Non Socialist

Thursday, October 30, 2008
by Charles W. Fairbanks
http://www.menforpalin.com/index.php/policy/70/

As the dynamic race between the McCain-Palin ticket and the Obama-Biden ticket hurtles toward Election Day, many respected private analysts have predicted that there is a very strong possibility that McCain-Palin will win an Electoral College victory despite the fact that Obama-Biden will win the popular vote nationwide.  The Founders’ vision was of a body of electors that would protect the Republic from masters of the political arts who would not best serve the nation.  If the Electoral College defeats the popular vote, then in this case, it is doing its job.

In six weeks, America will elect a new president.  No, this is not an outdated blog entry.  According to the process established in Article II and codified in Title 3 of the United States code takes place in two phases.  First, on November 4, there will be presidential elections each of the fifty states and the District of Columbia.  Each of those fifty-one separate elections, the popular vote will decide a slate of electors, who then meet on December 15 in accordance with the law to select the president and vice president. 

The Electoral College is a cornerstone of our unique federalist sytem.  In The Federalist No. 68:  The Mode of Electing the President , Alexander Hamilton (pictured above) explained that the Electoral College was designed to protect the nation from a demogogue.  Hamilton was concerned with candidates with “ . . . talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity . . .” who might be able to persuade voters in some states to elect them, but the system should not allow those same arts and talents to elevate a candidate to Commander-in-Chief.

A demogogue is standing on the doorstep of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  Senator Obama has not won a debate over policy.  Senator Obama has not won a debate over the relative credentials of the two candidates.  Those debates have been obscured by several elements, the chief of which are:  (1) the power of not a mountain, but an entire mountain range of campaign money; (2) the power of a corrupt news media that is in the tank for the Obama campaign; and (3) the powerful rhetorical gifts that the Almighty has bestowed on Senator Obama.  With those advantages, Senator Obama has transformed his image from that of the most liberal, most anti-military, most anti-family and most anti-growth Senator in America into a sort of friendly Rockefeller Republican.

But no, Senator Obama is no centrist.  And for sure, this campaign has been no Lincoln-Douglas debate.  Senator Obama has made a naked appeal to emotion, to race, and to fear of the Republican Bogeyman, President George W. Bush.  It is a disingenuous appeal, devoid of factual basis and supported by a widespread confederacy of voter registration crooks (ACORN).

Despite the total emptiness of the Obama rhetoric, Senator Obama appears to have a popular vote lead.  He will no doubt increase the Kerry/Gore margins of victory in big states such as New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Michigan and California, states that have not been the subject of contest by both sides.  While he may increase Democratic vote totals in those states, he will not gain any more electoral votes.  Obama can increase margins in those states without winning Ohio, Florida or Missouri, and perhaps without winning Pennsylvania.

The result would then be that Obama would win the constitutionally-irrelevant national popular vote while losing the consitutionally-important electoral vote.  Millions of emotional Obama supporters would cry foul.  Their cries would make the nation long for the far more placid days of whining and lawyers in the wake of AL Gore’s defeat in 2000.  Many experts anticipate rioting and unrest in the wake of such a result, with the attendant contrived constitutional crisis.

But would it be a tragedy?  No.  Would it be wrong?  No.  Modern scholars argue that the Electoral College is designed to protect us from a tyrrany of the majority, and that it is a key component of our federalist system that will help protect us from total domination of our lives by the ever-expanding federal government.  If the election resutls in a split result, then so be it:  The Electoral College will have served its purpose by protecting the nation from the massive expansion of federal power that will surely happen if there is no president McCain to veto the expansion of federal power that Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reed have in store for us.

U.S. Constitution (exerpt)

Article 1

Section 8. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;

To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;

To establish post offices and post roads;

To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;

To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;

To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;

To provide and maintain a navy;

To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;–And

To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.

Section 9. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person.

The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.

No bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

No capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.

No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state.

No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one state over those of another: nor shall vessels bound to, or from, one state, be obliged to enter, clear or pay duties in another.

No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time.

No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States: and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state.

Section 10. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility.

No state shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it’s inspection laws: and the net produce of all duties and imposts, laid by any state on imports or exports, shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States; and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of the Congress.

No state shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of tonnage, keep troops, or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with another state, or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay.

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Senator Barack Obama’s health care plan would concentrate health care decision-making in Washington, while Senator John McCain’s would return many health care decisions to families, according to two in-depth analyses by Heritage Foundation health care experts Robert Moffit and Nina Owcharenko.

Senator Obama’s plan “would likely precipitate a rapid evolution toward a federal monopoly over the health care sector,” they explain.

In his top-down plan, there would be “standardized federal health benefits structure, a massive expansion of federal regulatory authority over health insurance, and an enlargement of federal regulatory power over health care delivery.”  

» Read more details about both candidates’ plans on MyHeritage.org

The McCain plan is likewise ambitious, they argue in their second analysis, but his measures “would advance greater personal choice and control in the health care system.”

Notably, his plan alters the way health insurance is taxed so that individuals aren’t penalized if they do not buy coverage through their employer. This plan takes “the first steps to realigning the incentives in the system to provide consumers with better quality care at lower cost.”

Senator McCain’s plan “is underscored by a principled commitment to personal freedom,” they conclude.

—David Talbot

Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation. David Talbot contributed to this report.

The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis has conducted an in-depth study comparing the tax policies of the two leading Presidential contenders, Senators Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Unless lawmakers act, the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts will expire, raising taxes on millions of Americans and threatening economic growth. This is of particular concern at a time of economic weakness, Heritage experts Bill Beach, Karen Campbell, Rea Hederman and Guinevere Nell argue.

The two plans share several key features: both keep portions of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts in place; both would help prevent “bracket creep” under the Alternative Minimum Tax; both add to the federal deficit; and both would allow more economic growth than if the tax cuts fully expired.

But there are also key differences. For example,

• Extension of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. While the McCain plan would keep taxes at their current low rates, “Senator Obama’s does not extend the cuts for the top two rates.” In addition, the Obama plan includes a new Social Security surtax on those earning more than $250,000.

• New Tax Cuts. “Senator McCain has proposed a few other cuts, highlighted by a cut in the corporate tax rate and a change in the tax treatment of health care.”

• Health Care. Senator McCain’s tax plan for health care would end preferential treatment of employer-provided insurance “and replace it with a tax credit that would allow families to purchase health insurance.”

• Tax Credits. “Senator Obama has many new proposals, including several new tax credits. Senator Obama proposes a refundable health care tax credit to help low-income individuals purchase health care.”

The effects of the Obama and McCain tax plans

After conducting their careful economic analysis using tax models and outside economic data, Heritage’s experts made a few important conclusions about the plans’ differing effects:

· Jobs respond more to McCain’s plan than to Obama’s.

· Overall economic activity more vigorous under McCain’s plan.

· More after-tax spending potential under McCain than under Obama.

In sum, “Senator McCain’s plan is substantially better at spurring economic growth than Senator Obama’s. This is not surprising, since Senator McCain focuses on economic growth and job creation while Senator Obama focuses on the redistribution of income.”

Most of the debate was even between Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama. As a retired veteran I was always keyed on those VA issues.  Senator McCain hands down wins that vote.   I only have one thing to say to Obama;  as a veteran never ever try and patronize us, we can spot a fake a mile away.   Tonight you demonstrated just how fake you are and how much you despise the men and women in uniform.  The next time you claim to have a bracelet from a Mother of a fallen solder, it might be a good idea to remember their name.  Looking down at your wrist to ohh shit what was his name ohhhhhh yes.  You are a fake and a liar.

Leslie Ahrens

United States Army (RET)