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Will Conservatives Destroy the Government?

Will conservatives refuse to pay their taxes? Will they refuse to comply with what they view as unjust laws? Will conservative states make good on threats to secede from the United States? These are just some of the ideas that are being talked about since the Supreme Court subverted the rule of law in the recent gay marriage rulings and the IRS acknowledged targeting TEA party groups.

Wednesday, the Supreme Court struck down the 1996 Defense Of Marriage Act that was passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the president. They simultaneously vacated a ruling on California’s Proposition 8, which defined marriage as one man and one woman. Proposition 8 was voted on and passed by a direct referendum and DOMA was passed by the elected representatives of the people. This has many conservatives asking whether democracy matters anymore.

They wonder why they should respect any law, when the courts and elected leaders do not. They wonder why they should follow the laws of a government that unfairly and openly targets them and persecutes them. They wonder how such a government can maintain its legitimacy or whether it should. In short, many are asking if this is the time to end it all and disband the United States.

How bad is it? It was so bad that when the rulings were announced, even justices on the Supreme Court were outraged. With regard to the DOMA ruling, Justice Antonin Scalia declared the end of democracy:

In his blistering dissent on the DOMA decision, Scalia said the self-governing power of the people has been eroded. He described the “assertion of judicial supremacy over the people’s representatives in Congress and the executive” as “jaw-dropping.”

In the ruling on California’s Proposition 8, Justice Kennedy expressed a similar sentiment:

Their reasoning drew a testy dissent from Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, a Sacramento native, who wrote that the decision “disrespects and disparages” California’s political process — a staple of which is the ballot initiative.

The court, Kennedy wrote, did “not take into account the fundamental principles or the practical dynamics of the initiative system in California.”

How long the country can go on when even the members of the Supreme Court feel this way remains to be seen.

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June 28, 2013 at 9:37 am Comments (0)

Obama’s Huge Hidden Tax on the Poor

In a world where everyone understood economics, I should never have to write this article. The effects of Barack Obama’s policies should be clear and widely opposed by the very people he claims to champion. What has he done? In a word: inflation.

From the stimulus to all of the “quantitative easing,” Barack Obama has caused widespread inflation. His most recent endeavor to fix the economy is QE3, or the third round of quantitative easing. Quantitative easing is, simply put, printing money.

What is so bad about that? Well, it makes more money available. That drives up prices and makes everything more expensive. This is particularly bad for the poor. Consider that gas was less than $2 a gallon when Obama took office and now it is over double the price at roughly $4 a gallon.

The point I am making has been made in greater detail by Anthony Randazzo at Reason magazine. However, I want to give a simpler analysis that still explains the his essential argument:

It won’t be a surprise to read conservatives lambasting this as unconventional monetary policy meant to help re-elect President Obama. And inflation hawks have already started screeching. But the loudest cry of “for shame” should be coming from the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Let’s get one thing out of the way first. Printing money is a tax. It is a tax that gives the government more money to spend and charges people in the form of inflation. That is simply supply and demand.

So, who does the tax hit? Well, inflation hits everyone who buys things. That’s everyone. However, it also increases the price of assets. So, if you have assets like gold, you have seen the price increase from $871.96 in 2008 to about $1800 today.

Assets help guard against inflation because everything that is owned is worth more. Today, we all pay more for gasoline and everything else, but rich people, who own a great deal more, have seen their assets appreciate. The poor, who own nothing, are simply stuck paying the bill.

These is the effect of inflation, whether we borrow money for the stimulus or print it for quantitative easing.

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September 16, 2012 at 10:53 am Comments (0)