Apr 14

Medicare Part D was sold with claims it would cost $400 billion; Estimates were immediately raised to $534 billion after passage

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If government programs were subjected to the same fraud and unfair-trade-practices standards that prevail in the private sector, many politicians and government bureaucrats would be serving lengthy prison sentences.

Martin L. Gross reminds us that the congressional Republicans who pushed for Medicare Part D (prescription drug benefits for all Medicare recipients) in 2003 spread fundamental untruths about the program.

“Analysts” testified repeatedly that the program was absolutely necessary and would cost about $400 billion over 10 years.

They knew, in fact, that the actual cost would be much higher. But Republicans were trying to ensure reelection in 2004 and thought they could get more senior-citizen votes by pandering.

Almost immediately after Part D was enacted, the “analysts” admitted that costs would be at least $530 billion– –about one-third more than they claimed earlier.

Source: Martin L. Gross, “National Suicide” (2009) p. 212.

Apr 12

Grasping for Money, Connecticut legislators push to tax Yale University’s profits

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One of the greatest myths of contemporary higher education involves the designation of a college as ‘for-profit’ or ‘nonprofit.’
Haters of markets tend to loathe for-profit colleges such as the University of Phoenix.

Of course, the University of Phoenix contributes many thousands of dollars in taxes annually, while ‘nonprofit’ colleges like Montana State University pay no taxes. ‘Nonprofit’ colleges are also tax havens for millionaires and billionaires who ‘donate’ to such institutions and get subsidized advertising for decades as their names appear on various ‘nonprofit’ buildings around campuses.

Most for-profit colleges provide far better value to students than do nonprofit colleges.

Now there is news that Connecticut wants Yale University to share its wealth. Facing budget shortfalls and a deep pension hole, Connecticut lawmakers are pushing to tax the investment profits of Yale’s $25 billion endowment. See here.

Yale is located in New Haven, Connecticut. A ‘nonprofit’ university, Yale has amassed its huge endowment fund (which is five times larger than the annual budget of the State of Montana) from wealthy donors who have donated funds to Yale in exchange for tax write-offs.

Apr 12

CLIMATE SKEPTIC GLACIER ADVENTURE WEEKEND!

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Saturday-Sunday, May 21-22, 2016

Did you know that there are hundreds of glaciers and permanent snowfields in Park County, Montana?

Lysander Spooner University announces a research effort aimed at annually assessing the size and vitality of Park County’s glaciers. Join us on Saturday, May 21, 2016 for a field trip and hike into the Crazy Mountains to measure and photograph the Range’s glaciers. We will meet around 7:45 to 8:00 a.m. in front of the “MT Cup” coffee shop across from the old Livingston train depot.

Free of Charge! Everyone is invited! But be warned: this entails physically exhausting hiking and trekking. (Dress for cold wet weather; bring lots of photography equipment.) Some of us will make this an overnight backpacking trip, but others will return to their vehicles by Saturday evening.
Glaciers grow and melt with the seasons, gaining tons of snow in winter and receding each summer. Government-funded climate propagandists routinely present old photographs of glaciers taken in early spring and compare them to recent photos of the same glaciers taken in late summer to suggest that glaciers are vanishing.* The U.S. government—with all its vast resources—has used this trick to promote the government’s climate socialist agenda. (Don’t believe us? We’ll show you the government’s websites!)

Our goal is to build a photo archive of specific glaciers on the same dates and vantage points year after year. We stress accuracy, integrity, and fun!
(Note we are planning other glacier research trips later in the summer, including our big annual trip to Glacier National Park on Sept. 13—the average date of first freeze.)
Visit lysanderspooneruniversity.com for details. Or contact Roger Roots at 406-224-3105 or [email protected] for further details.

*(No one denies that North American glaciers have generally declined in size throughout the past 200 years—as the earth has been in a two-century warming cycle, which began before the fossil fuel era.)

Apr 11

Yet another government-funded professor demands climate skeptics be punished

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Yet another government-employed professor has publicly demanded that those who doubt the government’s climate theories be punished. See here.

Professor Michael E. Kraft is a political science professor at University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. Kraft even suggests that the prosecution of think tanks and skeptical writers “might be a tougher sell, given rights to free speech, but it could be given consideration.”

Apr 11

Official government climate data has been altered to make the past appear colder

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The climate blogger Tony Heller (Steven Goddard) has often alerted readers to the fact that government data sets have been altered to make the past seem colder. See here.

“NASA has altered their own data by 0.5C since 2001, yet claims that everyone agrees within about 0.05C.”

Apr 09

Major pro-government newspapers are dying. And even their online editions are losing readers

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As the digital age dawned on the newspaper industry a decade ago, most of the major U.S. and western newspapers recognized that they should create online editions to capture readers who abandon print newspapers.

But it turns out that content is more important than forum. Newspapers are dying; and so are the online editions! See here.

Alternative news sources– –sources which question government supremacy and are suspicious of government claims– –are thriving. But readers are simply turning away from the government-worshipping ‘mainstream’ press.

Apr 09

As Socialist Venezuela Collapses, its Government Demands Women Conserve Electricity by not Using Hairdryers

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Socialism is a curse that should be wished on one’s enemies. All societies who embrace it will ultimately become sick and weak.

Venezuela is an oil-rich country, but has been saddled with central planning and socialism for decades.

Now the country is so short of electricity that its rulers are demanding that women stop using hairdryers. See here.

Apr 09

U.S. Senators Push Harder for Bill to Prohibit Private Encryption

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It is the dream of every tyrant: to hold all power over others’ property and resources, to know all things about others while entrenching government privacy, and to kill all who resist.

Now a group of power-gorged U.S. Senators are pushing (again) for a bill to ban (private-sector) encryption. See here.

The king’s keys must unlock all doors. All must be naked before the state.

Of course, America is still ostensibly a democratic republic, and the American people have been voting for more freedom-friendly senators for years. Yet the votes of the people seem pointless.

Apr 08

Six years in: Obamacare is increasingly harming poor people

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Government regulations aimed at helping the poor almost always harm the poor. After 6 years, the Affordable Care Act is increasingly harming the poorest Americans.

In March, the Obama administration celebrated the Affordable Care Act’s anniversary by proudly declaring, “Thanks to this law, 20 million more Americans now know the security of having health insurance, and our uninsured rate is below ten percent for the first time on record.”

But new research reveals that health care costs are rising just as fast as they rose before Obamacare. And wage growth rates are going lower.

And in addition to rising premiums and falling wage growth, deductibles have also grown in recent years. According to data made available by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and analyzed by Freedom Partners, only five states and Washington, DC, saw average Obamacare exchange deductibles decrease from 2015 to 2016. Twenty-one states had average Obamacare deductibles rise by $300 or more, including eight states with deductible increases topping $500.

Lower-cost “Bronze” plans experienced the most significant deductible increases, hurting lower- and middle-income families. Average Bronze plan deductibles fell from 2015 to 2016 in only two states: Alaska and Arkansas. In 34 states, Bronze plan deductibles rose by at least $500. See here.

Apr 08

Government-supported ‘higher education’ is moving even further toward government supremacism

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It is widely recognized that government-supported academia lacks diversity of opinion and is generally intolerant of free-market or anti-government ideas.

Yet a new study reveals that the percentages of college professors who describe themselves as “far left” or “left” is actually INCREASING.

The percentages of all other groups is declining in academia. See here.

Although there are exceptions, popular discourse increasingly uses the term “conservative” as code for a distruster of the state. The terms “left,” “progressive” and “liberal” are increasingly used as code for those who embrace intrusive expansive government.