Op-Eds and Editorials March '09

Republican Tax Travesty

Originally Posted on Forbes
By Bruce Bartlett
March, 27, 2009

On March 19, the House of Representatives voted to impose a 90% tax on the incomes of certain executives of financial institutions receiving federal funds. What was remarkable about this vote is that 85 Republicans voted for this travesty. The consequences will be felt for years to come.

The history of tax policy is that it tends to go in one direction until there is a key event that establishes a new direction. Thus the vote by a Democratic Congress in favor of a lower capital gains tax in 1978 set the stage for the Reagan tax cut of 1981 and a decade of lower tax rates. When Republican George H.W. Bush switched gears and supported higher taxes in 1990 it presaged Bill Clinton's 1993 tax increase and many years of rising taxes.
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Government Is Furiously Dancing The Two-Step

Originally Posted at Lew Rockwell
By Robert Higgs
March 26, 2009

How do once-free people lose their liberty? The formula may be stated succinctly: crisis and leviathan. Alternatively, and somewhat more fully stated, the procedure for the government officials and their supporters who hope to gain by quashing the people’s liberties is (1) cause a serious crisis, thereby heightening the public’s fears, and (2) blame others for the crisis, pose as the people’s savior, and thereby justify the seizure of new powers allegedly necessary to remedy the crisis and to prevent the recurrence of such crises in the future. This gambit is as old as the hills, yet, given the right ideological preconditions, it works every time. Strange to say, the people never learn (in part because these experiences produce ideological change that fortifies the fiscal and institutional changes the government makes during the crisis).
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Once Again, Tim Geithner Gets It Exactly Wrong

Originally Posted At Real Clear Market
By John Tammy
March 26, 2009

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 6 percent on Monday after the announcement of Treasury secretary Tim Geithner’s latest bank relief plan. The stock surge might point to significant positives within his initiative, but then going back to the fall, shares have regularly rallied on the news of government help, only to decline once the harsher realities of government aid set in.
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Save The Big Banks, Trash The Dollar

Originally Posted On Lew Rockwell
By Gary North
March 25, 2009

Timothy Geithner's plan to save the big banks will be a success. This success will come at a cost. The plan will hurt taxpayers, and it will lead to severe price inflation. It will not revive the faltering economy in 2009. It will not restore the housing market. Family wealth will continue to decline.

I worry a bit about my assessment. It is shared by Keynesian economists Paul Krugman and James Galbraith. Still, I am sticking to my guns. Read More...

U.S. Headed Toward Canada-Style Health Care Rationing

Originally Posted at Tucson Citizen
By Dr. Lawrence Hunter
March 24, 2009

Bureaucrats already are under instructions to "guide" treatments. How long before that guidance becomes a push - or a mandate?

Overseas, this already has happened. In the U.K., a similar formula for determining cost-effectiveness resulted in elderly patients suffering from retinal decay being forced to wait until they are blind in one eye before seeking treatment. Read More...

Dems' Medicare Drug 'Fix' Will Curb Choices, Hike Costs

Originally Posted at Orlando Sentinel
By Merrill Matthews
March 9, 2009

In recent weeks, the nation's attention has been focused on the economy and Washington's efforts to fix it. Some lawmakers have used this opportunity to introduce legislation that would otherwise generate enormous controversy.

Most notably, a bill was introduced by Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Reps. Marion Berry, D-Ark., and Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., to overhaul Medicare PartD, the prescription-drug benefit created in 2003.
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Recent News

Those Dastardly Republicans

Friday, May 18, 2012

Source: Politico

Congressional Republicans are back up to their old shenanigans on ObamaCare. Politico reveals that Republicans would try to replicate popular parts of Obama’s health care law if the Supreme Court overturns the law this summer.
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FDA Warns Doctors On Fosamax Side Effects

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Source: ABC News

The Food and Drug Administration has warned doctors to watch for fractures of the upper thigh bone in patients taking several popular drugs designed to prevent hip fractures and fight osteoprothesis. The FDA warns that Fosamax and Boniva in particular, if taken unnecessarily or for too long, may actually be causing the bone fractures they are prescribed to prevent. Watch ABC News video.
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Senator Introduces Fugitive Taxpayer Act

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Source: ABC News

Exit Not An Option In Chuck Schumer's America. New York Senator Chuck Schumer has introduced the Fugitive Taxpayer Act of 2012 to re-impose taxes on expatriates after they flee the United States and take up residence in a foreign country. Proposal also would impose a mandatory 30 percent tax on the capital gains of anybody who renounces their U.S. citizenship and would bar such individuals from ever reentering the United States again.
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US War Machine Will Be Real Winner In Nov.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Source: Salon.com

Whether President Obama gets his second term or Romney enters the Oval Office, there’s a third candidate no one’s paying much attention to, and that candidate is guaranteed to be the one clear winner of election 2012: the U.S. military and our ever-surging national security state.
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Social Security Garnished for Student Loan Debts

Friday, May 11, 2012

Source: Truth-Out.org

According to the New York Federal Reserve, two million US seniors age 60 and over have student loan debt, on which they owe a collective $36.5 billion; and 11.2 percent of this debt is in default. 4.2 percent of all student loan debt is held by people over the age of 60, and that share grows with each passing year.
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Seniors vs. Military-Industrial Complex?

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Source: The Washington Post

Across the U.S. economy, anxiety is rising about the potential for widespread disruptions after the November election, when a lame-duck Congress will have barely two months to resolve a grinding standoff over taxes and spending.
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Americans Say Cut The War Machine, Now

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Source: Huffington Post

Two-thirds of Republicans and nine in 10 Democrats polled support making immediate cuts to the military across the board -- a position at odds with the leaderships of both political parties.
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Police Beat Mentally Ill Man To Death

Monday, May 7, 2012

Source: Raw Story

Video revealing the circumstances of how a mentally ill homeless man in Fullerton, Calif. died last July was finally published Monday, revealing a stunningly brutal police assault that left Kelly Thomas bleeding, broken and near death.
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President Obama Is Running Out of Jobs Excuses

Monday, May 7, 2012

Source: Real Clear Markets

The number of people with jobs declined for the second month in a row, falling by 169,000 in April after easing by 31,000 in March. This means that there were 200,000 fewer Americans with jobs in April than there were in February. Additionally, the percentage of working-age adults who either have jobs or are looking for work, fell to 63.6%, which is the lowest level since December 1981.
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Attack Of The Drones

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Source: Salon.com

In November 2010, a police lieutenant from Parma, Ohio, asked Vanguard Defense Industries if the Texas-based drone manufacturer could mount a “grenade launcher and/or 12-gauge shotgun” on its ShadowHawk drone for U.S. law enforcement agencies. The answer was yes.
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