Obama’s Interlocking Directorate
Originally Posted At
National Review Online
By Rich Lowry
May 29, 2009
The robber barons of old would marvel at the tentacles of influence of Barack Obama.
Government doesn’t have to own a stake in its corporate partners to bring them to heel. The liberal lion in the House, Henry Waxman, got surprising industry buy-in on his draft of a cap-and-trade bill through giveaways that favored selected energy players. Health-industry groups are jockeying for a place at Obama’s table on health-care reform so they can see to it that all the pain is inflicted on others. This is beggar-thy-neighbor industrial policy, wherein government uses its power to inflict harm or bestow advantage in order to divide and conquer corporate America.
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The COLA Wars
Originally Posted At
L.A. Times
By Andrew G. Biggs
May 21, 2009
There's a cola war going on, but it has nothing to do with Coke versus Pepsi.
It began earlier this month when the Congressional Budget Office projected that for the first time in three decades, there would be no cost-of-living adjustment -- or COLA -- for Social Security recipients in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
These adjustments are designed to keep elderly Social Security recipients from losing purchasing power as prices rise, so it's not surprising that the initial reaction was one of concern.
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Three Strikes Against Obamacare
In a recent
op-ed, Tom Daschle repeatedly invokes a baseball metaphor when discussing government-run health care. His apparent aim is to make it seem as American as baseball or apple pie. But government-run health care is really about as American as government-owned Chevrolet--and would prove even less beneficial to America's future.
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Originally Posted At
The Wall Street Journal
By Grace-Marie Turner and Joseph Antos
May 20, 2009
Republican congressional leaders are finally offering a clear alternative to the health-reform plans being developed by the White House and Democrats in Congress. The goals and the rhetoric of both sides are remarkably similar: cover the uninsured, allow people to keep the coverage they have, provide more choices of affordable health insurance, and rein in health costs. But their policy prescriptions are remarkably different.
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Soak The Rich, Lose The Rich
Originally Posted At
Wall Street Journal
By Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore
May 18, 2009
With states facing nearly $100 billion in combined budget deficits this year, we're seeing more governors than ever proposing the Barack Obama solution to balancing the budget: Soak the rich. Lawmakers in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York and Oregon want to raise income tax rates on the top 1% or 2% or 5% of their citizens. New Illinois Gov. Patrick Quinn wants a 50% increase in the income tax rate on the wealthy because this is the "fair" way to close his state's gaping deficit.
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The Lies About Health Care Reform
Originally Posted At
The Bismarck Tribune
By Brent McCarthy
May 17, 2009
According to the Wall Street Journal, Kent Conrad gave Obama a green light to increase taxes, further bankrupt our nation and do whatever he wants to the best healthcare system in the world. "Healthcare reform" is code for "socialized medicine."
The Democratic Party lies about socialized medicine. The first is the 46 million "uninsured." More than 11 million of these people are insured by Medicaid.
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What's Elevated, Health-Care Provider?
Originally Posted At
The Wall Street Journal
By Peggy Noonan
May 16, 2009
The indecipherable language of government has actually become dangerous to the well-being of the nation. As the federal government claims ever greater powers, its language has become vague to the point of meaningless and meaningless to the point of menacing.
The other day I was watching "Morning Joe" on MSNBC, and Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, came on from Washington to talk about health care. A reporter on the set, Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times, asked a few clear and direct questions: What is President Obama's health-care plan, how would it work, what would it look like? I leaned forward. Finally I will understand...
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Beware The ‘Public Option’
How not to reform American health care.
Originally Posted At
National Review Online
By Jim DeMint
May 15, 2009
On April 25, Sen. Ted Kennedy formally kicked off the great health-care debate of 2009 with an op-ed titled “My Call to Arms” in his hometown Boston Globe. In the article, he made the now-familiar case for government-guaranteed health insurance for all. But in an otherwise benign sentence, Kennedy let slip a troubling suggestion about the Democrats’ plans for a government takeover of health care.
Kennedy says the best way to guarantee universal access to quality care is “by giving Americans the option of enrolling in a public health-insurance plan, where coverage is provided in the public interest” (emphasis added). There’s only one problem: Health care isn’t public; it’s personal and private.
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The Straw Men Of Social Security
Originally Posted At
The American
By Andrew G, Biggs
May 15, 2009
Social Security is the largest single spending program of the federal budget. Its costs relative to its tax base will rise by 26 percent over the next two decades and it is badly in need of reform...This week the Trustees of the Social Security program released their annual report. The recession has taken a toll on the program’s finances: the system will run deficits beginning in 2016 rather than 2017 and the program’s trust fund will run out in 2037 rather than 2041.
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Not As Good As Gold
Originally Posted At
The American Conservative
By David Gordon
May 15, 2009
Late last March, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner stunned world financial markets by stating that the U.S. is “quite open” to Chinese proposals to replace the dollar as the primary world reserve currency. In the Chinese proposal, a “super-sovereign reserve currency” would be run by the International Monetary Fund. Geithner’s remarks instantly caused the dollar to plunge against the Chinese RMB. The Treasury secretary had to retreat. He stated that he expected the dollar to remain the world’s dominant reserve currency for “a long period of time,” and even the Chinese officials claimed that their proposal was only intended for some indefinite future.
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Tincture Of Lawlessness
Obama's Overreaching Economic Policies
Originally Posted At
The Washington Post
By George F. Will
May 14, 2009
Anyone, said T.S. Eliot, could carve a goose, were it not for the bones. And anyone could govern as boldly as his whims decreed, were it not for the skeletal structure that keeps civil society civil -- the rule of law. The Obama administration is bold. It also is careless regarding constitutional values and is acquiring a tincture of lawlessness.
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Social Security And Medicare: Apocalypse When?
Originally Posted At
Real Clear Markets
By Investors Business Daily
May 13, 2009
Entitlements: A report on Social Security and Medicare holds some grim news: Not only are the programs going bust, but they'll run out of money sooner than expected. The crisis we've been warned about for years is here.
Baby boomers — that 70-million-strong population lump — begin officially retiring this year. That means the government's bill for retirees' pensions and health care has no where to go but up, for decades to come.
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Talkin' 'Bout My Generation
Originally Posted At
Barrons
By Randall W. Forsyth
May 12, 2009
"HOPE I DIE BEFORE I GET OLD" always seemed to be the retirement-planning credo of Baby Boomers.
It seems like ages ago, but just back in October 2007, Kiplinger's was featuring a cover story shouting, "Retire Rich," a theme favored by finance-magazine editors nearly as often then as "New Sex Secrets" or the like got plastered on the front of the likes of Cosmopolitan. Both are probably equally fictional, though I have not researched the latter.
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Meltdown Was Perfect Stress Test For Pension Reform
Originally Posted At
Investors Business Daily
By William G. Shipman
May 8, 2009
We learned a few lessons in 2008.
First, markets can decline dramatically everywhere, and all at the same time. Not just stocks, but bonds, commodities, real estate, you name it.
Second, a leveraged economy is an ugly thing when the music stops.
Third, government amplifies the ugliness by playing favorites. (Housing, for example.)
Fourth, irrespective of the global market meltdown, saving and investing still provide greater retirement benefits than does Social Security, and by a lot...
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Boomers Going Bust
Originally Posted At
The Washington Post
By David Ignatius
May 7, 2009
People have accused the baby boomers of being whiners almost since we were born. But just wait until we get to retirement age and discover that we don't have nearly enough money to take care of our "golden years." That's going to be the ultimate generational bummer.
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Kill The 'Death Tax'
Originally Posted At
L.A. Times
By Douglas Holtz-Eakin
May 6, 2009
Few taxes raise less revenue or make less sense than the federal estate tax. It is scheduled to be temporarily eliminated -- for 2010 -- only to reappear in 2011, and it has been a sore spot to family business owners since its inception. Research shows that these concerns are legitimate -- and, if anything, understated.
Faced with the sunset provision, the White House would like to lock in the current tax rate permanently -- 45% of total assets over $3.5 million at the time of death. At the same time, some members of Congress are pressing to raise the rate and lower the exclusion, while others would like to do just the reverse.
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Obama's 'Public Plan' Can't Deliver On Promised Health Care Benefits
Originally Posted At
Investors Business Daily
By Merrill Matthews
May 5, 2009
One of the more contentious issues to emerge in the health care reform debate is what President Obama has referred to as the "public plan." What exactly is the public plan, and how does it work?
No one knows for sure, or I should say those who know aren't talking.
The president has described it as a Medicare-like health insurance program that anyone could join. It doubtless would be run by the government and largely subsidized by taxpayers, just like Medicare. And because Medicare imposes price controls on hospitals and physicians, you can bet the public plan would too.
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The Myths About A Return To The Gold Standard
Originally Posted At
Real Clear Markets
By John Tamny
May 5, 2009
“…it is not necessary that paper money should be payable in specie to secure its value; it is only necessary that its quantity should be regulated according to the value of the metal which is declared to be the standard. If the standard were gold of a given weight and fineness, paper might be increased with every fall in the value of the gold, or, which is the same thing in its effects, with every rise in the price of goods.” – David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy and Taxation."
The financial crisis of the past year has predictably generated all manner of suggestions about how to fix the problems before us. And while most solutions have missed the point along the lines of treating a cancer patient with a pacemaker, there’s a small but growing call for a return to the monetary stability wrought by a gold standard.
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Last Month's Op-Eds and Editorials
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Exit Not An Option In Chuck Schumer's America. New York Senator Chuck Schumer has introduced the Fugitive Taxpayer Act of 2012 to re-impose taxes on expatriates after they flee the United States and take up residence in a foreign country. Proposal also would impose a mandatory 30 percent tax on the capital gains of anybody who renounces their U.S. citizenship and would bar such individuals from ever reentering the United States again.
