gun control

After the school shooting in Newton, Connecticut, several politicians, including President Obama, have suggested that stricter gun control laws are necessary. Here are a bunch of quotations to challenge their statements:

Thomas Jefferson:

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in Government.

Walter E. Williams:

The framers gave us the Second Amendment not so we could go deer or duck hunting but to give us a modicum of protection against congressional tyranny.

Phillip Van Cleave:

When seconds count between living or dying, the police are only minutes away.

William S. Burroughs:

After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn’t do it. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military.

Plato:

Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.

Alan Eppers:

Dangerous laws created by well intentioned people today can be used by dangerous people with evil intentions tomorrow.

Robert H. Jackson:

It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.

Paul Harvey Aurandt:

They have gun control in Cuba. They have universal health care in Cuba. So why do they want to come here?

Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman:

Never Forget, even for an instant, that the one and only reason anybody has for taking your gun away is to make you weaker than he is, so he can do something to you that you wouldn’t allow him to do if you were equipped to prevent it.

 

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sowell on obama

Although this interview took place before the presidential election, with president Obama’s victory it is all the more important. Peter Robinson and Thomas Sowell discuss Obama’s track record, the importance of the election, and what America can expect with the president’s reelection:

It’s like being a mosquito in a nudist colony: you don’t know where to start. We will not be able to be on air long enough to dissect all the faults in those few words. [on Michelle Obama’s speech]

It is painful for me to realize that youngsters growing up in the same places in Harlem where I grew up more than 60 years ago have far less chance of rising, economically, educationally or otherwise.

I want to stop politicians from trying to fix the economy.

 

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free speech and obamacare

One of the things that many people have overlooked when talking about ObamaCare is its effect on free speech, as Thomas Sowell points out in the Jewish World Review:

Waiving Freedom

What does your right of freedom of speech mean if saying something that irritates the Obama administration means that you or your business has to pay huge amounts of money and get hit with all sorts of red tape under ObamaCare that your competitor is exempted from, because your competitor either kept quiet or praised the Obama administration or donated to its reelection campaign?

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election day

Finally election day has arrived. Good occasion to quote American journalist and satirist Henry Louis Mencken:

Every election is a sort of advance auction of stolen goods.

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obama’s labor market results

With only a couple of days until the United States will face its next presidential election, Daniel J. Mitchell from the Cato Institute summarizes President Obama’s (lack of) success with respect to the labor market:

A Four-Picture Indictment: Final Pre-Election Jobs Report Is Not Good News for Obama

Obama should not be blamed for the depth of a recession that began before he took office. But he should be held at least somewhat accountable for an anemic recovery. Particularly since he promised “hope” and “change” and then continued the big-spending, pro-cronyism policies of the Bush years.

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nobel prize in decline

Three years after awarding Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize for no reason, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has once again made an absurd decision. In a world with probably thousands of outstanding people, the European Union was chosen for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Let aside the so-called Euro crisis, and neglect the bureaucratic mess, what the EU has caused by its agricultural subsidies alone is worse than most war crimes of the 20th century. But who really cares about poor African people?

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tax rates and tax revenue

Although it might be straightforward to any economist, the difference between tax rates and tax revenues frequently gets confused. Much talk from left-wing politicians assumes that any increase in the tax rate (preferable for the rich) will yield more revenue in the future.

As so often happens with economic issues, it takes a deeper knowledge of economics and history to sort things out. The intuitive assumption that higher tax rates automatically increase government revenue fails both in theory and in practice.

For the theory part, economist Arthur Laffer became known for a phenomenon called the Laffer curve. The Heritage Foundation offers a brilliant article on how this curve was developed and what it implies:

At a tax rate of 0 percent, the government would collect no tax revenues, no matter how large the tax base. Likewise, at a tax rate of 100 percent, the government would also collect no tax revenues because no one would willingly work for an after-tax wage of zero (i.e., there would be no tax base). Between these two extremes there are two tax rates that will collect the same amount of revenue: a high tax rate on a small tax base and a low tax rate on a large tax base.

With respect to historical evidence, I have found an easy-to-read article by Kurt Brouwer. By means of several figures, he explains the historical relationship between tax rates and tax revenues. His conclusion should definitely be considered by all people talking about the upcoming presidential election in the United States:

Tax policy is important, but it should not be political or partisan.  I believe we need a steady, consistent tax policy with two goals: generating steady and adequate current tax revenues and maximizing economic growth.

Finally, for the Jewish World Review Thomas Sowell wrote an article to explain that the confusing discussion about tax policy is quite a recent phenomenon:

There was a time when Democrats and Republicans alike could talk sense about tax rates, in terms of what is best for the economy, without demagoguery about “tax cuts for the rich.”

 

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racial double standards

President Obama’s campaign website has a special section called “African Americans for Obama“. I guess none of you has ever heard of this. But what if Romney had a similar page called “Whites for Mitt Romney”?

Walter E. Williams describes the double standards with respect to racial issues:

There is one standard that we hold whites up to, and another standard that we hold blacks up to.

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good morning

When Ronald Reagan ran for re-election in 1984, he asked his famous question “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” and he answered it at the same time in a campaign commercial titled “It is Morning Again in America”. Therein, he listed all the ways the country was better off than it had been four years earlier when he defeated Jimmy Carter.

As Thomas Sowell points out, we should not wait for any “Morning in America” ads from Obama. Indeed, “Mourning in America” might be more appropriate.

Since his presidency has no track record that would win any votes, we will see an election campaign focused on distracting innuendoes instead of hard facts. Much like I expected months ago when I wrote that style will be more important than substance.

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cold bath of logic

We all know about President Obama’s rhetorical skills. Thus it is great to see them exposed to a cold bath of logic by Thomas Sowell:

The road to hell is paved with Ivy League degrees.

Here is a man talking about five different industries, in none of which he has the slightest experience. But because he has these degrees from the places you mentioned and people have told him how clever he is, he now thinks that he can do this.

Obama has an absolute talent for saying things that make no sense but not only sound plausible but inspiring.

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