bill grant the president dictatorial powers over the cyber-infrastructure of this nation, it weakens the security of that infrastructure:

The bill would also impose mandates for designated private networks and systems, including standardized security software, testing, licensing and certification of cyber-security professionals.

“Requiring firms to get government approval for new software would hamper innovation and would have a negative effect on security,” Nojeim said. “If everyone builds to the same standard and the bad guys know those standards it makes it easier for the bad guys.”

Nojeim went on to explain that in order for software testing services from Softage and other software development companies to be implemented successfully, the need for differentiation is fundamental.

Maybe they won’t have to create an emergency. If they make the entire critical infrastructure open to the same exploit, a real one will come along in due time.

Also, notice our old friends licensing and certification. These practices are inherently slow and stifle innovation. To get a government-issued cyber-security license, one would have to toe the government line on what good security practices are. Cyber-security, though, is an ever-changing field, with the good guys and the bad guys locked in an eternal game of cat and mouse. Threats evolve in hours and days, while licensing can take weeks and months.

What happens in this new world of licensed and regulated security professionals when a self-taught hacker or college kid is playing around with some software and finds and exploit? Will it still be taken seriously, or will it be ignored because the discoverer doesn’t have the necessary license?

Finally, and perhaps worst of all, this bill assumes that the government is never a security threat. The US Government has already shown itself to be a threat to the security of private individuals with its insatiable need to snoop. Anyone remember warrantless wiretaps? Telco immunity for snooping on behalf of Washington? The PATRIOT Act? Carnivore?

For those who think that those were all abuses of past administrations, and that we now have a better man in power, think again. Obama and crew are currently negotiating the highly abusive Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. ACTA, as it’s called, obligates the US Government to conduct searches for pirated music and movies with no warrants or probable cause and criminalize the infringement of copyright.

By crafting this agreement, the Obama Administration is granting to the Presidency the power to snoop on any citizens’ computer at any time simply to prevent people from copying music and movies. While this might seem almost farcical, it opens up the argument that if the “crime” of piracy of digital files requires such sweeping interventions, then so must more serious threats to national security.

It gets worse, though, because we have another slippery slope of government that will intersect this. At a point in the future, using the justification of cyber-security, the US Government will mandate that all citizens run government-approved security software. The Rockerfeller-Snowe Cyber-Security bill is the first step towards this, requiring approved security software on “critical infrastructure”. Soon enough, though, some congressman will realize that the attacks on our critical infrastructure are coming from virus-infected PCs and that the government must do something about this. Then, it will be a crime to run a machine that is not secured in a government-approved fashion.

At that point, the government will be securing itself while compromising the security of each of its citizens. The private lives of each person who installs the government-approved solution will be open to the inspection of looky-loos and busybodies in the bowels of the leviathan. Those who choose not to, or worse, choose to secure their systems against the government, will face reprisal and even arrest for endangering the cyber-security of the nation. Maybe the government should invest in technologies similar to opera vpn review but larger scales with many layers of encryption.

Cyber-criminals are smart, decentralized, innovative, and agile. There are multiple companies like the cyber security agency FraudWatch International who provide training to help raise awareness of cyber security. Our cyber-security must continually match or exceed this. Our cyber-security, as a nation, a society, and as individuals, is too important to entrust to the government.

Common Goals

I’m watching Barack Obama’s press conference, and he urged people to remember “their commitments to each other” and our “common goals” as a nation. Collectivist economic actions, by not focusing on individuals and their best interest, actually increase economic inefficiency and destroy wealth.

Instead of urging the people to change how they act and to support ever increasing government authority, Mr. Obama should focus on reestablishing the rule of law and stable money supply upon which our wealth creation engine depends. Every subsidy, every ad hoc regulation and program, and every run to the printing press do more to harm the economy than all the greed on Wall Street.

Many Americans are giving up luxuries to survive this economic crisis. The governing class, led by Mr. Obama, need to give up some luxuries too. They can no longer give themselves the luxury of using the Federal Budget as a social engineering tool. They can no longer give themselves the luxury of spending beyond tax revenue. They can no longer play Enron-like accounting games with the budget spending. Most importantly, they can no longer use laws and regulations as a tool for personal and political gain.

The population, which is the foundation of the economy, is weary of politicians acting as if they still have the luxury of legislating and spending for personal and political benefit in this time of crisis. For every restaurant dinner, necklace, vacation, suit, computer, TV, pair of shoes, or couch given up by an American consumer who has to stick by a budget, a politician should give up an earmark, a line item, or a pet program that does nothing to forward one of the US Government’s constitutional duties. Sadly, we will sacrifice luxuries while they take even more.

Logic Problems for the Single-Payer Cabal

Believe it or not, Jay Leno is not the biggest clown with that particular last name.  No, really, he’s not.  That dubious honor instead falls to my State Senator, Mark Leno.  Leno’s latest clown move is again introducing a single-payer health care measure that would impact all Californians:

The new version of the bill, SB 810, would provide medical, dental, vision, hospitalization and prescription drug benefits to every California resident and make state government the single payer of all benefit claims. Both employees and employers would be required to contribute to pay for the coverage.

So, in Leno’s California, every person would be dependent on a single agency to get health care. He sidesteps the issue by saying the following:

“It is not socialized medicine. Your doctor doesn’t change. Your hospital doesn’t change. Your clinic doesn’t change. The only thing that changes is who pays for the health care provision.”

That’s wonderful. It really is. I can choose my doctor, my hospital, my clinic, my medical marijuana club, and anything else. But to actually pay them and get anything in return, I have to crawl to a bureaucrat in Sacramento. That sure sounds like socialized medicine to me. However, I don’t just want to argue semantics about what is and isn’t socialized medicine. I want to take a look at how single-payer health care squares with some other sacred cows of the political left.

First, let’s take a trip back to the late 1990s. The fashionable thing among the left was to bitch about the big, evil corporation Microsoft and their monopolistic behavior with their operating system. I don’t dispute that monopolistic behavior is bad, but it must be remembered that this monopoly dealt with bits in a computer and was never complete. The fact that I’m typing this from Mac OS X is proof enough of that.

In comparison, the Leno bill comes off just a bit worse. Where the maligned Microsoft monopoly allowed other OS players in the space, the Leno bill creates a true, iron-clad monopoly. This brings up logic problem number 1: Why is a quasi-monopoly on computer software evil while a real monopoly on medical services is good?

Next, let’s come back to the present day and talk about the death penalty. Even after all the appeals and reexaminations of the evidence, innocent people still wind up on death row. The left, along with libertarians, argue that systems composed of human beings cannot justly hold the power of life and death in their hands.

However, the Leno bill would require that the State of California to hold the power of life and death in its hands in the form of authorizations and declinations of medical care. Here’s logic problem number 2: Why is it unjust for the courts to decide whether criminal defendants should die but just for a bureaucrat to decide whether an innocent person should die?

Finally, let’s visit a topic rarely touched on the pages of the Liberty Papers–abortion. The left argues that it is a woman’s right to choose what to do with her own body. There are legitimate questions about when a life begins, and that’s part of why the debate continues to rage.

The Leno bill places the choice about what happens to my body in the hands of a bureaucracy in Sacramento. This brings us to logic problem number 3: Why is choice for abortion sacrosanct while choice for all other procedures can be sacrificed for the common good?

How can the left support single-payer health care when it seems to go against their own principles? Discuss.

1 10 11 12 13 14 17