The Austrian Perspective

Absolutely Spineless

Some needs to take an x-ray of John Boehner’s back because I think he is missing a crucial component of his skeletal structure. 

In reality, bringing our fiscal house into order is not that complicated or excruciatingly painful at all. If we simply kept spending at current levels, by their definition of cuts that would save nearly $400 billion in the next few years, versus the $25 billion the Budget Control Act claims to cut. It would only take us five years to cut $1 trillion in Washington math just by holding the line on spending. That is hardly austere or catastrophic.

Ron Paul - Quit Looting the American People

I had a great idea this morning. Ron Paul should run for president! I would totally vote for him if he did.

(via evilteabagger)

(Source: antigovernmentextremist, via hipsterlibertarian)

Its a Spending Crisis not a Debt Crisis

Ever since the Tea Party deviated from their grassroots libertarian origin and re-branded themselves as radical neoconservatives lunatics, I’ve lost a humongous amount of respect for their movement. However, at least one of these lunatics is still intelligent enough to articulate their position on the debt ceiling “crisis” by presenting a solid and logical argument, and not just repeating the same old anti-government rhetoric. Its a damn good article that I think every American should read.

Debt Ceiling Debate Demystified

So last night at approximately 9pm my viewing of Two and a Half Men was rudely interrupted by two of the biggest idiots in Washington. Obama came on television to appeal to the American public to pressure their congressmen to vote on the Democrats’ debt ceiling bill that would raise taxes today and promise to cut spending somewhere down the line (they promised to cut spending last time, and the time before that, yet we are in this situation now). Obama warned about how America would default on debt obligations on 12:01 AM August 3, 2011 if we don’t raise the debt ceiling. Markets would go into chaos, the economy will collapse, social security checks wouldn’t get mailed out and all hell would break lose thanks to Republicans. This is of course a blatant lie that I addressed in my previous post here.

John Boehner’s address came shortly after Obama’s and it wasn’t any different from the President’s. He also played the same blame game insisting that a bill (Cut, Cap & Balance Act) was already passed in House and Senate Democrats are delaying the process. He claimed that the President wanted a blank check six months ago and he still wants one today (which is true to be honest).

However neither Obama nor Boehner touched the real issue underlying the debate ceiling debate, and that’s whether America should default on debt today or delay it until tomorrow. We have known for years that social security is going bankrupt yet neither party has taken any serious steps to address the issue. The problem with trying to reform Social Security is that such a large portion of the voting population has grown so dependent on entitlements that to even suggest any form of spending cuts to Social Security would be political suicide. With the debt-to-GDP ratio currently at 98.6% and continuing to rise at some point we have to accept that America is insolvent. If we continue down this road of a society financed by debt and wars default is inevitable. So the real question behind this debt ceiling debate is whether to raise the ceiling and default on debt tomorrow, or not raise the ceiling and default on debt today. I say its time we address our problems and stop putting them off until tomorrow.

Home Depot would never have succeeded if we’d tried to start it today. Every day you see rules and regulations from a group of Washington bureaucrats who know nothing about running a business. And I mean every day. It’s become stifling.

Bernie Marcus, Home Depot co-founder. (via libertarians)

(Source: investors.com, via libertarians)

Understanding Welfare Economics 101

Interesting chart complied by our good friend Jay Cost at The Weekly Standard. 

For those of you not blessed with the mathematical insight to comprehend what this chart is saying there is a simplified version down below.

However we do live in a democracy, so I suppose the needs of the many outweighs the needs of the few. Carry on folks!