Free kibbles

Cato lists a bevy of tax proposals on the table to fund Democrats' reckless spending and says they threaten any economic recovery. That's an understatement, but this isn't:

"So why do politicians keep driving taxes and spending higher? One reason is that most Republicans in Congress have abandoned spending restraint. Consider House Majority Leader John Boehner. He heckles Obama's spending as "one big down payment on a new American socialist experiment." But the president recently challenged him to find specific programs to cut, and the best Boehner and his team could do was a list of cuts worth less than 1 percent of the bloated federal budget. If Obama is a "socialist," then the House Republican leadership is 99 percent socialist.

Republican leaders have forgotten that the best defense against big-government Democrats is an aggressive offense. In the mid-'90s, the GOP proposed abolishing whole Cabinet departments and eliminating the deficit with spending cuts. That changed the terms of the debate, helping derail President Bill Clinton efforts to grow the government. With spending in check, the economy soared during his term."

We can't just blame the Democrats. Republicans are only slightly less terrible.

Obama plans to further control the banking industry, giving him more power to harm our economy.

"It was the inability of the US government to take over Lehman Brothers that threw the financial markets into turmoil in September last year."

The lies are flowing freely, and the oblivious will eat them up. "Much of which is subject to approval by Congress..." Like Congress is Obama's lacky. I guess it actually is right now.

Republicans try to block Obama from rationing health care. Even if this was to pass, Obama would veto it. But it puts the Democrats on the defensive and on the record. Harry Reid threatens to force health care down Americans' throats. I think he may lose some Democrats which will put this in jeapardy. He's already bypassed the filibuster in an unethical move. The US Chamber of Commerce opposes the bill.

Mises scholar calls the Value Added Tax (VAT) being considered by Democrats to pay for their health care bonanza a "particularly odious proposal".

Reason explains, "There are only three ways to pay for this expansion of health insurance coverage: increased taxes, reduced benefits, or shiny gold ingots falling out of the sky."

In response to the evidence that Paul Krugman called for Fed rate cuts to create a housing bubble, Krugman has denied doing so and ridiculed those who claim he did. In response to that denial, Mises scholar offers a lengthy list of quotes from Krugman specifically calling for rate cuts to produce a housing boom. Krugman is hoist on his own petard. Listening to this idiot is foolish.

Harry Potter author accused of copyright infringement. Live by the sword; die by the sword.

Supposedly House Democrats shut down debate for the evening last night, then after a bunch of Republicans had left, they reopened debate and votes so they could defeat Republican amendments. If this is true, the Democrat leadership should be recalled.

I heard an interesting comment today. With all the fraud in our latest election, Obama has no moral authority to criticize fraud in the Iranian election. True.

Obama releases propaganda about alarming global warming. He's watching his agenda evaporate in front of eyes, and he'll say or do anything to get something passed.

Yet another economist predicts we're heading for a second recession caused by government policies, must like what created the Great Depression.

80 percent of Americans want the government to sell its shares of Chrysler and GM ASAP. 64 percent want to force the government to sell within a year. That's good news. The longer Obama waits, the more unpopular he'll become.

Reminding us that the media is just an extension of government, ABC is giving Obama a platform to promote his health care agenda. NBC is lending its equipment to Obama to help him out. This is disgusting.

Despite the recent decisive rejection of new taxes by California voters, Democrats are proposing new taxes.

83 percent of voters support requiring photo ID for voters.

Reason argues for privatizing dealing with pirates. Why should we subsidize shipping companies that choose risky routes with naval protection? This isn't like pirates of the Caribbean which threatened all shipping on the east coast. It isn't like the Barbary pirates which threatened all ports in the Mediterranean and impressed Americans into service. Shipping companies should either avoid the area, defend their ships in the area, hire private forces to patrol the area, pay ransoms or pay liability for any of their sailors who get hurt.

Americans are suddenly concerned about deficits and government intervention in the economy. Better late than never I guess.

Obama is trying to use the violence in Mexico created by the war on drugs to push gun control.

I think Reason is drawing the wrong conclusion from the inverse relationship between economic freedom and fertility. Economic freedom frees more people to become liberals, and liberalism harms fertility rates. A free society without liberals would have fine fertility rates.

"The income, investment and consumption opportunities that people forego when they choose to rear children are even greater in truly free economies."

Now this is certainly true. In the old days you used to have to have 10 kids to guarantee you'd be OK in old age, now you don't need any. And we have birth control.