Markets have been frozen in the federal government’s carbonite for some time. One man finally has a simultaneously well-articulated and properly-grounded philosophy geared toward unfreezing them – and that man is not Tim Pawlenty. I don’t expect pro-growth solutions to gain any traction with the current Congress, but let us hope that future elections rid the House and Senate of leftist ideologues. Until then, the legislation coming out of Congress will serve to highlight the sad state of the republic. Republicans need to stop sitting around, relaxing, and waiting on the membership of Congress to change in 2010:
. . . and start taking actual and rhetorical positions on the federal government’s menacing over-spending and over-regulation that are as clearly defined as Mr. Ryan’s, or our President will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine:
Watch for Paul Ryan’s budgetary lightsaber in eight to ten years. And in the wake of the Obama administration’s “crony capitalism,” as Mr. Ryan calls it, watch for the latter’s ‘pro-market, not pro-profits-of-specific-companies’ approach to gain traction as a viable political stance.
I am wondering just who are these "leftist ideologues" in Congress and why haven't they done anything to promote leftist goals like single payer healthcare, or cracking down on the bankers.
So who are these leftist ideologues, and can you point to any specific pieces of leftist legislation?
<a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.39…” target=”_blank”>http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.39…
<a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.35…” target=”_blank”>http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.35…
Cap & trade, credit card overhaul, antitrust criminal penalty extension, etc etc etc etc etc
You can go here if you don't know about recent and upcoming bills: <a href="http://www.thomas.gov/” target=”_blank”>http://www.thomas.gov/
Pelosi, Reid, Frank, Sanders (socialist), Dodd, Boxer, Feinstein, Kerry… consult the Senate and House websites if you don't know the names of most of the other Democratic senators and representatives.
You're going to have to be more specific than that, I don't see anything particularly leftist about any of that legislation. Sanders is a socialist in name only and the rest of those Congresspeople are devot capitalists who are firmly entrenched in the upper class. I'm guessing you just don't think they're sufficiently devoted to your own particular free-market ideology?
Those bills are full of subsidies, boards, panels, and commissions of "experts", taxes, and frameworks for the use of regulation instead of market forces to guarantee consumer product quality. Sounds like a business model implemented by the Chinese Politburo.
I'm not convinced at all that Pelosi and Reid believe in savings and investment of private capital (capitalism) for the largest sectors of the economy. I think they want the state to run about 60-70% of the economy. They don't really care whether or not their model is efficient, because all that seems to matter is that they control the important things.
Sanders wants government to run and fund doctors, health centers, and the other major aspects of care, but he seems oblivious to an easy way to expand access and quality while reducing costs: markets. Other areas of his philosophy are more welfare-statist than radical state-socialist.
Market forces to guarantee consumer product quality? You must be joking. Look at China, where there's little to no regulation, what kind of quality products are they making? Toxic drywall, pet food and toothpaste; lead-infused plastics…
How much of the economy do you think the state is responsible for right now, in spending as a percentage of GDP? It's not a small number, but it's a little lower than it was in the 80s.
As a leftist myself, I would be very happy to see two things happen: single payer health care ala the UK's NHS; and slashing the hugely bloated military budget. I don't see any of these alleged leftists in Congress even talking about either of those goals.
Conyers talking about single-payer: http://www.johnconyers.com/healthcare
Sanders talking about single-payer: http://www.c-span.org/Watch/Media/2009/12/16/Heal…
Barney Frank talking about single-payer:
Then-state senator and later U.S. Senator Barack Obama advocated single-payer at a 2003 AFL-CIO convention.
Baucus supports it from a political angle, even though he doesn't necessarily claim that it's a good thing: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/us/politics/24b…
Those are the ones I could find in 5 minutes.
All markets need regulation. It's just that the market can provide regulation if the system is set up correctly. As to your claim that the Communist Party doesn't regulate Chinese industry… well, there are few markets to do any regulating to, so if the Party is failing in its efforts, you can blame Communism.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.39…
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.35…
Cap & trade, credit card overhaul, antitrust criminal penalty extension, etc etc etc etc etc
You can go here if you don't know about recent and upcoming bills: http://www.thomas.gov/
Pelosi, Reid, Frank, Sanders (socialist), Dodd, Boxer, Feinstein, Kerry… consult the Senate and House websites if you don't know the names of most of the other Democratic senators and representatives.
"…our president will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."
What a great piece of writing. You're brilliant. Were you a writer for the Captain Planet series?
Star Wars, dummy. It's a reference to one of the most famous lines of the original trilogy:
"Darth Vader: Your powers are weak, old man.
Obi-Wan: You can't win, Darth. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine."
… are you really so supposed to American culture than you haven't seen Star Wars?
WHY would you desecrate Yoda like that?! I'm very upset. But not as upset as I am that somebody hasn't seen Star Wars.