Normally I would’t post a video of a Congressman giving a speech in an empty House of Representatives because (a) I don’t normally care what Congressmen have to say, (b) I don’t think most people normally care what Congressmen have to say, and (c) if their fellow legislators don’t care enough to listen to them, why should anyone else.
But I’m willing to make an exception in this case because it is the single most clueless speech on economic policy that I’ve ever heard anyone make. Seriously, I mean ever.
Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. says that to fix longterm employment we merely need to put into the U.S. Constitution, presumably as a set of amendments, that everyone has a right to free stuff like iPods and housing and laptops and healthcare.
What is even more frightening than the fact that someone who would say this could get elected to Congress (even in Chicago) is that many Americans would love to have such a new “Bill of Rights” added to the Constitution.
(Via: Rusty Lopez)
March 9th, 2011 | 1:59 pm
Further evidence of the complete lack of understanding, or even minimal appreciation for, the notion of limited government enshrined in the Constitution. The “rights talk” of the 20th century, aided and abetted by an out of control judiciary and a media that looks at issues only thru the lens of “compassion” has brought us to the point where a member of Congress can say this with a straight face. This is remarkably sad and indicative of the deep divide that exists in this country between those who understand that self government means that one has to govern one’s own appetites, and those whose view of government knows no bounds….
March 9th, 2011 | 2:49 pm
Wow.
When I was a college student I saw a bulletin board notice calling for shorter working hours, higher wages, and lower prices. Predictably it was from the student Communist group. I thought, “hmmm… what they’re calling for is that we would produce less and consume more. We would buy things that nobody has made.”
(Of course there is a way to accomplish what they call for without contradiction, which is by increasing productivity; but where has Communism ever accomplished that?)
Rep. Jackson’s “rights” here remind me of the same thing; they seem to entail a legally enforceable right to consume more than we produce. But what is physically impossible does not belong in the Constitution, nor should it be part of anyone’s view of how the world ought to be required work.
And doesn’t he, by the way, have a rather mixed-up view of the Congress’s access to amending into the Constitution?
March 9th, 2011 | 2:50 pm
“amending the Constitution,” not “amending into…”
March 9th, 2011 | 3:23 pm
And the leaves will fall into neat little piles.
Or blow away completely.
At night.
Of course.
March 9th, 2011 | 3:25 pm
A chicken in every pot?
What do vegetarians and vegans get? Flaxseed?
March 9th, 2011 | 3:39 pm
Oh, they get vegetarian “chick’n”
March 10th, 2011 | 1:04 am
Holy cow. And there you have it: a liberal admitting that they believe that legislation can actually, magically, instantly change the nature of reality. Unbelievable.
March 10th, 2011 | 4:21 am
Remember when, following the Revolution of 1848, Louis Blanc and the Provisional Government proclaimed the “Right to Work” and established National Workshops, with guaranteed work for the unemployed?
Inevitably, the government ran out of money for them after three months. Inevitably, too, their closure led to the June Days. The Liberals secured a victory over the Radical Republicans, but at the cost of 1,500 dead in combat, thousands of summary executions of prisoners, with thousands more being deported to Algeria.
The Assembly, one recalls, welcomed the surrender of the last barricade with cries of “Long Live the Republic!” What they got, of course, was Napoleon III; as Marx observed, history repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.
March 10th, 2011 | 8:54 am
The distinguished gentleman from Chicago seems to introduce each litany of new “rights” by checking some papers on his desk and saying, “He says . . . .” Any idea who the genius he’s referring to might be, or where I can get a copy of that brilliant economic treatise?
March 10th, 2011 | 9:21 am
And Mr. Jackson will be sent back by his constituents to be 1/535 of our governing legislature every two years until he either dies or voluntarily retires. What a depressing thought.
March 10th, 2011 | 11:21 am
Aren’t we way past the point of federal legislation improving our lives?
March 10th, 2011 | 5:22 pm
Mr. Jackson missed the most important “right” that needs to be added to the Constitution: The right to have an IQ of 100 and a basic understanding of economic reality.
Apparently Mr. Jackson thinks that the Federal government has the same power as God to create manna from heaven, or loaves and fishes, from nothing.
I suspect that this is all a plot by Steve Jobs, to mandate the Federal government buy an iPod for every citizen in the US. And when a new version is issued, of course we will have to all get one of those.
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