Please Help Spread The Message of Liberty

A Reminder from Ronald Reagan

“The world is split today into two hostile camps, fighting each other with the utmost vehemence, Communists and anti-Communists. The magniloquent rhetoric to which these factions resort in their feud obscures the fact that they both perfectly agree in the ultimate end of their programme for mankind’s social and economic organization. They both aim at the abolition of private enterprise and private ownership of the means of production and at the establishment of socialism. They want to substitute totalitarian government control for the market economy. No longer should individuals by their buying or abstention from buying determine what is to be produced and in what quantity and quality. Henceforth the government’s unique plan alone should settle all these matters. ‘Paternal’ care of the ‘Welfare State’ will reduce all people to the status of bonded workers bound to comply, without asking questions, with the orders issued by the planning authority. …”

“…Neither is there any substantial difference between the intentions of the self-styled ‘progressives’ and those of the Italian Fascists and the German Nazis. The Fascists and the Nazis were no less eager to establish all-round regimentation of all economic activities than those governments and parties which flamboyantly advertise their anti-Fascist tenets. And Mr. Peron in Argentina tries to enforce a scheme which is a replica of the New Deal and the Fair Deal and like these will, if not stopped in time, result in full socialism. …”

“…The great ideological conflict of our age must not be confused with the mutual rivalries among the various totalitarian movements. The real issue is not who should run the totalitarian apparatus. The real problem is whether or not socialism should supplant the market economy.  …”

~Ludwig Von Mises

Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis

http://www.econlib.org/library/Mises/msS0.html#Preface

Milton Freidman – Socialism vs. Capitalism

Ronald Reagan on Capitalism and Socialism

Glenn Beck- 3/3/09 The One Thing

Glenn Beck- Ben Stein Interview

Obama Says His Cap and Trade System Results in Skyrocketing Electricity Rates

Shock VIDEO Unearthed Obama says he will bankrupt coal industry

Obama Admits His Plan Will Cause Electricity Rates to Skyrocket

Stop

Radical Socialism’s

Massive Government Intervention, Spending, Taxes, Deficits, Debt and Regulations

Protect Your

Life, Liberty, Happiness, Family, Job, Property, Retirement and Free Enterprise Capitalism

Join The

Second American Revolution

Second American Revolution–Tea Party Celebrations–Washington Fair–July 4, 2009–An Open Invitation To The American People

American People’s Plan = 6 Month Tax Holiday + FairTax = Real Hope + Real Change!–Millions To March On Washington D.C. Saturday, July 4, 2009!

Tea Parties Take Off In Texas–Spreading Nationwide–Are You Going To Washington Fair? Millions Celebrate The Second American Revolution–Saturday, July 4, 2009

Operation Family Freedom (OFF): Millions Celebrate Washington Fair, Saturday, July 4, 2009–The Second American Revolution

The conservative moment which has always been a fusion of traditional conservatives, fiscal conservatives and classical liberals or libertarians responds to President Obama’s Radical Socialist assault on free enterprise capitalism both on the streets at Tea Parties across the nation and at the Conservative Politcal Action Conference 2009:

The “Silent ” Majority Addresses The Nation

Congressman Pence Address CPAC 2009 Part 1

Congressman Pence Address CPAC 2009 Part 2

Congressman Pence Addresses CPAC 2009 Part 3

Ron Paul at CPAC 2009. Part 1 of 3

Ron Paul at CPAC 2009. Part 2 of 3

Ron Paul at CPAC 2009. Part 3 of 3

Ann Coulter at CPAC 2009 (Part 1)

Ann Coulter at CPAC 2009 (Part 2)

Ann Coulter at CPAC 2009 (Part 3)

Newt Gingrich Speech at 2009 CPAC

Rush Limbaugh Gives Speech To CPAC (part 1)

Rush Limbaugh Gives Speech To CPAC (part 2)

Rush Limbaugh Gives Speech To CPAC (part 3)

Rush Limbaugh Gives Speech To CPAC (part 4)

Rush Limbaugh Gives Speech To CPAC (part 5)

Rush Limbaugh Gives Speech To CPAC (part 6)

Rush Limbaugh Gives Speech To CPAC (part 7)

Rush Limbaugh Gives Speech To CPAC (part

Rush Limbaugh Gives Speech To CPAC (part9)

Rush Limbaugh Gives Speech To CPAC (part 10)

Background Articles and Videos

Obama’s Spending Spree – Dangerous Days ! | The O’Reilly Factor | Fox News Channel

Newt Gingrich On Obama Budget

Another Look – Obama’s Budget – Bloomberg

I.O.U.S.A.: Byte-Sized – The 30 Minute Version

For Tax Year 2006

Percentiles Ranked by AGI	AGI Threshold on Percentiles	Percentage of Federal Personal Income Tax Paid
Top 1%	$388,806	39.89
Top 5%	$153,542	60.14
Top 10%	$108,904	70.79
Top 25%	$64,702	86.27
Top 50%	$31,987	97.01
Bottom 50%	<$31,987	2.99
Note: AGI is Adjusted Gross Income Source: Internal Revenue Service

http://www.ntu.org/main/page.php?PageID=6

The 2003 tax cut was the second in three years, and although tax rates are lower, the federal income tax still remains highly progressive. The average tax rate in 2006 ranges from 3.0 percent of income for the bottom half of tax returns to 22.8 percent for the top 1 percent.Table 1
Summary of Federal Individual Income Tax Data, 2006
(Updated July 2008)

	Number of Returns with Positive AGI	AGI ($ millions)	Income Taxes Paid ($ millions)	Group’s Share of Total AGI	Group’s Share of Income Taxes	Income Split Point	Average Tax Rate
All Taxpayers	135,719,160	$8,122,040	$1,023,739	100%	100%	-	12.60%
Top 1%	1,357,192	$1,791,886	$408,369	22.06%	39.89%	> $388,806	22.79%
Top 2-5%	5,428,766	$1,185,828	$207,311	14.60%	20.25%		17.48%
Top 5%	6,785,958	$2,977,714	$615,680	36.66%	60.14%	> $153,542	20.68%
Top 6-10%	6,785,958	$865,430	$109,060	10.66%	10.65%		12.60%
Top 10%	13,571,916	$3,843,144	$724,740	47.32%	70.79%	> $108,904	18.86%
Top 11-25%	20,357,874	$1,692,686	$158,413	20.84%	15.47%		9.36%
Top 25%	33,929,790	$5,535,830	$883,153	68.16%	86.27%	> $64,702	15.95%
Top 26-50%	33,929,790	$1,569,769	$110,023	19.33%	10.75%		7.01%
Top 50%	67,859,580	$7,105,599	$993,176	87.49%	97.01%	> $31,987	13.98%
Bottom 50%	67,859,580	$1,016,441	$30,563	12.51%	2.99%	< $31,987	3.01%

Source: Internal Revenue Service, http://www.irs.gov/taxstats/indtaxstats/article/0,,id=133521,00.html (“Individual Income Tax Returns with Positive Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) Returns Classified by Tax Percentile – Early Release”)

http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.htm

Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973)

by Murray N. Rothbard

“Economics deals with society’s fundamental problems; it concerns everyone and belongs to all. It is the main and proper study of every citizen.”

Ludwig von Mises, Human Action

“…Mises, and his follower Hayek, developed this cycle theory during the 1920s, on the basis of which Mises was able to warn an unheeding world that the widely trumpeted “New Era” of permanent prosperity of the 192Os was a sham, and that its inevitable result would be bank panic and depression. When Hayek was invited to teach at the London School of Economics in 1931 by an influential former student at Mises’s private seminar, Lionel Robbins, Hayek was able to convert most of the younger English economists to this perspective. On a collision course with John Maynard Keynes and his disciples at Cambridge, Hayek demolished Keynes’s Treatise on Money, but lost the battle and most of his followers to the tidal wave of the Keynesian Revolution that swept the economic world after the publication of Keynes’s General Theory in 1936.

The policy prescriptions for business cycles of Mises-Hayek and of Keynes were diametrically opposed. During a boom period, Mises counseled the immediate end of all bank credit and monetary expansion; and, during a recession, he advised strict laissez-faire, allowing the readjustment forces of the recession to work themselves out as rapidly as possible.

Not only that: for Mises the worst form of intervention would be to prop up prices or wage rates, causing unemployment, to increase the money supply, or to boost government spending in order to stimulate consumption. For Mises, the recession was a problem of under-saving, and over-consumption, and it was therefore important to encourage savings and thrift rather than the opposite, to cut government spending rather than increase it. It is clear that, from 1936 on Mises was totally in opposition to the worldwide fashion in macroeconomic policy.

Socialism-communism had triumphed in Russia and in much of Europe during and after World War I, and Mises was moved to publish his famous article, “Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth,” (1920) in which he demonstrated that it would be impossible for a socialist planning board to plan a modern economic system; furthermore, no attempt at artificial “markets” would work, since a genuine pricing and costing system requires an exchange of property titles, and therefore private property in the means of production.

Mises developed the article into his book Socialism(1922), a comprehensive philosophical and sociological, as well as economic critique which still stands as the most thorough and devastating demolition of socialism ever written. Mises’s Socialism converted many prominent economists and social philosophers out of socialism, including Hayek, the German Wilhelm Ropke, and the Englishman Lionel Robbins. …”

http://mises.org/about/3248

An Inconvenient Tax

Cap and trade yields ‘climate revenues.’ But don’t call it a t–.

“…That didn’t take long. The same week that President Obama promised (again) that “95% of working families” would not see their taxes rise by “a single dime,” his own budget reveals that taxes will rise for 100% of everyone for the sake of global warming. Ahem.

You don’t even have to burrow into yesterday’s budget fine print to discover the “climate revenues” section, where the White House discloses that it expects $78.7 billion in new tax revenue in 2012 from its cap-and-trade program. The pot of cash grows to $237 billion through 2014, and at least $646 billion through 2019. If this isn’t tax revenue, what is it? Manna from heaven? The offset from Al Gore’s carbon footprint?

If it brings in revenue that the government then spends, it’s a tax, and politicians should start referring to it as such. The Administration in fact projects that these “climate revenues” will become the sixth largest source of federal receipts by 2019, outpaced only by individual and corporate income taxes, payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare and (barely) excise taxes. We’re supposed to be living in a new era of fiscal honesty, so let’s start with cap and trade.

Of course it’s easy to see why Democrats don’t want the public to think of cap and trade as a tax. Tax increases aren’t popular, as Mr. Gore learned when he and Bill Clinton tried to impose a BTU tax in 1993. The complex cap-and-trade tax would ripple throughout the energy chain and ultimately the entire economy. All consumers, not just “the rich,” would pay more for goods and services that use carbon energy — though some would pay more than others. A majority of those “95% of working families” probably lives in the middle of the country that relies far more on manufacturing and coal-fired power than do the better-off coastal regions. …”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123569802712289113.html

Obama administration could fast track cap-and-trade, RPS in ‘09

January 21, 2009 – Exclusive By Emma Ritch, Cleantech Group

Consultancy Global Change Associates says policies are likely to come prior to U.N. meeting in Copenhagen in December.

“…Peter Fusaro, chairman of Global Change Associates, said leaders are under pressure to fast track emissions-reductions legislation in time for the U.N. conference on climate change in Copenhagen in December, which would prepare the U.S. to join a global strategy when the Kyoto Treaty expires in 2012.

Likely proposals include a 15-percent reduction in emissions from 2005 levels by 2012 and 80 percent by 2050, Fusaro said in a post-election briefing on carbon markets today.

“That will incent industry to invest in cleaner technology since they would have regulatory certainty and long term time horizon,” he told the Cleantech Group.

A U.S. cap-and-trade policy would be in line with the 184 countries participating in the Kyoto Protocol, whereas a carbon tax wouldn’t, Fusaro said. Such a cap-and-trade system would operate as a de facto tax because costs would be added to consumers’ airline tickets, electricity bills and vehicle purchases, he said. …”

“…Carbon trading markets today don’t provide the financial incentive for companies to reduce emissions, with a ton of carbon dioxide emissions selling for between $3 and $15 on various exchanges.

Fusaro said the price has stayed low because there are too many sellers and not enough buyers of emissions thanks to nonexistent caps from the U.S. or too-high allowances from governments such as the European Union. Additionally, the EU mandates don’t cover enough sectors of the economy, such as transportation, Fusaro told the Cleantech Group.

“Greenhouse gas reductions don’t have an intrinsic value. It’s rather a value driven by legislation and the anticipation of legislation,” he said.

Voluntary cap-and-trade markets are giving companies a head start on the learning curve for emissions reductions. The U.S. makes up about 40 percent of the voluntary markets, which are increasingly being used as an alternative to the sometimes-onerous process to get credits through the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) program, Fusaro said.

The forced entry of U.S. companies in a cap-and-trade scheme could create a $1 trillion market thanks to the the country’s 6 billion tons of emissions each year, Fusaro said. Realistically, the program will likely cover 80 percent of the country’s carbon footprint and establish a price cap of $20 a ton, generating enough money for the federal government to spent $15 billion on clean energy, he said.  …”

http://cleantech.com/news/4081/obama-administration-could-fast-track-cap-and-trade-rps-09

Santelli On Kudlow Show 6

Tea Party photo album: Fiscal responsibility is the new counterculture

By Michelle Malkin

“…I’ve got tons of photos and e-mails pouring in from Tea Party people across the country. I joked to a Christian Science Monitor reporter covering the events that fiscal responsibility is the new counterculture. More coverage/photos/livestreaming at TCOT Report.

There is, as the old ’60s song goes, something happening here. And what it is, is very clear: A grass-roots revolt against the culture of entitlement. The spendzillas in Washington do not speak for us.  …”

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/02/27/fiscal-responsibility-is-the-new-counterculture/

Tea Party on: Taxpayer revolts in Green Bay, Lafayette, Olathe, and Harrisburg; Plus: Live from Fullerton CA… “Recall the Taxinator!;” Arnie videotapes/DVDs smashes/shredded

By Michelle Malkin

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/03/07/tea-party-on-taxpayer-revolts-in-green-bay-lafayette-olathe-and-harrisburg/

“Liberty: All the stimulus we need”

By Michelle Malkin

I leave you with the parting photo of the day from the DC Tea Party. It is the leitmotif that ran through the protests across the country. Can’t say it any better than this:

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/02/27/liberty-all-the-stimulus-we-need/

The Tea Party bashers: Clueless, bitter, and wrapped in tinfoil

By Michelle Malkin

You know you’re on to something when the tinfoil hat conspiracists start lobbing grenades at you.

In response to the nationwide outbreak of taxpayer protests against the culture of entitlement, a loon at Playboy.com claimed that the Tea Party events this weekend were part of a grand cabal funded by something called the Koch Foundation in cahoots with CNBC’s Rick Santelli: …”

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/03/02/the-tea-party-bashers-clueless-bitter-and-wrapped-in-tinfoil/

The Obama Revolution

Paid for by the people.

“…The first point to understand is the sheer magnitude of federal spending built into this proposal. As the nearby chart shows, federal outlays will soar in fiscal 2009 to $4 trillion, or 27.7% of GDP, from $3 trillion or 21% of GDP in 2008, and 20% in 2007. This is higher as a share of the economy than any year since 1945, when the country was still mobilized for World War II. It is more spending by far than during the Vietnam War, or during the recessions of 1974-75 or 1981-82. …”

“…The falling deficit also assumes the largest tax increase in U.S. history, starting in 2011 with the repeal of the Bush tax rates on incomes higher than $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples. The White House says this will yield upwards of $1 trillion, if you choose to believe that tax rates don’t affect taxpayer behavior.

In the real world, two of every three tax filers who fall into this income category are small business owners or investors, who are certainly capable of finding ways to invest that allow them to declare less taxable income. The real impact of this looming tax increase will be to cast further uncertainty over economic decisions and either slow or postpone the recovery. Ditto for the estimated $646 billion from a new cap-and-trade tax, which no one wants to call a tax but would give the political class vast new leverage over the private economy. (See here.)

Then there is Mr. Obama’s plan for national health care. The White House has put a $634 billion place holder in the budget to pay for covering tens of millions of uninsured Americans with government subsidized coverage. But even advocates of this government plan say the cost will be closer to $1 trillion over 10 years, and probably much more. Meanwhile, the President is promising to reform entitlements, but his budget proposes a net increase of about $1 trillion in Medicare, Medicaid and other entitlements. …”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123569611695588763.html

The Obama Steamroller: Is Resistance Futile?

By Richard Baehr

“…Americans may grow weary of all the new programs, spending and elevated deficits. And most Americans do not hate the wealthy, even with all the populist bashing of bankers and corporate executives now going on. Obama’s team has no problem per se with wealthy folks of course — they like and depend on Hollywood liberals, K street lobbyists, trial lawyers, and union executives.  Obama’s team will counter  any criticism of its burgeoning deficit by saying:  “We inherited the problem, we inherited the problem”.

Over time, the refrain may wear thin, but no one should assume this is or will be a fair fight in terms of the power of the messaging, and the messengers.  By 2012, the GDP will likely be growing again, and Obama will take credit for the magnificent turnaround.  Obama will be a strong favorite for re-election, given his personal likeability and a campaign war chest that will almost certainly be bigger than the $800 million he spent in 2008.

America may also not be recognizable by then, and even less so by 2016, with a greatly expanded public sector share of the economy — maybe 30% on the federal level and close to 50% with states and localities added in. The federal bureaucracy will have been inoculated into every facet of the economy. There will be much higher tax rates on success (whether it be earned or investment income) and with this, the number of  risk-takers and entrepreneurs will drop rapidly.

Obama will have succeeded in turning the US into a more European like economy, with much slower growth prospects, crushing deficits, and increased entitlement spending as far as the eye can see (and neither more nor less manmade global warming, regardless of what the Congress and Obama do in this area). And of course, there will be the need for ever higher tax rates on the diminishing share of the population who pay income taxes, and for ever larger amounts of debt to be financed mostly by foreigners.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/02/the_obama_steamroller_is_resis.html

Obama’s Busted Budget

By Randall Hoven

“..Concerning the short term, where numbers are more solid, don’t even look at his budget if you are at all squeamish.  He puts the deficit at 12.3% of GDP in 2009.  Throughout the Great Depression, whether under Hoover or FDR, the deficit never exceeded 6% of GDP.  Under Reagan, with his inherited recession and his tax cuts, it never exceeded 6% of GDP.  Under George W. Bush, with his inherited recession and his tax cuts, it never even got to 4% of GDP.

In fact, in only five years since 1930 has the deficit exceeded 6% of GDP: 1942-46.  It has exceeded Obama’s 12.3% only from 1942 to 1945.  That was World War II.  Then, defense spending was about 40% of GDP.  Now it is about 4%.

President Obama projects debt held by the public at 59% of GDP in 2009, and about 65% of GDP thereafter, as far as his projections go.

You have to go back to Truman to see debts that high.  And Truman was paying off World War II costs.  It’s been below 50% of GDP since 1957.  For the first time since then, it will exceed that level this year, going from 41% to 59% of GDP in a single year.

This is a terrible budget.  In Obama’s first term, it is even worse than my predictions.  Into his second term and beyond, it is still bad, and held together only with rosy assumptions on both the revenue and spending sides.  When things can be expected to get really bad, by 2020 and beyond, he makes no projections at all. …”

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/02/obamas_busted_budget.html

Europe Is Falling Apart Faster Than US? – Glenn Beck – March 2nd, 2009

Jim Rogers: Let AIG Go Bankrupt or USA Finished

Jim Rogers says “Go become a Farmer!” – March 3, 2009

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