Quick Quips - 4/20/10

Fascinating, interactive graph of Public Trust in Government: 1958-2010
 
The Limits of Power by Thomas Sowell:
  ... The current leadership in Washington operates as if they can just set arbitrary goals, whether "affordable housing" or "universal health care" or anything else -- and not concern themselves with the repercussions -- since they have the power to simply force individuals, businesses, doctors or anyone else to knuckle under and follow their dictates.
  Friedrich Hayek called this mindset "the road to serfdom." But, even under serfdom and slavery, experience forced those with power to recognize the limits of their power. What this administration -- and especially the President -- does not have is experience.
  Barack Obama had no experience running even the most modest business, and personally paying the consequences of his mistakes, before becoming President of the United States. He can believe that his heady new power is the answer to all things. Read more...

Seven Reasons Government Has Become Completely Dysfunctional in America by John Hawkins :

• Earmarks
• Political Polarization Unprecedented Since The Civil War
• A Far Left Wing Media
• The Permanent Campaign
• Politics As A Profession
• The 17th Amendment
• The Tenth Amendment Doesn't Exist In The Real World
  Read more...

Some Pay, and Some Receive - BHO liberals' goal = a society dependent on the government.

The Wall Street Bailout Bill Threat to Your Bottom Line - Just another BHO power grab!
  But a closer examination of Lehman’s failure shows that derivatives may just be a convenient scape goat. Bankruptcy examiners found that it was bad business decisions hidden by complex accounting tricks, not
addressed by the current Wall Street Bailout Bill at all, that broughtLehman down. In fact, Lehman’s derivatives positions represented only about 3.3 percent of its net assets, and the bankruptcy examiner found its derivatives tradeswere reasonable and more carefully monitored than Lehman’s other assets...
  Obama administration officials are claiming their plan “outlaws bailouts,” but in fact it institutionalizes them forever.
  The second administrative fall back position is that while the bill does bailout Wall Street, the bailouts will be paid for by Wall Street sotaxpayers won’t foot the bill. But where does the left think Wall Street will get the money for the bailout funds? The tooth fairy. Just as airlines will ultimately just recoup the money they would have charged for carry on bags in higher ticket prices, Wall Street will suck the bailout money from American consumers in the form of higher bank fees. Read more...