Hitler Favored Self-Sacrifice Too by Jacob G. Hornberger January 21, 2009 The mainstream press is aglow over President Obama’s call for Americans to sacrifice for the common good. Obama’s plea mimics that of President Franklin Roosevelt, who asked Americans to do the same thing as part of his New Deal for America in the 1930s. Back then, it was someone else who was aglow over the president’s call for people ...
Sacrificing Iraqis for the Greater Good by Jacob G. Hornberger January 20, 2009 It seems that Barack Obama is going to take his time withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. Actually this shouldn’t surprise anyone, given that Obama is as much a welfare-state man as George W. Bush. Welfare state, you ask? What does devotion to the welfare state have to do with Iraq? Most Americans exuberantly supported the invasion ...
Libertarianism Is the Solution to America’s Woes by Jacob G. Hornberger January 19, 2009 With the Bush administration behind us and with the advent of the Obama regime, conservatives are despondent and depressed while liberals are aglow with hope and optimism. Actually both sides might have their feelings misplaced, as Obama might well turn out to be as much like Bush as Bush was like Clinton. What’s important for ...
Fascism and the New Deal by Jacob G. Hornberger January 16, 2009 Although the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) and its agency the National Recovery Administration (NRA) were among Franklin Roosevelt’s proudest accomplishments, they were also among the New Deal’s biggest fiascos. To call the NIRA and the NRA bizarre would be a severe understatement. The truth is that like much of the New Deal, their ...
FDR’s Infamous Court-Packing Scheme by Jacob G. Hornberger January 15, 2009 Among the things that pro-New Deal advocates hardly ever bring up is one of the most shameful acts by a president in U.S. history. That’s the infamous “court-packing” scheme that President Franklin Roosevelt proposed when the Supreme Court was declaring much of his New Deal unconstitutional. Not only was the philosophy of the New Deal, ...
The Socialism and Fascism of the New Deal by Jacob G. Hornberger January 14, 2009 In the ongoing debate over Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, there are important things that pro-New Dealers would prefer not be mentioned, such as the similarities between Roosevelt’s philosophy and programs and those of Mussolini, Stalin, and Hitler. For more than 125 years, the American people had lived under an economic system in which people ...
Prosecuting Bush by Jacob G. Hornberger January 13, 2009 Barack Obama is implying that he isn’t likely to pursue criminal investigations and prosecutions of President Bush, Vice-President Cheney, and other high U.S. officials for purported violations of criminal laws as part of their “war on terrorism.” Presumably, that includes federal crimes against torture, wiretaps, kidnapping, and even murder. Apparently Obama’s rationale is that ...
A Runaway Train by Jacob G. Hornberger January 12, 2009 The political and economic situation in the United States has the feel of a runaway train. Federal spending continues to go through the roof, both in foreign and domestic affairs. That means more federal borrowing, which means more money added to the national debt. It also inevitably means more inflation or printing of money to ...
Reject Interventionism and Embrace Liberty by Jacob G. Hornberger January 9, 2009 Ludwig von Mises pointed out that one government intervention will inevitably lead to more interventions. The reason is that the initial intervention produces a crisis, which then leads public officials to call for a new intervention to address the crisis. That new intervention then produces a new crisis, which then leads to new interventions. A ...
Redistributing the Wealth in a Free Market by Jacob G. Hornberger January 8, 2009 Ever since the advent of the welfare state, liberals have argued that it is essential that the federal government tax the rich in order to give to the poor. Otherwise, they claim, in a free-market economy, the rich only get richer and the poor only get poorer. What nonsense! If the rich only get richer, would ...
The Power of Ideas in the War on Drugs by Jacob G. Hornberger January 7, 2009 A good example of the power of ideas occurred recently in El Paso, where the City Council unanimously passed a resolution calling on the federal government to consider legalizing drugs as a solution to the drug-war violence in Mexico. Although the mayor vetoed the resolution and El Paso’s congressman opposed it, the City Council’s unanimous enactment of the resolution ...
The Real Value of the Standing Army by Jacob G. Hornberger January 6, 2009 As commentators such as Salon’s Glenn Greenwald and Cato’s Gene Healey have reported, the U.S. military has deployed combat-tested troops to a homeland-defense mission here in the United States. The unit is the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team, which has just returned from duty in Iraq. The Pentagon is denying that the troops will ...
