Tom Jenney and Grover Norquist discuss free market economy. 

The second day of the Defending the American Dream Summit got off to a roaring start this morning with a host of speakers talking about subjects ranging from tax reform and the economy to voter fraud.  The lineup included personalities such as John Stossel, Steve Moore, John Fund and Grover Norquist.  One of the first speakers was Herman Cain who talked about how he and his father used to the free market system to raise their standard of living.  His speech also drew a chorus of laughter from the crowd when he mentioned Obama, then looked down at the podium and simply shook his head back and forth with a sigh. 

Next Steve Moore talked about the differences between free market capitalism and socialism.  He pointed out the hypocrisy Democrats like Maxine Waters, who took money from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae while saying in 2005 that there was nothing wrong with these entities and that they didn’t need government regulation then.   Now however liberals say that we do need to regulate the market more even though government entities such as Freddie and Fannie are what caused the economic crisis through artificial manipulation of the market.  He also pointed out that the top 1 percent of Americans pay 39.8% of all taxes and that the top 50 percent pay 97% of all taxes.  When Obama says that he wants to tax the top tier of American earners he doesn’t understand (or care) that 72% of highest tax rate payers will be small business owners.  Jobs aren’t created by taxing small business into the ground, something that liberals just can’t seem to fathom.

Arizona’s own AFP Director Tom Jenney blasted Governor Napolitano for her $3 billion budget deficit.  He further lambasted the governors wish to keep spending and to raise taxes.  The mention of the TIME initiative’s defeat was greeted with a round of cheers, as was the mention of Prop 101 which would allow for Arizonans to make their own choices healthcare instead of being forced into a socialized system.

Grover Norquist spoke of how most Americans want to the government to leave them alone.  While various conservative groups may disagree on how they should spend there freedom, they all are united by the simple fact that they believe in individual choice and freedom and not government control.

Speaking later John Fund launched into the issue of voter fraud and noted that the liberal activist group ACORN has been accused of voter fraud in 12 different states, among them Nevada who’s Secretary of State is a Democrat.  The Nevada Secretary has said of the ACORN case, “It’s the equivalent of a suspected bank robber being arrested because he said the police had nothing better to do.”  Among other things the Nevada chapter of ACORN had used a felon convicted of identity theft to collect information, drawing a round laughter from the crowd when he noted, “Is ACORN hiring specialists now?”

Rounding out the morning speakers was John Stossel who noted that crisis is the friend of the state, and the media has made it worse.  The media constantly focuses on crisis, before the economic crisis the global warming crisis was going to kill us all and before that Y2K was going to be the end of civilization as we knew it.  This crisis has been created by government through their artificial manipulation of the market system.  True economic freedom will correct the current crisis, not more government regulation.  America is prosperous compared to the rest of the world precisely because of our economic freedom, not because of government regulation.

Tim Nelson thought of the day:  Electing ACLU Tim as the Maricopa County Attorney would be like electing Hugo Chavez as president for the Club for Growth.