United Liberty

Climate change is always a touchy subject.  It generates strong feelings one way or another in most political type folks.  However, a new Rassmusen poll shows that a large chunk of the American people believe that scientists have fudged the numbers somewhere along the line.  How many?

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of American Adults shows that 69% say it’s at least somewhat likely that some scientists have falsified research data in order to support their own theories and beliefs, including 40% who say this is Very Likely. Twenty-two percent (22%) don’t think it’s likely some scientists have falsified global warming data, including just six percent (6%) say it’s Not At All Likely. Another 10% are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here .)

The number of adults who say it’s likely scientists have falsified data is up 10 points from December 2009 .

I don’t care who you are, that’s a lot of folks.  However, I can already hear some on the left clamoring about how it’s because of Fox News or whoever the boogieman is today.  I wouldn’t be so sure about that if I were them.  After all, Rassmusen finds that 51% of Democrats think the same thing.

I had the displeasure of reading a Paul Krugman column a short while ago after reading a link to it in a Reason comment thread. (That, of course, was quite pleasant.) Naturally, Krugman spouts off utter stupidity:

Watching the evolution of economic discussion in Washington over the past couple of years has been a disheartening experience. Month by month, the discourse has gotten more primitive; with stunning speed, the lessons of the 2008 financial crisis have been forgotten, and the very ideas that got us into the crisis — regulation is always bad, what’s good for the bankers is good for America, tax cuts are the universal elixir — have regained their hold.

On the face of it, this seems bizarre. Over the last two years profits have soared while unemployment has remained disastrously high. Why should anyone believe that handing even more money to corporations, no strings attached, would lead to faster job creation?

And now trickle-down economics — specifically, the idea that anything that increases corporate profits is good for the economy — is making a comeback.

Sam Webb, chairman of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), expressed support for President Barack Obama and Democrats in the 2012 elections in a post on Wednesday at People’s World, an outlet of the party:

It is obvious that there is a growing feeling of frustration and even anger among supporters of the Democratic Party with its performance over the past two years.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, speaking for the labor movement, strongly expressed this unhappiness in some recent speeches.

I am disappointed too with some aspects of the Obama administration’s domestic and foreign policy.

But I don’t forget that this administration governs in a very hostile political environment in which the right is laboring overtime to wreck its initiatives at every step of the way.
[…]
We make criticisms, but we do it in a certain context and with a certain strategic objective in mind. We are keenly aware of the fact that the agenda of the far right is to bring this administration and country to its knees, with a heavy dose of racism, lies and economic sabotage, setting the stage for a full blown return to power of the most reactionary, racist, anti-labor, anti-women, homophobic and militarist grouping in U.S. politics.

We want no part of that. We don’t have any illusions about the Democratic Party, but we don’t have any illusions about the Republican Party either.

Furthermore, we are also aware of the undeniable fact that no other party besides the Democratic Party stands a chance of beating the GOP next year.

EconomicFreedom.org put out a video yesterday explaining why societies with free or mostly free economies succeed and their people have a better quality of life. Conversely, countries that rely on statist policies ultimately struggle and their citizens often live under corruption and they are deprived of many civil liberties take for granted.

The video also shows how the United States is slowly falling down the ladder in terms of economic freedom because our government is growing and pro-growth policies are being ignored, and as a result our quality of life is at risk:

In this new video from Reason TV, Nick Gillespie talks with Kevin Williamson,  deputy managing editor of National Review and author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism, about the economic system that the left seems to constantly push:

I picked up this book a couple months ago. I haven’t finished read it yet, but what I have read is very good.

Donald Berwick, President Barack Obama’s Medicare chief, wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal last week decrying Rep. Paul Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity”:

“One way to address this problem is to follow the plan articulated by Republicans in Congress: Force the average senior to pay $6,400 more for their insurance, eliminate guaranteed Medicare benefits and limit choices when it comes to doctors and hospitals,” Berwick wrote. “That approach would end Medicare as we know it and do nothing to bring down healthcare costs.”

House Republicans before the spring recess approved a 2012 budget blueprint from Ryan that includes a proposal to replace Medicare with subsidies for private coverage. Democrats, armed with estimates from the Congressional Budget Office that suggest seniors over time would end up paying considerably more for their care under the Ryan proposal, have been hammering away at the proposal for the past several weeks.

“This is the wrong way,” Berwick wrote. “The right way is to help bring costs down by making care better and improving our healthcare system.”

If this is the future of our country then we’re screwed:

I blame the bad acid trips from the late 60′s.

The Club for Growth, an organization that promotes free markets, free trade and less taxes, slammed Donald Trump, who for some reason is being taken seriously as a presidential contender, in a press release yesterday; noting that the economic policies he advocates would bring severe consequences:

The Club for Growth assailed potential presidential candidate Donald Trump today as a tax-hiking liberal whose open flirtation with single-payer health care and warm embrace of protectionism disqualifies him from consideration by conservatives.

“Donald Trump for President? You’ve got to be joking,” said Club for Growth President Chris Chocola. “Donald Trump has advocated for massive tax increases that display a stunning lack of knowledge of how to create jobs. His love for a socialist-style universal health care system and his alarming obsession with protectionist policies are automatic disqualifiers among free-market conservatives. This publicity stunt will sputter and disappear just as quickly as the ‘The Apprentice’ is losing viewers.”

Ouch. Hey, but it’s true. Judging by the polls, many Republicans don’t realize that Trump advocated a Canadian-style single-payer health care system. They don’t realize that his push for new tariffs would bring a trade war with China. All this makes for, not only bad economic policy, but bad foreign policy as well.

Honestly, I don’t care how rich Donald Trump is. The man is not fit to be President of the United States.

Michael Moore has argued that wealth is a national resource that should be taken back to foot the bill for all the programs and ideas that he and his ilk believe will make America better.  But will it really?

This video points out how difficult it will be to actually do like Moore suggest:

It definitely brings up some valid points about how difficult it would be to fund everything this nation seems intent on paying for.

H/T: The Liberty Papers.