Bringing LIBERTY to
Capitol Hill -- 2008
OZARKS
VIRTUAL TOWN
HALL
Saturday Morning, September 20,
2008, 10:30am
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A Discussion of The President's Saturday Morning
Radio Address
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Click here
to listen to a replay of the September 20, 2008 Ozarks
Virtual Town Hall |
Notes and Summary of the President's Address: Bailing
out Lenders
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This week, Americans marked
seven years since the terrorist attacks that shook our Nation on
September 11, 2001. On that day, we witnessed unspeakable destruction
perpetrated by evil men. (continued
below)
How the President Differs from the American vision of
"Liberty Under God":
- America was founded on the philosophy of "Liberty
Under God."
- "Liberty" means freedom from government
suppression of ideas and confiscation of wealth
- "Under God"
means we have a personal responsibility to love
God and neighbor.
- Human beings are endowed with the right to property by
God, not the government.
- The original American Dream: Everyone
dwelling safely under his own Vine &
Fig Tree
- America's Founders spoke of this as "an Experiment
in Liberty" (1787-1887)
- The "experiment" was a success: a Free Market made
America the most prosperous and admired nation in history
- In the 20th century, the experiment in liberty was replaced with
another experiment: an experiment in central planning
- also known as "corporatism," "fascism,"
and "socialism," America is no longer prosperous and
admired, but bankrupt and despised.
- The original American dream of personal, private ownership, has
been replaced with private indebtedness and public control.
- Nothing in the President's Agenda reduces socialism and promotes
Free Markets.
- The President has forgotten the limits placed on his authority by
the Constitution. He does not have the Constitutional authority to
spend a trillion dollars
President
Bush's
Saturday Morning Radio Address
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Another
Perspective:
"Liberty Under God"
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| THE
PRESIDENT: Good morning. This is a pivotal moment for
America's economy. Problems
that originated in the credit markets and first showed up
in the area of subprime mortgages have spread throughout our
financial system. This has led to an erosion
of confidence that has frozen many financial transactions,
including loans to consumers and to businesses seeking to expand
and create jobs. |
The Problems
originated with the government. The government
encouraged people to go into debt who shouldn't have gone into
debt.
Confidence in government should be eroded.
Confidence in the government's monetary system should be
eroded.
"Investors" believed they could make money by buying
bad debts. They had "confidence." They should not have.
Government is now taking money from those who correctly did not
have "confidence" and is giving it to those who had misplaced
confidence.
We should not make lies
our refuge.
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| As a result, the government is
acting to protect our
Nation's economic health from serious risk. Our
free enterprise system rests on the conviction that the
Federal government should intervene in the marketplace only when necessary.
Given the precarious state of our financial markets and their
vital importance to the daily lives of the American people,
government intervention is not only warranted, it is essential. |
The government is
acting to protect lenders, not "the
nation." Government action is designed not to protect "the
General Welfare," but to protect special interests.
"Our
free enterprise system??" On
what planet? The U.S. is arguably one of the most socialist
nations on earth. The government takes 60% of everything you earn
by working, to fund projects which are not
necessary. They are not even Constitutional, and some
Constitutional projects (e.g., the Post Office) are not run by the
government by necessity.
"Free enterprise" means profit and loss.
The government is protecting special interests from losses. That's
not "free enterprise," it's just plain old fascism.
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| In recent weeks the Federal
government has taken a series of targeted measures designed
primarily to stop the problems of individual firms from spreading
more broadly. But more action is needed. We must address the
root cause behind much of the instability in our markets.
America's economy is facing unprecedented challenges, and we're
responding with unprecedented action. |
What is the root
cause of bad debt? Could it be the government encouraging debt, by
enticing debtors to write their mortgage interest off? |
| My Administration is working with
Congress on legislation which will approve the Federal
government's purchase of illiquid
assets, such as troubled mortgages, from banks and other
financial institutions. This decisive step will address underlying
problems in our financial system. And it will allow
financial institutions to resume lending and get our financial
system moving again. |
What is an "illiquid
asset?" It is something that can't be sold easily.
Something that can't be sold in a Free Market. Nobody wants
to buy bad debts. Nobody has confidence in the debtors. But
if the debts aren't bought, the bankers take a loss. So the
government is FORCING YOU to buy debts you don't want to buy, so
that YOU take the loss instead of the banks. Welcome to "our
free enterprise system." |
| The Department of the Treasury is
also acting to restore confidence
in a key element of America's financial system, by offering
government insurance for money market mutual funds. For every
dollar you have invested in an insured fund, you'll be able to
take a dollar out. |
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| The Federal Reserve is also
providing more liquidity
to money market mutual funds, which will help ease pressure on our
financial markets. |
by forcing YOU to
liquidate assets that you have no confidence in. |
| The Securities and Exchange
Commission has issued new rules temporarily suspending the
practice of short-selling on the stocks of financial institutions.
This is intended to prevent investors from intentionally driving
down particular stocks for
their own personal gain. |
as opposed to the
personal gain of the bankers. |
| Finally, when we get past the
immediate challenges, my Administration looks forward to working
with Congress on measures to bring greater long-term transparency
and reliability to the financial system. |
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| These measures require us to put
a significant amount of taxpayer dollars on the line. But I'm
convinced that this bold approach will cost American families far
less than the alternative. Further stress on our financial markets
would cause massive job
losses, devastate retirement accounts, further erode
housing values, and dry up new loans for homes, cars, and college
tuitions. |
The first people
who should lose their job are government regulators who act as
catalysts for bad debt.
Nobody is better at devastating retirement accounts than the
federal government and the Federal Reserve.
Who benefits from college tuition loans? Arguably not
the students, who walk away with socialist brainwashing and
huge student loan debts.
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| In this difficult time, I know
many Americans listening may be wondering about the security of
your finances. Through the FDIC, every savings account, checking
account, and certificate of deposit is insured by the Federal
government for up to $100,000. The FDIC has been in existence for
75 years, and no one has ever lost a penny on an insured deposit.
And this will not change. |
Lehman Brothers
was in existence for over 150 years. |
| In the long term, Americans can
have reason to be confident in our economic strength. America has
the most talented, productive, and entrepreneurial workers in the
world. This country is the best place in the world to invest and
do business. And as we've seen repeatedly over the past eight
years, we have a flexible and resilient system that absorbs
challenges, makes corrections, and bounces back. |
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| We will weather this challenge
too -- and we will do it together. This is not a time for
partisanship. I'll work with Democrats and Republicans alike to
steer our economy through these difficult times and back to the
path of long-term growth. Thank you for listening. |
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Kevin Craig's Platform:
Additional "Liberty Under God" Resources
What Would America's Founding Fathers Do?
The men who threw tea into the Boston Harbor over a tax of 3 pence
per pound would not be happy with a tax ten times greater on
every gallon of gas. Those who took up muskets over a total tax burden
of less than 3% would not be happy with the
fact that the federal government now takes more
than half of everything you earn.
Today it is illegal for public school teachers to teach their
students that the Declaration of Independence is really true (and not
just an outdated historical document). The federal government is clearly
at war with everything the Founding Fathers stood for.
America's greatest Americans would abolish
today's federal government.
Muskets are Not an Option
There are two reasons why we should not take up arms to pull off the
violent overthrow of the federal government, even if America's Founders
would surely do so. First, the feds have nukes. Second, violent
revolution is unChristian and unBiblical. We must beat our swords
into plowshares and use persuasion to
abolish tyranny. This is time for a revolution
of ideas.
Revolution Won't Come in a Day
John Adams once wrote that the American
Revolution began in 1761, when Massachusetts attorney James Otis
began legal challenges to the Writs
of Assistance. He lost the case, but "American
independence," Adams wrote, "was
then and there born." Now do the math. That means it took 15
years to convince the rest of America to declare Independence
(1776). Then another seven years of war was required before a
Peace Treaty was signed (1783), and then six years before the
Constitution was finally ratified (1789). That's almost 30 years. (And
Jefferson said we shouldn't go 20
years without another rebellion!) How can we hope to convince
Americans to fight for principles they were never taught in government
schools? We need to be in this battle for the long term. "Eternal
Vigilance is the Price of Liberty."
The Internet Can Speed up the Revolution
Here are ways you can help.
Communicating with Government and Media
- Contact Congress -- this
is from the JBS website, powered by "CapWiz," from Capitol
Advantage. Lots of organizations use capwiz. If you don't want to go
through the JBS, search for capwiz
on Google and find another organization that uses it.
Notice that you can also contact media through this webpage.
- Action E-List
Sign up for the JBS Action E-List and be notified when you can
make a critical difference on important issues.
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Make
Congress Read Their Bills Before Voting
Make Congress read every word of every bill they create before
they vote on it.
Urge your Representative and your Senators to sponsor
DownsizeDC.org's “Read the Bills Act” (RTBA). |
TWIC
- A Backdoor Real ID Card
Real ID is dying. But the Department of Homeland Security has a
new plan to subject every American to a national ID card anyway.
They plan to pick off one occupational field at a time, starting
with the maritime industry. One man is fighting back. Meet him,
and help stop this backdoor Real ID plan.
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Stop
the Killer Horse Hormones
The FDA "outlawed" the use of Estriol, an estrogen
medication that's bio-identical to human estrogen. Doctors must
now prescribe animal-derived estrogen instead. Are bio-identical
hormones dangerous, while animal-derived hormones are safe? No.
The practice of medicine is moving to chemically identical to
human hormones and away from animal hormones. Learn why the FDA
decided to endanger women's health in this way, and take action. |
End
Asset Forfeiture
If the government suspects you used your house or car in a crime,
they can take it and sell it at auction. They don't even have to
prove your guilt. They call this practice civil asset forfeiture,
but it's really theft. It violates the 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th and
14th Amendments. It also encourages law enforcement to put profits
before justice. Tell Congress to end civil asset forfeiture.
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Support
an Iraq Referendum
Americans keep debating when, how, or if to leave Iraq. Maybe we
should ask the Iraqi people what they want. After all, it's
their country. Tell Congress to request that the Iraqi
government hold a public referendum on the U.S. occupation. Learn
more »
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"Cap
and Trade" is not the way
The politicians seem to be unifying around "cap and
trade" as a way to cut CO2 emissions. If they take this
step it may be the largest increase in the size, scope, and
intrusiveness of government since the creation of Medicare.
Worse still, it may not even achieve its purpose. Please tell
Congress to oppose "cap and trade." Learn
more »
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Iraq
Waste
Big government prospers through failure. Each new failure is used
to justify more spending and new powers. Wasteful spending in Iraq
is the latest example. One way to change this is to hold
government accountable. A new bill in Congress seeks to provide
some of the needed accountability. Please support it. Learn
more »
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Stop
the War for Terror
U.S. policy has inflamed the Middle East. It has made
terrorism more likely rather than less. We seem to be fighting a
war for terror, rather than on
terror. This policy must stop. The place to start stopping is
with Iran. We must not attack Iran. War with Iran would
devastate our economy, disrupt world oil supplies, and recruit
more terrorists. Click
here to stop this war before it starts.
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The Democrat Party Radio Address:
The The
Democratic Radio Address was delivered by Presidential candidate
Barack Obama. He didn't say a word about the Federal Reserve creating
money out of thin air for bankers to lend to those who can't pay the
loan back.
Click here
for a replay of this edition of the Ozarks Virtual
Town Hall
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