Root Cause.........

How Much Does The Government Know About You?

Atty. general: Ill. should release FOID card list

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. —
The Illinois attorney general says state police must release the name of everyone in the state who is authorized to own a gun.

Illinois state police determine who gets a Firearm Owners Identification card, which allows people to own guns. The police have always kept the list private.

But Attorney General Lisa Madigan's public access counselor released a letter Monday night saying the information should be public.

The Associated Press had requested the list of FOID cardholders but state police said that would violate the privacy of gun owners. The attorney general's office ruled that argument invalid.

State police officials have not said whether they will comply with the ruling.

There are Republican-sponsored bills in the Illinois House and Senate that would prohibit disclosure of the information.

Economic Freedom Is Tied To Political Freedom

"The question becomes, are you going to have everyone play by the same rules, or are you going to try to rectify the shortcomings, errors and failures of the entire cosmos? Because those things are wholly incompatible. If you're going to have people play by the same rules, that can be enforced with a minimum amount of interference with people's freedom. But if you're going to try to make the entire cosmos right and just, somebody has got to have an awful lot of power to impose what they think is right on an awful lot of other people. What we've seen, particularly in the 20th century, is that putting that much power in anyone's hands is enormously dangerous."

Thomas Sowell via Glenn Beck; Broke

Ah The Unions!

In 1943, a New York Supreme Court judge held:

To tolerate or recognize any combination of civil service employees of the government as a labor organization or union is not only incompatible with the spirit of democracy, but inconsistent with every principle upon which our government is founded. Nothing is more dangerous to public welfare than to admit that hired servants of the State can dictate to the government the hours, the wages and conditions under which they will carry on essential services vital to the welfare, safety, and security of the citizen. To admit as true that government employees have power to halt or check the functions of government unless their demands are satisfied, is to transfer to them all legislative, executive and judicial power. Nothing would be more ridiculous.

National Affairs: The Trouble With Public Sector Unions

Why Small Government? Bureaucracies fail and damage many when they do!

Alexander Natta, former General Secretary of the Italian Communist party:

At the same time we, the communists, having either overestimated or underestimated the functions of the “welfare state,” kept defending situations which, as it became clear only now, we should not have defended. As a result, a bureaucratic apparatus, which serves itself, has swelled.
...
Any bureaucratization encourages the apparatus to protect its own interests and to forget about the citizens’

That is the the best explanation of government and from an unlikely source.

Source: Margaret Thatcher: a legacy of freedom via Glen Beck Broke

Jefferson on Redistribution of Wealth

To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father’s has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association—the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.

Thomas Jefferson, letter to Joseph Milligan, April 6, 1816

This Is Not Your Father's Census -- The United States Census in the 21st Century

Long gone are the days of completing the US census for the sake of civic duty or to ensure you are represented in Congress.

This is the Census of the 21st century (first minute is all you need):

It happens once every ten years.

It seeks to discover who we are and what we need.


It determines how we distribute more then $400 Billion dollars for things like schools, public works, emergency services, and senior centers.

It's the United States 2010  Census!

Or this one:

When you take, say, ten minutes to answer 10 questions you help our community get what it needs for, oh, the next ten years.

We can't move forward till you mail it back, 2010 Census.

DKK

Updated and bumpted (March 15, 2010):

And then there is the letter this week.  Here is the text, make sure you get your money!

Dear Resident:
About one week from now, you will receive a 2010 Census form in the mail. When you receive your form, please fill it out and mail it in promptly.

Your response is important. Results from the 2010 Census will be used to help each community get its fair share of government funds for highways, schools, health facilities, and many other programs you and your neighbors need. Without a complete, accurate census, your community may not receive its fair share. Thank you in advance for your help.

Sincerely, Robert M. Groves
Director, U.S. Census Bureau

Not A Right, A Responsibility and Responsibility = Control

Health coverage is not a right, it is a responsibility.

As such the debate should be over who is responsible for your health coverage -- your employer, the government, or you.

Remember, responsibility for an issue is equal to control of that issue.
DKK

(Even today as the government assumes more control over health coverage the inevitable laws banning availability or taxing the consumables that may affect your health are creeping into the control over your body. Is there a right to control our own body as the left has always assured us?

Perhaps not, that is what we will decide as the health coverage debate begins again).

Didn't Believe Me Update, June 10, 2009:

Hot Air is reporting on a Politico story today:

Don’t be fooled by the presidential burger runs. Obama and Congress are moving across several fronts to give government a central role in making America healthier — raising expectations among public health experts of a new era of activism unlike any before.

Any health care reform plan that Obama signs is almost certain to call for nutrition counseling, obesity screenings and wellness programs at workplaces and community centers. He wants more time in the school day for physical fitness, more nutritious school lunches and more bike paths, walking paths and grocery stores in underserved areas.

The president is filling top posts at Health and Human Services with officials who, in their previous jobs, outlawed trans fats, banned public smoking or required restaurants to provide a calorie count with that slice of banana cream pie.

Even Congress is getting into the act, giving serious consideration to taxing sugary drinks and alcohol to help pay for the overhaul.

DKK

Updated and bumped:

On Red Eye early this AM (March 4, 2010) TV's Andy Levy pointed out that anything that requires you to do something like purchase insurance or requires another to provide you with a service cannot, by definition, be a right. 

The Future Of American Health Care -- "Just Boil It and Reuse It!"

I'm not sure why but I have yet to see the root problem with government writing a prescription for America's health care needs articulated using an easy to verify example.

The fact is, the root problem doesn't involve the debate over inclusion of a government option, it goes far far deeper then that; to the root of governments involvement in the health care process.

Most of us feel it deep down but don't really realize what the problem is.  Perhaps that is because many people see evidence of what bothers them on a daily basis right there on their own television without even realizing it!
 

Government Central Planning of medical care through the Medicare system lead to the brilliantly idiotic idea that catheters could and should be reused.  Medicare only covered 4 a month under the old ruling, today they cover up to 200.

People either had to pay for additional catheters or, it was recommended that users BOIL AND REUSE THEM.  Seriously, grab a pan, we're cooking up a wonderful plan for your health!  If you have had two (2) serious urinary tract infections in the past you could get yours covered -- that's right, you had go through the pain and risk twice.

Here is the kicker:


Even after the governments own FDA changed the labeling of catheters making them one time use products they were not covered!

Since the governments centrally planned Medicare system determined reuse was okay almost all private insurance companies followed suit!  With the change in the ruling most insurances have changed their coverage as well.

This went on for DECADES! 

It took people getting upset and finally getting a congressman to act -- that is not how we want our medical care coverage determined, via congressional fiat?

The key point -- when the government sets rules of coverage, for whatever reason (and you just know it will get political -- God forbid you get a disease out of favor with today's political will) the entire industry follows.  Doctors change their recommendations, insurers change their coverage. Having the same policy as the government keeps you just one more step away from the lawyers! 

The public option is not the devil, the devil is in the details of any program that offers or requires central planning by the government or any entity they set up.  Leave the planning to your own doctors!

Governmental Central Planning is almost always the worst solution to even simple problems, and we know from history that it is a joke when it comes to larger issues!

Increase competition in both the insurance and the medical sides of the business, reduce government interference, and reform medical malpractice, that should be all the involvement the government should have in your health care!
DKK

Medicare Changes Catheter Ruling -- IC Disease Today

Update:  It gets even better -- did you know that the Baucus plan included a tax on all medical devices?  This tax would increase the cost to everyone.  Initially it was all devices, tongue depressors, catheters, etc. but the saw some wisdom in that an have now increased that to items priced over $100.  But does that make any sense?  Imagine you need a prosthetic, or a back brace due to an accident -- you now will pay more for those, already very expensive items!   Literally adding insult to injury!  And as Hot Air points out this includes powered breast milk pumps!

Amazing, the ,"Boil it and reuse it," mentality will flourish even more then today -- seriously, do they even care about us at all because if they did they wouldn't be pulling this crap!
DKK

Conventional Wisdom And History Destined To Collide On Bush

A Truman for our times:

The received wisdom is that President Bush has been a foreign policy disaster, and that America is threatened by the rise of Asia. Both claims are wrong—Bush has successfully rolled back jihadism, and the US will benefit from Asian growth.

DKK
Prospect Magazine -- A Truman for our times

The Only Thing Holding Back America Is Our Government

Unleash America in all her glory to drill, innovate, conserve, and complain!
DKK

A Roadmap For Increased Oil Prices

Note that in each case, the problem is government, which thinks itself at each turn, the solution.

Bits Blog -- How to raise fuel prices
Bits Blog has a list of 11 ways the government has managed oil to the levels we see today!
DKK