[From Wallbuilders.com]

In recent years, the federal government has grown at a rapid rate, intruding into many areas that formerly were the sole domain of the states (e.g., education, transportation, health care, energy policy, etc.). Significantly, the Founding Fathers took great care to place limitations around federal powers and to preserve state and local powers. As Thomas Jefferson clearly explained:

The capital and leading object of the Constitution was to leave with the states all authorities which respected their own citizens only, and to transfer to the United States those which respected citizens of foreign or other states….Can any good be effected by taking from the states the moral rule of their citizens and subordinating it to the general [federal] authority?…Such an intention was impossible and…[would] break up the foundations of the Union…. I believe the states can best govern our home concerns, and the general [federal] government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore…never to see all offices transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the people, they may more secretly be bought and sold as at market.
Read the rest of this entry »

Wednesday, November 18, 2009
By Fred Lucas, Staff Writer
[Article from CNSNews.com, links added by CNSNews.com staff]

(CNSNews.com) – The 86^thcongressional district of Rhode Island received $10.2 million in federal economic stimulus funds to save 57.9 jobs, according to Recovery.gov. In neighboring Connecticut, the state’s 42^nd congressional district did not receive any stimulus money yet 25 jobs were still saved or created.

The problem with these federal financial data, however, is that Rhode Island has just two congressional districts, not 86, and Connecticut has just five U.S. House seats, not 42. Also, the Web site states that $6.4 billion in stimulus money went to 440 congressional districts that do not exist, according to an analysis first reported by Watchdog.org, a division of the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity.

The watchdog’s analysis showed that the money invested in the non-existent congressional districts saved or created 30,000 jobs, based on the government data currently available to the public.

Recovery.gov is the Obama administration’s Web site designed to track the funds dispersed through the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Concerning the non-existent congressional districts and other data on Recovery.org, the Obama administration responded on Tuesday that it was a matter of kinks in the system and that all stimulus funds are traceable and documented.

“These are not non-existent congressional districts, these are improperly identified congressional districts,” Ed Pound, spokesman for the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, told CNSNews.com Tuesday. “It’s human error. People filling out these forms might not know their district.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Measure would audit the Fed’s monetary policies such as interest rates

[Article from MarketWatch.com]

bumpersticker from: http://www.cafepress.com/+are_you_better_off_now,392044147

A key congressional panel on Thursday approved legislation introduced by the Texas congressman that – for the first time in the central bank’s 95-year-history — would require government audits of Federal Reserve monetary policy, as well as how much the central bank has lent and will lend to specific banks.

Fed Chief Ben Bernanke and other key members of the Obama administration, including Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, had vigorously opposed the move.

The measure was approved by the House Financial Services Committee as it considered broad bank regulatory reform legislation, and included a package of other measures weakening the Fed’s power and capping how much it can lend or guarantee.

The committee is now poised to pass the entire bill and has scheduled its final vote on the legislation for December 1.

AM Report: Ron Paul vs. the Fed The News Hub panel discusses Ron Paul's Opinion piece in today's Journal, which argues for a more transparent Federal Reserve.

[Continue reading and view video here...]

Rep. Jack Murtha (D, CD 12-Johnstown, PA) did not hear the “NAYs”  clearly being louder than the “AYEs.”

This is the same 19th-termer Rep. Murtha who has his own $200,000,000.00 John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport, which sees on any given day, only about 80 passengers.  That’s right, eighty, not 80,000 or even 800. Oh, and the airport just got an $800,000.00 stimulus bonus.

This crook HAS TO GO!!

However, all you WI residents, I applaud James Sensenbrenner (R, CD 5-Brookfield, Waukesha WI)… We need more representatives like him in office! Make sure Sensenbrenner gets back in!

Today may have been the 404th  anniversary of Guy Fawkes’ Gunpowder Plot, guarding the gunpowder that was to be used for blowing up British Parliament.  But we Americans can give it a new twist in stirring things up!  No explosives needed.

If you’re a liberty-loving American Patriot, please visit http://www.thisnovember5th.com/ .  You can contribute to Debra Medina (Gubernatorial candidate, TX),  Rand Paul (US Senate, KY), Adam Kokesh (State Rep. Dist. 3 candidate, NM),  Peter Schiff (US Senate, CT), just to name a few.

You can also donate to these other liberty-loving, socially-responsible and fiscally conservative candidates such as David Smith, TX CD 2 and Joe Petronis, TX CD 10, by visiting their respective campaign websites.

Happy trails, folks, and support your favorite candidate!!    :-)

The large-scale government intervention in the economy is going to end badly.

Ron Paul, 10.29.09, 09:20 AM EDT
Forbes Magazine dated November 16, 2009

Any number of pundits claim that we have now passed the worst of the recession. Green shoots of recovery are supposedly popping up all around the country, and the economy is expected to resume growing soon at an annual rate of 3% to 4%. Many of these are the same people who insisted that the economy would continue growing last year, even while it was clear that we were already in the beginning stages of a recession.

A false recovery is under way. I am reminded of the outlook in 1930, when the experts were certain that the worst of the Depression was over and that recovery was just around the corner. The economy and stock market seemed to be recovering, and there was optimism that the recession, like many of those before it, would be over in a year or less. Instead, the interventionist policies of Hoover and Roosevelt caused the Depression to worsen, and the Dow Jones industrial average did not recover to 1929 levels until 1954. I fear that our stimulus and bailout programs have already done too much to prevent the economy from recovering in a natural manner and will result in yet another asset bubble. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: Peter Schiff

While all the talk at present is about economic corners turned and markets charging ahead, no one is paying much notice to an American economy deteriorating before our eyes. These myopic commentators seem to be simply moving past the now almost-universally held conclusion that before the crash of 2008, our economy was on an unsustainable course. If these imbalances had been corrected, then perhaps I too would be joining in the euphoria. But evidence abounds that we have not veered at all from that dangerous path.

The primary factor that enables our government to peddle economic snake oil is the dollar’s unique role as the world’s reserve currency, and our creditors’ willingness to preserve its status.

Last week, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that consumer spending as a percentage of U.S. GDP has risen to 71%, a post-World War II record. This level is notably higher than other wealthy industrialized countries, and vastly higher than the levels sustained by China and other emerging economies. At the same time, our industrial output is contracting, our trade deficit is expanding once again (after contracting earlier in the year), and our savings rate is plummeting (after an early year surge).

The data confirms that government stimuli are worsening the structural imbalances underlying our economy. The recent ‘rebound’ in GDP is not resulting from increased economic output, but merely from the fact that we are borrowing more than ever. That is precisely how we got ourselves into this mess. An economy cannot grow indefinitely by borrowing more than it produces. Not only is such a course untenable, but the added debt ensures a deeper recession when the bills come due.

This soon-to-be-called depression will not end until the pendulum of consumer spending habits swings violently in the other direction. This will be a jarring change, but it is the splash of cold water that we need to return our economy to viability. I believe that consumer spending as a share of GDP will need to temporarily contract to roughly 50% of GDP, before eventually moving toward its historic mean of 65%. Such a move would indicate a restoration of our personal savings, a decline in borrowing and trade deficits, and an increased industrial output. That would be a real recovery. Read the rest of this entry »

Here is Rep. Ron Paul’s speech (R-TX) to Congress that he used to introduce H.R. 1207 on February 26, 2009.

A full hearing by the Committee on Financial Services was held today (9/25/09) at 9:00 a.m. in Washington D.C. for H.R. 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009.

Here is the audio of that hearing, with timelapse still photos.

Uh-oh…. That guy didn’t just call that our glorious, hope bearing, change bringing, savior a border-destroying, baby-murdering, mortgage reneging, conscious-less, Communist illegal alien, birth certificate-hiding, presidency-usurping abomination?  Oh no, he did-unt!!  I just can’t believe in that CHANGE for the worst.  I HOPE someone will call the ACLU, Rev. Jackson or Rev. Sharpton!  Call Oprah!

Video and story from YouTube.com, user “keyes2008.”

Dr. Alan Keyes was a featured speaker at a fundraiser for the Triple A Crisis Pregnancy Center in Hastings, Nebraska, on February 19, 2009, where a reporter from KHAS-TV interviewed him about his thoughts on Obama. With conviction, Alan firmly stated that Obama is a radical communist (which he is) and a usurper (which he has done since he hasn’t produced an original birth certificate). And that Obama supports infanticide–the killing of babies born alive after botched abortions. Read the rest of this entry »

A true fiscal conservative protects the taxpayers even when it will raise the ire of those around them. Comptroller Susan Combs inherited a structurally-flawed college program known as the Texas Tomorrow Fund.

In recent days she has taken difficult, but necessary, actions to protect the integrity of the fund. More importantly, she has protected the taxpayers who will ultimately bear any risks the fund’s structure might create.

The change in policy stops the payment of financial benefits to participants who cancel their contracts with the fund. In plain English: the Tomorrow Fund cannot be used as a taxpayer-backed, all-purpose savings plan. The fund was designed to let parents lock in tuition rates at Texas’ colleges with a structured savings plan.

From day-one it was about providing for college, not funding vacations or supplementing investment portfolios. Whether the Tomorrow Fund should have ever been created is a separate issue and beside the point, it exists. It is the comptroller’s responsibility to keep the fund solvent; otherwise, taxpayers are on the hook for making good on the contracts as the tuition bills come due.

When Comptroller Combs announced the policy change, she was criticized by some with varying motives. The plan should, and does, allow folks to take out their money if the child no longer needs the funds. At the same time, the contracts for those using this savings plan specifically allow the rules for withdrawing the money to be altered.

There are two important points for those currently in the fund:

1. If you use it for a child’s college education, despite stock market conditions the investment remains fully protected by the state constitution, and
2. It is probably an even better deal than originally intended when one considers the rising cost of tuition over the last decade.

But it should be such a deal only if used for the purpose intended: to save for college. Unfortunately, some have sought to use the Texas Tomorrow Fund as little more than a taxpayer-backed hedge fund. The old rules allowed people who canceled their contracts to not only get their money back, but also substantial interest from the taxpayers. That is unsustainable. Read the rest of this entry »