Tag: Sam Adams Alliance

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free trade & free markets national politics & policies too much government

Health Rations and You

Want a laugh? To keep you from crying at what President Obama and the Congress are trying to do to health care in this country?

Over the decades, the federal government’s involvement in health care has been making it harder and harder for doctors and patients to make independent, sensible decisions about care.

Many advocates of “reform” deny the destructive consequences of past “reform” and insist that the only way to solve our problems is, in effect, to make them worse: Get government even more involved, tie the bureaucratic noose even tighter around the necks of patients and doctors.

Despite all the problems in the health care industry, we often still get great care because of the freedom that still exists. But what if advocates of Obamacare get their way and government takes over? Well, that’s the scenario satirized in a new two-​minute video produced by the Sam Adams Alliance, all about “Health Rations and You.”

It adopts the black-​and-​white style of a 1950s-​era educational film. “Health rationing. What is it? What does it mean for you?” And it’s all about how the Health Administration Bureau will give you nothing but “the best” medical care.

The video is funny. Memorable. Getting a lot of hits on YouTube. And it just might help stop this socialist monster in its tracks. Give it a look-​see, and pass it on.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
free trade & free markets individual achievement too much government

I’ll Clink to That

Awards, known as the Sammies, are given annually by the Sam Adams Alliance to recognize the efforts of citizen activists fighting governmental lunacies.

This year’s winners for best video, Caleb Brown and Austin Bragg, produced a film on the anti-​competitive liquor laws of Virginia.

In the interests of full disclosure, I should report that I received a Sammy this year too — partly for fighting the Oklahoma Attorney General’s attempt to jail me for supporting Oklahoma democracy. Long story made short, we won that battle. 

The award also recognized my decades-​long work for term limits and citizen initiative rights.

Caleb and Austin’s video is entitled “The ABCs of Virginia Alcohol Law.” “ABC” is a pun on the name of the agency spewing the nonsensical edicts, the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. The brief video gives you a good glimpse of the silliness, which includes violation of free speech rights.

Did you know that it is legal for a Virginia bar to sell you a beer, or a shot of liquor, or a beer and a shot of liquor, but not a shot of liquor in a glass of beer? 

Or that America’s Founding Fathers would be thrown in jail under the liquor laws of today’s Virginia? 

Watch the video. It’s slick, it’s funny. And it should make you mad.

For more on all of this year’s Sammy winners, visit samadamsalliance​.org.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
Common Sense

Change and Hope

’Tis the season of “Hope” and “Change.” All the more so, since those are the bywords of the President-Elect.

It’s too early to see whether his changes will match our hopes, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still hope for better days and ways.

This Common Sense program is all about hope. I hope that Americans will work together to restore citizen control of government. I share examples of citizens fighting to hold government accountable, hoping that regular folks doing unusually good deeds will inspire more people to join the cause.

For the last two years, we’ve been sponsored by the freedom fighters at the Sam Adams Alliance. The Alliance trains and links allies in the freedom movement. They’ve helped bloggers and activists throughout the country, emphasizing new online media.

I owe the folks at Team Sam a deep debt of gratitude. But change is good, too, and for 2009 this program is moving to a new sponsor, the Citizens in Charge Foundation.

I’m the president of the Citizens in Charge Foundation. We work to educate the public on the importance of voter initiative and referendum, and we defend the petition rights of citizens in the courts.

I’ll continue to speak out on the need for reform, for citizens to be empowered and politicians held accountable. I hope you’ll keep listening. In the end, what we think, what we decide, and what we do will make all the difference.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
government transparency

No Taxation Without Information

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Amy Oliver is a blogger after my own heart. In a post entitled “No taxation without information!” she reports that she is adopting the motto of a new campaign sponsored by the Sunshine Review.

The campaign promotes what Amy ironically calls a “crazy idea”: that taxpayers should know how government is spending their money.

To this end, the Sunshine Review, sponsored by the Sam Adams Alliance, is launching a collaborative “My Government” website. It aims to host Web pages on every city, county, school district, and state agency in all 50 states. Providing key information that governments should be making available already, but aren’t. (Speaking of full disclosure, I should probably admit that I’m a senior advisor with Sam Adams Alliance.)

Amy’s new mission is to persuade her town, Greeley, Colorado, her local school district, her county, and the state of Colorado to post their check registries on the Web in a searchable database. She wants to know where the money is going in precise detail — “not just from some annual report that breaks down a budget by category.” The check registries are already a matter of public record, but it can be cumbersome to gain access to them.

Amy thinks taxpayers have a right to know how their money is being spent. Also, of course, easy access to this information would allow citizens to take action if they spy expenditures that seem dubious or even downright dirty.

Good luck, Amy.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.