Frank Defends Freedom for Online Gambling But Not Finances
Freedom-loving US citizens were disappointed as Representative Barney Frank did not expand his support for the social rights to choose to play at online gambling sites and smoke pot to include financial freedoms. Frank asserted the right of adults to make their own decisions to visit online casinos or smoke marijuana, but denied their rights to choose to assume high-interest mortgages.In an interview with CNSNews, Frank responded to criticism from staunch Internet gambling foe Spencer Bachus that Frank's mortgage reform bill limits individual liberty to decide which mortgage one wants.
"The individual is not the only one impacted here, when bad decisions get made in the economic sphere, it causes problems,” says Frank. “We’re not just talking individual responsibility. We have a world-wide economic crisis now, because of this."
Bachus had said of the Frank-supported bill which would limit availability of high-risk mortgages, “You’re substituting the government’s decision for the individual’s decision in whether they can afford it.”
Libertarian commentator Pete Goulding says he is disappointed in Frank's argument against free choice, after his strong support for the social freedoms to use marijuana and visit Internet casinos. Goulding says the politicians need to decide whether they really believe in liberty.
"Our Founding Fathers set up a government extremely limited in power, and gave all rights not expressly decreed to the federal government to the states and the people. Representatives Frank and Bachus are each for freedom when it suits them, but each argues the effects of that freedom on others when the support of freedom becomes inconvenient," stated Goulding.
"Libertarians would say the only role government has in business is to prevent monopolization. Considering the growth of companies that are now seen as 'too big to let fail', it appears government has failed in its only financial job."
Goulding even criticized Frank's statement that “I would let people gamble on the Internet. I would let adults smoke marijuana; I would let adults do a lot of things, if they choose, ” saying that the wording demonstrates a problem in fundamental political thinking.
"People shouldn't need Barney Frank to "let" them do anything. It is not the place of US legislators to allow people to exercise their freedom. They have that right, whether officials permit it or not."
