by State Sen. Mike Folmer (PA-48)

Tem·po·rar·y – an adjective meaning lasting, used, serving, or enjoyed for a limited time. Derived from the Latin tempora rius, from tempus, tempor-, time.  Synonyms include temporary, acting, ad interim, interim, provisional. Antonym is permanent.

Governor Rendell continues to press for a temporary, 16 percent increase in the Personal Income Tax (PIT), which he argues is the state’s “best option” to balance the state budget. Continue Reading

by State Sen. Mike Folmer (PA-48)

In 1819 U.S. Supreme Court decision “McCullough v. Maryland,” Chief Justice John Marshall wrote, “An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation.”

Today, 190 years later, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has called for a 16 percent increase in the Personal Income Tax, saying, “The simple truth is we have no good choices. There are no shortcuts out of this crisis, no magic bullets, no painless path out of this morass. We can do the easy thing for the moment or the right thing for Pennsylvania’s future. The fairest plan is to spread the pain across the board, and let our economic recovery begin.”

I disagree higher taxes are good for Pennsylvania’s future or economic recovery and believe we have additional choices other than raising taxes.

Our nation was founded because Americans were upset about taxes.  The colonists were angry their government spent their money without giving them a say.  Patrick Henry gave the rallying cry, “no taxation without representation.”

What would our Founding Fathers feel about our nation today?   While we have taxation with representation, we certainly are taxed…a lot. The federal government spends trillions (and incurs trillions in additional debt) and states spend billions; despite which level of government (federal, state, county, municipal, or school district) spending you refer to, it is all taxpayer money – your money.

Regardless if you advocate for larger government or smaller government, one thing is certain – government is getting bigger and the private sector is getting smaller, particularly in Pennsylvania.  This certainly was not the vision of Founding Fathers like Thomas Paine, who said, “that government is best which governs least.”

Governor Rendell said his proposed tax increase will “only” cost taxpayers a few dollars each week.  He also said the burden will not fall upon those least able to pay, and insists the increase will be “temporary” (hopefully, more temporary than the Johnstown Flood Tax of 1936).

How we spend the people’s money – your money – does matter.  Taxes should always be the last resort – especially during troubled economic times. People are hurting, jobs are being lost, and the future is uncertain.  Government is the only entity that seems to grow and ask for more when money is tight.

We should not – and we cannot – forget the principles on which our nation was founded:  fair taxes, transparency in the expenditure of those dollars, and recognition that those who pay the bills should not be expected to pay more.  It’s your money.  Government needs to live within its means and not expect any more from you when they don’t.

Mike Folmer [send him email] of Lebanon, Pennsylvania is a Pennsylvania State Senator who represents the 48th Senate district, which includes all of Lebanon County and portions of Berks, Chester, Dauphin and Lancaster Counties.

by Walter E. Williams

“Live Free or Die” is the title of author and columnist Mark Steyn’s speech at Hillsdale College, reproduced in Imprimis (April 2009), a Hillsdale publication that’s free for the asking. Canadian born, now living in New Hampshire, Steyn has had firsthand experience with socialist tyranny in his home country that is rapidly becoming a part of America.

Commenting on one of his run-ins with Canada’s human rights commissions, Steyn points how it might seem bizarre to find the progressive left making common cause with radical Islam. One half of that alliance is pro-gay, pro-feminist secularists and the other half is homophobic, misogynist theocrats. Continue Reading

by Rep. Ron Paul

Last week, General Motors finally declared bankruptcy.  Many in government thought $20 billion in taxpayer dollars would save the company, but as predicted, it only postponed the inevitable.  The government will dump another $30 billion into GM and take a 60 percent controlling interest for it.

Public officials are now involving themselves in tactical business decisions such as where GM’s headquarters should move and what kind of cars it will build.

The promise that this is temporary and will eventually be profitable is supposed to ease the American people into accepting this arrangement, but it is of little comfort to those who remember similar promises when the American taxpayers bought Amtrak.  After three years, government was supposed to be out of the passenger rail business.

40 years and billions of dollars later, the government is still operating Amtrak at a loss, despite the fact that they have created a monopoly by making it illegal to compete with Amtrak.  Imagine what they can now do to what is left of the great American auto industry!

In a truly free market, GM would get your money one way and one way only – by selling you a car you want, at a price you are willing to pay.  Instead, the government is giving public money to a private company in spite of the market signals it has been sending.

Throwing money at GM does not stop it from being an engine of wealth destruction; on the contrary, it simply gives it more wealth to destroy.

Had it been allowed to fail naturally, the profitable pieces of GM would have been bought up and put to good use by now.  The laid off employees would likely have found new jobs and all that capital would be in private hands, reinvested in companies that produce products demanded by consumers.  Instead, we are all poorer now.

Political pressure, rather than the rule of law, is deciding how to divide up the remains of GM.  The bondholders had billions in retirement savings invested in the company, and though they were entitled to nearly three times as much as the United Auto Workers, the bondholders were left with just a 10 percent stake compared to the union’s 17.5 percent stake.   For their 60 percent stake, taxpayers have a future of constant bailouts to look forward to.

Comingling public control of private business is known as fascism.  While today’s politicians may feel emboldened with all their new power, history will only repeat itself as all this collapses on itself.

It is the height of hubris for bureaucrats and politicians to attempt to control the market and the freewill of the American people.  In the end, the market always wins out.

Maybe one day future generations will wise up and allow free markets to function and thrive without the albatross of government around its neck.  For now, it looks like those in charge have not learned the lessons of the past, and have doomed us to repeat those mistakes once again.

Ron Paul is a republican member of Congress from Texas.

by Sheldon Richman, Foundation for Economic Education

The “federal” government, particularly the executive branch, can do almost anything it wants. The limits are few, and those that survive can often be gotten around through chicanery. Much of what government does is out of public view, thanks to off-budget accounting and other dubious methods that would get the rest of us prosecuted.

Even if the average person had the time to monitor what government is up to — a tall order for sure — much of it is so esoteric for a layman as to be nearly incomprehensible. He’d have to give up his job and master several disciplines in order to do a proper job. That puts a new light on the term “educated voter.” Continue Reading

by David Kretzmann

Recently I have grown deeply concerned with the potential power grab by the central government over credit card interest rates. In a time of weak economic conditions in many industries and the overall economy in general, the White House and Congress assume they have the power and responsibility to lower credit card rates and greatly increase regulation over the industry, in order to protect the consumer. Continue Reading

by Rep Ron Paul

This week the House is expected to pass an $825 billion economic stimulus package.  In reality, this bill is just an escalation of a government-created economic mess.   As before, a sense of urgency and impending doom is being used to extract mountains of money from Congress with minimal debate.  So much for change.  This is déjà vu.  We are again being promised that its passage will help employment, help homeowners, help the environment, etc.

These promises are worthless.  Continue Reading

by Perry Willis, DownsizeDC.org

The stock market rises and then crashes. Housing prices soar and then plummet. The Federal Reserve causes these booms and busts by constantly expanding and contracting the supply of money and credit.

Credit expansion by the Federal Reserve increases the demand for producer assets and investment instruments. This causes bubbles in things like stocks and housing. When the Fed then contracts credit to avoid systemic price inflation the asset bubbles burst.

This is the history of the Federal Reserve — booms and busts, mixed with episodes of economic stagnation and high inflation like the 1970s. Continue Reading

by Rep Ron Paul

The economic situation continues to deteriorate this week as past and future bailouts were discussed on Capitol Hill.  The debate was over the accountability of already disbursed TARP money, and on whether or not to release remaining funds.   Banks that had already been bailed out before are looking for more money to fill the black holes that are their balance sheets, warning that they are simply too big to fail.

However, whatever ‘devastating’ consequences these banks are dreaming up and pushing on Capitol Hill regarding their own collapse will be nothing compared to the collapse of our currency if we keep debasing it through these foolish bailouts.  It should be that they are too big to bailout.  The world will not come to an end without this or that bank.  The most troubling thing to me is this rhetoric that only government can save the economy, and must act.  This is so counter-productive. Continue Reading

by Rep Ron Paul

The freedom to fail is an essential part of freedom.  Government- provided financial security necessitates relinquishing the very essence of freedom.  Last week, the big 3 American automakers came back to Capitol Hill with their hands out to the government.  Congress spent this past week debating how much money to give them and what strings should be attached.

Though the bailout plan for the auto industry has suffered what I would call a temporary setback in the Senate, other avenues for public funding are being explored through the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department.  I am afraid the American auto industry will soon learn that having billions rain down from Washington will not be the blessing one might expect.

The government, after it subsidizes an industry, tends to become a very demanding benefactor.  Politicians may not have any real idea about how to build a car, run a bank, educate a child, heal the sick or build a road, but they are quite adept at using carrots and sticks to manipulate and threaten those who do.  Most of the federal control over education, roads, healthcare, and now banking and soon auto manufacturing, is done through money, mandates and conditions.  Continue Reading