Hornberger's Blog

Open Borders Doesn’t Mean No Borders

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 2012

Whenever libertarians bring up the idea of open borders, some people in the controlled-borders crowd immediately go ballistic, exclaiming, “But borders are essential to preserve our national sovereignty. If we abolish borders, our nation will cease to exist.” But open borders does not mean that borders are eliminated, erased, or abolished. An open border simply means that people are free ...

Hornberger’s Blog, February 2012

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 2012

Wednesday, February 29, 2012 Libertarians versus Liberals on the Poor Wouldn’t it be great to have a national debate between liberals and libertarians over whose philosophy and policies help the poor? For decades liberals have claimed that the welfare-state/regulated-economy way of life helps the poor. That has been the major rationale for the statist way of life under which we have all ...

Just Ditch Medicare and Medicaid

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 31, 2012

I just don’t get conservatives. They say they support individual freedom, economic liberty, free markets, limited government, and the Constitution. They also say they oppose socialism, interventionism, collectivism, and paternalism. They point out that such isms just don’t work. Okay, fine. Then why don’t conservatives call for the immediate repeal of Medicare and Medicaid? Why do they focus their entire attention on ...

Pre-Election Euphoria

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 30, 2012

The year before a presidential election is a period of great euphoria for the American people, for this is the period of time when presidential candidates are extremely nice to the American people. And why not? They’re seeking votes. They’re seeking to be elected or reelected. They have to be nice. This is the time when presidential candidates promise tax cuts ...

Conning the Poor

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 27, 2012

The biggest con in history — bigger even than Social Security — might well be the one in which statists have conned the poor into believing that the welfare state helps them. If those at the bottom of the economic ladder were ever to realize how badly they’ve been conned, that could spell the end of the welfare-state way ...

Thou Shalt Not Covet

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 26, 2012

President Obama says that people are poor because others are rich. What a crock that is. It’s nothing more than a refusal to accept personal responsibility for the failure of the welfare-warfare way of life and the managed-economy way of life that that statists have foisted upon our nation. What’s even a bigger crock is Obama’s solution for making the ...

Bert Sacks: A Hero in Our Time

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 25, 2012

It’s fascinating to see the GOP presidential candidates supporting the principles of economic liberty while, at the same time (except Ron Paul), ardently supporting Obama’s imposition of sanctions against Iran. Not only are sanctions an attack on the people of the foreign country on which they are imposed, they are also an attack on the economic liberty of the ...

GOP Cold War Time Warp on Cuba

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 24, 2012

When I heard what Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum said about Cuba in last nights Florida presidential debate, I felt like I was in a Cold War time warp and that we were about to see flower children, hippies, go-go girls, and CIA LSD experiments once again appear before our eyes. Gingrich said that he wants the U.S. ...

We Don’t Need No Stinking SOPA

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 23, 2012

As Glenn Greenwald points out in his excellent analysis of the Megaupload case, immediately after opponents of SOPA and PIPA caused congressmen to back off from their proposed Internet legislation, the Justice Department stepped up to the plate and arbitrarily shut down Megaupload, one of the world’s largest websites. As Greenwald put it, the message from the Justice Department, ...

Free Enterprise versus Immigration Socialism

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 20, 2012

Well, the GOP candidates had all the correct libertarian, free-market mantras out last night: pro-free enterprise, pro-capitalism, pro-free market, pro-private property, pro-fundamental rights, pro-Constitution, anti-socialism, and anti-regulation. And then came immigration, and all those mantras went out the window. It was actually amusing, not only because the candidates didn’t seem aware of the contradiction, but also because neither did the mainstream ...

Gingrich, Santorum, and Perry Hoisted on Their Own Petard

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 19, 2012

A federal appeals court in Richmond has ruled against GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry’s request to be placed on Virginia’s GOP primary ballot. The ruling came in an appeal of a U.S. district court’s ruling against Perry, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich that denied their request to be put on the ballot. Talk about hypocrisy and double-standards! It doesn’t get ...

Conservatives versus Libertarians on Income Taxation

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 18, 2012

The current debate over income-tax rates in the GOP presidential race highlights another major difference between conservatives and libertarians. It is a debate that involves moral, philosophical, economic, and practical issues. Most important, it is a debate over the meaning of freedom. In the recent South Carolina debate, the candidates were asked what they would like to see as the ...