Vice President Joe Biden – Unfair Target?

For his detractors, VP Joe Biden might present the occasional gaffe that makes him an easy target.  And maybe harping over a few sound bits isn’t all that fair.  Such harping likely misses the greater importance of Mr. Biden’s words.

For example, with unemployment now well above where the government said “the stimulus” legislation would cap it, Vice President Joe Biden explained last Sunday (emphasis added):

Everyone guessed wrong at the time the estimate was made about what the state of the economy was at the moment this was passed.

In this case, the Vice President cuts right past politics and straight to honesty — we engaged in guessing on the economy, and guessing can be wrong.  This is refreshing and criticism shouldn’t be heaped upon Mr. Biden.  No, Mr. Biden has just offered up further evidence of why faith in a centralized governmental authority is not the answer.  He has spoken truth to a certain hubris that can creep into the “Big Government” crowd.

Campaign Without End

Discussing the political efforts of the President to get healthcare legislation passed, this passage comes from a Politico article:

To keep the pressure on, the Democratic National Committee embarked this week on a major fundraising campaign for a “Summer Organizer Program” that will hire hundreds of staffers for Organizing for America, the new name for the Obama campaign’s grassroots organization. The plan is to build a summer grassroots campaign around health care, an effort strategists believe will later morph into Obama’s reelection army.

Mobilize the troops.

$787 Billion Price Tag for Guesses ?!?!

Really?  In February, the government proclaimed a crises of such magnitude that debate on the “stimulus” legislation would be a reckless waste of time.  The legislation had to be passed immediately!

But now, with unemployment well above where the government said “the stimulus” legislation would cap it, Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday explained (emphasis added):

Everyone guessed wrong at the time the estimate was made about what the state of the economy was at the moment this was passed.

Though, everyone didn’t “guess” wrong as the IBD article indicates, maybe those who did simply rely on guess work to run the government would have fared better if thinking wasn’t actively discouraged.

*By the way, $787 Billion works out to around $2571 for every man, woman and child in the United States.  And that is just one piece of legislation.

Faith in Economic Guesses from the Central Command

With unemployment now well above where the government said “the stimulus” legislation would cap it, Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday explained (emphasis added):

Everyone guessed wrong at the time the estimate was made about what the state of the economy was at the moment this was passed.

Well, as the IBD article makes clear, everyone didn’t guess wrong.  More interesting though, is the bizarre faith in government to run the economy when the  institution is apparently run on shoddy guess work that is easily foiled in times of “crises”.

There is a better way.  Instead of empowering a central authority, which can obviously lock the entire nation into a wrong decision, let people be free to make their own decisions.  Some will succeed and some won’t, but at least those who are successful might be in a position to help their neighbors.  It is certainly better than the entire nation being worse off because of government guess work!

History’s Moving Target; the New Deal & the Betsy Ross Flag

From President Obama’s press conference in February 2009 (via The New York Times):

And in fact there are several who have suggested that FDR was wrong to intervene back in the New Deal. They’re fighting battles that I thought were resolved a pretty long time ago.

Historians can’t even “resolve” whether or not Betsy Ross actually made the first American flag for the revolution (here and here).  History and myth can often become intertwined, so watch for what you think you know.

Toledo Now Tickets for Parking in Own Driveway

The AP reports Mayor Marty Finkbeiner of Toledo, OH is standing behind issuing citations for parking on unpaved surfaces, including a person’s own gravel driveway.

Give the government power and it will find a way to abuse it.

Public Education, Banking & Now Healthcare?

Really?  On the heals of the huge banking fiasco of this past year, the government wants to get deeper into running the nation’s healthcare system? Remember, the U.S. banking system has been massively regulated by the government for over 70 years!  And it still has a break-down from time to time.

Really?  After various levels of government management of education for a century or more, the federal level now wants to double down on the healthcare system?  Remember, public education is all-but the only game in town.  Only the fairly-well-off can afford to pay for both public education taxes and then tuition for private schools.

Why does the government think it can do everything better, despite evidence to the contrary?  Why does the suggestion that the government back off a bit get ridiculed as radical?  Could you ever imagine suggesting the government not impose central regulation on banking or that people should be free to choose their own school?

After a few decades of public healthcare with all its benefits and failures, will it be radical to propose ending the system?

Blaming Deregulation Misses the True Cause

How many times has it been said, “government didn’t fail,  it was deregulation that caused all the problems”?  Advocates of such a philosophy go on to conclude that government will work when more regulation is reimposed.

This is literally delusional.  If deregulation is to blame, what or whom caused the deregulation?  The government.  Yes, the government, for no other entity can control the regulations imposed by the governing authority.  This is an inescapable fact.

Of course, the big government types will argue, “if only the right person or group of people had been selected for power, these bad policies would not have been imposed”.  Maybe, but history is littered with good political leaders and bad political leaders rising to power.  This is uncontrolable.

The fact remains, government implements failing ideas that from time to time bubble to the top of the political spectrum.  Failing ideas that don’t have the force of government can more easily be avoided by those who realize the ideas are duds.

When government empowers bad policies, government is failing!

Raising the Minimum Wage in a Recession II

Yet another fine point on raising the minimum wage this time from David Henderson (inspired by David Neumark article):

Early in the Great Depression, President Herbert Hoover made things worse by persuading big businessmen to keep wages high. At those high wages, employers wanted to employ fewer people than otherwise.

Sigh…

Raising the Minimum Wage in a Recession

Is it a good idea to raise the minimum wage now, while the nation is still shedding jobs?  David Nuemark thinks not.  Yet, the U.S. government is set to raise the minimum next month.  Nuemark:

The best estimates from studies since the early 1990s suggest that the 11% minimum wage increase scheduled for this summer will lead to the loss of an additional 300,000 jobs among teens and young adults. This is on top of the continuing job losses the recession is likely to throw our way.

Government, stimulus with one hand and contraction with the other?