Rex Bell- Let Freedom Ring

03/21/2024

06/15/2019

Libertarians offered a limited government candidate for Governor in 2016. He lost and your taxes went up a billion dollars. Soon they'll go up another billion dollars. I hate to say we told you so, but we told you so.

02/02/2019

Rex Bell
February 1, 2016 ·
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I'm sure the people that want the government to make me wear a seat belt have the best of intentions. I suppose everyone that petitions the government to oversee my life thinks they're doing it for my own good. But I'm not convinced those people always get the big picture.

I felt the same way when I saw a story about PETA's efforts to replace the the famous ground hog, Punxsutawney Phil, with a robot. Apparently, PETA thinks Phil might be better off fending for himself in the wild.

Well, maybe. But it could also be that Phil knows that a lot of his relatives in this neck of the woods end up hanging on a fence post with a .223 slug through the skull.

Either way, I won't assume to know what Phil wants, or what is best for him. I don't think PETA should either.

12/31/2018

Something from 9 years ago. I think it is still relevant today...

Friday, December 31, 2010

Promises and Resolutions...

I ran into my old buddy Stinky Wilmont the other day, and in the course of our conversation, the subject of New Year's resolutions came up. I asked Stinky if he was going to make any, and he replied that in 2011, he was going to resolve to gain 20 pounds and acquire a few more credit cards.

When I pointed out that those resolutions ran afoul of conventional resolutions, Stinky said that he realized they did, but that he had never had much luck with plans that involved losing weight or trimming his budget. He said he thought he would feel better about himself if he could keep whatever resolutions he made it, and since gaining weight and spending money kind of came naturally for him anyway, it just seemed like the logical way to go.

I started to explain to him that those resolutions probably weren't in his best long term interest, but Stinky didn't tend to think that far ahead. Besides, resolutions are kind of like promises to yourself by yourself, so Stinky's resolutions probably weren't any of my business, anyway.

But there is a difference between resolutions and promises. For years, politicians have been getting elected by making promises to the voters. A lot of those promises were about money. Sometimes they promised money they didn't really have yet. Sometimes they had the money and spent it on something they had promised to somebody else. Sometimes they never had the money at all. Most of the time they were promising somebody else's money anyway.

That's what happened down in Prichard, Alabama. A while back, Prichard told about 150 city retirees that the city didn't have enough money to pay them the pensions they were promised. They can still find the people that made the promises, but apparently they're having trouble finding the people that will keep them.

Prichard, Alabama is just one of many entities across the country that has made promises it cannot keep. Public employee pensions have promised $3.2 trillion that they don't have. Social Security and Medicare are in the same shape, but on a larger scale, and every day, another 10,000 citizens will turn 65, and get in line for their share of the promises the government made, and hope there are still enough people around willing to keep those promises somebody else made for them.

Over the next few years, we are going to hear a lot of stories about pension plans from all levels of government that have run out of money. Most of the problems will be the result of the government making promises to other people for other people.

We could solve a lot of those problems if we could just take on some personal responsibility, and start making and keeping our own promises.

Maybe that would be a good New Year's resolution for all of us.
Right, Stinky?.....Stinky?..........Stinky?

11/24/2018

11/09/2018

A blast from the past.....

Friday, August 14, 2009

It's not like we couldn't see it coming...

"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves, in the course of time, a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it." - Frederic Bastiat

Bastiat saw it coming over 150 years ago.

There are a lot of people justifying the push for a national health care system by claiming health care is a right. I suppose in one respect it is. Certainly every person has the right to seek health care, and we would hard-pressed to justify a reason to forcibly prevent a person from receiving it.

Every person also has the right to own property, but they don't have the right to forcibly take it from another person. It's the same with health care. You don't have the right to force someone else to pay for yours.

As Bastiat predicted, we have created a tax system that uses force, or the threat of force, to take the property of one person and give it to another person, and we pretend that taking another persons property is morally acceptable as long as a majority of our elected officials think it will be used for a good cause.

Rights exist for individuals, and they would exist even if the government didn't define them. It doesn't create a conflict to claim that health care is a right, but it does when we claim that free health care is a right. If the government doesn't provide free health care, do you have the right to forcibly take it from someone else? I would maintain no one has that right.

An argument could certainly be made that we have a moral obligation to help those less fortunate among us. I would agree that we do.

But we don't need a government that tries to legislate morals, anymore than we need a government that tries to redefine rights.

Or authorizes plunder.

10/20/2018

Rex Bell's campaign manager from 2016 is a candidate himself this year.
Check out Jeremiah Morrell - Candidate to follow the campaign!

Henry County Councilman Clay Morgan endorsed Jeremiah Morrell for the council.

Beyond just an endorsement, he is going door to door with Jeremiah, working to get him elected!

Look for them at your door soon!

Clay Morgan Campaign
Jeremiah Morrell - Candidate

05/24/2018

The race for the seat of the 33rd District of the Indiana House of Representatives just got more crowded.