The Right Lane update 3.06.13

The pursuit of Constitutionally grounded governance, free markets and individual liberty

"There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily." --George Washington

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Budget Politics By Thomas Sowell

Back in my teaching days, many years ago, one of the things I liked to ask the class to consider was this: Imagine a government agency with only two tasks: (1) building statues of Benedict Arnold and (2) providing life-saving medications to children. If this agency's budget were cut, what would it do?  The answer, of course, is that it would cut back on the medications for children. Why? Because that would be what was most likely to get the budget cuts restored. If they cut back on building statues of Benedict Arnold, people might ask why they were building statues of Benedict Arnold in the first place. 

The example was deliberately extreme as an illustration. But, in the real world, the same general pattern can be seen in local, state and national government responses to budget cuts.  At the local level, the first response to budget cuts is often to cut the police department and the fire department. There may be all sorts of wasteful boondoggles that could have been cut instead, but that would not produce the public alarm that reducing police protection and fire protection can produce. And public alarm is what can get budget cuts restored.  The Obama administration is following the same pattern. The Department of Homeland Security, for example, released thousands of illegal aliens from prisons to save money — and create alarm.  The Federal Aviation Administration says it is planning to cut back on the number of air traffic controllers, which would, at a minimum, create delays for airline passengers, in addition to fears for safety that can create more public alarm.  

Republicans in the House of Representatives have offered to pass legislation giving President Obama the authority to pick and choose what gets cut — anywhere in the trillions of dollars of federal spending — rather than being hemmed in by the arbitrary provisions of the sequester.  This would minimize the damage done by budget cuts concentrated in limited areas, such as the Defense Department. But it serves Obama's interest to maximize the damage and the public alarm, which he can direct against Republicans.

President Obama has said that he would veto legislation to let him choose what to cut. That should tell us everything we need to know about the utter cynicism of this glib man.

The sequester creates more visible damage and more public alarm than if the president were given the authority to trim a little here and a little there in the vast trillions of dollars spent by the government, in order to make a relatively small "cut" that still leaves total federal spending higher than last year.  Only in Washington is a reduction in the rate of growth of spending called a "cut." Moreover, costly boondoggles not covered by the sequester can continue and grow.

Obviously Obama wants public alarm, which he can use to help defeat the Republicans in the 2014 elections, so that Democrats can take back control of the House of Representatives.

When Obama was offered the authority to make the spending cuts wherever he chooses, anywhere in the government's multi-trillion dollar budget, it was the only power that this power-grabbing president has rejected.  Why? Because with this new power would go responsibility for the consequences of his choices. And responsibility for consequences is precisely what both the Obama administration and the Senate Democrats have been avoiding for years, by refusing to pass a federal budget, as required by the Constitution of the United States.  Democrats prefer to get the political benefits from handing out goodies, while Republicans can be blamed for not subsequently raising enough taxes to pay for the Democrats' spending spree.

If Obama succeeds in maneuvering the Republicans into positions that cause them to lose control of the House of Representatives in the 2014 elections, then as a president who never has to face the voters again, he would be in an ideal position to create a big spending liberals' heaven.  But it will be far from heaven for the economy, with Obama-appointed bureaucrats burying businesses in red tape and job-killing costs, while expanding the size and arbitrary powers of government. We could become the world's largest banana republic.  Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA

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Can You Answer This Left-Wing Defender of Controlled Local Markets?  Written by Gary North

I wrote an article on a far-Left critic of the free market. His name is James Howard Kunstler. You can read it here: http://www.garynorth.com/public/10717.cfm. He responded in the tried and true way that most Lefties respond when they cannot answer your arguments. He cried “fascist.” Better than that: he cried “corn-pone Nazi.” You can read his response here: http://kunstler.com/blog/2013/03/reply-to-gary-north.html  Can you answer him? If you can’t, you do not understand the logic of the free market. Then you have a problem. You should be able to handle this poorly equipped fellow without much trouble. But if you cannot follow my arguments or his, you need to read Henry Hazlitt’s little book, Economics in One Lesson (1946). Click the title to download your free copy. Here’s a tip. Read my article. Then read his. Can you write down my three major points? Can you write down his refutations?

Did he offer any refutations?

Question: Has he ever heard of Amazon?

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Obama in Guns-to-Jihadists Cover-Up?

In a radio interview, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, questioned whether the Obama administration may be covering up the role played by the CIA annex in Benghazi in a possible scheme to run guns to rebels in the Middle East. The annex was attacked Sept. 11 along with the special U.S. mission in Benghazi. Charged Paul: “There has been a lot made of the political cover up of President Obama’s administration saying this (Benghazi attack) had something to do with a homemade film from some guy in Los Angeles. But in reality the question is, or the secondary quotation is, why would they do a cover up? What are they covering up?”  Paul said he has “a feeling that it had something to do with the CIA annex. You know, a week before the ambassador was killed in Libya, a ship left Libya and docked in Turkey, and it actually interviewed the captain of that ship who said there were arms on board and that he actually witnessed the rebels taking the arms and disputing over who got what,” he said. “That there were grenade launchers; that there were significant arms being transferred.

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Poll: Most Support Strengthening Borders Before Other Immigration Reforms

Large majorities of American voters favor strengthening border security to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the country, and creating a path to citizenship for those already here.

A Fox News national poll released Monday finds 84 percent of voters favor stricter border security, while fewer than one in seven oppose it (13 percent).

Support is also strong for creating a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, as long as they meet certain requirements such as paying back taxes, learning English and passing a background check. Some 72 percent of voters favor that, while 25 percent are opposed.

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Senator: White House Providing Us Memos to Justify Drone Use

The Senate Intelligence Committee is scheduled to vote on President Barack Obama’s pick to lead the CIA after weeks of wrangling with the White House over access to top-secret information about the use of lethal drone strikes against terror suspects, and the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. On Tuesday, Feinstein announced that the White House is providing the panel with all of the top-secret Justice Department memos that justify the use of lethal drone strikes against terror suspects– including American citizens. But Glenn Beck said on his radio program Tuesday that Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) could break previously-unheard information about the American drone program later in the day. Beck said of the potential announcement: “If this is true, which Rand says it is, I think — maybe the biggest story in our lifetime?”

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Colorado Dem to Rape Survivor: A Gun Wouldn’t Have Helped You Against Rapist Because ‘Statistics Are Not on Your Side’

The Left will not accept any scenario that is not in line with their ideology: guns are bad no matter.  Rape survivor Amanda Collins bravely spoke about her horrific attack during a Monday legislative hearing concerning Colorado’s proposed ban on concealed firearms on college campuses. She explained how she wished she would’ve had a firearm to defend herself from her rapist, which could have possibly prevented the attack from occurring. After calling her story “unsettling,” Democratic state Sen. Evie Hudak quickly went after Collins, saying “actually, statistics are not on your side, even if you had a gun.” “You said that you were a martial arts student, I mean person, experienced in Tae Kwon Do, and yet because this individual was so large, was able to overcome you even with your skills, and chances are that if you had had a gun, then he would have been able to get that from you and possibly use it against you,” she added. Hudak claimed that for every one woman who used a handgun to kill someone in self-defense, 83 were murdered by them. “Respectfully senator, you weren’t there,” Collins said before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday. “Had I been carrying concealed, he wouldn’t have known I had my weapon; and I was there. I know without a doubt in my mind at some point I would’ve been able to stop my attack by using my firearm.”

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