Our coalition of OVER 60 Independent Wisconsin Patriot Groups consisting of well over 100,000 Wisconsinites, of whose delegates assemble quarterly, have spent considerable time deliberating over our central concerns regarding the tyranny and usurpations of the Federal Government in terms of funded and unfunded mandates and now the utter financial and taxation Socialist nightmare of the Healthcare Reform Bill, otherwise known to us as “Obama Care”.  Our independent Patriot groups span across our entire State of Wisconsin from one end to the other on all points of the compass rose.  Our numbers are swelling due to public rage with both Federal and State of Wisconsin Socialist governance which we find in utter constitutional contempt.  Our TEA Party events are numerous and well populated.  And, we are very organized.  Here in Marinette County our very first meeting of Americans for Constitutional Enforcement drew 99 active citizens, alone, just a few weeks ago.  We have reason to believe that our group will be growing at a good clip according to the word heard spreading around the county.

 We, all the members, of our entire coalition of independent WI groups, believe that the Health Care Reform bill will end up being a glorified Ponzi Scheme just like that of Social Security, Medicare and the Medicare Prescription Drug program that came from the Bush Administration; ultimately turning into that like Madoff Funds on TRILLION DOLLAR $teroids.  We believe and are gravely concerned that it is this form of usurpation of power,  which far exceeds the enumerated powers clauses of Article 1 Section 8 of The Constitution for The United (but independent and sovereign) States of America,  as further supported in law by the 9^th and 10^th Amendments, which, especially in accumulation, will likely result in the same financial catastrophic crisis and riots in the streets such as Greece is experiencing right now, as I am writing this e-mail to you. 

 We also have one other “grave” concern; The Government will be deciding who goes there, and when, and who does not.  We believe that such decisions should be left in the hands of We The People and our Creator.  We believe and have faith that you and I have the ability and the dignity and the right to make our own decisions and determine our own destiny.

 The news from our associates in T.E.A. (Taxed Enough Already) Party organizations from other states continues to be encouraging on the health care front.  In the last two weeks, 4 states have passed their health care freedom amendments in one chamber: Utah, Tennessee, Missouri and Idaho.

 We realize that the doctor’s fight against socialized medicine is our fight. We can’t socialize the doctors without socializing the patients. We recognize that government invasion of public power is eventually an assault upon our own businesses. We have also come to realize, among our assembly, that when we fear taking a stand because we are afraid of reprisals from customers, clients, or even government, that we are just feeding the crocodile hoping he’ll eat us last. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.

 This is why we pray that you would represent we the people of Wisconsin and stand morally and ethically tall in terms of supporting this measure, Health Care Freedom Amendment LRB-3861, and see that it is expedited into the hearing process posthaste.

Richard Nixon once said, “We’re all Keynesians now.” But that was a long time ago, and it’s certainly not the case anymore (if it ever was).

While influential 20th Century economist John Maynard Keynes would say it’s best to increase deficit spending in tough economic times, only 11% of American adults agree and think the nation needs to increase its deficit spending at this time. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 70% disagree and say it would be better to cut the deficit.

In fact, 59% think Keynes had it backwards and that increasing the deficit at this time would hurt the economy rather than help.

To help the economy, most Americans (56%) believe that cutting the deficit is the way to go.

Eighty-three percent (83%) of Americans, in fact, say the size of the federal budget deficit is due more to the unwillingness of politicians to cut government spending than to the reluctance of taxpayers to pay more in taxes.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it’s in the news, it’s in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

Rejection of Keynesian economics is found across demographic and partisan lines. Republicans and those not affiliated with either major party overwhelmingly reject the notion that increasing the deficit is the right prescription in difficult economic times. Among Democrats, 21% agree with the Keynesian approach, and 47% do not.

Investors reject deficit spending even more strongly than non-investors.

Of course, not all deficits are created equal. Forty-nine percent (49%) of the nation’s voters believe it’s more important to cut spending than to reduce the deficit. Polling released earlier this week shows a similar attitude as voters prefer lower taxes and deficits to higher taxes and a balanced budget.

However, all polling on federal spending and deficits must be viewed with the recognition that only 35% of voters realize that the majority of federal spending goes to just defense, Social Security and Medicare.

“These figures highlight a massive failure of leadership from both Republicans and Democrats among the nation’s political elite,” says Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports. “Given the amount of political chatter about the budget in recent years, it is almost beyond comprehension that neither party has seen fit to highlight the basics so that the American people can make reasoned choices on the fundamental issues before them.”

The gap between policy makers and the American people is a key theme in Rasmussen’s new book, In Search of Self-Governance.

Pat Caddell, pollster for President Jimmy Carter and others, says that “Rasmussen unmasks the new fault line of our democracy: Mainstream America rising to reassert the supremacy of their sacred right of self governance over a failed Political Class grimly determined to preserve the primacy of their prerogatives of power. With calm reason Rasmussen lays out the contours of the struggle upon which may hang the ultimate fate of our American Experiment.” In Search of Self-Governance is available at Amazon.com.

Higher electric bills will not create jobs. Making gasoline more expensive will not create jobs. Significantly increasing the cost of doing business in Wisconsin will not create jobs. Taking more money from Wisconsin families will not create jobs.

Yet those outcomes are exactly what voters can expect if Wisconsin adopts Gov. Jim Doyle’s proposed global warming legislation.

Under the clever disguise of “green job” creation, Doyle is calling for passage of a bill that will drive up our energy costs and result in staggering job loss.

A recent economic study by the nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Research Institute found that adopting these expensive polices would result in more than 43,000 lost jobs statewide.

Driving these job losses are energy policies that will cost Wisconsin consumers billions of dollars over the next decade. For example, the proposed 25 percent renewable electricity mandate would cost electric customers more than $16 billion alone. That’s nearly three times as much as Wisconsinites spend on electricity each year.

The so-called Low Carbon Fuel Standard would cost Wisconsin motorists more than $3.2 billion in higher gas prices according to the WPRI study. This global warming gas tax could cost consumers as much as 61 cents per gallon according to a study by the Marshall Institute.

All told, these expensive policies are projected to cost each Wisconsin family more than $1,000 each year by the time they are fully implemented. Worse yet, the supporters of this misguided bill have not identified any meaningful benefit that would be achieved relative to global temperatures or climate.

Wisconsin families cannot afford these expensive policies given our recession and fragile economy. We find ourselves at an economic crossroads, and it’s important to understand just how much is at stake as we choose the path forward.

Wisconsin lays claim to the most manufacturing-intensive economy in the country. Our family-supporting manufacturing jobs pay an average wage of $62,959 — more than 35 percent higher than the state average.

Unfortunately, we have already lost 160,000 manufacturing jobs in the last decade, including 60,000 since 2008 alone. If we want to reverse this trend, we must find a way to control Wisconsin’s electric rates, which have increased faster than any other Midwest state over the last decade.

Manufacturing jobs depend upon access to affordable and reliable electricity, and we cannot expect to attract or retain these jobs if we make electricity more expensive with go-it-alone state global warming regulations.

Voters understand that higher energy costs put jobs at risk, and they aren’t willing to pay for costly new energy policies.

Doyle’s global warming bill will increase the cost of electricity, increase the cost of gasoline, make it more expensive to do business here than in other states, and take more money out of the pockets of Wisconsin families.

That is not a recipe for job creation.

If lawmakers are serious about creating jobs, they should focus on cutting taxes, controlling government spending, reducing bureaucratic red tape, and putting a stop to lawsuit abuse. Each of these strategies will place Wisconsin employers in a better position to emerge from the economic recession, and compete for new jobs.

Unfortunately, we have already lost 160,000 manufacturing jobs in the last decade, including 60,000 since 2008 alone. If we want to reverse this trend, we must find a way to control Wisconsin’s electric rates, which have increased faster than any other Midwest state over the last decade.

Manufacturing jobs depend upon access to affordable and reliable electricity, and we cannot expect to attract or retain these jobs if we make electricity more expensive with go-it-alone state global warming regulations.

Voters understand that higher energy costs put jobs at risk, and they aren’t willing to pay for costly new energy policies.

Doyle’s global warming bill will increase the cost of electricity, increase the cost of gasoline, make it more expensive to do business here than in other states, and take more money out of the pockets of Wisconsin families.

That is not a recipe for job creation.

If lawmakers are serious about creating jobs, they should focus on cutting taxes, controlling government spending, reducing bureaucratic red tape, and putting a stop to lawsuit abuse. Each of these strategies will place Wisconsin employers in a better position to emerge from the economic recession, and compete for new jobs.

Scott Manley is environmental policy director for WMC, the state’s largest business association.

8,284 Doesn’t Sound Good, Try 44,000

Government Run Clunker

8,284 Doesn’t Sound Good, Try 44,000

Cynical folks might think that politicians say what you want to hear instead of what the truth really is.  On the issue of jobs and the federal stimulus bill the cynics would be right.  The stimulus funneled billions of dollars into Wisconsin.  This money was supposed to “create or save” jobs. 

In October of last year, after $680 million of direct spending Governor Doyle reported 8,284 jobs were created or saved.  For those with calculators that is $82,000 per job.  Flash forward to January 2010, Governor Doyle and Democrats are now touting 44,000 jobs “created or retained”. 

How were 35,716 jobs created or retained during the same time nearly 30,000 jobs were lost in Wisconsin according to the Center on Wisconsin Strategy?  The answer is simple.  Politically, the original numbers didn’t sound very good. 

In the original report that the governor used to estimate 8,284 jobs, the White House estimated 22,100 were saved or created.  In the latest January report, the White House estimated 44,000 jobs created or retained.  The number of direct jobs in the same report which is the total the governor originally used was 8,964. 

To be consistent with reporting, the governor should have said 680 jobs were created or saved by the stimulus in the last three months.  That would have been an embarrassment to the Democrats and their ‘job growth’ plans, but it would not have been as misleading as using the speculative 44,000 number. 

If state Democrats now want to use the White House numbers they need to preface the estimates with the fact that they are “speculative and uncertain” which is what the White House report said.  As well, they need to say the White House no longer keeps a running tally on jobs created or saved.  They are simply adding up all jobs impacted by stimulus dollars even if those employees were never in jeopardy of losing their jobs. 

In other words, if a healthy business receives a stimulus funded grant for new energy efficient windows, all employees of that business would be considered as having their jobs saved.  Common sense thinkers know that the stimulus did not save these jobs, they were not being cut in the first place. 

The current political leadership has become politically invested in a failed policy.  The Democrats are entrenched with the belief that the federal stimulus bill will solve our current jobs crisis.  They also subscribe to the philosophy that government spending creates jobs.  It is the other way around – government exists because of the hard working employees and employers of our state.

Regarding the stimulus there is no doubt that temporary government spending can subsidize some jobs for a time.  But when the spending is over those jobs need to be funded with additional tax dollars or they go away.  Higher taxes and increased spending deter private sector growth.  As well, taxes and spending do not create the economic growth needed to fund public budgets or encourage private sector job creation. 

Instead of playing with the numbers to defend failed policies legislative leaders need to pass job creating proposals.  A good place to start would be with repealing many of the onerous taxes passed this legislative session.  Another place to look would be in the Wisconsin Jobs NOW Task Force recommendations. 

I participated in the task force and believe that by adopting the recommendations, jobs would be created and employers would find Wisconsin a more attractive state to locate.

Government Run Clunker

Doyle Proposal Charges Those Seeking Insurance More than Existing Plans

This week I issued the following statement regarding Governor Doyle’s BadgerCare Plus Basic proposal:

“I am disappointed the Governor is proposing to fleece state residents in dire need of health insurance.  The governor is right in not calling his Basic plan a Cadillac; it would more fittingly be called a clunker. 

Governor Doyle’s government health care plan is quoted by him as costing $130 per month for those struggling to find affordable health insurance.  This is an initial estimate and may end up being much higher.  There are private plans already in existence that cost as low as $104 per month with comparable or stronger coverage than that which was laid out by Governor Doyle. 

Additionally, without government mandates and regulations private plans could be offered at lower rates.  In Florida a basic plan is offered as low as $23.70 a month.  The governor’s Basic plan can unfairly function outside of state mandates and regulations placed on private insurers.  As well, government reimburses pennies on the dollar for care shifting cost to hospitals and patients.

Why would government offer a sub-standard plan at an inflated price when cheaper and comparable or stronger plans exist?  This leads me to believe the Basic plan is not about health insurance coverage or offering health care to residents at reasonable prices – it is about advancing government control of health care.

Charging 20,000 residents on the BadgerCare Plus Core Plan waiting list as much as 25 percent more for sub-standard services is not reasonable.  The Wisconsin Legislature should reject this plan. 

Another option for Wisconsin is to consider bidding out a contract to a private health insurance supplier who offers this type of plan at a lower cost.  Make the health insurers compete for those on the waiting list.  This would offer the lowest cost plan to consumers with the most generous benefits.  

Also, this would save state administrative costs, keep residents out of a sub-standard government run plan, and lower the health care premiums of those buying health insurance.  That would be a win for the taxpayer and the individuals buying health insurance.”

“ I was very impressed with the turnout and of my fellow countrymen of Marinette County who came out for this excellent meeting! A Doctor from Iron Mountain –U.P. of Michigan, spoke and did an excellent and accurate job of laying out what has happened to our rights, liberty and country as a whole under the “progressive” movement and the bankers that own the cartel of banks of The Federal Reserve “System”, who are actually controlling most all of our economy and through Government, our daily lives.  His speech was impressive and perspicuously insightful.

ACE will have a meeting in Wausaukee monthly now. We believe our Marinette County numbers will surge!  The vast majority of the people at the meeting were angry and have a good idea of what our Government is doing to OUR Constitution. I am very impressed with these Marinette County residents.  I have reason to believe that Marinette County will be well represented in the Freedom / TEA Party movement here in the State of Wisconsin by these fine civic minded citizens aware of their duty to God and their country.

Capt. Karl gave a short speech about the work of The Continental Congress, which was an assembly of three publically elected delegates from each of 48 States who convened in St. Charles IL last November.  They produced The Articles of Freedom.  The Articles of Freedom contain a number of statements relating to Freedom Principles of The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution.  In addition The Articles of Freedom contain public and Congressional Representative “Remedial Actions” that are called for by The Continental Congress.  Capt. Karl urged everyone in attendance to go online, review and sign The Articles of Freedom and to prepare for execution of the Remedial Actions called for.  The Articles of Freedom will have an official public rollout in April 2010 through all the media sources that will cooperate in the process of the right of the public to know.  The Capt. also informed those in attendence about the large assembly of delegates from all 64 of the WI Patriot organizations across Wisconsin that will be convening in Oconomowoc Wisconsin at the Olympia Resort on Saturday January 30th.  An agenda will be posted on this blog.

If you live in Marinette County and wish to attend a meeting, just leave a message in the comment box below and we will be sure to keep you informed.

What is more important, what you are doing in your daily life and ignoring what the US Government and their manipulators, the private cartel of 12 banks called The Federal Reserve “System”, is doing to you, your children and your grandchildren or doing something about it?  What have you done to protect your children and grandchildren?  When hyperinflation comes and the US Government uses that as an excuse to shred The Constitution and your children’s, rights, liberty and economy and they take almost their entire paycheck in “withholding” taxes, and interest rates go sky-high and it wipes out the rest of our economy, what are you going to tell your children and grandchildren you did about it?  How are you going to feel when they ask you, what did you do about it?

What is more important, what you “usually” do each and every day or joining a TEA party group, Patriot group, or 912 Coalition group and getting involved to stop Oppression, Socialism, Communism, Fascism, Tyranny and Despotism?

We MUST, with one unified voice, cry out for the rule of law in The Constitution, especially but not limited to Article 1 Section 8 as further supported in law in the 9th and 10th Amendments.  This will compel the US Government to the “Constitutional” responsibilities of the eighteen ENUMERATED powers that We The People gave them for the “privilege” of handling for us from our authority endowed us by our Creator. 

The Result:  The US Government will collapse down to approximately 1/5th of its current size and scope resulting in We The People and our economy retaining the money that they spend for all the Constitutionally contemptuous spending they have  done for decades, which has placed every man, woman and child into a personal debt burden that we cannot possibly bear; the vast majority of which is not due to anything we personally did or wanted.  We and our children are BORN with this debt over our heads: U.S. National Debt Clock

Also check out: We The People Congress

Thank you for your very kind words. It’s a pleasure to have this opportunity to talk to you. Clearly we are weathering some storms now, but I believe the best part of our economic history is still in the future!

Thomas Jefferson once described his idea of good government this way: “A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This,” Jefferson said, “is the sum of good government.”

Jefferson was speaking not just for his day but for all future time…making the case that free markets and limited government are a moral necessity for human happiness to flourish.

Frugal? Wise? Does this sound like the government we have today?

The federal government is spending $787 billion which it took out of the economy, to stimulate the economy. So far this year, the government has created 65,000 more federal government jobs, but since the Stimulus was enacted, unemployment has risen to 10.2% and the private sector has lost 2.7 million more jobs.

This government enacted a budget so huge that it will double the federal debt in five years, and triple it in ten.

Our government’s leaders are determined to make Congress enact a new energy tax in the name of “climate change.” The proposed “cap-and-trade” scheme will tax energy consumption from transportation to food and electricity, costing taxpayers an average $3,000 a year while raising over $840 billion in additional taxes.

The Fed is running the printing press around the clock, likely creating a new “carry trade” bubble at best or a vicious return of stagflation at worst.

And of course, the leaders of this government are trying to force all Americans to accept a government health care plan that will undermine the patient-doctor relationship and in the first decade add a trillion dollars or probably much more in federal entitlements.

Our current economy is sobering. The “unfunded liabilities” of our government are “under water” if you compare them to the total net value of Americans’ household assets. The Government Accountability Office tells us that the government‘s total unfunded liabilities stand at $62.9 trillion, while the total households’ net worth, says the Fed, is $10 trillion less, at $52.9 trillion. Americans are worth less than they owe.

Ten months after our new president was sworn in to end the recession, there are 4.2 million more people out of jobs. The leaders of government who pushed those trillions of dollars in new federal spending say they’ve achieved a lot by doing so. If that’s success, what is failure? The Administration openly admits that unemployment above 10 percent will stay high at least until the end of 2010. Economists like Alan Greenspan say that after a couple of quarters of modest growth, the economy will slow down again.

When did America sign on to life with millions out of work and only government “make-work” programs to employ them? Is this the best we can do? Our leaders plainly are looking to other countries where there is almost no job creation, for a new model of government. They hector Americans about all our faults while they enforce regulations that punish success, prevent growth, and limit freedom. In their propaganda, we are greedy, dishonest, materialist, wasteful social Darwinists. Only government keeps us from tearing each other to pieces, so we need more government to reign in our selfish tendencies.

Democratic capitalism is not just an economic system or a political system. It’s a culture – the way of life fit for free men and women. But I know the Congressional majority leaders. They are imitating other models: “Progressivism,” third way, corporatism, social welfare state, crony capitalism. Whatever the name, it is very different from the principles that made this country exceptional. European versions create bureaucracies intimately involved in the details of running their enterprises. They may dictate salary levels—think White House “pay czars.” They may govern businesses directly under nationalized ownership or management—think General Motors. They may do so indirectly by rewarding firms that cultivate bureaucratic connections instead of seeking consumers’ approval for innovations and other decisions. Markets that are truly free have wide-open doors of entry. Innovation overturns established firms, and bureaucrats don’t like unpredictability. Under these models, the doors of entry are closed to newcomers while government agents develop so-called “partnerships” with a few large entities.

We are moving swiftly toward a “tipping point,” where the majority of people pay little or no taxes but become dependents on government benefits. Tax cuts are virtually out of the question because more people have a stake in the welfare state than in entrepreneurism. Citizens who had once governed themselves become supplicants of a bureaucratic state, surrendering liberty in return for security. Whatever you call this, it isn’t free market democracy.

Jefferson and our Founders gave us guides as valid now as ever before: “the laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” – equality and God-given inalienable rights –constitutional self-government – free market democracy. America needs “change” as we move into the 21st century … but our founding principles help us know which “change” takes us forward toward freedom and prosperity, and which means falling backward toward a stagnant European-style welfare state.

In that light, I want to address four specific issues today.

The first, most urgent priority must be the federal budget and growing entitlements. No responsible person can defend the expansion of federal spending which began years ago but exploded in 2009.

In order to function, our federal government has historically taken about 20 cents on every dollar earned in America. This year the federal “take” rose to 27 percent of our GDP. If we do nothing to control this growth, within our generation, we’ll need to extract 40 cents of every dollar just to keep government afloat. At this rate, the “tipping point” will be reached in around five years. And, if Congress refuses to fix our fiscal situation, the bond markets will force us to act, and they will be cruel.

You can’t grow the economy by sucking private capital into the public treasury! It’s time to put limits on the insatiable appetite of government. Congress should impose a binding “cap” on federal spending. By restraining the overall budget including entitlements, we can rein in the cost of individual programs, return powers to the states where they belong, and let the people keep more of their own earnings for saving and investing in the nation’s future. To that end, I introduced a comprehensive reform of our entitlement programs called “A Roadmap fro America Future”, which brings 21st century spending down to sustainable levels.

The second issue is health care.

By 2-to-1, Americans want Congress to address the deficit first, then health care. The Congressional leadership’s answer is to forge on and create another costly open-ended entitlement. They are clueless about how to pay for this “reform,” or anything else for that matter. House and Senate leaders, frankly, are fudging their cost estimates to meet the president’s statement about not adding a dime to the deficit. Businessmen who cooked the books like this would be committing fraud.

For instance, the bill won’t be fully implemented until 2013, but tax hikes will take effect immediately. This gimmick will produce 10 years of revenues but only seven years of expenditures. Once fully implemented, however, the plan will cost nearly $2 trillion over 10 years — double the $900 billion touted as a passing grade from the Congressional Budget Office.

These budget tricks are disingenuous. As the CBO told Congress: “If spending grew as projected and taxes were raised in tandem, tax rates would have to reach levels never seen in the U.S. High tax rates would slow the growth of the economy, making the spending burden harder to bear.”

Congress’ record in estimating long-term costs for government-run health programs is dismal. When Medicare was created, Congress assured us that it would cost $12 billion in 1990. The true price tag in 1990? $110 billion. Medicaid now costs 37 times what it did when Congress launched it in 1965. Medicare is 16 times higher – both adjusted for inflation.

By that yardstick, suppose the current reform bill outperforms Medicare and Medicaid and grows by a factor of only 10. That will cost $1.8 trillion every year. If it follows the path of Medicaid, it will cost $6.7 trillion every year.

The current health care bill does not meet the test of either real reform or fiscal responsibility. Nor does it represent the best of both parties. It represents the frustrated ideological ambitions of one party’s leaders who believe the way to save the welfare state from bankruptcy is to expand it.

We can fix what’s broken in health care without breaking what’s working, and without creating a huge new entitlement program that will accelerate the bankruptcy of this country. House Republicans have proposed a bill to do that. We believe the American people deserve a better answer than a European-style government-run health service.

Third is the issue of taxing foreign income. As you know, President Obama wants to eliminate the tax deferral on American entities doing business abroad. Without that ability to defer taxes, a U.S. based manufacturer with foreign sales would be taxed twice, for foreign taxes and U.S. taxes on its international income. By eliminating deferral, the U.S. would severely handicap some of its most successful job-creators with a new tax burden and disadvantage them compared to businesses in all other industrialized countries, none of which double tax.

President Obama actually believes you create jobs by paying more taxes! But in the end, those who will pay the price for this nonsensical tax change will be American workers. U.S. headquartered companies with international operations employ more than half of all U.S. manufacturing workers. They produce more than $2.5 trillion of U.S. GDP. Their workers tend to earn 10 to 15 percent more than their counterparts at U.S. companies without foreign operations. So this is a vital segment of the U.S. economy in the era of globalization. Our economic policies should boost their competitiveness, not destroy it.

For many of these businesses, the President’s proposed tax change would build a barrier too high for them to clear. A PricewaterhouseCoopers study estimates that under this new tax, U.S. companies doing business abroad would need to earn a 40 percent higher rate of return on their foreign operations – 40 percent! – just to reach parity with foreign-based competitors in terms of after-tax profitability. The practical result of such a tax change would very likely be a rise in foreign takeovers of U.S. based companies. A self-proclaimed “fellow citizen of the world” like our President might not think this matters. But I will vote against any plan to write an overseas profits tax into law.

And finally, I would like to talk about monetary policy. To end a declining economy and restore real economic growth, the federal government must address not only fiscal policy but monetary policy. These are separate and distinct functions…but they work in tandem.

We badly need to engage in a national conversation about our country’s currency and the role of the Federal Reserve.

In the last few months the dollar’s international value has fallen precipitously to new lows. Through all this, the silence of the Obama Administration and the Federal Reserve has been deafening. The silence can only mean they don’t see a problem when the dollar – the world’s reserve currency – loses value every day.

The dollar price of petroleum has nearly doubled in 2009. The price of gold – the most sensitive measure of real value – has gone up more than 50 percent since October last year. These measures, of course, are just another way of saying the dollar’s value has shrunk. It will take 150 or 200 dollars to buy what 100 dollars bought a year ago. The world sees the dollar marching toward inflation…even as they see our economy wallowing in joblessness.

Recently some central banks and governments have spoken openly about ending the dollar’s role as the reserve currency for the world and finding a more reliable monetary replacement. Nations heavily invested in the burgeoning US debt are growing restive about the future worth of their holdings. The dollar world reserve system may not be dumped soon, but the discussion itself should set off alarms. Right now, I am more troubled by the weak dollar policy in Washington than those conversations in other capitals.

When you fall deeper and deeper into a problem like this one, you should go back to basic ideas. So what is money anyway? Money is an artificial instrument that represents value. It serves two closely connected purposes: it’s a measure for exchange and a store of value. Money is a moral bond – a guarantor of honesty and trust. The faith of the people rests in the government’s word, when it guarantees the value of its currency.

Since 1971 when the gold standard was terminated, there has been no objective measure of the dollar’s value. The world has had to place its trust of paper dollars in the promises of the US government. In the end, the dollar’s continued strength rests on the integrity of the American idea. Confidence in our free market democracy has constituted our moral bond with the rest of the world. Without any objective dollar standard, that’s all there is left supporting our money.

Candidly, today’s political leadership have lost faith in the American idea. They think it is obsolete and must be replaced by something like the social welfare states of Europe. In that type of government, your rights don’t come from God and nature. Government’s mission is not to secure your rights. No, in the European social welfare model, your rights come from government itself. Every benefit citizens receive is a gift of government, and you better be grateful. It follows that the citizens’ rights and benefits can also be taken away on the government’s say-so. No objective moral standard measures what government does because we live in a post-modernist world where “change” is everything, truth is relative and flexible, and fixed principles of right or wrong don’t exist.

How can the world trust the word of a relativist government about the real value of our money? Words must be backed by action, but no action is being taken to support the falling dollar. In other words, this country cannot continue our borrowing binge abroad in order to support our leaders’ irresponsibility at home! If this keeps up, interest rates will rise so high that our already weak economy, struggling for breath now, will be smothered and return to recession.

It’s essential to understand that Congress itself put the Fed in an impossible situation and made “boom and bust” cycles inevitable. The Humphrey-Hawkins law, enacted soon after the gold standard was ended, imposes a “dual mandate” on the Fed. This means it has to steer monetary policy to (a) keep prices stable, and to (b) keep unemployment low and the economy growing. Day-to-day fixes cannot solve the Fed problem because it has to meet two mandates often in conflict. Congress should end the “dual mandate” and require the Fed to do one job: guarantee the long-term stability of the dollar.

My mentor the late Jack Kemp gave advice to the Fed that seems almost prophetic now. He said: “Until we restore a fixed gold dollar, and a stable international monetary system to match it, there is only one second-best option…[O]ne way to tell if money is too tight or too loose…is to monitor sensitive commodity prices… Gold should at least be included, since it is a forward-looking indicator of anticipated inflation which gives early warning of emerging tendencies toward inflation or deflation.” We still should heed his advice.

Yet today, the Fed uses what is known as an “output gap model”, which is notoriously slow at picking up inflation and recognizing bubbles. It’s like driving down the interstate by looking through the rear-view mirror. You see the off-ramp only after you’ve passed it.

If the current economic downturn has anything to teach us, it isn’t that Americans are sinners and government is our savior. The lesson is that we should put limits back on government and break the shackles of taxes, red tape, and public debt that cripple the entrepreneurial spirit. We need true fiscal responsibility, and sound money, if we are to unleash the American Dream of prosperity and freedom!

Free market democracy is the only system man has ever devised to fulfill human potential. Every other form of government and economy has proven to be reactionary, undermining prosperity, freedom, and the God-given natural rights to which every human being is entitled.

In today’s cultural attack on democratic capitalism, you have a critical role to play. Producers enrich life in countless immaterial as well as material ways. Entrepreneurs and investors, workers and savers, you risk your capital and labor to create a better future without knowing whether you will succeed. It isn’t simply about profit. Capitalism is the spirit of service meeting the community’s needs. It answers the call to take responsibility for your own life and those who depend on you. Freedom is one of the Creator’s noblest gifts to mankind, and not something to be apologetic or guilty about. Be proud of the honorable work you are doing! Stand up for the morality of market freedom! I am confident that we can withstand the assault on capitalism.

Why am I confident? Because Americans outside of Washington don’t believe our government’s role should be to equalize the results of people’s lives. They don’t believe we should be governed by an “enlightened” ruling class.

Americans outside of Washington still believe in the American idea. They believe “to their core” in the principles of liberty, freedom, self-determination and free enterprise. They believe in our system which is designed to encourage people to make the most of their lives – to work toward their true potential.
And that is why I believe Americans, by exercising their democratic franchise, will bring us back from the tipping point and get our free market democracy back on track.

Thank you.

You would think that the Republicans would get the picture, but they unfortunately do not.  They think that they are going to fool us again.  But today we are far more knowledgeable and learning more every single day about the Freedom Principles that make liberty possible and protect our rights, earnings, property and economy from those in power.

Republicans:  Do you want to know what we have learned and what we want you to do, especially in light of The National Debt in numbers that human beings can’t even comprehend?   Many of us now know and more are learning every single day, that this public debt was caused by YOU holding OUR supreme laws of the land, The Constitution, in utter contempt.  Especially with regards, but not limited to the enumerated powers clauses in Article 1 Section 8 as further supported in law by the 9^th and 10^th Amendments in The Bill of Rights.  

YES, We know the devastating impact on the size and scope of the Federal Government that a lawful Congress would cause.  Isn’t that the point?  Yes, we know that means that Trillions of dollars, of our earnings, will be left in OUR hands and in our economy and that this will dramatically expand our economy and individual rights, liberty and prosperity.  Yes, we know that will move power, per the Ninth and Tenth Amendments back to the independent and sovereign States, local community governments and We The People.  With We The People above all.  Yes we know that this will cause competition between the States for our people, our money, our skill sets, and our small businesses where we will vote with our legs based on Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness.  Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Now we also realize that you are going to use the General Welfare clause in the preamble of The Constitution as an excuse.  But many of us realize how you have, time after time, used this wording, OUR wording, to usurp powers that We did not give to you.  You have perverted this wording that meant something entirely different in the year that We wrote, established and ordained OUR laws on YOU.

If you don’t know what General Welfare means We The People will refer you to these The Liberty Tree Lantern blog articles:

1. How “General” the General Welfare Clause?
2. Enumerated Powers Clauses, Meaning, Spirit and Intent; “General Welfare” Clause Notwithstanding!

Here is another tip for Republican politicians:

For how many years have you been stumping the words; “I believe, like you do, in smaller government, less taxes and less government intrusion into our lives.”?  We see where DECADES of your words and rhetoric has gotten us: The National Debt and the loss of our rights, liberty, earnings, economy, employment, property and, soon to come, hyperinflation.  Who, may I ask, is going to pay for all of that debt?  Hmmm?  (We know whose earnings you got your “withholding” eye on and it isn’t just “the rich”!)

Many of us have learned and more are every single day, what the cure to all of these problems is.  The cure is the Freedom Principles encompassed in The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution for The United (but constitutionally independent and sovereign) States of America.

The financial, rights and liberty destructing emergency situation you have placed every single man, woman and child and our posterity in has awakened the sleeping giant of the electorate and forced us into an education that you probably wish we didn’t acquire.  But we are awake now and we know the law that we established and ordained on you.  We suggest that you scrap the decades long use of the line; “I believe in smaller government, less taxes and less government intrusion into our lives.” and replace it with “I believe in and will ENFORCE the rule of law, to its full force and effect, in The Constitution, word for word, as it WAS meant on the day you The People drafted, established and ordained it on us in government.  THE BALANCE IS AUTOMATIC.” 

You see, Republicans, we only gave you eighteen enumerated powers (and authorized costs) that we expect you to handle for us.  And, not delegate any of these enumerated to private companies or institutions, such as the money clauses in Article 1 Section 8; therefore,  the constitutionally contemptuous Federal Reserve Act of 1913 MUST BE rescinded along with any and all other legislation that is not according to OUR law.   

If you Republicans still don’t get it or have any questions about this, ask us in November.  And, we understand fool me once shame on you, fool me twenty times, shame on us!

Oh, BTW; The Marinette / Menominee Sons and Daughters of Liberty, who post this article, is only one Wisconsin Patriot, TEA Party, 912 Coalition, etc… group of 64 and growing.  Our groups have well over ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND angry Wisconsinites.  We have formed a coalition where delegates from each independent group meet every 2 – 3 months to discuss matters of liberty, Constitutional Law, and deliberate and engage plans of action.  We are actually facilitating the writing of legislation here in The State of Wisconsin to protect us from Federal and State tyranny, oppression and despotism.  We are very organized.  See:  Well Over 3000 VERY CONCERNED Wisconsin Citizens Attend Racine Bonfire TEA Party Saturday

While on stage, before the huge crowd of very concerned citizens, Mr. Tim Dake of The GrandSons of Liberty mentioned the Marinette/Menominee Sons and Daughters of Liberty for our contributions and efforts in the cause of freedom and the return to the rule of law by our Government.

After the Bonfire several of the leaders of the coalition of independent WI Patriot organizations went to the Yardarm tavern, in Racine, for a “Green Dragon” like moment discussing our multifold legislative and electionary plans that we have to change the direction of the State of Wisconsin, our country and to get our Constitutionally respecting people elected.  It was a great meeting and augmented several plans.

Here is a very accurate, on the scene, report by:

MICHAEL BURKE mburke@journaltimes.com

CALEDONIA – Education isn’t just for your children – it’s for you too, Samuel “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher told a frozen but enthusiastic crowd Saturday.

The setting for the latest Tea Party – this one dubbed the Tea Party Bonfire – was Wendell Anderson’s farm on Highway H.

Despite cold, damp winter weather, organizers reported from the stage that they’d counted more than 3,000 heads. The event jammed Highway H for about a mile in each direction; other participants were shuttled to and from the event on yellow school buses from Caledonia-Mount Pleasant Park. People were still arriving at 3:55 p.m. for the 3 p.m. event.

Nancy Milholland, one of about 20 organizers, said the group had heard this was the first Tea Party of 2010. The name refers both the Boston Tea Party and is an acronym for Taxed Enough Already.

A pile of wooden pallets provided the fuel for the bonfire that roared about 50 yards behind the stage.

Speaker after speaker provided the verbal fuel, lobbing such topics as nationalized health care, climate change, taxation, immigration and gun rights. The first mention of “global warming” brought loud, derisive laughter from the crowd.

Wurzelbacher, the speaker with the widest name recognition, continued riding the wave of celebrity he has enjoyed since he questioned then-candidate Barack Obama during an Ohio campaign stop in 2008.

His brief message to Saturday’s audience was that Americans should be regularly reading about their history and government.

“Get busy for an hour or half-hour each night,” he said. “Take the responsibility of being American seriously – because if you don’t, another country will,” Wurzelbacher said.

Eyewitness to socialized medicine

Staff Photographer Alberta Nielsen, left, and Joan Arnone pray while holding American flags, Saturday afternoon, Jan. 16, 2010, during a Tea party bonfire at 4505 Highway H in Caledonia. Organizers said that over 3,000 people attend the event that featured Samuel "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher. / Gregory Shaver gshaver@journaltimes.com

The Obama health care plan took a pounding throughout the event, but the most compelling view on it came from Dr. Traci Purath, a neurologist at Wheaton Franciscan-All Saints in Racine. Purath recounted stories from six years she spent practicing medicine in Ireland, which had national health care.

She described a level of medical care that was rudimentary at best.

“The truth is: There is not enough to go around under socialized medicine,” Purath said. For example, pregnant women did not receive ultrasounds as a matter of course, but only if there were known problems. Sometimes a problem was not discovered until the birth.

Instead of private rooms, hospitals had 30-bed wards, Purath said.

And accident victims were simply picked up and taken to a hospital – with no early emergency treatment before arrival, she said.

The kicker, Purath said, is that since then, more than 50 percent of the Irish have private health care: “As we’re socializing, they’re privatizing.”

After her public talk, Purath said doctors have not been consulted in the formation of national health care. About her fellow physicians, she said: “Everyone’s scared … that we will lose the opportunity for choice.”

Several speakers used the event to stump for upcoming election races. State Rep. Robin Vos, R-Caledonia spoke, as did state Senate candidate Van Wanggaard. The audience also heard from Rob Taylor, a Constitution Party candidate; Dave Westlake and Terrence Wall – all running against U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold this year. The mere mention of Feingold’s name drew loud boos from the crowd.

Of the three, Taylor presented the most extreme portrait of himself. He called, for example, for getting the United Nations building off of American soil, which brought cheers.

The last speaker was radio talk show host Vicky McKenna of WISN (1130 AM). Reinforcing an often-uttered message Saturday, she said: “Finally, everyone found out it’s all about you. The penalty for losing an election should not be losing our country.”

We have an assembly of delegates from our 64 independent Patriot organizations, from across Wisconsin, coming up on Saturday January 30th.  If you would like to help us get our country and State of Wisconsin back please do come to our assembly.  All you have to do to be able to come is join your local Patriot group, even if it is in another Wisconsin city or town.  Or, you can start up your own independent WI patriot organization, under your own organizational name and framework and we will help you to build it up.  So far we have well over ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND Wisconsinites that are sick and tired of losing their freedom and their earnings to Constitutionally contemptuous tyrants.  So join or create a patriot organization and you can come to our assembly in Ocontomowoc.  There is no cost to attend and get involved.  See this post for more information: A Multitude of WI Patriot Events Planned for 2010. And Its Just Getting Started!

Here is our current list of projects we are engaged in.  When I say actively engaged I mean we are actually helping to draft the bills with our State Senators and Assemblymen.  We are DIRECTLY, AS A PEOPLE, TAKING BACK OUR Authority under the Constitution.   We are sending in OUR people into local political party committees and we are basically taking them over.  We are actively starting to enforce the rule of law on our scofflaw legislators.  If this interests you come to our meetings.  Join a local WI Patriot organization.  You will be totally amazed at how we, in a coalition of individual WI Patriot groups,  are actively and peacefully taking back our independent and sovereign State of Wisconsin and our country:

Legislative Agenda 2010/2011

1)                  Sovereignty Resolution AJR-51

Rewrite with more “teeth” to be an Act with purpose

2)                  Healthcare Freedom Amendment – LRB3861/1

Protect right to choice in healthcare and to not be forced into a government run healthcare scheme

3)                  Unelected Boards Taxing Authority Prohibition

Sen. Mary Lazich’s bill to prohibit taxing authority of any governmental or quasi-governmental board that is unelected

4)                  Federal Tax Escrow Account Act

Create an account that the state uses to hold collected federal gasoline taxes as a counter to threats to withhold federal funds

5)                  Cap and Trade Prohibition Act

An Act to prohibit the implementation of an climate change legislation as it is not scientifically proven and a failure in Europe 

6)                  Card Check Prohibition Act

An Act to prohibit the cessation of the secret ballot in organized labor elections or any other type of election.

7)                  Firearms Freedom Act

An Act to cease federal regulation of any and all firearms related industry that is of an INTRASTATE nature within the state of Wisconsin – based on that of MT and TN  – UNCONSTITUTIONAL

 8)                  Sheriffs First Act

An Act to recognize and reassert the role of the county sheriff as the highest law enforcement officer on the county and to make certain that all federal warrants are not executed without the express written authorization of the Wisconsin county sheriff.

9)                  WI Enumerated Powers Act

An Act to require that all federal legislation, executive orders, regulations, directives, etc. must explicitly state the source within the US Constitution and any applicable federal statue that grants the power to enact such an act. Barring such a statement, the federal pronouncement is NOT to be applied until the federal government has complied with this law. All previous federal pronouncements must also be brought within compliance within a specified time period.

10)                  Limitation on Eminent Domain Act

An Act to limit the use of eminent domain to public works requiring large tracts of specific land such as roads and airports. This act deliberately excludes taking of property for commercial purposes or for other private concerns.

11)                  Voter ID Act

An Act to require identification of voters at the time of voting in order to prevent fraud.

This is a little advance secret notice for readers of The Liberty Tree Lantern, an EXCLUSIVE News Alert:  We are in the process of organizing a three day Wisconsin TAX DAY Marti Gras in Madison, WI.  We anticipate that there will be upwards of 20,000 people attending.  We will be having all sorts of special events and even Constitutional Seminars going on.  We will also be having massive THREE DAY protests at the State Capitol that will make our last Madison Tax Day Tea Party Protest of 8,300 people, where our voices rocked the city and the Capitol to the point where the Democrats ran from the building, look like a handful of Christmas Carolers. 

Countrymen, we are calling all Sons and Daughters of Liberty to come and help us defend The Constitution and The Rule of Law, therein, word for word.  In the process WE will build businesses, jobs and our economy under the greatest wealth generator ever created on our planet called Freedom.  Come join us!  Let’s make a GOOD Change for our country and return to the rule of law in our founding documents, word for word.