Voice For Liberty

Category: United States government

  • Stop spending our future

    It’s hard to comprehend the spending by the federal government over the last year. The numbers are so large, the spending programs announced so quickly, one after another, that sometimes we need to step back and take a look at the big picture. When we do, it’s quite terrifying, especially when we realize that the Obama administration and Congress have several more large programs to pass.

    A video that places these programs and spending in context is available from StopSpendingOurFuture.org. It’s short and to the point. The companion website, a joint effort of The Heritage Foundation and Americans for Prosperity Foundation, provides additional information and background.

  • Paygo rule meaningless, harmful

    In a letter printed in yesterday’s Wichita Eagle, Doug Ittner of Wichita promotes the benefit of a rule known as “paygo.” The purpose of this rule is to force budget discipline on Congress. As the Washington Post’s David Broder wrote in that newspaper in June: “[Paygo’s] key provision requires that any new tax cut or entitlement increase be paid for by an offsetting reduction in other programs or a tax increase. If, for example, you want to guarantee child care for every working mother or provide her with a payroll tax cut, you would have to find savings or revenue elsewhere of equal size.”

    It sounds like Congress has suddenly been overtaken by reason, doesn’t it?

    If only it were so.

    The reality is that the paygo rule is so feckless as to be meaningless. In fact, the rule causes great harm. By sounding tough, the existence of the rule leaves apparently naive citizens like Mr. Ittner to conclude that things are under control in Washington. But things are far from under control, and this illusion of control is quite harmful.

    A good article to read to understand how paygo works is the Wall Street Journal article The ‘Paygo’ Coverup from June. Here are some of the points it makes.

    • When Democrats took over Congress in 2006, Speaker Nancy Pelosi imposed paygo rules. What happened? “By 2008, Speaker Pelosi had let those rules lapse no fewer than 12 times, to make way for $400 billion in deficit spending.”
    • President Obama campaigned on paygo, and the deficit has exploded by an unprecedented amount since he took office.
    • “Paygo only applies to new or expanded entitlement programs, not to existing programs such as Medicare.” Existing entitlements consume the lion’s share of federal spending, so paygo doesn’t apply to much of the problem.
    • Paygo doesn’t apply to discretionary spending.
    • Congress classifies spending to circumvent paygo. “… the 2010 budget resolution included a $2 billion increase for low-income heating assistance as an entitlement change that should be subject to paygo. But Congressional Democrats simply classified it as discretionary spending, thereby avoiding the need for $2 billion in cuts elsewhere.
    • “The other goal of this new paygo campaign is to make it easier to raise taxes in 2011, and impossible to cut taxes for years after that.”

    Even the liberal David Broder, in his Washington Post piece, recognizes that the current law is “full of loopholes,” as the title of his article indicates.

    We’d be better off without this meaningless rule, so full of loopholes, that lets politicians promote the illusion of controlling the federal budget.

  • GovTrack.us helps citizens watch Congress

    The website GovTrack.us is a great resource for citizens who are interested in the United States Congress. With the rapid expansion of government in the recent past, this is something we should all be concerned with.

    By using GovTrack.us, you can search for bills by their bill number, words in the bill, the bill sponsors, and other ways. Once you’ve found the bill, you can read its text and see its status as it works its way through Congress. What’s really useful is to add a tracker to the bill, so that you can be notified — either on the site itself or through email or RSS feed — when there’s new information about the bill.

    If you’re interested in information about particular members of Congress, you can find them by name, zip code, or by clicking on a map. Once found, GovTrack.us reports some useful information.

    One thing reported is the member’s position across the political spectrum. This is done through a statistical analysis of cosponsorship of bills. Kansas Sen. Brownback is identified through this analysis as a “far-right Republican,” while Sen. Roberts is a “rank-and-file Republican.”

    This analysis also reports that Roberts is “somewhere between a leader and a follower,” according to sponsorship of bills. Brownback is rated the same.

    The page for each member also reports approval ratings from SurveyUSA and an analysis of missed votes. It also holds a link to the page at the Center for Responsive Politics, which lets you see information about campaign contributions. Information about committee membership and bill sponsorship and cosponsorship round out this page.

    You can also add a member to your tracking page, so you can receive email updates when new information becomes available.

    This website is a useful resource for citizens to keep with with Congress.

  • Sonia Sotomayor: We don’t make law (hee hee)

    One of the names that’s surfacing as a potential Supreme Court justice is Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

    Those who believe that judges should interpret the law and not create new law from the bench should be alarmed that this person’s name is in consideration.

    In this video from a conference in 2005, Sotomayor displays her contempt for the proper roll of judges. Her attitude is more like what we might expect of a guest on The View or The Ellen DeGeneres Show — either of which will probably be happening soon.

    Part of her remarks: “I know this is on tape and I should never say that because we don’t make law I know [audience laughter] … um, I, okay, I know, I know….I’m not promoting it, I’m not advocating it, I’m, you know [Sotomayor laughter] okay.”

  • Social security believers call in

    Two short opinion line blurbs in today’s Wichita Eagle will leave readers who believe what they say with a dangerous belief. Here’s the first:

    “Social Security is socialism, and guess what? It works.”

    The second, in part reads “Social Security is not socialism. It is insurance. I paid into it for 47 years before collecting a dime at age 65.”

    First, whether social security is “socialism” is not really important. That word is over-used today in ways that are far removed from its proper and original meaning.

    How does Social security work? A little background first.

    On a “Yahoo Answers” forum, someone wrote this in an attempt to explain how Social security works: “Instead the govt. takes charge of that money and invests it for us.” This statement is false in any meaningful sense. What the government does with the social security tax revenue it collects is to first write checks to people who are collecting social security. It then loans the rest to other government agencies, who promptly spend it. The Social Security Administration receives bonds from the government agencies it lends to, but these agencies will have to pay back these bonds with future tax revenues. This isn’t investment in any meaningful sense. It’s just delaying the collection of taxes to future taxpayers.

    Presently, Social Security collects more in taxes than it pays in benefits. But that will start changing soon. In fact, this day is fast approaching. According to the Cato Institute: “[Congressional Budget Office] reports that the Social Security surplus, originally expected to be $80-90 billion this year and next will shrink to $16 billion this year and just $3 billion next year (essentially a rounding error) as a result of the recession and rising unemployment. And those estimates may be far too optimistic. In February of this year, for example, Social Security actually ran a deficit — spending more than it took in through taxes and interest combined.”

    Once the Social Security system starts running a deficit, Congress will be forced to do something. The basic tools Congress has are to raise taxes and reduce benefits. Congress will probably always make the Social Security system “work,” in the sense that benefits will be paid. Whether these benefits are paid at great expense to younger workers in the form of high taxes, or whether benefits are reduced, or whether benefits are paid in dollars whose value is greatly reduced by inflation remains to be seen.

    For more information, visit these sources:
    Project on Social Security Choice at the Cato Institute.
    Social Security Reform Center, a project of the Heritage Foundation.

  • Mike Pompeo congressional launch committee announced

    Advance release for readers of the Voice For Liberty in Wichita.

    Wichita businessman Mike Pompeo has formed a launch committee to support his bid for the United States House of Representatives from the fourth congressional district of Kansas. Additional information will be forthcoming as it becomes available.

    The fourth district includes Wichita, Sedgwick County, and much of south-central Kansas. Todd Tiahrt of Goddard currently represents this district. This seat is open because Tiahrt is running for the United States Senate.

    Pompeo is the National Committeeman for the State of Kansas, and is one of three Kansas members on the Republican National Committee.

    Members of the launch committee are:

    Linda & Roy Baker, Wichita
    Adam & Ellen Beren, Wichita
    C. Douglas Blex, Independence
    Bob & Martha Buford, Wichita
    Kenya Cox, Wichita
    Chuck & Susie Grier, Wichita
    Bud Hentzen, Wichita
    Mark K. Herbert, Wichita
    Al & Judy Higdon, Wichita
    Tony & Michele Isaac, Wichita
    Dwight Keen, Winfield
    Tyson Langhofer, Andover
    Rick Macias, Wichita
    Doug Malone, Wichita
    Steven J. Martens, Wichita
    Nancy A. & John D. McEwen, Augusta
    Mike & Dee Michaelis, Wichita
    Scott Redler, Wichita
    Lisa Ritchie, Wichita
    Todd & Julie Sipe, Wichita
    Harvey R. Sorensen, Wichita
    Dan & Kate Taylor, Andover
    Jeff & Rhonda Turner, Wichita
    Dan Unruh, Wichita
    Jerry Wallace, Cherryvale
    Sheryl Wohlford, Wichita

  • Be Wary of Government Control of Health Care

    In Canada, some patients have to travel to the United States for life-saving medical treatment. Patients are also denied to right to pay for their own treatment in Canada, as was the case of a 57-year old man denied a hip replacement operation by the government.

    The Wall Street Journal article “Too Old” for Hip Surgery: As we inch towards nationalized health care, important lessons from north of the border reports on these and other cases of how health care is rationed in Canada. “The experiences of these Canadians — along with the untold stories of the 750,794 citizens waiting a median of 17.3 weeks from mandatory general-practitioner referrals to treatment in 2008 — show how miserable things can get when government is put in charge of managing health insurance.”

  • Kansas Senator Dick Kelsey Announces for Congress

    On Friday Kansas Senator Dick Kelsey announced that he is a candidate for the United States Congress. Kelsey seeks the seat presently held by Todd Tiahrt, who is running for United States Senate. The Wichita Eagle covered the announcement in the story State Sen. Dick Kelsey to run for Tiahrt’s congressional seat.

    A question I asked Kelsey afterwards is if Tiahrt will endorse a successor. Kelsey said that he doesn’t believe Tiahrt will make an endorsement, and he doesn’t think he should. Tiahrt, he said, needs every friend he can get in his run for the Senate.

    What about the primary between Tiahrt and Jerry Moran? Many Republicans want to avoid this primary. Kelsey said that a positive primary will not hurt, and in response to my suggestion, said that a spending limit would be great.

  • Todd Tiahrt on the Kansas Senate Primary

    At Friday’s meeting of the Wichita Pachyderm Club, United States Congressman for the fourth district of Kansas Todd Tiahrt was the speaker. Dion Lefler of the Wichita Eagle covered Tiaht’s speech in the news story Tiahrt offers thoughts on Obama, stimulus to Wichita Pachyderm Club. After the meeting I spoke to the congressman and asked a few questions.

    One topic that seems to be on the minds of many Republicans is the desire to avoid a prolonged primary battle for the United States Senate seat between Tiahrt and Kansas first district congressman Jerry Moran. I asked Tiahrt if it’s important to avoid this conflict.

    “Everybody that’s concerned about that ought to get on my team right away. That would be the most significant thing that would eliminate a primary.” Tiahrt added that people are looking for someone who gets the job done. He said that I’m the one who gets the job done, and that our senators come to my office, not Moran’s, when things need to get done in the House.

    I asked if he and Rep. Moran could come to some agreement to avoid a messy primary, perhaps expenditure limits. Tiahrt would not make a commitment to such an agreement unilaterally and said “I’m going to do what it takes to win.” Voters in Kansas have a right to know the records of both candidates, he said, and limiting resources might limit his ability to get out the message.

    Many local Republicans are expressing interest in replacing Tiahrt in Congress. So does he have a favorite? “We have a lot of quality candidates” was his diplomatic response.