The Iron Lady - A Movie About Margaret Thatcher

"If the state wishes to spend more, it can do so only by borrowing your savings or taxing you more. And it's no good thinking someone else will pay, that someone else is you." Margaret Thatcher.

I went to see Iron Lady last night at the movie theater and was kept in rapt attention at this woman's life. I'm in my 50's so I remember her in the 90's but had only a vague idea that she was one of the good guys. This movie manages to show that but not to the extent I would have liked. They do dwell too much on her later years when Alzheimer's was taking her mind. I would have liked to see more of the political battles she fought. She was the ONLY woman to have won a seat in Parliament at the time and she went on to win the elections for Prime Minister in 1979.

I got this from Wikipedia:

"She was influenced at university by political works such as Friedrich von Hayek's The Road to

Serfdom (1944),^[17] which condemned economic intervention by government as a precursor to an authoritarian state.^[18] "...she became the face of the ideological movement opposing the welfare state Keynesian economics they believed was weakening Britain. The institute's pamphlets proposed less government, lower taxes, and more freedom for business and consumers.^{[51][page needed]} http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher

So there you have it. An amazing movie even though it lacked more about her life. Maybe someone will do a better movie and put her entire life in perspective. How about a movie on Ronald Reagan?

Restraining and Reforming Goverment

The Conservatives HAVE lost their way. And it's time they find it. The way is paved with economic and political freedom. With a leftist government set on driving us to socialism maybe it's time for us to educate ourselves about our history and the uniqueness of what America stands for-individual freedom with a government that knows its place-subordination to the idea of limited government.

...But that's no excuse to conflate reform, which is often necessary to advance the cause of political liberty, with the progressive interpretation of it. Indeed, conservative reform will very often involve devising policies to limit government in the face of relentless progressive pressure to expand its reach and responsibilities.

Conservative reform is particularly necessary today. Revolutions in telecommunications and transportation continue to transform business, the family and the environment. The threat of transnational terrorists employing biological, chemical, radiological, nuclear and cyber weapons demands greater resourcefulness and agility at all levels of government, as well as greater cooperation among federal, state and municipal officials. And the vast expansion of the federal government undertaken by President Barack Obama and the Democrats has focused the electorate on government's cost and role in a way not seen since Ronald Reagan ran for president.

Unfortunately, over the past decade, conservatism in America has squandered the reputation for reform that it earned in the 1980s and 1990s. President Reagan led the way with his signature tax cuts, which launched two decades of stunning economic growth. Gov. John Engler in Michigan (1991–2003) and Gov. Tommy Thompson in Wisconsin (1987-2001) gained national prominence for the benefits they brought to their states by cutting taxes, promoting school choice and renovating welfare. The 1994 Republican congressional campaign's Contract with America, which drew on President Reagan's 1985 State of the Union Address to propose concrete legislation to make the federal government more transparent and accountable, promised a new era of conservative reform. ..Read "Conservatism and the Spirit of Reform" at WSJ