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Tuesday, February 12. 2008

Regulation

We do not want to see a Socialist Dem in the White House. But, if were were to end up with one, what "change" should be expected? From Kling on Mandates for Change:

How can the Democrats implement policy changes without large spending increases? The answer is regulation. The business sector is going to be increasingly told what to sell and how to sell it. Particularly in health care and energy, firms are going to be accountable to bureaucrats, not to customers. Products and services will be designed in Washington, not by competition.

Regulations and mandates are an alternative to budgetary spending. For example, if politicians do not want to spend money on recruiting a volunteer army, they can institute a draft. Similarly if politicians do not have the resources on budget to pay for universal health insurance, they can pass a law making the purchase of health insurance mandatory. If such a law is effective, then the uninsured will be "drafted" into the army of the insured.

Aren't we fortunate that the people in gummint are so much smarter than us illietrate red neck goobers?

Related: The usefulness of competition in medical insurance, at Marginal Rev.

Posted by The Barrister in Politics at 11:14 | Comments (27) | Trackbacks (0)

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Yep, it's "God, home, & country" versus "taxation, regulation, & litigation" in our two-party system.
#1 buddy larsen on 2008-02-12 11:36 (Reply)
That's how Hitler and Mussolini did it. They didn't actually have the state seize businesses, they just directed owners and managers to follow the Fascist plans.
#2 NJSoldier on 2008-02-12 12:18 (Reply)
you could broaden that to include to varying degrees any one-party rule of any state, if it lasts long enough. The 20th century dictators of Europe were only the dramatic culmination of the same insidious pressures felt in all the modern industrial states. Hell, look at USA from FDR to RR (and now coming back?). Like a fog on cats feet it creeps in.
#2.1 buddy larsen on 2008-02-12 13:27 (Reply)
Lee Yuan Kew once said something like - "the Western dream of socialism died when several billion Indians and Chinese entered the race."

We may be on the verge of another such attempt to command the tides from coming in.
#2.1.1 Skookumchuk (Link) on 2008-02-12 14:03 (Reply)
Mandates for Change outlines what could happen should the Socialist Democrats gain 10 Senate seats, retain the House , and win the WH. The list is fairly comprehensive but fails in the most vital area. SCOTUS.

All of the other changes fall into a prosaic funk when compared to what can happen there. The Constitution provides for the establishment of one court. All other courts are created via the legislative process.
I have no doubt the Socialist Democrats will use their power to enlarge the SCOTUS to at least 15 seat ..initially. They will in addition to adding the six seats have more or less six seats to fill from anticipated vacancies. That will give them the opportunity to have 12 radically liberal socialist judges on the SCOTUS for LIFE.

That is the essence of what this election is about. If the Republicans lose the White House there will not be a conservative movement in this country. There won't be private gun ownership or a unbridled free speech radio or TV program. Forget it all. Game over.

Forget the minutia of everything but the Supreme Court, because thats what everything else is... minutia.

After successfully enlarging the SCOTUS, the Circuit Courts will be overhauled as will all the US Attorneys.

Since we are a nation of laws, not of men there will not be an aspect of our society out of the control of the government. Forget the Bill of Rights. They will all be "interpreted" through the new court and that will be that.

The USA as we know it today will cease to exist. Mark it down, it was tried before but failed. If they get a big win there won't be anything to prevent it from happening, and don't think they won't try.
#3 Habu on 2008-02-12 14:09 (Reply)
either Pelosi or Schumer -- can't recall which -- has already, recently, opined that 'there is no reason not to expand the Supreme Court".

No law against it -- nine seats is just our custom.
#3.1 buddy larsen on 2008-02-12 14:38 (Reply)
An oldie (found the link at sda). One might think that folks would never forget the time the lights went OUT in California. But noooo. Looks like the left is getting all set to do it again. All kinds of crazy legislation is coming that 'regulates' the use of nonexistant clean energy and hobbles the oil and gas companys that provide the energy needed for cooking and heating and hot water and traffic lights etc. etc.

California's Dim Bulbs
by P.J. O'Rourke

P.J. O'Rourke is the Cato Institute's Mencken research fellow.

This article appeared on cato.org on June 7, 2001.

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=4277
#4 Patina on 2008-02-12 14:21 (Reply)
"Looks like the left is getting all set to do it again."

And the thing is, the consequences of so doing are so much graver than when we had no global challengers, no serious competitors. Now, we can't afford to stumble.
#4.1 Skookumchuk (Link) on 2008-02-12 14:29 (Reply)
BTW, they will have a point that will sound reasonable and in fact isn't too fanciful. We are now a nation of 300 million plus people with the same number of Circuit Courts we've had since 1981 when the Eleventh Circuit was established.
Those judges serve for LIFE.

And there isn't a thing to prevent them from establishing an entirely new court system

Think about that world.
#5 Habu on 2008-02-12 14:27 (Reply)
The left's new uber-strategy, developed while chafing under the usurper RR and brought to full force as "BDS", is to make themselves, and the country so far as possible, ungovernable and/or at least exceedingly unpleasant, whenever it is not in power.

The idea is that exhausted & demoralized voters, in order to gain a little peace, will eventually surrender and let them rule.

It seems to be working.

Later we'll learn (re-learn) that "Rule or Ruin" is always a false choice, as those who force such a choice intend to both rule and ruin.
#6 buddy larsen on 2008-02-12 14:49 (Reply)
Yeah Buddy you're right. It's gonna be a big big problem for a good many of me in this country if they redo the courts. Those changes will last the remainder of my life and as I've stated previously, they are not taking my guns away. I know the INTENT of our FF's and they wanted us to have guns, they knew governments were evil.

Now we have huge segments that are like little birdies waiting for momma bird to drop a morsel of food down their throats or carry away their poo-poo. Folks actually think that ALL their rights come from the government..it amazes me.
It looks like I'll end up my life as a desperado, after formerly being a law abiding citizen and patriot...but as I stated I've read what the INTENT was in establishing this nation so I'll be one damn proud desperado..
#6.1 Habu on 2008-02-12 15:14 (Reply)
Just how many we are y'all, desperado?

In a land where one man-one vote is the rule how many does we, get, me wonders.
#6.1.1 Leag on 2008-02-12 17:12 (Reply)
desperados don't need no steenkin' vote, mon
#6.1.1.1 buddy larsen on 2008-02-12 17:44 (Reply)
Desperad[a]s have their guns, dignity and sense of American destiny. One woman-one vote is the rule for wimmin whose heads are turned not by pretty boy Dems but by real men. They may be in the minority but their votes count with the best of 'em. May the majority voters be wiser and vote more Republican than most---
#6.1.1.2 Anonymous on 2008-02-12 23:11 (Reply)
'desperadas' make me think of what a force Calamity Jane would've been if only she could've shot like Annie Oakley!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Oakley
#6.1.1.2.1 buddy larsen on 2008-02-12 23:27 (Reply)
"In Europe, she performed before Queen Victoria and other crowned heads of state. Oakley had such good aim that, at his request, she knocked the ashes off a cigarette held by the Prince of Prussia, the future Kaiser Wilhelm II."

Sharpshooter I ain't, just good, with keen vision i wish i hadn't. Calamity was instructive, and smoking is bad fer you. Jane and Annie were both AOK.
#6.1.1.2.1.1 Anonymous on 2008-02-12 23:48 (Reply)
jeez, if she's missed that ash by a few inches, there'd've been no WWI, no Hitler, no nazis, no holocaust, no WWII, no USSR, no me, since ma & pa met as a result of WWII -- brings a question -- would i have it that way, and never have existed ? But of course -- but would yer average leftie ?
#6.1.1.2.1.1.1 buddy larsen on 2008-02-13 00:13 (Reply)
She liked to use the Marlin 1891, today still made as the Marlin 39A.

Gives me a reason to buy one. Hey, nothing like cramming 25 long arms in a 16 gun safe...
#6.1.1.2.1.1.1.1 Skookumchuk (Link) on 2008-02-13 00:25 (Reply)
Once they have lost it, they will miss it terribly.

The real question is whether the idea of America can be made too powerful to die.
#6.2 Skookumchuk (Link) on 2008-02-12 15:14 (Reply)
That's precisely why political powers that fool around with the language (meaning of is, is) are so dangerous -- without our knowing it, they'll re-frame the idea of America for us, without ever really coming out of the 'polls show the will of the people' fog.
#6.2.1 buddy larsen on 2008-02-12 15:23 (Reply)
The only saving grace is that governments seldom do anything well. Of course, since the accretion of power in government hands is motivated by a kind of religious impulse, it often doesn't matter in the short run whether the government can do things well or not. But the fact that government can't do things well, while exacting a terrible price in human liberty as it attempts to do more and more, in the end counts for something too. The disparity between what is promised and what it delivers is too great. That disparity can make Berlin Walls come tumbling down. We mustn't discount that, either.
#6.2.1.1 Skookumchuk (Link) on 2008-02-12 18:29 (Reply)
you're the eternal optometrist, skook --
#6.2.1.1.1 buddy larsen on 2008-02-12 23:23 (Reply)
Skookumchuk,

I understand what you're saying but if the Socialist Democrats win all the power with a supermajority in the Senate....how are you going to stop them from legislating totally socialist laws?
Personally I am prepared to war on them, a revolution, but I believe the sheeple are so misinformed about what their God given rights are, and so propagandized by "a nation of laws" dictum blindly followed that few would join me.

However, I'll gladly die a revolutionary to keep my God given rights and also what was intended for this nation. I'm not going down the Marxist path.
#6.2.2 Habu on 2008-02-12 17:03 (Reply)
See my reply to Buddy above. As Lenin (I think?) said, the worse it gets, the better for us. But it might be a long time in the tunnel.
#6.2.2.1 Skookumchuk (Link) on 2008-02-12 18:42 (Reply)
"Property is the fruit of labor...property is desirable...is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built."

(from the Lincoln post just below--sorry--needed saying twice)
#7 buddy larsen on 2008-02-12 15:15 (Reply)
Gingrich Warns of GOP Catastrophe

"And every person who cares about the conservative movement and every person who cares about the Republican Party had better stop and say to themselves, ‘There is something big happening in this country. We don’t understand it. We’re not responding to it. And we’re currently not competitive. And if we want to get to be competitive, we had better change and we had better change now.”

(more) http://tinyurl.com/yskcp5
#8 Habu on 2008-02-12 20:17 (Reply)
Retired Teacher Reveals He Was Illiterate Until Age 48

Retired Teacher Reveals He Was Illiterate Until Age 48
OCEANSIDE, Calif. -- John Corcoran graduated from college and taught high school for 17 years without being able to read, write or spell.

Corcoran's life of secrecy started at a young age. He said his teachers moved him up from grade to grade. Often placed in what he calls the "dumb row," the images of his tribulations in the classroom are still vividly clear.
(more)

http://www.10news.com/news/15274005/detail.html
#9 Habu on 2008-02-12 20:50 (Reply)

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