Not So Hard To Believe...

I just sent this email out to the congressman who claim to represent me regarding the new federal budget:

The latest federal budget is out of control. The government can barely control the parts of the country it's in charge of currently, and the new budget represents an unprecedented increase in government intervention in all parts of Americans' daily life. I do not support the federalized health care authorized in the budget. I do not support the "cap and trade" boondoggle described in the budget. I do not support the increased aid to distressed homeowners described in the budget. I do not support the national food tracking provision that is included in the bill. I do not support a national "public service" system that will no doubt become mandatory in the future. I certainly do not support a universal pre-kindergarten system- the idea of MANDATORY institutionalization of such young children genuinely frightens me. I am also angry that the Democrats are threatening to use the 50-vote reconciliation procedure to get this budget passed if Republicans don't support it.

These provisions are a thinly veiled attempt at greater federal control over every aspect of daily life. This budget plan will not stimulate the economy, and on the contrary has the Congressional Budget Office estimating that the national debt will rise to 82% of the national economy by 2019. You do not have my consent to vote for this bill, and to support it represents a complete lack of conscience toward your constituents, and furthermore, a total disregard of the Constitution which you have sworn to uphold as a Congressman.

The fact that Washington thinks they can get away with a budget proposal like this one is proof of their disrespect toward the people. The fact that it actually has a chance of passing proves that the Constitution is worthless.

Thoughts of civil war seem less and less ridiculous every day.

Lunch Break's Over

Wow- has it been two weeks since the last post? My senior project for college has had me up late for a while. I finally get a break for a few weeks.

I'm a bit excited at all the bad financial news I hear and read about all the time- it gets those who know what they're talking about more exposure. It's a bit strange to think about it as I read through my macroeconomics textbook since the topic is suddenly a current event.

Perhaps I should have been an economist. It is all very interesting to me, particularly the current chapters' focus on John Maynard Keynes, the bane of classical economists everywhere, and his theories on aggregate supply and demand. His theories are quite popular with pro-government types, as he asserts that government spending and central control of the money supply are a valid way to stabilize output and absorb any aggregate supply not demanded by the market. This is supposed to help limit short-term economic fluctuations in the economy, particularly unemployment. While Keynes's theories are sound, they are ultimately flawed by the inability for the government to restrain itself from involving itself in the economy more than necessary. Besides, as the textbook quotes Milton Friedman on later in the text, the goals of economic policy should be long-term instead of trying to micromanage the economy out of every small recession.

In addition, I've thought about how the Fed claims that its purpose is to stabilize prices, but after reading the textbook I've found that this isn't the case- the Fed can only stabilize output. The Fed runs under the assumption that injecting money into the economy to stimulate demand may raise inflation, but it will lower unemployment and help to keep output up during a recession. It's true that inflation by itself is not a problem as long as the rate of inflation stays constant. Interest rates and wage rises usually try to take inflation into account, so people only lose money when the inflation rate changes and things need to readjust. In the long run, after the market has adjusted to the new inflation rate, unemployment rises again, and all people are left with is higher prices. If the market adjusted freely, output would drop in the short run, but prices would stabilize in the long run.

Of course the government would rather hurt poor Americans by forcing higher prices on them than take a hit on output, which would means less tax revenue for them to spend. So the Fed stays- for now. There seems to be a lot of pressure on congress to support Ron Paul's "Audit The Fed" bill, which has 28 cosponsors in the House. While greater Fed transparency should of course be welcomed, I agree with those who say that the central bank is unnecessary.

Price controls never work, and are the main reason a record 18.6 million homes in the US are currently vacant.

Speaking of macroeconomics, I've recently finished Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, which was fantastic, and I recommend it to anyone who isn't intimidated by a 1200 page book. It may beat you over the head with its Objectivist message, but some of the parallels with the present economic environment are a bit eerie.

"Cap and Trade" Is Not The Way

I've just sent this email to my Congresspersons, though I expect a cap and trade scheme to be voted on soon. No government could resist that kind of a power grab.

Maybe I'm just a pessimist, though they haven't given me much reason not to be.

Please oppose all cap and trade proposals. Sen. Bob Corker brought up a much better solution in the Senate committee hearings: that Congress should impose a tax on all fossil fuels, and reimburse the earnings by cutting payroll taxes. This idea makes much more sense then adding new government regulations, especially since the cap and trade law in Europe, the Emissions Trading Scheme, has proven to have little to no effect in reducing European CO2 output, and ended up being abused by many companies to make windfall profits by selling carbon credits they didn't need in the first place.

A cap and trade scheme is not the solution to promoting green energy. Please do not support it. Instead, I urge you to please get behind Sen. Bob Corker's idea- the decreased payroll taxes would really benefit everyone in this recession.

Downsize D.C.

Downsizedc.org is one of my favorite sites on the web, and in honor of its greatness, I've applied a nice banner to the blog shamelessly plugging the "Read The Bills Act." If you support not being an idiot, I suggest you take a look.

The site makes it very easy to send messages to your Representative and Senators supporting small government and civil liberties issues. I use it all the time and it's one way to say "I did something" about issues you think are important. It's a great resource and their newsletter is well-written and very informative about bad legislation that are ignored by the news networks.

I also use congress.org to send messages, as I've found that I get a sooner reply from my Rep and Senators. Plus I can send emails to Mr. President, for what it's worth!

I encourage anyone who is passionate about these issues to check these sites out.

Hello, fellow humans

In light of my new-found political fervor brought on by the 2008 Presidential Election, I decided that maybe I should share my passion with the blogosphere.

Not that I am so arrogant as to believe that what I have to say has more validity than what anybody else says- in fact, I feel very strongly that every person deserves to have and share his own opinions, so long as he comes to his conclusion himself. But it seems that at the same time people seem to misunderstand what it all means, satisfied with unfounded information gotten in the same vein as rumors or hearsay, and accepting a philosophy that has been spoon-fed to them since childhood. I am 21 years old, and it seems like more and more people have this attitude- but it may just be because I realize it more than I used to.

On the other hand, I see that more and more people realize that they are being taken advantage of, and that they do have the power to fight back.

This being said, I believe that the 2008 election was nothing less than a travesty that reflects this country's political ignorance and exemplifies the arrogance of our leaders. I supported the Republican candidate Ron Paul, who unfortunately never got the attention he deserved, and who was pushed aside and made fun of by the GOP at large. In doing this, the GOP effectively stated that an anti-war, small-government candidate was not what the GOP wanted. I do not know if the Republicans expected to win by nominating John McCain, but many, including myself, saw his nomination as a guaranteed loss for the GOP.

How could a man with the economics knowledge of an average high school student and the stage presence of a scared animal compete with the cult of personality that is Barack Obama?

In any case, here we are, in the depths of a recession that Obama, his administration, and Congress at large vow to exacerbate through increased government intervention in the market, the very cause of the problem. I blame George Bush for destroying the reputation of the GOP, and for the rest of the Republicans who take the blame for this recession lying down. Time and time again I see journalists and politicians blaming the GOP and their free-market policies (HA!) for causing this economic crisis. And NOBODY, except perhaps Ron Paul, has stood up and said that these accusations are both false and slanderous.

It has come to the point where I wonder if I should even stay in this country as its people allow their Constitutional rights to be voted away by theives and liars. I now have to worry how much more Washington will steal from my paycheck in the future, and whether what's left over will be enough. I now have to worry that if I buy a house, whether it will keep its value. I now have to worry that if I have a child, if I'll be compelled to keep him away from the public school system that I attended since, looking back, I realize how pro-government the curriculum is.

And that is how I became an angry young man, and ever since I learned about Ron Paul and realized that there are at least a few people in Washington with the brains and the honesty to tell it like it is, I have vowed to fight the ever-expanding and ever-more intrusive Federal Government in any way that I can.