The Cancer Grows: Livetweeting #SOTU - Atlas Shrugs

UPDATE: Livetweeting the Statist of the Union address? Join me here.

Politico is reporting Obama will announce another behemoth government agency, calling it the "mortgage crisis unit." It will? be headed by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, his office confirmed to POLITICO. The unit will criminalize and prosecute 'mortgage misconduct' and 'illegal activities."

More criminalization of the businessman.

It will be announced in tonight in Obama's Statist of the Union address.

In other news of government skulduggery: Spirit Airlines sent this to their customers (hat tip Sean):

WARNING:
New government regulations require us to HIDE taxes in your fares.

This is not consumer-friendly or in your best interest. It's wrong and you shouldn't stand for it.
Starting January 24, 2012, fares are distorted.
Why?
Thanks to the U.S. Department of Transportation's latest fare rules, Spirit must now HIDE the government's taxes and fees in your fares.
If the government can hide taxes in your airfares, then they can carry out their hidden agenda and quietly increase their taxes. (Yes, such talks are already underway.)
And if they can do it to the airline industry, what's next?
As the transparency leader and most consumer-friendly airline, Spirit DOES NOT support this new USDOT mandate. We believe the better form of transparency is to break out costs so customers know exactly what they're buying.
What can you do to help stop this injustice?
Join us in keeping government taxes and fees low and transparent by contacting your elected officials.

And a word from Ayn Rand: Businessmen vs. Bureaucrats

A businessman?s success depends on his intelligence, his knowledge, his productive ability, his economic judgment?and on the voluntary agreement of all those he deals with: his customers, his suppliers, his employees, his creditors or investors. A bureaucrat?s success depends on his political pull. A businessman cannot force you to buy his product; if he makes a mistake, he suffers the consequences; if he fails, he takes the loss. A bureaucrat forces you to obey his decisions, whether you agree with him or not?and the more advanced the stage of a country?s statism, the wider and more discretionary the powers wielded by a bureaucrat. If he makes a mistake, you suffer the consequences; if he fails, he passes the loss on to you, in the form of heavier taxes.

?From My ?Future File,??
The Ayn?Rand Letter, III, 26, 5

link to this entry

A businessman cannot force you to work for him or to accept the wages he offers; you are free to seek employment elsewhere and to accept a better offer, if you can find it. (Remember, in this context, that jobs do not exist ?in nature,? that they do not grow on trees, that someone has to create the job you need, and that that someone, the businessman, will go out of business if he pays you more than the market permits him to pay you.) A bureaucrat can force you to work for him, when he achieves the totalitarian power he seeks; he can force you to accept any payment he offers?or none, as witness the forced labor camps in the countries of full statism.

The businessman?s tool is values; the bureaucrat?s tool is fear.

?America?s Persecuted Minority: Big Business,?
Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, 48

Source: http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2012/01/the-cancer-grows.html

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