cross-posted from the Pennsylvania Tenth Amendment Center
According to wikipedia,
“The Liberty Song” is an American Revolutionary War song composed by patriot John Dickinson, the author of Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania. The song is set to the tunes of “Heart of Oak”, the anthem of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom and “Here’s a Health”, an Irish song of emigration. The song itself was first published in the Boston Gazette in July 1768. Continue Reading →
cross-posted from the Pennsylvania Tenth Amendment Center
I was pleased to deliver the presentation below to the Philadelphia Tea Party Patriots of Central Montgomery County on Thursday evening (September 8, 2011). It was encouraging to see this group in action, with it’s focus on the core issues of Fiscal Responsibility, Constitutionally Limited Government and Free Markets. Central Montgomery County is one of the areas in Pennsylvania with its own unique Tenth Amendment history.
We would like to say “Thank you” to the group and its leadership for the opportunity to visit. You can use the contact page to get in touch with us about speaking to your group. Continue Reading →
cross-posted from the Pennsylvania Tenth Amendment Center
I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a Glenn Beck fan, but I do listen to his program fairly regularly. My family and I went to his 8/28 rally last year, and I used to watch his show on the Fox News Channel when I had the opportunity. Usually, when I’m listening to his program, I am also engaged in other activities, so I don’t really pay attention very well, but I have picked up on some common themes.
One early theme on his Fox News show was his claimed conversion to libertarianism. Many in the Liberty community remain skeptical. I agree with that sentiment in that although Beck has moved towards a philosophy of Liberty, he still doesn’t seem to have completely internalized the idea that government is violence. I certainly don’t agree with everything he says, and I have found many of his topics during the last year much less interesting than in the past, but I still give him credit for raising awareness about Liberty and the ongoing Constitutional overreach from the federal government. Anyway, as they say, even a broken clock is right twice a day, so it’s not unreasonable to think he might be right about some of his ideas.
*Source - http://goo.gl/iMoKc
The idea I want to talk about in this essay is Beck’s idea that the economy is on its way to a “melt down”. Continue Reading →
cross-posted from the Pennsylvania Tenth Amendment Center
In Rethinking Calhoun at First Principles, The ISI Web Journal, Adam Tate reviews the book “Majority Rule versus Consensus: The Political Thought of John C. Calhoun . Concluding,
Read’s Majority Rule versus Consensus ultimately finds Calhoun’s argumentation unsatisfying and unhelpful for modern political problems. In the last chapter Read provides numerous examples of the difficulties in applying Calhoun’s consensus model to republican systems elsewhere in the world, particularly in South Africa, Yugoslavia, and Northern Ireland. He concludes: “Constitutional checks and institutional design can only do so much to limit the diseases to which democracy is subject. Beyond that point, the health of democracy depends upon the leaders we elect and the politics we ourselves practice.” In finding Calhoun’s theory lacking, Read leaves the reader in a dilemma Calhoun himself feared. Neither the party system nor the Madisonian extended republic combined with a supreme national government has protected American liberty (as understood by the Founding generation) adequately. Two solutions might be considered. First, the problem of scale, as philosopher Donald Livingston calls it, might indicate that the current republic is simply too large. Second, state sovereignty could be asserted more aggressively against claims of national sovereignty. And indeed, we have recently witnessed facets of such a politics in reaction to certain policies of the Obama administration. Yet both solutions led to secession once before in American history. Even with the tensions that Read identifies, Calhoun’s theoretical efforts, shorn of the connection to slavery and race, might still be instructive for those who value both union and liberty.
While this review might not get a stamp of approval from Rachel Maddow, it is an interesting read. Go read the whole thing, here.
In 2007, the Washington Post reported, “Warren Buffet Slams Tax System Disparities“, reporting:
Warren E. Buffett was his usual folksy self Tuesday night at a fundraiser for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) as he slammed a system that allows the very rich to pay taxes at a lower rate than the middle class.
Buffett cited himself, the third-richest person in the world, as an example. Last year, Buffett said, he was taxed at 17.7 percent on his taxable income of more than $46 million. His receptionist was taxed at about 30 percent.
Last week, Buffett himself wrote an Op-Ed in the NY Times asking the government to “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich“. Buffett wrote, Continue Reading →
cross-posted from the Pennsylvania Tenth Amendment Center
At about 36 minutes into this video (watch the whole thing), Tom Woods incorporates discussion of five propositions from An Exposition of the Virginia Resolutions of 1798 by Abel P. Upshur,
1.) That the Constitution of the United States is a compact between the states, as such. Continue Reading →
cross-posted from the Pennsylvania Tenth Amendment Center
We already have a balanced budget amendment. It’s called the Tenth Amendment
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cross-posted from the Pennsylvania Tenth Amendment Center
Personally, I’m not big on the balanced budget amendment either. I think the 2/3 override vote will become a “rubber stamp” for future congresses (if there’s one thing both parties can agree on, it’s spending money!) and Constitutionally limited spending would be less than 18% of GDP anyway. Rep. Schwartz’ commentary is stunning, though. Balancing the budget is an “extreme ideological demand”? I would have guessed that continuing to spend ourselves into poverty would be be the “extreme” position. Silly me… Have to brush up on my newspeak, I guess.
(from Above Average Jane.) Continue Reading →
cross-posted from the Pennsylvania Tenth Amendment Center
Until the debt ceiling was established in 1917, congress had to separately approve every new debt that the government took on. The debt ceiling was established to make it faster and easier for the treasury department to borrow money during WWI. Predictably, the war ended, but the treasury department’s expanded power didn’t. When peace time came, the congress never reclaimed it’s Constitutional role for managing the U.S. debt.
Now, 94 years and 14 trillion dollars later, we’re periodically treated to this theatrical performance where the party in power threatens catastrophe if the debt ceiling isn’t raised and the minority party claims the mantle of fiscal responsibility in order to score political points for the next election.
This year, the Republicans get their turn claiming to be the thrifty ones, but it wasn’t that way five years ago. In 2006, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid said,
How can the Republican majority in this Congress explain to their constituents that trillions of dollars in new debt is good for our economy? How can they explain that they think it’s fair to force our children, our grandchildren, our great grandchildren to finance this debt through higher taxes. That’s what it will have to be. Why is it right to increase our nation’s dependence on foreign creditors?
After the 2006 elections, in her iconic “One Hundred Hours” essay in the Huffington Post, house Democrat Speaker to-be, Nancy Pelosi wrote, Continue Reading →
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