Private Charity Prevails Over Government Handouts

When homeless woman Henrietta Hughes begged President Obama for help, she was probably expecting some kind of increased public assistance. At a town hall rally in Fort Meyers, Florida, she unabashedly pleaded with him to give her, of all things, a house:

"The housing authority has two years waiting lists, and we need something more than the vehicle and the parks to go to. We need our own kitchen and our own bathroom. Please help."

In response, the Obama administration called the local housing authority to find her subsidized housing with a shorter waiting time. But a private offer from a Republican was far more valuable. Chene Thompson, wife of Senator Nicholas Thompson, said:

"Basically, I offered Ms. Hughes and her son the opportunity to stay in my home rent-free for as long as they need to."

Many people underestimate the ability of private aid and free enterprise to help those in distress. Charitable assitance should be given out of the goodness of one's own heart, not stolen in the form of taxes and enforced via the threat of gun-toting officers and jail time. Otherwise, it's not charitable at all.

Hughes' plea was a shameless public display amounting to little more than street-begging. We live in an era of entitlement, where everyone's asking what their country can do for them. But if everyone did their fair share of work and helped themselves, we would have such a surplus of goods and services that there would be no such thing as "people in need."

Socialist Attitudes Make Their Way into High School Sports

In Dallas recently, a high school basketball game ended in a 100-0 shutout by the Covenant Lady Knights, and ultimately resulted in the firing of the winning coach. The reason? Apparently it embarrassed the Dallas Academy Bulldogs, the losing team. In other words, we shouldn't just be spreading the wealth - we should be spreading the points, too.

This sends a clear message to the young women of Covenant School:

It's okay to be successful in life, just not too successful. If you work too hard or do too well, you will be punished. Don't challenge yourself. Don't grow as an individual. And for God's sake, don't be proud of your accomplishments.

And to Dallas Academy:

Losing isn't fun. That is, unless you lose consistently for five years straight and then finish it off with a disastrous 100-point loss. Then you'll get talk show interviews, gifts, and you'll win by forfeit.

It's this type of approach that produces life's losers by praising failure and punishing success. It's the reason we have progressive taxes and welfare. It's also why, instead of a normal business cycle, we experience deep, long-lasting recessions.

So congratulations to the Covenant School team for working hard and winning. Best wishes to Dallas Academy; if you try even harder you can win for real in the future. And shame on those responsible for firing coach Micah Grimes, and on those who brought national attention to this event. Shame on you for encouraging mediocrity and sheltering young people from life's hard lessons. Heaven forbid that any of them should reach their full potential.

Obama Goes Down in History - With Jimmy Carter

In 1979, President Jimmy Carter addressed the nation regarding the serious economic decline and energy crisis of the time. The speech, which came to be known as his "malaise" speech, was heavily criticized. In it, he blamed the American people for being too greedy and self-interested, and suggested that we should focus on personal sacrifice, rather than growing the economy, as a solution to our problems.

Today, in his inaugural address, Obama carries the torch passed on by Carter over 30 years ago. Here are several excerpts from the two speeches. Some of them are eerily similar.

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OBAMA:

"Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age."

CARTER:

"In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption."

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OBAMA:

"Each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet."

CARTER:

"The energy crisis is real. It is worldwide. It is a clear and present danger to our Nation."

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OBAMA:

"These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land - a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights."

CARTER:

"The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our Nation."

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OBAMA:

"On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics."

CARTER:

"You see a Congress twisted and pulled in every direction by hundreds of well financed and powerful special interests. You see every extreme position defended to the last vote, almost to the last breath by one unyielding group or another."

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OBAMA:

"The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works."

CARTER:

"What you see too often in Washington and elsewhere around the country is a system of government that seems incapable of action."

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OBAMA:

"For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies."

CARTER:

"We simply must have faith in each other, faith in our ability to govern ourselves, and faith in the future of this Nation."

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OBAMA:

"What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task."

CARTER:

"I do not promise you that this struggle for freedom will be easy. I do not promise a quick way out of our Nation's problems, when the truth is that the only way out is an all-out effort... We can manage the short-term shortages more effectively and we will, but there are no short-term solutions to our long-range problems. There is simply no way to avoid sacrifice."

HUD Expands Program to Destroy Economy

When the economy is failing, the government always wins. Such is the case with the Housing and Urban Development Department, a corrupt government entity whose actions encouraged the mortgage bubble. New rules for its Hope for Homeowners program will allow borrowers to pay less monthly, and lenders to write down loans by a smaller percentage than previously. And HUD walks off with part of the equity and home value appreciation.

As part of the program modification, loan terms may also be extended to 40 years. It's interesting to note that earlier this year, Canada's housing agency announced that it would specifically reject 40-year government-backed mortgages "to reduce the risk of a U.S.-Style housing bubble developing in Canada."

Laughably, one of the HUD program's provisions is that loan amounts can't exceed $550,440.

It should come as no surprise that House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank approves of the program changes, but feels even more should be done. This is the same Barney Frank that in 2003 said the following about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:

"The more people, in my judgment, exaggerate a threat of safety and soundness, the more people conjure up the possibility of serious financial losses to the Treasury, which I do not see. I think we see entities that are fundamentally sound financially and withstand some of the disastrous scenarios. And even if there were a problem, the Federal Government doesn't bail them out."

Disgruntled Doctors Prove Capitalism Will Find a Way

According to CNN, in a recent survey of primary care physicians in the U.S., an astounding 49 percent admitted that they'd consider leaving the medical profession. The reason? "Too much red tape generated from insurance companies and government agencies."

Doctors are fed up with the inefficiencies caused in large part by Medicare and Medicaid. The red tape is strangling them, and now they're threatening to leave the medical business in droves. As Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman said in his "Free to Choose" television series, "The clearest demonstration of how much people value freedom is the way they vote with their feet when they have no other way to vote."

This should send a clear message to President-elect Barack Obama, who's health care plan will greatly increase federal control of health insurance. Not to mention the hefty $243-billion-per-year price tag, which is sure to deliver another crippling blow to an economy that's already bleeding profusely. His plan could also be devastating if it resulted in a major shortage of doctors.

On the bright side, the discontented PCPs have found an ingenious way to cut out the middle man, as it were. It's called "concierge medicine" or "retainer medicine," and it's a practice where patients pay an annual fee in lieu of insurance. This brilliant move brings additional competition and consumer choice to the industry.

An article published by Physician's News Digest states, "Some fear that concierge care will result in a two-tiered medical system based upon economics." I seriously hope so. Only doctors and their patients are competent to decide what's best for them; not the government.

In an ideal world, so many physicians would abandon the current government health care quagmire that it would collapse, and politicians would no longer be able to use it as a platform on which to run. Well, I can dream, can't I?

Obama Will Give New Meaning to "Hoping for Change"

Modified from a photo by jswieringa

Government Subsidy, Not Predatory Lending, Enabled Mortgage Crisis

It's Election Day, and the economy is the issue on everyone's mind. In order to choose the best candidate for the economy going forward, it helps to know what caused this disaster the first place.

What is predatory lending?

The phrase "predatory lending" paints banks and mortgage companies as evil con-artists, ready to pounce on the unsuspecting and forcing them to buy adjustable rate mortgages. However, the term begs the question, "How can the selling of a voluntarily-purchased loan be predatory?" In general it can not, but since "subprime" borrowers are often low-income, elderly, or minority individuals, they are treated as victims. It is the tactic of a culpable Democrat-run Congress to portray lenders and borrowers in these ways.

So what did cause the meltdown?

While there are doubtless many contributing factors to the mortgage bubble and subsequent burst, a lot of it goes back to the mid-1990's. The Community Reinvestment Act of 1994 is a federal law in which banks must comply with regulatory agencies in meeting "the credit needs of the communities in which they operate, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods." This increased the number of high-risk borrowers who were previously ineligible for loans due to low income or poor credit. And in 2004, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development required government-sponsored Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to purchase billions in subprime loans. HUD has been criticized for decades as being corrupt.

In other words, when government coerced banks into offering risky loans that never should have been made, and irresponsible home-buyers took on mortgages they could not afford, the result was financial turmoil.

Regulation is not the answer.

It is clear that in large part, government is responsible for the economic calamity that is upon us. How then is government regulation going to help? Indeed, the agency originally charged with regulating Freddie and Fannie was an arm of the corrupt HUD! And the new Federal Housing Finance Agency will be no better; it will be just another case of the fox guarding the chicken coop.

The choice is clear.

Let the free market operate. Let banks succeed and fail as they will, and resist the tempting promise of security that government regulation offers, as that security is surely false. Resist socialism, respect the Constitution, and vote for John McCain.

Photo source: respres