Articles tagged as

Big Government

It isn’t just about the marijuana tax revenue Democrats desire…

As Steve posted, the reason why the Democrats decided to go all out on legalizing marijuana was not that they treasure Liberty (they don’t) but that they want YOUR money in their Treasury.  It’s one of the reasons I’m against legalization and against casinos here in NH: both do nothing more than act as an expensive facade for bigger, more expensive government leading to more boondoggles and intrusiveness.

But the other reason? They’re beaming that they’ll achieve yet another Democrat Agenda item at the same! Question E…

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I feel real sorry for financial advisor Molly Kelly’s (running for NH Governor) clients…

One of the ads Molly Kelly was running during the primary was this gem of Cognitive Dissonance / Political double dealing (emphasis mine)

We’re getting slammed by ever higher electric bills. Eversource is making huge profits. The Governor?  He collected more than $50K from Eversource and vetoed two renewable energy bills. I’m Molly Kelly and I’m running for Governor because I think that’s got to change. As a State Senator, I stood up to the big utilities. I led the fight to expand clean energy and create jobs. I’m not taking any donations from corporate PACs so I won’t owe them anything. We will stop the corporate handouts and put people first.

I’m going to leave PAC crap alone (although we need to see if she’s taking money from unions and Planned Parenthood PACs) for now.  Take those three lines – how much can you get so wrong with so few words?

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Jonathan Mackie – candidate for NH State House, Belknap 2 (Gilford/Meredith)

Jon MackieI am Jonathan Mackie, a Republican seeking to represent Meredith and Gilford in Belknap District 2. I am a lifelong resident of New Hampshire and have lived in Meredith since 1984. My wife Sue and I own and operate Clearwater Campground and Meredith Woods Four Season Camping Area in Meredith.

Although I have not previously served in public office, other experiences have given me a perspective that will serve our citizens well. Working as treasurer of my local church for 10 years showed me the value of dedicated volunteers serving to make a community better. We need to protect the religious freedoms that make this possible. My 20 plus years of running a business and also serving as president of the New Hampshire Campground owners Association for 3 years has given me first-hand insight into the many regulations, fees, taxes, permits and licenses that unnecessarily complicate investing in and operating a business in New Hampshire.

I am running because…

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Funny, I never heard back from US Senator Elizabeth Warren when I emailed her back

333.  275.  185.  290.  124.  210.

That’s my latest sampling of how many days it took the National Guard to federally recognize the promotions of its servicemembers after those promotions had already been fully approved by their state command.   Just to be clear: these officers start doing the work of their new rank the day their promotions are approved – they just don’t get the pay increase or the time-in-grade credit until the Washington bureaucracy processes the papers.

120806_elizabeth_warren_605_apLike I’ve been saying lately, I get stuff from all over and from a lot of people.  Including a lot of Democrats.  You see, they all think I can be influenced because I’m a “registered Independent”.  Go ahead and chortle over that one – I’ll wait.

So, the US Senator from MA, Elizabeth “You didn’t build that” Warren sends me a LOT of emails.  Funny that, so do a lot of other Democrats; most of their names also keep being shoved into the Prez Wannabee mirror machine. But I digress. So Warren sent the above (in part) to me back on July 4th (full email after the jump)

So, she’s railing against the ineffectiveness of Government.  Big Government.  A Big, Sprawling, Paper Overridden, Slow as Molassas Government.  Imagine that….oh wait!

Huh? A rant from this Uber of Ubberest-Progressives (not many Progressives are to her Left, except perhaps that ninny 28 year old from the Bronx, but that’s another post)??? So I wrote back:

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Notable Quote – Judge James Ho

Sorry, but the good judge got one thing really wrong – the word “allow” (emphasis mine):

To be sure, many Americans of good faith bemoan the amount of money spent on campaign contributions and political speech. But if you don’t like big money in politics, then you should oppose big government in our lives. Because the former is a necessary consequence of the latter. When government grows larger, when regulators pick more and more economic winners and losers, participation in the political process ceases to be merely a citizen’s prerogative—it becomes a human necessity. This is the inevitable result of a government that would be unrecognizable to our Founders. See, e.g., NFIB v. Sebelius, 567 U.S. 519 (2012).

So if there is too much money in politics, it’s because there’s too much government. The size and scope of government makes such spending essential. See, e.g., EMILY’s List v. FEC, 581 F.3d 1, 33 (D.C. Cir. 2009) (Brown, J., concurring) (“The more power is at stake, the more money will be used to shield, deflect, or co-opt it. So long as the government can take and redistribute a man’s livelihood, there will always be money in politics.”).

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It’s April. I just got 1.5 inches of snow. The sign may be right?

I was just remarking that I remember having varsity tennis matches canceled when I was in high school because of snow like this – back in the 70s (yes, I’m getting to be that old).  Back then, the scientists and media were all up in arms that we were headed into global cooling and that … Read more

Quick Thought: Treehugger is at it again

Watermelon EnvironmentalismLloyd Alter, head honcho over at said site, is a New Urbanism – hates suburbia, seemingly hates rural areas, loves the city and wants us all to live there “sustainably” and in a “walkable serenity”.  No cars, only public transit; enforce “neighborliness” in which a “community” will flourish (if you’re an introvert, yer outta luck) and lots of conversations bloom!  Small fridges and small kitchens (and small apartments in high density area – think “rack’em and stack’em”) mean you WILL spend your time shopping pretty much every day – you WILL love your fresh food from the neighborhood grocery (think small – and expensive).  Yep, lots of the Progressive tell of “you don’t need that” with this one.

His latest rant is the width of sidewalks in his hometown of Toronto, Canada – they are small and the butt of his rant is are telephone / electrical poles built into the sidewalks – they disturb his sense of “wa” and promotes an inability to walk two by two.  Go read it if you want but what caught my eye was this description of Toronto’s government structure that’s supposed to keep this from happening:

“inter-divisional and inter-agency Walking Strategy Team chaired by the Director of the Public Realm Section [must] ensure city-wide coordination of Strategy projects.”

Well…

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dry lake drought

Government Induced Drought

Policies started by Moonbeam Jerry Brown and enforced by environmental allies since the ’70s have born fruit, more foreign fruit, less California fruit, and general misery for the left coasters.

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He’s either a Schmuck or is now desperately trying to not to end up like Wily E. Coyote

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…

BLAM!  Here’s what Obama said in a proclamation concerning the National Day of Prayer:

“All of us have the freedom to pray and exercise our faiths openly,” Obama said. “Our laws protect these God-given liberties, and rightly so. Today and every day, prayers will be offered in houses of worship, at community gatherings, in our homes, and in neighborhoods all across our country. Let us give thanks for the freedom to practice our faith as we see fit, whether individually or in fellowship.

Really?  All I have been hearing from him is a bastardization of the actual wording of the First Amendment: “freedom to worship” instead of the proper wording of “or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” (as in “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;”).  He said that phrase often, freedom to worship, in trying to force those of faith into a tiny box when it came to HHS Secretary Sebelius ruling that ALL Obamacare insurance policies must be obeyed – no religious exceptions except for those who actually work in a “house of worship”.  Does your church, synagogue, or other religious group have an “external” ministry?

Sidenote: can we please stop calling it “health insurance”?  What it really is now is just a healthcare payment system – there is no risk so there is no sense of traditional insurance at play here.

Too bad – Obama has decided, from On High, that he has the power and the authority to arbitrarily decide who is religious and “worthy” to be given an HHS  exception to the contraceptive and abortifacient to be provided by all new Obamacare mandated healthcare payment insurance policies – or not. 

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Notable Quote: Albert Jay Nock

Let us suppose that instead of being slow, extravagant, inefficient, wasteful, unadaptive, stupid, and at least by tendency corrupt, the State changes its character entirely and becomes infinitely wise, good, disinterested, efficient, so that anyone may run to it with any little two-penny problem and have it solved for him at once in the wisest … Read more

The Icing on The Accountability Cake

c/o Ed Morrissey… In my column today forthe Fiscal Times, I argue that this epidemic of sudden incompetence and ignorance completely undermines the argument for large, activist government.  That’s true whether one believes that these executives are either telling the truth or lying about their knowledge and involvement: So what are we to think about … Read more

Abuse of Power Scandals Make the Case for Limited Government


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I’m frequently bewildered when I observe the Big Gov pom-poms shaken, Big Gov banners unfurled, and its flags waved with roaring cheers and applause. I wonder if those doing the somersault splits have actually thought through what they are doing flips over. Have they thought beyond the obvious short term, immediate consequence of more Government goodies in their grab bags? Have they truly considered all of the aspects, long term, intended, and possible unintended consequences?

I don’t believe many of the Big Gov cheerleaders have really thought about the consequences of much of what they’re advocating, or perhaps they have and are simply insouciant about it. Because many of the “solutions” to problems the Big Gov folks advocate for, more often than not, distill down to more Government. Therein lies the problem.  Even Obama’s confidant David Axelrod admitted the other day that “we have a large government” and that the “government is so vast” to really know what’s going on down in its depths. So, how does making it bigger help anything? It doesn’t.

But it’s not just the size.  Big Government as defined by most on the right does not refer to its size

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Decay Point: Bureaucratic Sclerosis

Alas, as a society decays, its parts shrivel and wither in interestingly tragic ways. An exemplar of such decay occurred just the other day. Big Government’s bureaucratic sclerosis hit a Fire Department so hard that it felt it necessary for its, “…22 firefighters and six vehicles…” to remain idle on the shore and watch a man drown in icy water for 13 minutes, according to the Daily Caller. They “…didn’t launch an inflatable boat until just before he disappeared. The firefighters pulled Brown’s body out of the water roughly an hour after they arrived.”

“‘They followed our ice rescue guidelines pretty much to a T,’ Champaign Deputy Fire Chief Eric Mitchell told The News Gazette.”. Whew! Thank goodness.  I’m sure they wouldn’t want to be cited for noncompliance. Allay your fears great citizens of Champaign, Illinois, there will be no lawsuits or fines today, only one less citizen, because our Fire Department followed the rules to a “T”. That sounds like a decent trade off, eh?

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Fiscal Cliff Deal? A classic case of the Left embiggining Government

Update:

  • Current tax rates would be permanently extended for singles making $400,000 or below, and permanently extended for couples making $450,000 or below
  • For singles, capital gains and dividends of $400,000 or below would be permanently taxed at 15 percent; capital gains and dividends above $400,000 would be permanently taxed at 20 percent
  • For couples, capital gains and dividends of $450,000 or below would be permanently taxed at 15 percent; capital gains and dividends above $450,000 would be taxed at 20 percent
  • The Alternative Minimum Tax would be permanently patched
  • Estates over $5 million would be taxed at 40 percent, and that tax rate would be permanently extended

Nothing on spending cuts (like, I’m surprised??)

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Or “Running out the clock always results in running out with somebody else’s wallet.”

The Corner is reporting that the AP is writing that a deal has been struck:

  • We shall punish the hardworking and successful:

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MYTH 3: We have a “revenue” problem

You can read Myth’s 1, 2 and 4 here should you care to; my purpose for the moment is to mug and pummel the idea that spending is not the problem and this helps illustrate that.

The revenue problem refers to the notion that revenues are too low. Typically, special attention is drawn to the tax rates paid by the “wealthy.” However, taxes are not too low. In actuality, taxes are too high. Once again, take a look at the last 20 years. In 1992, federal tax revenue totaled $1.642 trillion in 2012 dollars. In 2012, revenue skyrocketed to $2.435 trillion in 2012 dollars. While federal spending has eclipsed revenue by more than $1 trillion each of the last four years, too little revenue has not been the culprit!

Put another way, imagine that you are earning 793 billion more dollars today than you were twenty years ago and yet your lifestyle still exceeds your income by more than a trillion dollars a year.

Do you think the someone with the Name tag that reads ‘Hello My Name is: Federal Government” could use a little  intervention?

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Getting the Royal Finger by Big Gov, Raise Your Hand If You’re Surprised…

“Angry New Yorkers say Obama pledge to cut red tape ignored by FEMA” reports Fox News.

Looks like FEMA isn’t working again. Raise your hand if you’re surprised. Those that are surprised deserve what they get. Big government can’t work, doesn’t work, can never work, has never worked, so to keep voting for it over and over again is a fools errand. Alas, given the results of the last election, there are evidently many fools en route.

“We are the people – we are the middle class, and we are getting the finger,” said fruhttp://granitegrok.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=40134&action=edit&message=1strated resident Scott McGrath, who personally spoke to President Obama and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo when they came to Staten Island to inspect storm damage earlier this month. “You were there when I met Obama, and I told the president … that the middle class was getting the royal finger. And he said, ‘FEMA works for me.’”

“FEMA ain’t doing nothing,” McGrath added. “They keep going around in circles.”

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So, Dems in Belknap county, that would mean that you will spend a lot, ignore the Constitution, and grow Govt? AGAIN?

2012 House Belknap 2 Dems - Front‘Tis the season of political surveys coming in on the phone.  Today, I think I got five, and a whole bunch of hangups which I take to be auto-dials by such companies looking for folks to call later or that with “predictive dialing”, there wasn’t an agent ready when “it” thought there would be when it dialed the number.  It is also the time for “mailers”; candidates trying to sell their message like these four Democrat ProRegressives: Kate Miller, Bill Johnson, Sandy Mucci, and MY fav Lisa DiMartino (she of the “my house is in the flight path – there might be a crash” fame.  More on that later).

They are running as a team.  That’s fine – my pick are the four Conservatives (that happen to be running on the Republican ticket) Colette Worseman, Herb Vadney, Bob Greemore, and my personal friend Kevin Leandro.

Back to the Dems – remember, the electorate (that would be you, the voters) decided that the Democrats were the extremists in 2010 – and told them emphatically that their social issue voting and their absolutely crazy spending were no longer to be tolerated.  So, what did these qwazy quad send as a message?  That would be on the flip side of the card:

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Mitt Romney and The 57.9%

Democrats want to tax you so that they can then engage in state managed, centrally planned, charity.   Conservatives, Libertarians, and some Republicans object to this for more reasons than I can enumerate here but here is one example worth considering…

As the coercive power of the state will alone decide who is to have what, the only power worth having will be a share in the exercise of this directing power. There will be no economic or social questions that would not be political questions in the sense that their solution will depend exclusively on who wields the coercive power, on whose are the views that will prevail on all occasions.

-F. A. Hayek

Democrats want the government to decide.  And once they start, there is little that will not eventually fall under the gaze and control of the state.   And so, they feel very comfortable engaging in class warfare rhetoric to correct this problem, because taxes–to them–are the benchmark of other peoples charity (except their own, of course).   And they “do not approve,”  can not approve, of people engaging in charity the state does not control becasue most Americans give based on a set of values that Democrats do not share.

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Skip, Freedom Is The Symptom, The People The Cause

Skip, true. It is about freedom, but there’s more to it than that. I would suggest that state encroachment on individual liberties is a symptom of the problem and not the problem itself.  It’s about the people. It’s about people willing to cede their liberty and freedom to a faceless bureaucrat in exchange for the illusion of safety, for a handout, or both. It’s the values that people hold that they place themselves as a pet of the state; they willingly devolve themselves into the Burkean “flies of a summer”.

We’ve raised generations steeped in state dependency, and now we see the result of this societal mistake when there’s a problem. When there’s a problem or a challenge, the first reaction of too many people is to call in the Department of Personal Responsibility Absolution to handle it. They believe that they themselves are uncapable of handling the problem, that it’s somebody else’s responsibility.  If there are poor people, the government should handle it.  If there are sick people, government should handle it. Elderly, the government should care for them.

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