“…Perhaps ‘restraint’ would in some respect be a more suitable word [as opposed to coercion] if it was always remembered that in its strict sense it presupposes the action of a restraining human agent. In this sense, it usefully reminds us that the infringements on liberty consist largely in people’s being prevented from doing things, while ‘coercion’ emphasizes their being made to do particular things. Both aspects are equally important: to be precise, we should probably define liberty as the absence of restraint and constraint… Freedom necessarily means that many things will be done which we do not like. Our faith in freedom does not rest on the foreseeable results in particular circumstance but on the belief that it will, on balance, release more forces for the good than the bad… The freedom that will be used by only one man in a million may be more important to society and more beneficial to the majority than any freedom that we all use.” F.A. Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty
“[The President] shall have the power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate… [to nominate]… Judges of the supreme court…” U.S. Const. Art. II § 2.
Hello Everyone, Happy Hump Day!
Lots of topics to discuss today, I hope you all came prepared. And a lot more to go as we come closer to November 3, 2020. Today we start with two of my favorites, economics and the United States Constitution.
Well, that was one hell of a debate last night, if that’s what we’re going to call it. There were many things stated last night, many things—if you could have made out what was said. Trump is an entertainer; and boy did he not let us down.
Regardless of what you think of the debate, whether Trump or Biden “won,” there were a few crucial takeaways that we are going to discuss. Biden did not have a dementia moment; Trump was Trump. Are we really all shocked that is how the debate went? We have two more of those, cannot believe these debates are not PPV.
I have a feeling Trump will be acting presidential in the next debate. The man did write the book on negotiations. May just be my own opinion, but we will all watch the next one and find out.
Man, oh man, hope you all have snagged some popcorn, Election Season is really heating up like our fires in Commiefornia. As the President pointed out last night, very easy to fix. I have been saying this for years. Huh. Interesting. So much for the left in politics “listening to the scientific experts.”
Commiefornia has been run by which party, for decades, again? Let me be clear: I cannot wait for what is in store for our October Surprises. Election Season took off sizzling, starting with the unfortunate passing of RBG and the subsequent nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to replace her. And another failed stimulus talk today.
Which, by the way, we do not need and should not pass. We are already running a $3.3 trillion dollar deficit, and any more money spent by Congress, the more printing at the Fed. We should open up the economy and let American ingenuity create ways and use the methods we have been taught and can develop to stop the spread. Was it not supposed to be only fifteen days? Odd. Also, what happened to being able to make our own decisions for ourselves? I don’t remember H1N1 shutting down the economy. H1N1 was the sole cause of death for more people so far and infected, as it stands right now, 56 million more people. Interesting.
That being said, all partisan politics aside, it is up to the President and the United States Senate to Nominate and Confirm, respectively, a Justice to the Supreme Court of the United States. It is not up to the year, nor Biden, nor “experts,” nor people on Twitter, Facebook, The New York Times, Washington Post, Murkowski, Collins, Clinton, Obama, and whomever else to determine when to nominate and confirm the nominee.
We heard in 2016, from Obama and Democrats, that it does not matter when a vacancy on the Supreme Court occurs. If you really, really, think about it, Republicans, did give their advice, just not consent, to Judge Garland. Sometimes the best advice is simple: no. Plus, if there was a hearing, would he really have been confirmed in a Republican-controlled Senate? So, sounds like, to me, Republicans saved our most valuable asset: time. Oh, and taxpayer money. Republicans are seemingly better with asset allocation and value saving. In my opinion, we true conservatives, do it better.
But, as mentioned above, we have a Constitution and it clearly lays out the rules of how our government is to operate. Remember, here, in the United States of America, we are under the Rule of Law, not the rule of men. The Constitution of the United States expressly states it is the Supreme Law of the [United States]. U.S. Const. Art VI. Cl 2. Thus, to what Biden, Democrat Establishment, et. al., have been saying, “let the people choose in this election” or “the nomination is on the ballot.”
I do not care who has said that. Not up to them. That would be the rule of men, not the Rule of Law. That is not how we do it here, nor should we ever.
Wait, some Republicans have said the same stuff. Please reference the preceding paragraph for the same principle and application of my opinion.
We the People elected Donald J. Trump for President of the United States in 2016. His term in office does not end until January 20, 2021. We the People chose the President until that point, and he has a duty to protect, defend, and preserve the United States Constitution. It would be a dereliction of duty for him and the Senate to not nominate and not give advice, respectively, to Judge BAErrett. She is bae and deserves such consideration. Personally, I think after what occurred during the confirmation hearings of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, that is a major factor for the Dems not wanting the confirmation hearings.
Plus, Republicans are only playing by the rules Democrats established.
It was former-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) who ended the 60-vote requirement for Federal Judges and Supreme Court Justices’ confirmation. And back then, Grim Reaper Mitch McConnell, before it was taken to a vote, warned that Democrats would come to regret it. And, well, here we are, again. Maybe filibusters are vital to the life of a Republic. Whoever would have thought that.
I digress. Time for our topic of discussion for today.
Freedom vs Tyranny: A Tale of Two Visions
The Supreme Court, Economics, & Other Thoughts
One of the most striking differences between the candidates’ records for Americans is that Donald Trump’s does not only lead us back on the road to prosperity, but also strengthens our individual freedoms. He does have a stellar track record of such accomplishments and protecting that “pesky” and “outdated” Founding Document—which I wish he mentioned more of last night, but I did also enjoy the WWE match.
Moreover, not any small thing, continuing a foreign policy of Peace through Strength. Have we started any new wars recently? I know we essentially have ended a few and prevented more. Maybe one of the titles to his post-second-term biographies could be titled The Art of the Deal Two: The Middle East Deal ©.
Interesting.
Anyway, the other candidate’s platform would send us right into a depression and based on his past foreign policy, drop bombs all over the middle east and send it into complete disarray. I repeat, Biden’s actual platform and policies, legislation he wants to implement, not a manufactured Chinese Virus released on the world, would cause a depression.
Economic freedom is a prerequisite to individual freedoms—let us never forget that. Whatever your effective tax rate is; that is the percentage amount of time you work for the government, for free. Raise taxes; more time working for the government. You know, if you could find a job during a Biden Depression. Obama’s inherited Recession recovery was the slowest recovery on record—and we barely missed a Round Two during his second term, a few times. Lastly, regarding Biden, a depression is worse than a recession. Food for thought.
Moreover, if it were not for the soon-to-occur confirmation of soon-to-be Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Democrats, under a Harris… I mean Biden Administration, would continue to use the Supreme Court as their way of bypassing Congress and our Constitution. They have been doing that since FDR and, wait for it, him threatening to pack the Supreme Court. Why is it when the Democrat Establishment does not get their way, they start making threats? Did someone not get spanked by their mothers? (Sarcasm…slightly.)
After FDR threatened to pack the Court, he was able to, all of a sudden, get his unconstitutional directives under the New Deal, magically, not being shot down anymore by SCOTUS. Wickard v. Filburn, inter alia.
Laws are written by elected officials. Words have specific meanings. It is up to Judges and Justices to interpret the words within the four corners of documents at their common meaning when those laws, amendments, or the Constitution were passed and ratified. When they run in conflict of the Constitution, they should be struck down. Oddly, one of Biden’s favorite “accomplishments” was the Violence Against Women Act—which was struck down as unconstitutional in the case United States v. Morrison. Odd. I thought Biden went to law school?
The interpretation method of Judges and Justices, such as Merrick Garland and our Current SCOTUS Liberal Minority, are to, tinker, with definitions to fit the judges’ preconceived conclusion of what the law ought to be. “You do what you think is right and wait for the law to catch up” Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall. Furthermore, Roe v. Wade, one of the most abhorrent decisions ever passed is a decision even prominent liberal legal scholars admit it was wrongly decided.
Because, shockingly, there is no right in the Constitution to murder the unborn life in the womb. The “rights” were found in the “penumbras and emanations” of the Constitution. The Propaganda Machine behind the pro-murder side is quite powerful, sometimes good people fall to its deception.
And, in years past, the pro-life messaging was weak. I am not afraid to admit, this author, many, many years ago, was “well I don’t agree with it, but it’s a woman’s choice.” But views change when you stop listening to sound bites and start researching on your own. And forming your own opinions. And grow a spine, something Biden lacks. Want a constitutional right to abortion? There is an amendment process.
Back to Biden and the Democrat talking point calling this “Trump’s recession.” For all the talk the last three years of Trump being a fascist, a Nazi, blah, blah, blah, he is not the one who ordered and mandated the shutdowns. The Governors did, as is their prerogative under the Sovereign States’ Police Powers and the Vertical Separation of Powers. Forcefully sending us into a depression, when we could also, not, does not sound much like freedom and liberty. Remember that come election day because one candidate’s policies would do exactly that—in the face of a plethora of history saying “hey, those policies, bad ideas.”
Cannot really be Trump’s recession when he did not cause it, can it? Biden would shut down the economy even longer and more severe, if ever elected. Which, again, not the President’s powers to do so. Yet, we all remember how little the Obama/Biden administration cared for the Constitution.
Biden last night admitted that his economic plan, if we can even call it that, would raise taxes by $5 trillion over the next decade and “increase Gross Domestic Product by $2 trillion” in the same time frame. That is not even 1% of 2019’s GDP. As stated before here in this column, anyone who says raising tax rates will increase Gross Domestic Product is a nut—especially the “economic experts.”
It is quite simple, really. Gross Domestic Product and Real Disposable Income are not the same. Gross Domestic Product is the entire economic output of a country. Real Disposable Income, i.e. income after taxes, in 2019 was about three-quarters of GDP. One person’s spending is another person’s income. When taxes become raised, people spend less (and so do corporations and companies). So how is that going to create more jobs and increase and grow GDP? I’ll wait.
Funny thing, Biden mentioned last night how all our big corporations and large companies “do not pay much in taxes.” If they do not, I guess it must fall on some other types—and it is a tax he wants to raise? Regardless, this may be true for some companies in the Fortune 500 or public ones. Because of, as Trump mentioned last night, all of the wonderful tax loopholes the ultra-rich get to use because they get to hire fancy lobbyists. The rest of us get the standard deduction, which isn’t even pegged to inflation.
Moreover, there are provisions in the tax code that allow companies to roll over years where the company had no net income, i.e. they were “in the red.” And other such types of losses. That is because we are a capitalist country and we encourage private enterprise because we want more economic opportunity for all. And if it were not for such tax provisions, many more companies would go under. Who does that affect the most? The executives who make more; or the employees?
What we really should do is lower the corporate tax rate to, at the very least, 15% to make us competitive on the world stage, not raise it back up. And if we could, lower it to 10%. Yes, businesses operate to make a profit, but as we see studies from the effects of the TCJA from the last three years—where we lowered the corporate tax rate to 21%—wages grew the most and the fastest ever for those without a college degree, women, minorities, and those in the lower tax brackets.
Oh, and that pesky wealth gap shrank, and the top earners actually lost in income gains—because their tax rates became higher. Still, not a fan of higher taxes. Why is it that it is greedy to want to keep more of your own hard-earned money, but not greedy to want to take more of people’s hard-earned money? And, as previously stated, one person’s income is another person’s spending.
Ironically, the wealth gap and incomes for the top 10% grew the most during 2013-2016. Who was president and vice president then? Biden talks well, his 47 years in government has a terrible track record, though.
Economics is essential to freedom. Our Constitution is a document that not only the President must preserve, protect, and defend; Presidents just take the oath of office upon inauguration. We the People can do it too.
“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” Henry Ford.
