Voice For Liberty

Tag: Politics

  • Why attend a tax day tea party protest?

    This Wednesday, citizens across the country will attend tax day tea party protests across the country.

    Why should you attend a tax day tea party protest in your town? After all, it seems a little counter-intuitive. Isn’t the stimulus for our own good?

    Some have pointed out that President Obama has promised a tax cut for middle-class Americans. So in effect, we’re protesting against something that benefits us — at least the middle-class protesters. This only serves to illustrate the greed and selfishness of the left.

    Instead, tea party protesters are concerned about the future of our country for everyone — rich, poor, and middle-class. They see that the present path of bailouts and huge federal spending increases are not in the best interest of America.

    Tea party protesters recognize that in order to stimulate the economy, someone has to pay for the stimulus spending. Extracting that payment — be it through higher taxes now, or through higher taxes later to repay borrowed funds, or by cranking up the printing presses to create new money that destroys the value of savings — causes more harm than the stimulus spending creates good.

    They recognize that the stimulus spending creates new dependent constituencies that will be difficult to shed once the need for stimulus has passed — if indeed it ever does.

    They see lobbyists lining up to make sure their clients get something — even if that spending doesn’t produce stimulus for America.

    They recognize that increasing government takeover of industry means more power for politicians and less for consumers. Soon, we may all be driving cars designed by congressional committee.

    They recognize that a government takeover of health care means government will seek to control more of our personal behaviors. After all, they’re paying the bill.

    We’re on the verge of a tipping point. Once past it, once more and more Americans pay no income tax and become dependent on government, it will be difficult for freedom-loving Americans to reverse the course.

    That’s why it’s important to get our message out now.

    Join a tea party protest in your town.

  • What will you do after the tea party?

    Across the nation, people are planning tea party protests next Wednesday April 15. These protests are sure to attract many people and garner media coverage. At the Wichita tea party we expect hundreds to attend.

    That’s fine for that one day. But to create change in our country, there must be sustained activism. That’s hard to do. It requires a variety of things, one of which is knowing what to do.

    That’s where groups like American Majority can help. This group — national in scope with a strong and active presence in Kansas — provides training for candidates and activists. I’ve been to some of their training events, and they do a great job.

    American Majority has started a web site specifically for after-tea party outreach. At this site, you can sign up and indicate your areas of interest. This will get you involved with a group that can help build on the enthusiasm generated by events like the tea party protests.

    American Majority’s site is AfterTheTeaParty.com.

    Candidate recruitment and campaign training is vitally important. In Wichita, we just had a disastrous election for both city and school board offices. There were a few good candidates. But we need more good people who understand the blessings of liberty, free markets, and limited government to run for office. We need to learn how to run effective campaigns to support these people. These are a few of the very important things we need to do to bring about change.

    Don’t let the enthusiasm generated by the tea parties die out. Make sure you sign up for AfterTheTeaParty.com or another group. I’ll report on other worthwhile groups soon.

  • Wichita businessman Pompeo files for Congress

    “Wichita businessman and Republican leader Mike Pompeo has officially filed papers with the Federal Election Commission enabling him to begin raising funds for a campaign to represent the people of Kansas’ Fourth Congressional District.”

    The full news release is below.

    Pompeo will speak this Friday, April 10, at a meeting of the Wichita Pachyderm Club. The event is open to everyone, and it’s a great opportunity to meet candidates and ask them questions. More information about the Pachyderm event is at Pompeo to speak at Pachyderm.

    Pompeo files congressional campaign

  • Pompeo to speak at Pachyderm

    Candidate for the fourth district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives Mike Pompeo will speak to the Wichita Pachyderm Club this Friday.

    All are welcome to attend. Lunch is $10, or you may attend the meeting only for $3.

    At Pachyderm meetings, there’s usually plenty of time for the speaker to take questions from the audience.

    The meeting starts at noon, although those wishing to order lunch are encouraged to arrive by 11:45. The location is Whiskey Creek Steakhouse at 233 N. Mosely in Old Town. You can view a map by clicking on Google map of 233 N. Mosely.

  • Stimulus is theft

    In Theft In Name Of Stimulus Is Still Theft, economist Walter E. Williams makes a powerful argument for something that those who love liberty know: self-ownership is the foundation.

    “If we accept the idea of self-ownership, then certain acts are readily revealed as moral or immoral. Acts such as rape and murder are immoral because they violate one’s private property rights. Theft of the physical things that we own, such as cars, jewelry and money, also violates our ownership rights.”

    Why aren’t some people able to accept this?

    The reason why your college professor, politician or minister cannot give a simple yes or no answer to the question of whether one person should be used to serve the purposes of another is because they are sly enough to know that either answer would be troublesome for their agenda.

    A yes answer would put them firmly in the position of supporting some of mankind’s most horrible injustices such as slavery. After all, what is slavery but the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another?

    A no answer would put them on the spot as well because that would mean they would have to come out against taking the earnings of one American to give to another in the forms of farm and business handouts, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and thousands of similar programs that account for more than two-thirds of the federal budget. There is neither moral justification nor constitutional authority for what amounts to legalized theft.

    That’s it right there. It’s really very simple.

    I recently experienced how even some religious leaders don’t understand this when I wrote about Kansas Interfaith Power and Light. This organization has a plan, outlined in a Wichita Eagle op-ed written by Moti Rieber and Connie Pace-Adair, to provide programmable thermostats and weatherization rebates to people. How will these things be paid for?

    The op-ed doesn’t say so, but how can government give something to one person if it does not take something away from another?

    For making this argument, I was told by Rieber that my “philosophy is bankrupt, literally and figuratively.”

    (On Williams’ page at George Mason University, the article is titled Our Problem Is Immorality.)

  • Myths of Roosevelt and the New Deal presented in Wichita

    Yesterday Burton W. Folsom, professor of history at Hillsdale College spoke to a capacity crowd at a luncheon sponsored by Americans for Prosperity-Kansas and the Flint Hills Center for Public Policy.

    His topic was three myths of the New Deal, based on his recent book
    New Deal or Raw Deal? How FDR’s Economic Legacy Has Damaged America.

    The first myth is that the New Deal got us out of the Great Depression, or at least made good headway. Massive spending and a doubling of the public debt, however, didn’t do much to cure unemployment, as admitted by Roosevelt’s treasury secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr.

    Besides unemployment, other measures were bad. The arrest and murder rate was high throughout the 1930s. Life expectancy, which had increased rapidly in the decades before Roosevelt’s presidency, declined slightly during his first two terms.

    Why didn’t spending solve the problem and lift us out of the Great Depression? The money to support government spending has to come from somewhere. Even if the money is well spent — and there’s ample evidence it isn’t — it would have been spent in the private sector when it was in the hands of taxpayers. Government spending only shifts jobs from the private sector to the public sector.

    The second myth is that if the New Deal didn’t get us out of the Great Depression, it was at least a step in the right direction, a view commonly held today. A look at specific programs tells a different story.

    The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) paid farmers to leave some of their land vacant, thereby reducing their production. Prices for crops, then, should go up. Some farmers, however, took the money, and then planted on the land that was to remain vacant. So Roosevelt sent inspectors. Farmers bribed the inspectors, so Roosevelt had inspectors inspect the inspectors. Then aerial surveillance started.

    Then, in 1935 there were shortages of farm products. We imported 11 million bushels of wheat, 34 million bushels of corn, and 36 million pounds of cotton — at the same time we were paying farmers to not produce these products.

    The National Recovery Act (NRA), another of Roosevelt’s programs, lasted for 2.5 years before it was unanimously ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

    Folsom told how Massachusetts — back then a conservative state with a free-market orientation — took care of their own hungry people. But after seeing what other states (Illinois in particular) did to get federal funds, Massachusetts decided to take federal money.

    The third myth is that Roosevelt had good intentions. His actual goal was to put together a political coalition so he could remain in office. The WPA, in particular, served to reward loyal Democrats with jobs, and to do actual campaigning for Roosevelt. He was also the first to use the IRS as a weapon against his political opponents.

    Concluding, Folsom gave his recommendation for today: “We need to remember that massive spending did not work well back then. It carries with it a host of unintended consequences. Cutting taxes can often liberate people, produce more freedom, and turning the American economy loose with lower tax rates and more individual liberty would provide more of an opportunity to get us out of the current recession.”

  • AIG hysteria tramples liberty

    From Dave Trabert, president of the Flint Hills Center for Public Policy.

    The Founding Fathers, who took such deliberate care to preserve personal liberty in our Constitution, would be ashamed by the hysteria and pandering that have consumed Washington, D.C., over bonuses paid to employees of American International Group.

    There is no justification for rewarding people for failure, but the conduct of elected officials calling for legislative retribution is far more egregious.

    Members of both parties are tripping over one another in a rush to endorse legislation that would tax bonuses paid to employees of companies receiving bailout money at rates as high as 90 percent.

    Not that Congress should be giving away taxpayer money for handouts to failed companies, but it easily could have prevented this mess by putting some restrictions on the money.

    Taxpayers are justifiably angered by the lack of fiduciary responsibility, and Congress is predictably responding with diversionary tactics.

    House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, hit the nail on the head, saying, “This bill is nothing more than an attempt for everyone to cover their butt.”

    As unseemly as that is, it pales in comparison with the assault on the Constitution and our personal freedom. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, called the legislation “an ex post facto bill as well as a bill of attainder, which is unconstitutional, so they’re using the tax code to punish people.”

    “Ex post facto” is a legal term referring to an attempt to go back in time and apply new circumstances to something that already has occurred. A bill of attainder is a legislative act that singles out an individual or group for punishment. Both are prohibited by the Constitution.

    Some members of Congress may be acting like children, but this isn’t a game in which the rules can be changed to alter the outcome. It is of paramount importance that Congress act responsibly to preserve the principles of liberty and freedom. Today the issue is bonuses paid to AIG employees, but there are endless opportunities to use the tax code punitively.

    For example, House and Senate leaders are pursuing the elimination of secret balloting in order to make it easier for unions to form. Imagine if they decided to encourage the behavior they wanted by imposing special taxes on nonunion workers.

    Using the tax code to punish people who raise the ire of Congress is wrong under any circumstance.

    If Congress really wants to show leadership in going after those responsible for this latest abuse of taxpayer money, it should pass the hat at the next joint session.

    In the meanwhile, we must send a very strong message to Washington:

    Knock off the grandstanding, start acting like the leaders you promised to be, and keep your hands off our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms and liberties.

  • Southeast Kansas tea party planned

    Heres’ a message from Patricia Houser about tax day tea parties planned for southeast Kansas.

    Citizens of Southeast Kansas, join me in sending Washington a message against this outrageous, irresponsible and out of control Government Spending. Meet with your family, friends, and other fiscal conservatives from 4 to 6 pm on April 15th, at the Post Office in the largest city in your county, i.e.:

    Crawford — Pittsburg
    Cherokee — Columbus
    Labette — Parsons
    Wilson — Fredonia
    Montgomery — Coffeeville / Independence
    Allen — Iola
    Neosho — Chanute
    Coffey — Burlington
    Bourbon — Ft. Scott
    Woodson — Yates Center

    For More Information: sekteaparty@ymail.com.

  • Burton Folsom, writer on capitalism, to speak in Wichita

    Here’s a message from AFP-Kansas and the Flint Hills Center for Public Policy.

    Please join Americans for Prosperity-Kansas and the Flint Hills Center for Public Policy for a policy luncheon in Wichita next week, featuring noted author Burton Folsom

    Thursday, March 26, 12 p.m.
    Wichita Country Club, 8501 East 13th Street

    The luncheon costs $25 per person, or $185 per table of eight.

    Contact the Flint Hills Center at 316-634-0218, or by visiting www.flinthills.org, to make a reservation by Tuesday, March 24.

    Folsom has written several books, including most recently New Deal or Raw Deal? FDR’s Economic Legacy for America (Thresshold Editions, 2008), and The Myth of the Robber Barons: The Rise of Big Business in America. He is a senior fellow with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy as well as the Foundation for Economic Education.