What Is Constitutional Conservatism?

What Is Constitutional Conservatism? - Yuval Levin - National Review Online: "But the Tea Party has been very unusual for an American populist movement. It has not been focused on soaking the rich, as left-wing populists always have been. It has not even been primarily focused on reducing the tax burden on the middle class, as right-wing populists usually are. Rather, the Tea Party has focused on restraining government. It originated in outrage about federal bailouts, and has directed its energies toward pulling back the cost and reach of the state. It has asked for fewer government giveaways, not more. It has even given voice to a tight-money populism, criticizing the Federal Reserve for inviting inflation — a far cry from populists of old. And the Tea Party has also been intensely focused on recovering the U.S. Constitution, and especially its limits on government power (and therefore on the public’s power) — another very unusual goal for a populist movement."

Should the Rich Be Condemned?

Should the Rich Be Condemned? - Walter E. Williams - Townhall: "President Barack Obama, in stoking up class warfare, said, "I do think at a certain point you've made enough money." This is lunacy. Andrew Carnegie's steel empire produced the raw materials that built the physical infrastructure of the United States. Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft and produced software products that aided the computer revolution. But Carnegie had amassed quite a fortune long before he built Carnegie Steel Co., and Gates had quite a fortune by 1990. Had they the mind of our president, we would have lost much of their contributions, because they had already "made enough money."

Class warfare thrives on ignorance about the sources of income. Listening to some of the talk about income differences, one would think that there's a pile of money meant to be shared equally among Americans."

Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac Sparked Housing Crisis

Opposing view: Fannie, Freddie sparked crisis – USATODAY.com: "Over the next 15 years, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development — pushed by Congress — tightened and expanded this quota so that, by 2007, 55% of all mortgages the GSEs acquired had to be made to low- and moderate-income borrowers, including 27% to those below 80%."

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors." --  George Washington, Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1789

Be Thankful for our Founding Fathers' Foresight

Be Thankful for our Founding Fathers' Foresight, by Tony Blankley, Newsmax: "Our founding words and ideas are ever young. They are imperishable. And we should not wander from our faith in them. On America's Thanksgiving Day 2011, we should be thankful for what our founding Fathers created and bequeathed to us and to the world. And we should be strengthened to fight for the more complete application of those ideas in the election year that follows this week's prayerful Thanksgiving celebration."

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM THE FREEDOM POST

Here's your reading material for Thanksgiving Day:  


1)  The Pilgrims Failed Experiment with Socialism:  http://www.myfreedompost.com/2009/11/pilgrims-failed-experiment-with.html


2)  George Washington's First Thanksgiving Proclamation:   http://www.myfreedompost.com/2009/11/george-washingtons-first-thanksgiving.html


3)  The Real Story of Thanksgiving, by Rush Limbaugh:  http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2011/11/23/the_real_story_of_thanksgiving

Judge Napolitano: Why Taxation is Theft, Abortion is Murder, & Gov't is Dangerous

Intriguing and provocative interview with Judge Napolitano

Rick Perry: Obama "Absolutely" a Socialist

"Absolutely. I think Barack Obama is a socialist," Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) tells Bill O'Reilly. 

Is There No Limit to Congress’s power?

George Will: Is there no limit to Congress’s power? - The Washington Post: "Does Congress’s enumerated power to regulate interstate commerce empower it to compel individuals, as a condition of living in the United States, to engage in a commercial activity? If any activity, or inactivity, can be said to have economic consequences, can it be regulated — or required — by Congress? Can Congress forbid the inactivity of not purchasing a product (health insurance) from a private provider?"

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The inherent vice of capitalism is theunequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” – Winston Churchill

Ronald Reagan Veteran's Day Speech at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial

We’re Still Not Cutting - Senator Jim DeMint

We’re Still Not Cutting - Jim DeMint - National Review Online: "Even though the federal government is nearly $15 trillion in debt, it’s spending at record-high levels. Federal spending has gone up 5 percent in the first nine months of this year alone.

Just last week, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate passed three new spending bills to increase 2012 funding above 2011 funding levels. The bills will increase spending for the Department of Agriculture by $6.4 billion; for the Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development by more than $2 billion; and for the Commerce, Justice, and State departments by more than $694 million."

Gallup Poll: Conservatives 42%, Liberals 21%

Why do we act like we're in the minority when...Gallup Poll: Conservatives 42%, Liberals 21% | CNSnews.com: "Self-professed conservatives now outnumber self-professed liberals in the United States, 42 percent to 21 percent, according to a Gallup poll published Monday."

Mark Levin Keynote at Defending the Dream Conference

Speaking at the Americans For Prosperity (AFP) event at the DC Convention Center on Nov. 5, Mark Levin said the U.S. has become “a Post-Constitutional government transitioning into an increasingly Utopian tyranny.”

Bachmann: 'Too Many Republicans ... Aspire to Be Frugal Socialists'

Bachmann: 'Too Many Republicans ... Aspire to Be Frugal Socialists' | CNSnews.com: "“I will work to eradicate socialism all across the United States government, but unfortunately for too many Republicans, they also aspire to be frugal socialists,” Bachmann said. “The reason President Obama and some Republicans can get behind socialized medicine is because they share the same core political philosophy about the purpose of government. We can’t preserve liberty if the choice a year from now is between a frugal socialist and an out of control socialist.”"

McDonald's chief : Curb spending and cut taxes

McDonald's chief : Curb spending and cut taxes - Telegraph: ""We pay some of the highest [corporate] taxes around the world. There needs to be some levelling."

Asked about federal borrowing, he said: "It's not a good story… the government has to spend less. We have to grow the economy, grow GDP… and you have to be able to do it in an organic way and not through borrowings and increasing debt.""

GRAPH OF THE WEEK

A Lesson on the Laffer Curve for Barack Obama

» A Lesson on the Laffer Curve for Barack Obama - Big Government: "But we do know that the rich paid much more when the tax rate was much lower.

This is an important lesson because Obama wants to run this experiment in reverse. He hasn’t proposed to push the top tax rate up to 70 percent, thank goodness, but the combined effect of his class-warfare policies would mean a substantial increase in marginal tax rates.

We don’t know the revenue-maximizing point of the Laffer Curve, but Obama seems determined to push tax rates so high that the government collects less revenue. Not that we should be surprised. During the 2008 campaign, he actually said he would like higher tax rates even if the government collected less revenue.

That’s class warfare on steroids, and it definitely belong on the list of the worst things Obama has ever said."

Herman Cain vs. Newt Gingrich in Lincoln-Douglas Style Debate

'Bloated' Federal Workforce Rises 12 Percent as Rest of US Goes Jobless

'Bloated' Federal Workforce Rises 12 Percent as Rest of US Goes Jobless: "The federal workforce appears to be immune to the country’s worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, which has left 14 million Americans out of work.

Civilian unemployment has mushroomed, sticking above 9 percent for months, although many experts put the real figure in the 18-20 percent range. Meanwhile, the number of federal employees has grown 12 percent since the official start of the recession in December 2007, MSNBC reports, citing data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Office of Personnel Management also estimates that there was a 14.8 percent increase in executive branch employees — that’s about 275,000 more — between September 2007 and June of 2011. That number does not include the Central Intelligence Agency and a few other government agencies."

Education Vs. Bureaucracy

Education Vs. Bureaucracy - Latest Headlines - Investors.com: "Waste: How can a 375% education spending increase over four decades result in flat-lined reading, math and science scores? Because all that largesse feeds a bureaucratic monster sheltered from competition.

According to Neal McCluskey, the associate director of the Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom, the education spending much of the American public believes to be a vital investment in the country's future, actually "gives money to a catatonic heap of warm bodies and says, 'Stay the way you are.'""