Author: Campaign For Liberty Blog

By Doug Bandow

According to Rasmussen Reports:

Support for repeal of the recently-passed national health care plan is proving to be just as consistent as opposition to the plan before it was passed.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 56% of likely voters nationwide favor repeal, while 41% are opposed. Those figures include 48% who Strongly Favor repeal and 29% who Strongly Oppose it.

Over the past four weeks, support for repeal has remained in a very narrow range from a low of 54% to a high of 58%.

Forty percent (40%) now believe repeal is at least somewhat likely, up two points from a week ago. Forty-nine percent (49%) say it’s not likely. This include just 15% who see repeal as Very Likely and 12% who say it’s Not at All Likely.

(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.

Just 35% of voters believe the new health care law will be good for the country, while 52% believe it will be bad. These numbers have changed little since the March 21 House vote to pass the health care bill. Prior to passage of the law, Scott Rasmussen wrote a Wall Street Journal column explaining “Why Obama Can’t Move the Health Care Numbers.”

Let’s go to it!  It’s time to give meaning to the claim that the government is of the people, by the people, and for the people.

By Thomas Woods

Because I’m doing a lot of it these days.  Tomorrow (Tuesday) I’ll be speaking on the economy, the Fed, and the usual topics at the University of San Diego.  On Thursday I’ll be speaking at Auburn University.

For those of you who followed the Indiana University saga, I’ll be speaking there after all — on September 21.  That’s a ways away, of course, but I hope to see some of you guys there.

Of course, I hope to see a ton of people at the Iowa Regional Conference next month!

By Matt Hawes

Campaign for Liberty’s Kevin Brett reports on the continuing battle over health care policy in this C4L news update.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDtI4wUffUU

By Tim Shoemaker

235 Years ago, on April 19, 1775, the Battle of Lexington & Concord ignited the revolution that would lead the colonies to declare their independence from Great Britain.  In the video below, Schoolhouse Rock provides us an amusing reminder of the significance of that important event.

To commemorate this event, you can help Campaign for Liberty fire our own “shot heard ’round the world” by contributing to our “Audit the Fed Banner Bomb” and helping us reach our goal by midnight!  This will give us the momentum we need to continue the r3VOLution to finally find out what secrets are hiding behind the closed books of the Federal Reserve.

By Tim Shoemaker

On April 15, thousands of activists participated in tax day rallies around the country.  Here in Washington, D.C. a large rally was held on the National Mall beneath the shadow of the Washington Monument.

From Politico:

Tea party activists are divided roughly into two camps, according to a new POLITICO/TargetPoint poll: one that’s libertarian-minded and largely indifferent to hot-button values issues and another that’s culturally conservative and equally concerned about social and fiscal issues.

The poll was conducted over 5 hours during the rally and 457 respondents filled out the questionnaire.  The results were generally what many of us would have expected…

The results, however, suggest a distinct fault line that runs through the tea party activist base, characterized by two wings led by the politicians who ranked highest when respondents were asked who “best exemplifies the goals of the tea party movement” – former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), a former GOP presidential candidate.

Palin, who topped the list with 15 percent, speaks for the 43 percent of those polled expressing the distinctly conservative view that government does too much, while also saying that it needs to promote traditional values.

Paul’s thinking is reflected by an almost identical 42 percent who said government does too much but should not try to promote any particular set of values – the hallmarks of libertarians. He came in second to Palin with 12 percent.

When asked to choose from a list of candidates for president in 2012, Palin and Paul also finished one-two – with Palin at 15 percent and Paul at 14 percent.

Read the rest.

What is somewhat surprising about the poll is this: roughly 33% of the respondents were from the Metropolitan area.  For Paul to do so well in a poll conducted in D.C., you can only imagine what the results would have been at some of the other rallies held around the country.

By Thomas Woods

Here is the incomparable Michael Boldin of the Tenth Amendment Center talking about real state-level resistance to federal power before a Tea Party crowd that is expecting the usual claptrap.  As you can see, they don’t quite follow where Michael is going at the beginning.  Then they seem skeptical.  By the end they’re cheering like crazy.  I had no idea Michael was such a gifted speaker.  Watch this thing!  (You’ll see a link to part 2 embedded in the video.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t8SbLH9gyo

By Matt Hawes

From The Daily Caller:

Congress may be fined tens of millions of dollars a year under its own health-care law, in part because the bill dumps members of Congress and their staffs from their current health-care plans.

But no one really knows for sure what the bill does, not even the experts. For instance, exactly who qualifies as an “employer” – and therefore is subject to fines up to $3,000 per employee – is undefined in the bill.

If Congress were subject to a $3,000 fine for each of its employees, it would need to shell out approximately $50 million each year to Uncle Sam. Congress’s research arm, the Congressional Research Service (CRS), informally confirmed the possibility to Republican aides….

The uncertainties surrounding the health-care law for just Congress’s health-care coverage are driving questions about how the rest of America will fare when its provisions kick into turbo in coming years.

“This is just terribly written legislation,” Lungren said, attributing many of the “drafting errors” and such to the unorthodox process by which the law was passed. “I doubt that when the senators voted on the bill they thought that was going to be the completed project. They needed to get their number of votes and they were going to do it whatever way they could and then anticipated a conference that somehow would have worked out the differences between the House and the Senate version. And because we had so few votes in both the House and the Senate, they did this other thing.”…

Read the rest.

By Matt Hawes

Today is the final day to donate toward our C4L Audit the Fed banner bomb project.  We have set a goal of raising $174,197 by midnight so we can flood the internet with banners asking people to contact their senators in support of S 604.  We’re very close to reaching that goal!

Your donation will go directly toward purchasing internet banner buys on popular sites such as Drudge Report, Rasmussen, Fox News, CNN, and more!

Below is a breakdown of the number of views differing donations will buy on various sites:

$18.71 ~ 9,000 views on Drudge Report.

$37.29 ~ 11,000 views on Rasmussen

$61.48 ~ 19,000 views on Human Events

$81.62 ~ (best value) 42,000 views on Drudge Report

$142.55 ~ 70,000 views on Fox News

$237.36 ~ 85,000 views on Rasmussen

Click here to donate!

By Adam de Angeli

For Kentucky, Ohio, North Carolina, and Indiana.

Find out where the candidates stand at the links above (also linked from the top of each state page).

By Matt Hawes

With Goldman Sachs in the news due to SEC complaints, we’re sure to hear even more about how President Obama is a crusader for the little guy against Wall Street interests.

The Washington Examiner’s Tim Carney thinks otherwise, and this recent article lays out how Goldman Sachs is standing behind financial reform legislation.

The nation’s largest investment bank, famously cozy with top government officials in both parties, has tipped its hand to its shareholders, indicating that major financial “reform” proposals will help Goldman’s bottom line.

“Given that much of the financial contagion was fueled by uncertainty about counterparties’ balance sheets,” Goldman Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein and President Gary Cohn wrote in a letter at the beginning of the annual report, “we support measures that would require higher capital and liquidity levels, as well as the use of clearinghouses for standardized derivative transactions.”…

If you take Blankfein and Cohn’s word, stricter federal liquidity and capital requirements would amount to regulators doing Goldman’s work for Goldman. They want Uncle Sam to mitigate “uncertainty about counterparties’ balance sheets.” That is, they want the government to reduce the risk that Goldman’s debtors or insurers will run into trouble.

This is an odd function of government: Making Goldman Sachs feel safer in its business dealings….

Also at play in Goldman’s call for stricter capital requirements and standardization of derivatives: the confidence game. Much of America has lost some faith in the markets. Regular investors are still a bit scared of the stock market. Financial firms are lending less. Goldman thrives on free-flowing capital.

If Obama signs a financial “reform” and declares that it now safe to enter the waters of the stock market, that’s good news for Goldman.

Restoring public confidence in the markets should be the job of those who profit from your investing in the market — it should not be the job of the federal government….

Read the rest.

By Anthony Gregory

Those who revealed and shared the “collateral murder” video footage of the Apache helicopter atrocity in Iraq were accused of not supporting the troops, taking the video out of context and so forth. To publicize U.S. war crimes has been called unAmerican.

Well, two of the soldiers involved have written an open letter of apology to the families injured by this atrocity, asking fellow Americans to sign it. It says in part:

We have been speaking to whoever will listen, telling them that what was shown in the Wikileaks video only begins to depict the suffering we have created. From our own experiences, and the experiences of other veterans we have talked to, we know that the acts depicted in this video are everyday occurrences of this war: this is the nature of how U.S.-led wars are carried out in this region.

We acknowledge our part in the deaths and injuries of your loved ones as we tell Americans what we were trained to do and carried out in the name of “god and country”. The soldier in video said that your husband shouldn’t have brought your children to battle, but we are acknowledging our responsibility for bringing the battle to your neighborhood, and to your family. We did unto you what we would not want done to us.

If you want to support these troops, sign the letter and do your part to spread the truth—that our occupying armies in the Middle East are causing great harm, committing great violence against the innocent—for as long as Americans are more offended by people pointing out U.S. atrocities than by the atrocities themselves, our foreign policy will continue to be atrocious, generating hatred and terrorism toward America and destroying much-needed wealth and priceless liberties in the process.

By Anthony Gregory

The president barely took a breather after health care to launch into his grand plans for bank regulation reform. And then on to energy. Tomorrow, the world.

By Anthony Gregory

If you haven’t checked it out, see Independent Institute’s great weekly e-mail newsletter, The Lighthouse, which defends free markets, individual liberty and non-interventionism. All those interested can subscribe for free.

By Matt Holdridge

From the Washington Times:

Senators voted overwhelming Thursday to say they don’t want to create a new value-added tax, or VAT, in a vote designed to take the wind out of an idea that had been circulating among policymakers for the last several weeks.

The 85-13 vote against a VAT was nonbinding, but it did put one chamber of Congress on record in opposition to adding the new tax just weeks before the first meeting of President Obama’s debt commission, which is supposed to report back this year on how to bring the country’s finances under control.

Six senators are part of that commission, and all six voted against a VAT, a type of consumption tax that’s been adopted in Europe. If all six senators remain consistent in their opposition, it means a VAT could not be part of the commission’s plans, because the president’s rules say that any recommendations need support of 14 of the 18 members on the panel.

Trial balloons such as a VAT tax shouldn’t be taken lightly. Leviathan has an appetite that cannot be satisfied and they’ll continue to look for new and creative ways to consume your income. Keep an eye out. 

By Gary Howard

From the New York Times:

Goldman Sachs, which emerged relatively unscathed from the financial crisis, was accused of securities fraud in a civil suit filed Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which claims the bank created and sold a mortgage investment that was secretly devised to fail.

The move marks the first time that regulators have taken action against a Wall Street deal that helped investors capitalize on the collapse of the housing market. Goldman itself profited by betting against the very mortgage investments that it sold to its customers.

So, now that the federal government is finally getting around to dealing with some of the perpetrators in the financial crisis (as opposed to aiding and abetting them), I wonder when –if ever– they get around to dealing with those complicit individuals amongst their own ranks. They can start at the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department, but it’s highly unlikely that will happen. May I suggest: Audit the Fed.

By John Tate

As we look forward to our Iowa Regional Conference on May 14-16 at the Embassy Suites on the River in downtown Des Moines, Campaign for Liberty has secured a special discounted rate for our attendees who stay at the Conference hotel.

But this limited time offer expires on April 23 – only a little over a week away!

Find out more about the Embassy Suites and our Iowa Conference by clicking here.

Visit the Embassy Suite’s website to register for your C4L room rate directly with the hotel.

Our Iowa Regional Conference will:

* Strengthen your understanding of history and foundational principles necessary to maintain liberty
* Teach you how to persuasively communicate our movement’s mission and message
* Train you in how to recruit, equip, and mobilize an army of informed citizens and build the organizational structure necessary to win
* Help you master the political process on the local, state, and national levels

Our Conference grassroots activism training is available for its lowest price ever – only $59!

Don’t miss out on this chance to meet Congressman Ron Paul and your fellow C4L members, as well as to hear from top speakers in the liberty movement and be equipped with the tools you need to build your local organizations, hold politicians accountable, and bring about true change.

Sign up for our training and take advantage of our special discounted hotel rate right away!

By KevinYeaux

Several members of Louisiana Campaign for Liberty’s Sixth District were at the Tax Day rally held by our good friends at the Baton Rouge Tea Party. We were on the steps of the Louisiana State Capitol, handing out information and talking to folks about Dr. Paul’s new bill, End the Mandate, in between speakers.

Several folks showed up with Ron Paul signs and many more came with End the Fed-related signs. Together we reached a good audience and the reception was overall very positive. We gave out a lot of flyers, all of which have links back to C4L.com, and signed up a few new members to the local C4L. Thanks to Rishi Vyas and James Lewis for coming out and handing out End the Mandate flyers, and Connie Bernard and her husband for bring the Ron Paul signs!

See our Flickr page for more photos!

By Gary Howard

According to the Washington Post, Supreme Court Justices are predicting that the court may hear a case on the health care reform bill recently passed into law.

From the Post:

Justice Stephen Breyer predicted Thursday that the Supreme Court will one day pass judgment on this year’s health care overhaul.

Breyer told a congressional panel that the massive health care law, like most major federal legislation, is a good candidate for high court review. Continue reading…

This is good news, but everyone should be ready for a fight.

Breyer said the court’s relatively light caseload in recent years will soon be a thing of the past.

“I’d predict that three, four years from today, no one’s going to ask us again why we have so few cases,” Breyer said at a hearing on the court’s budget before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government.

Justice Clarence Thomas said at the same hearing that the court’s caseload, a third less than it was 20 years ago, depends in large part on what is happening in Congress. “Until recently, there hasn’t been comprehensive legislation of the kind that would fill our docket,” Thomas said. Continue reading…

Who knows how long this battle may last. Cases going before the court have a mixed history. The important thing to remember, however, is that it’s the justices that really matter. A good justice is one who is faithful to the Constitution, which means someone nominated by a President who is faithful to the Constitution.

Another important point to make is that we would not have ever gotten to the point of seeking out the Supreme Court as an arbiter if citizens remained faithful to their duty of voting in a Congress that remains faithful to the Constitution. I hope we all remember this.

And then of course, there is nullification–but that is a debate for later. H/T David g in Georgia.

By Anthony Gregory

In remembering why the American colonists revolted, we should recall that they were not protesting taxes for social security, health care and the like—although I imagine they would have—but rather taxes used to finance the British empire, its standing armies, its militarist expansionism, its denial of due process rights to aliens that would be shipped to places outside the jursidiction of civil courts, and its wars in the name of national security. Any true movement against oppressive taxation must include opposition to the bloated warfare state and depradations on the liberties of the people, not just welfare spending—although that should be opposed too.

By Tim Shoemaker

It’s official.  In order for construction companies to bid on projects that involve more than $25 million in federal funds, federal agencies are “encouraged to require” them to be union shops.

From The Daily Caller:

A ruling sent down by the White House on Tuesday finalized an Executive Order President Obama signed last year, which promotes the use of Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) on federal contracts. PLAs are pre-hire, collective-bargaining agreements with unions that establish terms of a large contract.

To get an idea of how the bidding process will be limited by this new ruling, over 85% of the industry is currently not unionized.

PLAs require that all contractors who want to bid pay union wages and benefits. They effectively prevent non-union shops from bidding.

“As a public works company we’re already required to pay a prevailing wage,” said Mark Compton, director of government affairs at American Infrastructure, a heavy construction company in Worcester, Pa. “It’s not an issue of us paying people less, the idea that you get away with paying employees less than federal wages is just inaccurate.”

Compton said PLAs stifle competition: “If it’s your home, would you rather have five bidding or two? I’m not here to tell you the unions aren’t qualified to do this work, we compete against them every day and sometimes they beat us and sometimes we beat them, but eliminating competition is discrimination.”

“PLAs raise costs – you’re looking at four schools for the price of five, or four bridges for the price of five,” he said.

Read the rest.

Sadly, it’s almost laughable when people suggest we still operate under a free-market system.  Throughout the last century government has been stifling innovation in various industries by restricting competition.  Looks like the construction industry will be the next one we add to that list.