This is Cole’s Axiom at work.
Browsing Posts published by jack
“[The] power to tax involves the power to destroy….” -Chief Justice John Marshall, McCulloch v. Maryland, 1819
In it’s taxing power, the FERAL government has taken to destroying individuals and organizations with which the Administration disagrees. This is not limited to the 0bama Administration. We know that the Nixon administration did it; we know that the Clinton administration did it; and probably every other administration since Nixon has too.
Without the income tax and thus the creation of tax-exempt organizations, no-one would care if pastors were campaigning from the pulpit. No-one would care if this TEA Party group campaigned for a candidate or not. No-one would care if the Sierra Club or Planned Parenthood gave money to candidates (except that Planned Parenthood gets money from the government).
It is not the government’s business what organizations I donate to, and the government should not be de facto supporting organizations though tax deductions. It is not the government’s business how many children we have, how old they are, or where they go to college. It is not the government’s business how much we make or how much we have saved.
It is past time to repeal the Sixteenth Amendment.
The 0bama Administration is bragging about the April Jobs Report (pdf):
Today’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that private sector businesses added 176,000 jobs last month. Total non-farm payroll employment rose by 165,000 jobs in April. The February and March employment estimates were revised up by a total of 114,000 jobs. The economy has now added private sector jobs every month for 38 straight months, and a total of 6.8 million jobs has been added over that period. Over 800,000 private sector jobs have been added over the last four months.
The household survey showed that the unemployment rate edged down from 7.6 percent in March to 7.5 percent in April, the lowest rate since December 2008. The labor force participation rate was unchanged at 63.3 percent in April.
Isn’t that special. Let’s look more closely and that report (html), shall we?
While the Establishment Survey says that, seasonally adjusted, there were 165,000 new jobs in April, the Household Survey puts that at 293,000. (Such discrepancies are common, so don’t get worked up about it.) Looking deeper into the Household survey, we see that there were 441,000 more people working part-time. That is a LOSS of 148,000 full-time jobs last month.
The Establishment Survey confirms this assessment: While the total number of nonfarm jobs went from 135,309k to 135,474k (Table B1), the average hours worked each week dropped from 34.6 to 34.4. So, total hours worked per week (nonfarm) dropped from 4.68B to 4.66B — over twenty million hours less work in April than in March.
We didn’t create jobs, we just divided up some of the existing ones.
George Will has an article in the Japan Times in which he touts the oft-heard theory that “Demography is Destiny,” and the Republican Party is too slow to recognize this. Of course, he does not offer any solutions — it is far easier to criticize than to actually provide constructive criticism. (Feel free to go read the article yourself — I found nothing worth quoting in it.)
I want to address two issues here. The first is to question what exactly is meant by “Demography is Destiny,” and the second is to offer constructive criticism.
First, when one says “Demography is Destiny,” is the implication that the increasing Hispanic population will drive the United States to be another banana republic? While that is certainly a possibility, it is not necessarily destined to be. My experience has been that the more removed one is from the ancestors who immigrated here, the less likely one is hold the same political views. The become American, not Hispanics, and not hyphenated Americans. Those “Demography is Destiny” people seem to think that Hispanics — who came here for jobs and opportunities — are incapable of comprehending the fact that it is the socialist systems of the countries they left that killed the jobs and opportunities there, that they are incapable of seeing how the socialist systems in Europe are killing jobs and opportunities there now.
Unlike the statists, who encourage people to be stupid and treat people as though they are stupid, I think that Hispanics (and Blacks) are capable of understanding economics.
And now we come to the constructive criticism. We need to educate people about basic economics. Certainly, there are those who will refuse to see, because they are blinded by the idea of having power over others; but the statist model is The Evil Leading The Ignorant. That is why they must maintain control of the public schools and the media. If the people are educated, they will not elect the statists.
This is the outreach that we conservatives need to do. This will not be easy. We are opposed by the public school system, and we are opposed by the mainstream media. They will lie and misrepresent to keep their power. We cannot simply go through this little exercise every four years through the campaign offices. We, as individuals, must engage the mislead citizens in conversation — one-on-one, mano-a-mano.
Most Blacks and Hispanics are culturally conservative. They are pro-family, pro-marriage, and pro-life. When we put up these moderate candidates who say they are pro-family, pro-marriage, and pro-life, but their public records show otherwise, Blacks and Hispanics have no reason to vote for them. When we run moderate candidates for president, we lose. When we run conservatives, we win.
Now, we have to address immigration. The best start is to address the problem of legal immigration. It is an extremely complicated process, and people often wait many years before they are allowed to immigrate here. So our laws keep out those who respect our laws, and ignore those who do not. That is insane. So, forget “comprehensive immigration reform.” First, simplify and shorten the process for immigrating here legally, and expand the quotas. That will encourage more people to go through the proper channels. Second, strengthen and enforce the laws against hiring unlawful aliens. Require that employers use E-Verify to verify employment eligibility.
Conservatism can win Hispanics and Blacks to the Republican Party. The goal of the statist is to keep the Blacks and Hispanics poor and dependent on the government. If those truths are conveyed to Black and Hispanics, it will end the Democrat Party.
There is an elderly widow of my acquaintance who is quite well off — she owns three houses (plus a vacant waterfront lot in one of the richest neighborhood of her Tidewater city), has a guaranteed-for-life pension courtesy of the US taxpayers, Social Security on top of that, Medicare and TriCare, and over the last two years has inherited several hundred thousand dollars. This woman believes that it is “immoral” that we do not have universal, single-payer health coverage a la Canada. When asked whether the government should legislate morality, she hesitated (sensing the trap but seeing no way out) and said, “No, but we should be moral. We should take care of our own.” (Of course, she does not attend church.)
Now, there is a poor, uninsured, middle-aged friend of hers who needs a heart valve operation. She, of course, is not willing to pay for it.
This is the “morality” of the left — generosity with everyone else’s money, but not willing to help her own friends in need.
In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, we see a good example of the reason we have a United States government:
[To] provide for the… and general Welfare of the… States
Yes, I intentionally cut the word United from United States. It is, after all, just an adjective. By removing that adjective, I wish to direct your attention to the States as individual entities, not the United States as a single entity. As Benjamin Zimmerman of the University of Pennsylvania pointed out, the United States was originally considered a plural noun, not a singular noun.
The primary Power given to Congress was to Defend the States, and to provide for their General Welfare. That is where FEMA comes in. FEMA is an example of what our national government should be. It is simple not economical for each individual State to prepare for all possible contingencies — floods, earthquakes, blizzards, etc. Furthermore, the preparations of an individual State are likely to be rendered inoperative by the very emergency they are designed to alleviate. If a FEMA center is destroyed, operations can be directed from a center outside the afflicted area.
This is not “big government,” this is right government. Our national government is a creation of the States, and was intended for the Welfare of the States. If you want your government to provide for your personal welfare, then look to your State and local governments, not to the national government.
In the VP debate and on the campaign trail, Joe Biden has been going on about Romney’s “47%” comment which, as we have seen lately, is completely in accurate since 0bama’s poll numbers have actually dropped below 47%. But I digress.
Uncle Joe remarks that, “These people are my mom and dad…, they are elderly people who in fact are living off of Social Security….”
Interesting. The whole reason we have Social Security is because liberals do not believe that you will take personal responsibility for your retirement, nor that you will take personal responsibility for your parents if they cannot do for themselves in retirement.
