Thursday, September 24, 2009

First Principles and Basic Precepts.

From the blog American Revolution Today:


What does the prospect of Revolution mean today in The United States? Well, the very fact that today we are a nation, whereas in the late eighteenth century our forefathers were simply a collection of subject farmers and tradesmen inhabiting a colonial outpost of The British Empire, puts us in a very different set of circumstances than our predecessors. And yet some of the very same intolerable conditions that impelled our colonial ancestors to revolt against an arbitrary and unresponsive British crown exist today.

In fact, if anything, the tax burden you and I face now is greater by a substantial sum than what existed at the outset of The American Revolution when the cry "Taxation Without Representation" was the clarion call for defiance against The British Crown. More troubling perhaps is that those individuals that stand today at the head of our leading institutions of public life, whether they be the Treasury Secretary, Federal Reserve Bank Chairman, Senior Congressmen and women, and even The President, seem every bit as disinterested in honestly addressing our legitimate concerns, and in answering our probing questions, as any eighteenth century British Parliamentarian or exhalted royal head of state were in addressing the complaints of the colonialists.

Some might offer that the answer to such a lamentable state of affairs is to simply replace, via the ballot box, recalcitrant and unresponsive leaders. Regrettably, it is the opinion of American Revolution Today that the mechanisms of government are now so deeply flawed, so intractably corrupt, that no such simple remedy is possible were it even allowed. In truth, it is the view of American Revolution Today that:


1.) The United States Federal Government, functioning primarily on behalf of monied interests, particularly big banking and Wall Street, has become a nemesis of "We The People."

2.) The entrenched two party system comprised of Democrats and Republicans is, in the main, obstructive of reform, and, by definition, utterly opposed to anything resembling revolutionary change.

3.) At this juncture, traditional means of political self determination may not be the way forward, but in any case, we at American Revolution Today are convinced that no candidate from either the Democratic or Republican parties should receive support; any affiliation with the two party system almost assures that such a candidacy would ultimately be antithetical to government benefiting "We The People."

Following on from that, no candidate who runs for Federal public office that does not feature the following planks in their campaign platform will be deemed suitable for election.

A.) Term limits
B.) Campaign Finance Reform
C.) Shortened Election Cycles
D.) Cessation of "Redistricting"
E.) Full Audit of The Federal Reserve
F.) The restoration of constitutional mandate for Congressional control of U.S. currency.
G.) An end to further raising of the debt ceiling
H.) Immediate removal of all troops, personnel, and material from Iran and Afghanistan
I.) Replacement of income tax and estate taxes with new levies on consumption, and amended levies on capital gains by individuals and corporations.
J.) Health care reform that is first and foremost free market based with no governmental bias towards "Big Pharma" or the insurance industry.
K.) A multi-generational program designed to return some "reasonable sum" of manufacture back to the United States
L.) The complete overhaul of such government agencies as the SEC, The Bureau of Labor and Statistics, and Homeland Security, to name but a few.
M.) Full investigations of those individuals in and out of government who are alleged to have engaged in criminal activity associated with the collapse of various large banking concerns and quasi government agencies such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
N.) An end to the entire "alphabet soup" of programs funneling money to too big to be allowed to exist parasitic institutions such as AIG, BOA, GS, Citicorp, and JPM.
O.) A restoration of mark to market accounting standards, and the cessation of the writing of any more "standard performance contracts" aka OTC derivatives, until such time as a regulated exchange is instituted for their trade.
P.) A complete rollback of all cap and trade legislation.


If you are in agreement with the ideas and political initiatives expressed here, and feel as we do, join us in making the Second American Revolution a reality. Join us in reestablishing a nation where The Constitution is fully respected, and where good government is defined as one that governs least and always on behalf of the greater good.

http://www.americanrevt.blogspot.com

7 comments:

DED said...

So, this is a blog of your creation then?

Edwardo said...

Indeed it is.

Thai said...

There is a certain element of "I'll have my cake and eat it too" to this post.

and I am certainly not sure why there is this persistent attack "big pharma".

Go after them if you want, really- I have no financial interest of any kind in the industry except for a few S&P Index funds in my retirement account.

But I think only your kids will suffer.

Big pharma is just responding to the perverse incentives WE THE PEOPLE created with the current regulatory process at FDA and that certain "we the people" have taken more control over than others.

Personally I think we need a more realistic discussion as a collective about the entire drug approval process.

And it is not like the people in the system are not tying to educate the public either- it is just joe public seems have fixed perceptions which are nearly impossible to overcome.

I mean we all want safe drugs- really, we all do- but it seems many Americans have very incomplete notions of what this means and what the consequences of trying to make things "safe" truly are.

Indeed the idea that cost effectiveness is NEVER part of the approval process (by act of congress) seems to me to be the ultimate ostritch sticking its head in the sand.

And hence we end up with all these cancer and "me too" drugs- the risk/reward profile is much better.

We make our own bed

Edwardo said...

Persistent attack? I mention Big Pharma once.

"We The People" have very little to do with the FDA. My view is you are letting the drug behemoths off the hook entirely too easily.

I don't know what the "certain element" is that you are referring to, since I'm prepared to live with a lot less Feral, excuse me, Federal "government." Perhaps you aren't.

Thai said...

Sorry- I hear this so often I may be confusing you with others.

Who knows, maybe I am letting them off too easy.

But what % of all health care spending in the US is pharmaceutic?

How does this compare elsewhere?

I know this can be a very misleading statistic to use but it raises a rather valid issue imo.

Edwardo said...

I found an article at the link which sheds some light on your question.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/us/06healthcare.html

Thai said...

Great article, thanks.

Actually, it was a retorical question as I thought I shared the data with SD readers before.

I had to cut and paste this to my own blog so if the graphs don't show well, please let me know and I will re-paste them.