On mistaking “democracy” for “liberty”

"Probably no other belief is now so much a threat to liberty in the United States and in much of the rest of the world as the one that democracy, by itself alone, guarantees liberty."

"…[T]he citizens of a democracy have in their hands the tools by which to enslave themselves."

"[The] illusion, that the democratic process is the same as liberty, is an ideal weapon for those few who may desire to destroy liberty and to replace it with some form of authoritarian society; innocent but ignorant persons are thereby made their dupes. Under the spell of this illusion, liberty is most likely lost and its loss not discovered until too late. Liberty can easily be taken from the individual citizen, piece by piece and always more and more, as more and more persons under the spell of the same illusion join the Pied Piper proceedings. Finally, all liberty is gone and can be recovered only by a bloody revolution."

"The right to vote… assures only the liberty to participate in the process. It does not assure that every-thing done by the process shall automatically be in the interests of liberty. A populace may commit both political and economic suicide under a democracy.
….
"There is no certainty whatever that liberty in a country with a democratic form of government is at a higher level than in a country having some other mechanism of government. There is no certainty that liberty will be maintained where the founders of a democracy may have hoped that it would be pre-served."

-- Harper, Dr. Floyd A. Liberty - A Path to Its Recovery. Irving-on-Hudson, NY: Foundation for Economic Education, The, 1949

Wary of the Health Care boondoggle

Here's my latest letter to the editor, sent to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Finance and Commerce, Minnesota Daily, USA Today, and The Washington Post:

Don't be fooled by the unrealistic gimmicks in the Senate heath care plan, such as a "Medicare Commission" or a "Failsafe Budgeting Mechanism." This is nothing more than the absurdity of some empty commitment to being fiscally responsible at some point in the future while spending billions or trillions of taxpayer dollars today.
 

The federal government has never been able to accurately predict health care spending. In 1967 the estimate for Medicare spending in 1990 was $12 billion. The ACTUAL spending in 1990 was $110 billion (off by a factor of 9 times). Similarly, Medicaids DSH (disproportionate share hospital) program had a $1 billion estimate in 1987 for spending in 1992 (just 5 years hence). The actual spending for DSH in 1992 was $17 billion (17 times more than estimated).

What makes us believe that this Congress -- already demonstrated to be profligate spenders -- can estimate any more accurately just because they're starting with $900 billion to $1.2 trillion as their estimates?

Stop them!

Now, it's your turn to write to them -- and to your Senators and Representatives.  Do it now!

Thanksgiving Story Resonates in Post-Crisis Age: Caroline Baum - Bloomberg.com

Thanksgiving Story Resonates in Post-Crisis Age: Caroline Baum - Bloomberg.com

Here's a story worth repeating as Thanksgiving Day approaches. The story of how the Pilgrim settlers discovered that free enterprise -- NOT socialism -- was the best means of assuring both peace and prosperity for their settlement.

Read it! Share It!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

And they are still wrong today!

"Motivated more by partisan politics than by national security, today's Democratic leaders see America as an occupier, not a liberator. And nothing makes this Marine madder than someone calling American troops occupiers rather than liberators.

"Tell that to the one-half of Europe that was freed because Franklin Roosevelt led an army of liberators, not occupiers.

"Tell that to the lower half of the Korean Peninsula that is free because Dwight Eisenhower commanded an army of liberators, not occupiers.

"Tell that to the half a billion men, women and children who are free today from the Baltics to the Crimea, from Poland to Siberia, because Ronald Reagan rebuilt a military of liberators, not occupiers.

"Never in the history of the world has any soldier sacrificed more for the freedom and liberty of total strangers than the American soldier. And, our soldiers don't just give freedom abroad, they preserve it for us here at home. For it has been said so truthfully that it is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the agitator, who has given us the freedom to protest. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, serves beneath the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag who gives that protester the freedom to abuse and burn that flag.

"No one should dare to even think about being the Commander in Chief of this country if he doesn't believe with all his heart that our soldiers are liberators abroad and defenders of freedom at home. But don't waste your breath telling that to the leaders of my party today. In their warped way of thinking America is the problem, not the solution. They don't believe there is any real danger in the world except that which America brings upon itself through our clumsy and misguided foreign policy.

"It is not their patriotism - it is their judgment that has been so sorely lacking.

"They claimed Carter's pacifism would lead to peace. They were wrong.

"They claimed Reagan's defense buildup would lead to war. They were wrong." -- Democrat Zell Miller (01 Sep 2004)

And they are still wrong today!

No Quick Fix

"[W]e must realize there is no quick fix. At the same time, however, we cannot delay in implementing an economic program aimed at both reducing tax rates to stimulate productivity and reducing the growth in government spending to reduce unemployment and inflation." -- Ronald Reagan (1981)

A Turning Point

"It's time to recognize that we've come to a turning point. We're threatened with an economic calamity of tremendous proportions, and the old business-as-usual treatment can't save us. Together, we must chart a different course.

"We must increase productivity. That means making it possible for industry to modernize and make use of the technology which we ourselves invented. That means putting Americans back to work. And that means above all bringing government spending back within government revenues, which is the only way, together with increased productivity, that we can reduce and, yes, eliminate inflation." -- Ronald Reagan (1981)

Work together... act responsibly... a little common sense

"[M]y fellow citizens, let us join in a new determination to rebuild the foundation of our society, to work together, to act responsibly. Let us do so with the most profound respect for that which we preserved as well as with sensitive understanding and compassion for those who must be protected.

"We can leave our children with an unrepayable massive debt and a shattered economy, or we can leave them liberty in a land where every individual has the opportunity to be whatever God intended us to be. All it takes is a little common sense and recognition of our own ability. Together we can forge a new beginning for America." -- Ronald Reagan (1981)

Judgment Day: We're out of time

"Over the years we've let negative economic forces [like government spending, government debt, inflation and taxes] run out of control. We stalled the judgment day, but we no longer have that luxury. We're out of time." -- Ronald Reagan

See post below to TAKE ACTION TODAY!

Thank you.

Take action against health care reform TODAY! It's easy!

Here's the letter I just sent to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, USA Today, the NY Times, and more...

The major labor unions have been working behind the scenes since the 1980s to get a "universal health care" provision through Congress.  Contrary to popular belief, this legislation is NOT about the common man, but about payback to the unions for the election of Democrats.

The goal of the unions has been nothing more than to a) place a "universal burden" on all businesses, including non-union shops; and/or b) to reduce the burden of health care on big union shops like the automakers and steel mills so that the unions have more money to go after for increased wages or other benefits.

Now is the time for U.S. citizens to tell Congress to stand up and do what is right by stopping this economically devastating legislation.  We -- the taxpayers -- simply cannot afford what Congress is doing TO us in the name of doing something FOR us.

Here's what we need to do : Follow the directions closely

1.  Follow this link (CLICK HERE!)

2.  Put in your Zip code. You will be redirected to a page where you enter all your address information.

3.  Check all the boxes for all of your local papers.

4.  NOW CAREFUL THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART! DO NOT CLICK NEXT. Instead Click " 2. Compose Letter " this is in the top middle of the page. This will allow you to compose your own letter to the editor against the healthcare bill.

5. Write your letter to the editor against the health-care bill.

6. Now click Next

7. Preview your letter to the editor and click "Send Email"

8. Pass this on to others and lets flood the papers with anti-health-care opinions.

DO IT NOW!

Stop the sharing of scarcity!

"Our aim is to increase our national wealth so all will have more, not just redistribute what we already have, which is just a sharing of scarcity. We can begin to reward hard-working and risk-taking, by forcing this Government to live within its means." -- Ronald Reagan (1981)

There should be only ONE special interest

"I urge those great institutions in America, business and labor, to be guided by the national interest.... The only special interest that we will serve is the interest of all the people." -- Ronald Reagan (1981)

We cannot continue any longer our wasteful ways... at the expense of our children

"We can, with compassion, continue to meet our responsibility to those who, through no fault of their own, need our help. We can meet fully the other legitimate responsibilities of government. We cannot continue any longer our wasteful ways at the expense of the workers of this land or of our children." -- Ronald Reagan (1981)

We cannot delay

"We must realize there is no quick fix. At the same time, however, we cannot delay in implementing an economic program aimed at both reducing taxes to stimulate productivity and reducing growth in government spending to reduce unemployment and inflation." -- Ronald Reagan (1981)

YouTube - Money, Banking and the Federal Reserve (HQ)

YouTube - Money, Banking and the Federal Reserve (HQ)

If you are interested in restoring, and then preserving, a sound economy in the United States, you need to watch this -- and learn from it.

Thank you.

Together, we must chart a different course

"[G]overnment policies... [are] responsible for our economic troubles. We forgot or just overlooked the fact that government -- any government -- has a built-in tendency to grow. Now, we all had a hand in looking to government for benefits as if government had some source of revenue other than our earnings. Many, if not most, of the things we thought of or that government offered to us seemed attractive.

....

"It's time to recognize that we've come to a turning point. We're threatened with an economic calamity of tremendous proportions, and the old business-as-usual treatment can't save us. Together, we must chart a different course." -- Ronald Reagan (1981)

Over-regulated and over-taxed

"Regulations adopted by government with the best of intentions have added $666 [in 1980, that is $1,745.57 in 2009 dollars] to the cost of an automobile. It is estimated that altogether regulations of every kind, on shopkeepers, farmers, and major industries, add $100 billion [in 1980, that is $262.1 billion in 2009 dollars] or more the cost of goods and services we buy. And then another $20 billion [in 1980, or $52.4 billion in 2009 dollars] is [taxed away from you and me and] spent by government handling the paperwork created by those regulations." -- Ronald Reagan (1981)

Introducing an Athlete of the Rarest Kind

Introducing an Athlete of the Rarest Kind

Here is a story that needs to seen, told, and re-told as a real and practical example of the kind of men to which our youth should look as a model of real manhood.

...

This strategy depends on the will of the people to regain control of their government

"[W]hat I am proposing is a strategy which encompasses many elements -- none of which can do the job alone, but all of which together can get it done. This strategy [depends] on the will of the people to regain control of their government.

"[T]he economy concerns more than mere statistics -- it concerns people, families, human hopes, and human suffering." -- Ronald Reagan (1980)

Why this long series with Ronald Reagan?

Simply because I cannot say it better, and because so much of what he said still has powerful relevance today.

Out of control

Can those who man the ship of state in these United States deny that it is out of control? Can the Obama administration deny this? Can Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid? Can even any one of our Republican Senators or Congressmen deny that the U.S. government is out of control?

Our national debt is approaching $12 trillion -- that would be a stack of $1,000-bills more than 800 miles high! The budget deficit this year alone is more than $1.3 trillion.

The total of each U.S. citizen's share of the national debt is $38,926 -- for every man, woman and child, while the Gross Domestic Product per citizen barely exceeds that amount ($39,591).

The INTEREST alone on our national debt in fiscal year 2009 was more than $383 billion.

Adding to our troubles is a mass of government regulations imposed on businesses by huge bureaucracies that add more than $250 billion to the price of things we all buy and reduces our ability to produce them.

The government -- at every level -- has become a huge funnel taking money (by force and coercion through taxes) from "producers" (i.e., working people and firms) and giving that money to (mostly) "non-producers." Non-producers are those who contribute nothing to the U.S. economy, adding nothing to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Examples would be politicians, bureaucrats, and most entitlement program recipients.

Not to dream as we once dreamed

"[Some] say we must cut our expectations, conserve and withdraw, that we must tell our children… not to dream as we once dreamed." -- Ronald Reagan (1980)

Many of us are unhappy...

"Many of us are unhappy about our worsening economic problems, about the constant crisis atmosphere…, about our diminishing prestige…, about the weakness in our economy…, about our lack of strong, straightforward leadership. And many Americans today, just as they did 200 years ago, feel burdened, stifled and sometimes even oppressed by government that has grown too large, too bureaucratic, too wasteful, too unresponsive, too uncaring about people and their problems.

"Americans, who have always known that excessive bureaucracy is the enemy of excellence and compassion, want a change in public life - a change that makes government work for people. They seek a vision of a better America, a vision of society that frees the energies and ingenuity of our people while it extends compassion to the lonely, the desperate, and the forgotten.

"I believe we can embark on a new age of reform in this country and an era of national renewal - an era that will reorder the relationship between citizen and government, that will make government again responsive to the people, that will revitalize the values of family, work, and neighborhood and that will restore our private and independent social institutions. These institutions always have served as both a buffer and bridge between the individual and the state - and these institutions, not government, are the real sources of our economic and social progress as a people.

"That's why I've said… that we must control and limit the growth of federal spending, that we must reduce tax rates to stimulate work and savings and investment. That's why I've said we can relieve labor and business of burdensome, unnecessary regulations and still maintain high standards of environmental and occupational safety. That's why I've said we can reduce the cost of government by eliminating billions lost to waste and fraud in the federal bureaucracy…. And, because we are a Federation of sovereign states, we can restore the health and vitality of state and local governments by returning to them control over programs best run at those levels of government closer to the people. We can fight corruption while we work to bring into our government women and men of competence and integrity." -- Ronald Reagan (1980)

Elections will determine what kind of country we'll have

"[Elections are] going to determine what kind of country… millions of… American children are going to grow up in. Will it be a country in which everything keeps on going up in price, and jobs are harder to find and keep? Or will it be a country where, because of our efforts… savings will mean something, prices will be stable, and there will be jobs for people who want to work?" -- Ronald Reagan (1980)

An energy policy for economic growth

"[W]e must adopt an energy policy which will enhance our economic growth. We must implement a balanced energy program that will encourage prudent energy conservation, along with increased domestic energy production." -- Ronald Reagan (1980)

A personal note: My new grandson

Here's a link to some photos of my newest grandson, Nathan Timothy Corley, born at 10:16 PM (Central Time) on 05 November 2009.

Thanks.

Sound, stable, and predictable monetary policy

"[A] sound, stable, and predictable monetary policy is essential to restoring economic health." -- Ronald Reagan (1980)

A Real Plan for a Real Future...

"My plan… is rooted in a strategy for economic growth, a program that sees the American economic system as it is - a huge, complex, dynamic system - that can work if the American people get a chance to work….

"At the heart of [my] strategy for economic growth are eight major steps:

1. We must keep the rate of growth of government spending at reasonable and prudent levels.
   
2. We must reduce personal income tax rates and accelerate and simplify depreciation schedules for business in an orderly, systematic way to provide incentives to work, savings, investment, and productivity.
   
3. We must review regulations that effect the economy, and change or eliminate them to encourage economic growth.
   
4. We must establish a stable, sound, and predictable monetary policy.
   
5. We must promote the export of American products abroad.
   
6. We must revitalize American industry.
   
7. We must adopt an energy policy that will allow our economy to grow, and our standard of living to rise.
   
8. And we must restore confidence by following a consistent national economic policy that does not change from month to month." -- Ronald Reagan (1980)

American economic progress... silenced

"[T]he mighty music of American economic progress has been all but silenced by [what has gone on in Washington]. [Elections] will determine whether the nation and the world will ever hear that great sound; will determine if the dinner table of your home and the supermarkets of your neighborhood will ever again be places where plans can be made and necessities purchased without the gnawing doubt and, yes, fear, brought by… inflation and unemployment." -- Ronald Reagan (1980)

To see the American spirit unleashed once again...

"I would like to see this country become once again a country where a little six-year-old girl can grow up knowing the same freedom that I knew when I was six years old, growing up in America. If this is the America you want for yourself and your children; if you want to restore government not only of and for, but by the people; to see the American spirit unleashed once again; to make this land a shining, golden hope [as] God intended it to be...." -- Ronald Reagan (1976)

We created government as our servant, not our master

"[In America], we gave birth to an entirely new concept in man's relation to man. We created government as our servant, beholden to us and possessing no powers except those voluntarily granted to it by us. Now a self-anointed elite in our nation's capital would have us believe we are incapable of guiding our own destiny. They practice government by mystery, telling us it's too complex for our understanding. Believing this, they assume we might panic if we were to be told the truth about our problems.

"Why should we become frightened? No people who have ever lived on this earth have fought harder, paid a higher price for freedom, or done more to advance the dignity of man than the living Americans - the Americans living in this land today. There isn't any problem we can't solve if government will give us the facts. Tell us what needs to be done. The get out the way and let us have at it." -- Ronald Reagan (1976)

Quality has declined as federal intervention has increased

"Schools - in America we created at the local level and administered at the local level for many years the greatest public school system in the world. Now through something called federal aid to education, we have something called federal interference, and education has been the loser. Quality has declined as federal intervention has increased." -- Ronald Reagan (1976)