Scrimmage Line’s blog

 

"Although President Obama and big-government activists demonize health insurance companies, the companies are still mostly on board with the president's effort to overhaul the U.S. health-care system. ... If health legislation succeeds, the [insurance] industry would likely get a fresh batch of new customers. In particular, many young and healthy people who currently forgo coverage would be forced to sign up." . . . the Wall Street Journal . . .

 

"You will be forced to buy insurance. If you don't, you'll pay a fine. It's an insurance company ‘bailout.'" . . . former Democratic Party chairman Dr. Howard Dean . . .

 

"The drug industry has already contributed millions of dollars to advertising campaigns for healthcare overhaul through advocacy groups like Healthy Economics Now and Families USA. It has spent about $1 million on similar advertisements under its own name ... The drug makers stand to gain millions of new customers." . . . Frank Rich in the New York Times . . .

 

"No one hates capitalism more than capitalists ... Competition sucks if you're one of the competitors. It makes you have to constantly be on your toes, watching for new entrants, new innovations, and changes in the relevant variables. How much easier life would be in a more stable and predictable world where capitalists didn't have to serve the fickle consumer! If we cut short this [price] discovery process, and especially the mechanism of profit and loss, the benefits to the capitalists will not come from behaving in ways that benefit the rest of us." . . .economist Steven Horwitz's First Law of Political Economy . . .

 

"I reread ['Atlas Shrugged'] recently and was stunned. It was as if [Ayn] Rand had seen the future. Writing half a century ago, she predicted today's explosion of big government in shockingly accurate detail. The 'Preservation of Livelihood Law.' The 'Equalization of Opportunity Law.' The 'Steel Unification Plan.' Don't these sound like laws passed by the current Congress? All were creations of Rand's villain, Wesley Mouch, the evil bureaucrat who regulates business and eventually drives the productive people out of business. Who is today's Wesley Mouch? Barney Frank? Chris Dodd. Tim Geithner? ... 'Atlas' is still a big bestseller today. This year, it reached as high as NO. 15 on Amazon's bestseller list. Pretty amazing. Clearly there's some magic in 'Atlas Shrugged.' The Library of Congress once asked readers which books made the biggest difference in their lives. 'Atlas' came in second, after the Bible. ... The embrace of freer markets has lifted more people out of the misery of poverty than any other system -- ever. The World Bank says that in just the last 30 years, half a billion people who once lived on less than $1.25 a day have moved out of poverty. But now, Wesley Mouch -- I mean, Congress and the bureaucrats -- tell us they are going to 'fix' capitalism, as if their previous 'fixes' didn't hamstring the free market and create the problems they propose to solve. Who are they kidding? Rand had it right. She learned it the hard way in Soviet Russia. What makes a country work is leaving people free -- free to take risks, to invent things -- and to keep the rewards of their work. Critics say Ayn Rand promotes selfishness. I call it 'enlightened self interest.' When free people act in their own self-interest, society prospers." . . . columnist and Fox Business News anchor John Stossel . . .

 

"The [U.S.] Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals ... it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government ... it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizen's protection against the government." . . . author and philosopher Ayn Rand (1905-1982) . . .

 

"There was a "silent and terrible ghost in the room" and that ghost was called capitalism ... our revolution seeks to help all people…socialism, the other ghost that is probably wandering around this room, that's the way to save the planet, capitalism is the road to hell....let's fight against capitalism and make it obey us." . . . Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, speaking to resounding applause at the Global Climate Summit in Copenhagen . . .

 

"When these capitalist gods of carbon burp and belch their dangerous emissions, it's we, the lesser mortals of the developing sphere who gasp and sink and eventually die." . . . R. G. Karigamombe Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe, speaking to a cheering audience at the Global Climate Summit . . .

 

"Socialists refer to "capitalism" as the system in which the state hands out and protects capitalists' privileges . . . and therefore oppression of workers. They don't see that capitalism, in the classical liberal tradition, means rather a free market based on free people, i.e., voluntary exchanges of value between free individuals." . . . Per Bylund (Free Market – December 2009) . . .

 

"In the free market, everyone earns according to his productive value in satisfying consumer desires. Under statist distribution, everyone earns in proportion to the amount he can plunder from the producers. Indeed, it is not capitalism that leads to exploitation as the Left contends; it is democracy." . . . economist Murray N. Rothbard (1926-1995) . . .

 

Andrea joins me in wishing all of you a healthy, happy, free and prosperous 2010.

 

"I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men.." . . . Sir Isaac Newton . . .

 

"An informed and active citizenry is vital to the long-term health of our political system. Washington's back-scratching political class apparently sees it differently. A few years ago, they locked arms around a measure sponsored by Senators John McCain, a Republican, and Russ Feingold, a Democrat, imposing unprecedented restrictions on the political activities of everyday Americans. Initiatives that had been legal for as long as anyone could remember were suddenly transformed into sanctionable offenses, all under the guise of ‘campaign finance reform.’" . . . former Governor of Massachusetts Mit Romney . . .

 

"[There are] uncanny parallels between George W. Bush and Herbert Hoover: Both were president during a time of economic crisis; both presided over vast expansions of government that helped cause the crisis or at least make it worse than it might have been otherwise; finally both were (inaccurately) portrayed by their political opponents as dogmatic free market advocates, when in fact both were highly statist. After leaving the presidency, Bush is unconsciously imitating Hoover in yet another way -- by rhetorically supporting free markets and criticizing the even more interventionist policies of his Democratic successor (which in both cases built on the expansions of government initiated by the Republicans who preceded them).... Bush's belated support for free markets follows in Hoover's footsteps. After leaving office in 1933, Hoover wrote books and articles defending free markets and criticizing the Democrats' New Deal. Some of his criticisms of FDR were well-taken. Many New Deal policies actually worsened and prolonged the Great Depression by organizing cartels and increasing unemployment. But by coming out as a free market advocate, the post-presidential Hoover actually bolstered the cause of interventionism because he helped cement the incorrect impression that he had pursued free market policies while in office, thereby causing the Depression. Bush's post-presidential conversion creates a similar risk: it could solidify the already widespread impression that he, like the Hoover of myth, pursued laissez-faire policies which then caused an economic crisis. ... The greatest contribution Bush can now make to free market policies is to dispel the impression that he pursued them while in office." . . . Ilya Somin, Associate Professor at George Mason University School of Law . . .

 

"Opponents of interstate insurance sales don't want consumers to be able to choose a policy that fits their specific needs; they want them to be required by law to purchase only those policies that government bureaucrats think is best for them. This blatantly anti-choice position is, of course, couched in terms of ‘consumer protection.' ... If our representatives at the state and federal levels are serious about securing affordable, accessible, and high quality health care options for every American citizen, they would do well to support reform efforts that include a wide variety of insurance options. Options generated by the market, not by regulators. Consumer choice should guide the health insurance market, not the dictates of know-it–all bureaucrats who presume to know what's best for the rest of us." . . . founder and chairman of Center for a Just Society, Ken Connor . . .

 

"December 7, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy -- the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. ... Always will we remember the character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory. ... With confidence in our armed forces -- with the unbounded determination of our people -- we will gain the inevitable triumph -- so help us God." . . . Franklin D. Roosevelt (1941) . . .

 

"It's fitting that the first day of the Copenhagen climate hoax summit happens on December 7th, a day, FDR said, 'will live in infamy.' " . . . radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh . . .

 

"From indictment to trial, the civilian case against the 9/11 terrorists will be a years-long seminar, enabling al-Qaeda and its jihadist allies to learn much of what we know and, more important, the methods and sources by which we come to know it. But that is not the half of it. By moving the case to civilian court, the president and his attorney general have laid the groundwork for an unprecedented surrender of our national-defense secrets directly to our most committed enemies." . . . columnist Andrew McCarthy . . .

 

"The malice of the wicked is reinforced by the weakness of the virtuous" . . . British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874-1965) . . .

 

"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it." . . . American author Mark Twain (1835-1910) . . .

 

"Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men; but be careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the gratitude." . . . author, lecturer E. P. Powell . . .

 

"Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in fifteen minutes. Half-times take fifteen minutes. This is not coincidence." . . . humorist Erma Bombeck (1927-1996) . . .

 

"For almost three months, 102 seafarers braved harsh elements to arrive off the coast of what is now Massachusetts, in late November of 1620. On December 11, prior to disembarking at Plymouth Rock, they signed the Mayflower Compact, America's original document of civil government and the first to introduce self-government. While still anchored at Provincetown harbor, their Pastor John Robinson counseled, ‘You are become a body politic, and are to have only them for your governors which yourselves shall make choice of.'" . . . Plymouth Governor William Bradford (1590-1657) . . .

 

"They are not to do anything they please to provide for the general welfare.... [G]iving a distinct and independent power to do any act they please which may be good for the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless. It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and as they sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please." . . . Thomas Jefferson . . .

 

"Great horrors don't begin in gas chambers, killing fields, or forced famines. They begin when there is a philosophical shift in a nation's leadership about the value of human life. Novelist Walker Percy examined the underlying philosophy that led to the Holocaust and wrote: ‘In a word, certain consequences, perhaps unforeseen, follow upon the acceptance of the principle of the destruction of human life for what may appear to be the most admirable social reasons.'" . . . syndicated columnist and author Cal Thomas . . .

 

"As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next world, they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes and effects, Providence punishes national sins, by national calamities." . . . founder George Mason (1725-1792) . . .

 

"I think it is important, though, to recognize if we keep on adding to the debt, even in the midst of this recovery, that at some point, people could lose confidence in the U.S. economy in a way that could actually lead to a double-dip recession." . . . Barak Obama (Nov, 2009) . . .

 

"The CBO now says that the $1 trillion estimated cost of ObamaCare is ‘subject to substantial uncertainty.' How's that for qualifying understatement? As for the big picture, U.S. National Debt topped the $12 trillion mark this week, or approximately $39,000 for every man, woman and child in America, and the federal deficit that Obama now pretends to be concerned about hit a record high $1.42 trillion for fiscal year 2009. . . . online publisher Mark Alexander (Nov 2009) . . .

 

"We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises. ... I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started ... and an enormous debt to boot!" . . . Henry Morgenthau (1891-1967) – Franklin D. Roosevelt's Treasury secretary (1939). . .

 

"In the U.S., the call is for government control, through regulations, as opposed to ownership. Unfortunately, it matters little whether there is a Democratically or Republican-controlled Congress and White House; the march toward greater government control continues." . . . George Mason University economist Walter E. Williams . . .

 

"If you are afraid to speak against tyranny, then you are already a slave." . . . author, online publisher John "Birdman" Bryant (1943-2009) . . .

 

"It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His mercy, to implore His protection and favor... That great and beneficent author of all good that was, that is, or ever shall be, that we may then unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people." . . . George Washington . . .

 

"Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of the men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory." . . . General George S. Patton (1885-1945) . . .

 

"Here lies in honored glory an American soldier known but to God." . . . inscribed, Nov. 11, 1921, on the tomb of an unknown American soldier from World War I, buried in Arlington National Cemetery. . .

 

"Twenty years ago this fall, the Iron Curtain was coming down in Europe. Across the Warsaw Pact, the jailers of the Communist prison states lost their nerve, and the cell walls crumbled. Matt Welch, the editor of Reason magazine, wonders why the anniversary is going all but unobserved: Why aren't we making more of the biggest mass liberation in history? Well, because to celebrate it would involve recognizing it as a victory over Communism. And, after the left's long march through the institutions of the west, most are not willing to do that. There's the bad totalitarianism (Nazism) and the good totalitarianism (Communism), whose apologists and, indeed, fetishists can still be found everywhere, even unto the White House." . . . columnist Mark Steyn . . .

 

"It is obvious what the fraudulent issue of fascism versus communism accomplishes: it sets up, as opposites, two variants of the same political system; it eliminates the possibility of considering capitalism; it switches the choice of 'Freedom or dictatorship?' into 'Which kind of dictatorship?' -- thus establishing a dictatorship as an inevitable fact and offering only a choice of rulers. The choice -- according to the proponents of that fraud -- is: a dictatorship of the rich (fascism) or a dictatorship of the poor (communism). That fraud collapsed in the 1940's, in the aftermath of World War II. It is too obvious, too easily demonstrable that fascism and communism are not two opposites, but two rival gangs fighting over the same territory -- that both are variants of statism, based on the collectivist principle that man is the rightless slave of the state -- that both are socialistic, in theory, in practice, and in the explicit statements of their leaders -- that under both systems, the poor are enslaved and the rich are expropriated in favor of a ruling clique -- that fascism is not the product of the political 'right,' but of the 'left' -- that the basic issue is not 'rich versus poor,' but man versus the state, or: individual rights versus totalitarian government -- which means: capitalism versus socialism." . . . philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand (1905-1982) . . .

 

"Communism is nothing more than Nazism with better PR. Its track record of atrocities dwarf those of Hitler, and its core philosophy is every bit as repugnant, if not more so. That anyone in America would even attempt to put 'lipstick on this pig' is an unmitigated disgrace. That they can do it with such relative ease -- under the banner of 'social justice,' no less – is truly frightening." . . . columnist Arnold Ahlert . . .

 

 

"Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being's entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend ... on the pleasure of anyone else." . . . Mother Teresa . . .

 

"But a Constitution of government once changed from freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever." . . . John Adams . . .

 

"There's got to be a better name for this. When people think of the public option, ‘public' is being misrepresented that this is being paid for with their public dollars." . . . Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi . . .

 

"It's not free. ... Someone's going to have to pay for it and you bet it's going to be the taxpayer." . . . Sen. Joe Lieberman on the "public option." . . .

 

"The era of big government is over." . . . Bill Clinton (1996) . . .

 

"We are trying on every front to increase the role of government in the regulatory area." . . . Chairman of the House Banking Committee Barney Frank . . .

 

" Is there no end? Will we ever reach a limit where government says ‘no more, we've done enough; you're on your own now'? Apparently not. The ‘greatest generation' mostly lived within their means. They knew what it meant to go without all but essentials. Today, we think the sky is the limit when it comes to spending and that if we can conceive it, then we are entitled to it." . . . syndicated columnist Cal Thomas . . .

 

"In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution." . . . Thomas Jefferson . . .

 

"There is no "slippery slope" toward loss of liberty, only a long staircase where each step down must first be tolerated by the American people and their leaders." . . . former Wyoming Senator Alan K. Simpson . . .

 

"Nothing more separates Judeo-Christian values from secular values than the question of whether morality — what is good or evil — is absolute or relative. In other words, is there an objective right or wrong, or is right or wrong a matter of personal opinion?" . . . writer, lecturer and radio talk show host Dennis Prager . . .

 

"The King James version of the Bible runs more than 600 pages and is crammed with celestial regulations. Isaac Newton's ‘Principia Mathematica' distills many of the rules of physics in a mere 974 pages. Neither of them has anything on Nancy Pelosi's Health Care opus, which tops 1,900 pages. ... It's going to take some time to deconstruct this lengthy masterpiece, but as you flip through the pages of the House bill, you will notice the word "regulation" appears 181 times. "Tax" is there 214 times. "Fees," 103 times. As we all know, nothing says "affordability" like higher taxes and fees. ... The word "shall" – as in "must" or "required to" – appears more than 3,000 times." . . . columnist David Harsanyi . . .

 

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." . . . physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955) . . .

 

"Through the month of August, the American people let members of Congress from both parties know that they didn't want a government takeover of health care. But instead of listening to Americans' concerns, the House Democratic leaders ignored them and wrote a bill behind closed doors designed to appease their special interests." . . . House Minority Leader John Boehner . . .

 

"The left always focuses its attention on dividing wealth -- rather than producing it -- and they do so because of their faith in government power. Bureaucrats like to apportion riches in a manner they deem fair, but they never produce the riches themselves -- only private enterprise can do that. The left is thus compelled to sustain a sense of eternal grudge in order to fuel its projects, by persuading people to focus on the attainments of others, rather than celebrating achievements of their own. Liberals love to highlight the 'growing gap between rich and poor' -- avoiding the far more salient fact that poor people in America have progressed so dramatically that they now enjoy a standard of living that would have qualified as upper middle-class a century ago, and royalty several centuries ago. Unfortunately, there will always be someone with a bigger business, a better car, a nicer house, a prettier wife -- and it can drive you crazy if you concentrate on the blessings of the other guy." . . . columnist and radio host Michael Medved . . .

 

"The rescue of drowning men is ... a duty worth dying for, but not worth living for. It seems to me that all political duties (among which I include military duties) are of this kind. A man may have to die for our country: but no man must, in any exclusive sense, live for his country. He who surrenders himself without reservation to the temporal claims of a nation, or a party, or a class is rendering to Caesar that which, of all things, most emphatically belongs to God: himself." . . . British novelist and professor of ancient literature C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) . . .

 

"The terriffic urge to prevent another person from making a 'mistake' must be resisted if liberty is to be preserved. The 'protective spirit' that leads a fond parent to prohibit his child from acquiring mature judgements, as he substitutes his own opinions for those of the child, leads the dictator to act as he does in 'protecting' his political children. There is no possible way to allow a person to be right without also allowing him to be wrong. The only way to avoid responsibility for another's mistakes is to allow him the full glory and reward of being right, as well as the full dishonor and penalty of being wrong. Only in this way can one person isolate himself from the mistakes of another, whether it be a Stalin or a neighbor". . . . marketing professor and founder of the Institute for Human Studies, F.A. Harper . . .

 

"The smallest good deed is better than the grandest good intention." . . . French economist Emmanuel Duguet . . .

 

"Can President Barack Obama and Congress enact legislation that orders Americans to buy broccoli? If so, where did they get that authority? What provision in the Constitution empowers the federal government to order an individual to buy a product he does not want? This is not a question about nutrition. It is not a question about whether broccoli is good for you or about the relative merits of broccoli versus other foods. It is a question about the constitutional limits on the power of the federal government. It is a question about freedom. Can President Obama and Congress enact legislation that orders Americans to buy health insurance? They might as well order Americans to buy broccoli. They have no legitimate authority to do either. Yet neither Obama nor the current leadership in Congress seems to care about the constitutional limits on their power. They are now attempting to exert authority over the lives of Americans in a way no president and Congress has done before. ... All versions of the health care bill under consideration in Congress would order Americans to buy health insurance. If any of these bills is enacted, the first thing it would accomplish is the amputation of a vital part of our Constitution, and the death of another measure of our liberty." . . . columnist Terence Jeffrey . . .

 

"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty." . . . Thomas Jefferson . . .