Charity tax

"President Barack Obama’s proposal to raise taxes and reduce charitable deductions for the wealthy mistakenly suggests that government bureaucracy can deploy citizens’ resources more effectively than nonprofit civil society organizations can."

~Ryan Messmore, The Heritage Foundation



(Personally, I believe that-- like most things--charity is handled best by the private sector.)

Health Care Reform--indeed

Here is an interesting summation by the Heritage Foundation of Kennedy's Health Care Reform Bill:

"Within the federal government, much of the decision-making power would be concentrated in the hands of the secretary of health and human services (HHS), who would be given broad regulatory authority over various aspects of health care financing and delivery.

1. A Public Plan That Would Compete with Private Health Insurance. Under Title I, the bill specifies how the HHS would assist the states in setting up a "gateway," the committee's version of a "health insurance exchange." In establishing a gateway, the states would be required to make "qualified health plans" available to state residents, and in making available that coverage, "a Gateway shall include a public insurance option."[4]
In other words, the committee envisions a government-sponsored plan competing with private plans on a supposedly level playing field. That means government officials would ultimately be responsible for one plan while setting the rules of competition for all plans. It is impossible to believe that government officials would set rules without stacking the deck in favor of their own plan. It is hardly surprising, then, that under the public insurance option, the authors of the Senate bill have a notation: "Policy under discussion."

I highlighted my favorite part.

Read the whole article here:
http://www.heritage.org/Research/HealthCare/wm2481.cfm

Don't Blame Capitalism!!!

In 1869 the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad met at Promontory Point, Utah. What a celebration!!!!! But did you know.......

*In the beginning, in order to 'encourage' railroad construction, Congress granted 44 million acres of land and $61 million in federal loans to the transcontinental railroad project.

*Congress paid incentives for every mile laid and even bigger incentives for track laid on difficult terrain. As a result;
--Tracks were built meandering all over the place to increase mileage. Some were even built on ice and had to be totally reconstructed.
--Quality was sacrificed for quantity--both railroad companies were planning reconstruction before the Golden Spike ceremony.

*Congress mandated the railroads had to sell their stock for $100 par value.

*When stock prices dropped, the Credit Mobilier was a credit arm founded by Railroad owners solely to buy up railroad stocks, and get railroad contracts. In short, the railroad was awarding it's own contracts to itself and buying its own stock through the Credit Mobilier arm. This allowed them to over bill the government for the railroad and make double profits off of government subsidies.

*Several congressman were being paid off by Credit Mobilier to ensure that the government continued to fund the railroad projects.

*Though many people were suspicious of shoddy railroad construction no one questioned it because the government was financially backing the whole thing--they trusted the gov't to oversee it.

*Great Northern Railroad and the Milwaukee Railroad were transcontinental railroads built with private capital.

*The private railroads made investments in communities to ensure their railroads had customers. They also arrived at national standard measurements for the tracks amongst themselves without gov't mediation.

*These private lines held up in financial recessions and panics when the government subsidized railroads failed.

*Politicians blamed the waste, the corruption and the Credit Mobilier scandal on unbridled capitalism and cried out for--you guessed it--more government 'oversight' and regulation.

"Far from laissez-faire capitalism necessitating government regulation, it was government intervention that caused the corruption and fed it. People acted no better, or worse, in the 1870's than they did in George Washingtons' day. What had changed, however, was the opportunity for graft combined with the incredible profits to be gained from corruption. Such corruptions tracked precisely with the expansion of the federal bureaucracy."

~Larry Schweikart

Property rights = Responsibility = Liberty

"Property rights brought people to America because property ensured you could become someone. Secure property rights established a climate of competition that rewarded skill, talent, and risk taking."

~Larry Schweikart


I believe secure property rights are also about accountability. When I know what belongs to me, I know what I am responsible for--and so does everyone else.

I know what I can risk, and I risk it because I know I reap the rewards when I succeed. And when I fail, I answer to myself.

This is the problem I see in the government owning (or running) something; Public land and services belong to everyone--and no one--all at once. We all pay for them, but whose accountable for them? Bureaucrats? But bureaucrats do not have an immediate personal interest in public properties, they have a bureaucratic interest in public properties. They spend money that belongs to no one imparticular, no one imparticular reaps the rewards and no one imparticular is accountable for the failure. Perhaps this is why no one seems to be able to track down where all the bail out/stimulus funds have gone.

Secure property rights are about more than ownership of material goods. They are about me owning my successes and my failures. It is about me owning me--and that is liberty.

Character Counts. Virtue comes first.

~ An excerpt from A Patriots History of the United States by Larry Schweikart

Honor counted to founding patriots like Adams, Jefferson, Washington, and then later, Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. Character counted...virtue came first.

These giants knew that their actions of character mattered far more to the nation than mere temporary political positions. The ideas they fought for in 1776 and debated in 1787 were paramount. And that is what American history is all about--ideas.

Character was tied to liberty; and liberty to property. All three were needed for success, but character was the prerequisite because it put the law behind property agreements, and it set responsibility right next to liberty.


And the surest way to ensure the presence of good character was to keep God at the center of one's life, community, and ultimately, nation.

"Separation of church and state" meant freedom to worship, not freedom from worship. It went back to the link between liberty and responsibility, and no one could be taken seriously who was not responsible to God. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." They believed those words.

Vocabulary

histrionic - adj. - overdramatic or theatrical; affected

histrionics -n. - exaggerated emotional behavior

Sometimes I wonder if my own histrionics are my biggest problem.