IBD_Editorials

Jig’s Up, Cherokee Liz

Fri, 18 May 2012 23:00:00 GMT
Preferences: There’s no truth whatever to Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren’s claim to Indian ancestry. She’s been proved a fraud. Time for her to fess up and end this charade. All the evidence she’s offered to justify listing herself as a minority on law school directories the last 25 years has been shot down. The Harvard law professor’s claims just don’t stand up to scrutiny. The New England Historical Genealogical Society this week

Billions For Climate, Not One More Cent For Defense

Fri, 18 May 2012 23:00:00 GMT
Federal Priorities: A new report shows we have spent $70 billion on climate change since 2008 while our strapped military is ordered to become energy-efficient. Imagine weapons that don’t harm the environment. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, took to the Senate floor Thursday to decry the green agenda being imposed on the

Chinese Solar Cells And The Solyndra Syndrome

Fri, 18 May 2012 23:00:00 GMT
Tariffs: It seems the Obama administration will do anything to save a handful of U.S. jobs in the manufacture of solar cells — even to the point of risking a job-killing trade war. Thursday’s announcement by the Commerce Department of new duties on imported solar cells from China was good news for almost nobody. China was miffed, naturally. Much of the U.S. solar energy business was less than joyful as well. Even in solar manufacturing, reaction

Democrats’ ‘Facebook Envy’ Tax Hike On Success

Fri, 18 May 2012 23:00:00 GMT
Success: Facebook’s cultural ascent is a tribute to American innovation and entrepreneurship. But powerful Democrats see its financial success as a chance to fuel popular envy and line the pockets of big government. Barack Obama and Congress’ leading Democrats say Mitt Romney doesn’t get it when it comes to the economy.
But the politicized soap opera

Sorry, But Principal Reductions Won’t Solve Mortgage Mess

Fri, 18 May 2012 22:54:00 GMT
Edward DeMarco, the temporary director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, continues to endure blistering criticism for refusing to allow — Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac to pay for large-scale principal reductions for underwater borrowers (those who owe more than their homes are worth) or to facilitate refinancings for those stuck with high interest rate mortgages. The embattled regulator says he is merely trying to prevent Fannie and

Gerrymandering Has Diminished Reasonable Voters’ Choices

Fri, 18 May 2012 22:07:00 GMT
Journalists in Washington and other places have reported for at least the past year and a half on the so-called end of the moderate in Congress. I’ll be the first to admit that there are fewer moderate members of Congress than there were in the last Congress. And after Election Day, there may be fewer still. But that’s not because there are fewer moderate voters in the United States. It’s because moderate voters are being drawn into extremely

Look What Obama’s Bragging About Now

Fri, 18 May 2012 22:07:00 GMT
Budget: President Obama boasts on Twitter that spending, taxes and deficits are all below where they were when he took office. The truth is, he inherited a bad situation and made it worse. Think Progress, the George Soros-funded left-wing advocacy group that’s always ready and willing to lend Obama a hand, has put together a chart that, it claims, proves that the president has been a good fiscal steward. Federal spending, it says, “is lower now

Bipartisanship Is Behind Government’s Worst Programs

Fri, 18 May 2012 22:07:00 GMT
Bipartisanship, the supposed scarcity of which so distresses the high-minded, actually is disastrously prevalent. Since 2001, it has produced No Child Left Behind, a counterproductive federal intrusion in primary and secondary education; the McCain-Feingold speech rationing law (the Bipartisan) Campaign Reform Act); an unfunded prescription drug entitlement; troublemaking by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; government-directed capitalism from the

Barack Obama, Elizabeth Warren And The Shifting Sands Of Identity

Fri, 18 May 2012 22:07:00 GMT
It used to be a lot simpler. As E.C. Bentley, British journalist and man of letters, deftly summarized it in 1905: “Geography is about maps. But biography is about chaps.” But that was then, and now biography is also about maps. For example, have you ever thought it would be way cooler to have been born in colonial Kenya? Whoa, that sounds like crazy Birther talk; don’t go there! But Breitbart News did, and it turns out that the earliest recorded

When Bankers Were Boring

Fri, 18 May 2012 02:00:00 GMT
“As a group,” the economist Robert Lekachman wrote in 1976, “economists are slightly more entertaining than bankers and a trifle duller than lawyers.” Bankers, please note, were the dullest of all. And while Lekachman (with John Kenneth Galbraith, the wittiest economist of his generation) authored many books and papers well outside his profession’s mainstream, his assessment of bankers was not intended to provoke controversy and didn’t. In America

Is the U.S. Going Too Far to Help Israel?

Fri, 18 May 2012 02:00:00 GMT
Should the United States put solving Israel’s budget problems ahead of its own? When it comes to defense spending, it appears that the United States already is. Ehud Barak, Israel’s defense minister, will meet Thursday in Washington with Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta to finalize a deal in which the United States will provide an additional $680 million to Israel over three years. The money is meant to help pay for procuring three or four new

IBD/TIPP Poll: Obama Failing As ‘Great Distracter’

Thu, 17 May 2012 23:15:00 GMT
IBD/TIPP Poll: “The Great Distracter” has failed to distract from his failures as his support among women and independents falls. And it will only get harder to make voters forget the weak economy. The latest IBD/TIPP survey, which polled 778 registered voters over the eight days ended Wednesday, found that while same-sex marriage is viewed positively by many independents, President Obama’s support among that key voting bloc has fallen since his

Obama Lies About Reagan Endorsing Buffett Rule

Thu, 17 May 2012 23:10:00 GMT
Leadership: The president’s narcissistic self-insertion into official presidential biographies would have us believe the Great Communicator would agree with the Great Teleprompter Reader on taxes. Well, there he goes again. Not willing to wait until his visage is enshrined next to actor and donor George Clooney on Mt. Rushmore, President Obama’s helpers have notoriously inserted their fearless leader into the official White House biographies of

Wikileaks Is A Weapon In The Bloody Hands Of Iran

Thu, 17 May 2012 23:10:00 GMT
WikiLeaks: The sleazy criminal organization dedicated to publishing U.S. secrets may loudly deny its leaks led to the hanging of a man in Iran Tuesday. But that’s irrelevant because WikiLeaks gave Tehran the pretext it sought. A 24-year old Iranian man was the latest victim of the mullahs’ monstrous tyranny this week, executed as a spy for Israel, supposedly for killing an Iranian nuclear scientist on behalf of his Zionist masters. That’s a whiff

Looming ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Of Tax Hikes Threatens U.S.

Thu, 17 May 2012 23:10:00 GMT
House Speaker John Boehner is playing a heroic role right now. In his efforts to prevent the Bush tax cuts from expiring, Boehner is aggressively taking on President Obama’s leadership ineptitude on the economy. In essence, Boehner is pushing a Republican policy to wrap up a debt-limitation bill and extend the Bush tax cuts in one fell swoop before the election — and before all the last-minute, crisis-oriented, political machinations that would

Same-Sex Marriage: Is It A Matter Of Empathy Or Is It A Right?

Thu, 17 May 2012 23:10:00 GMT
There are two ways to defend gay marriage. Argument A is empathy: One is influenced by gay friends in committed relationships yearning for the fulfillment and acceptance that marriage conveys upon heterosexuals. That’s essentially the case President Obama made when he first announced his change of views. No talk about rights, just human fellow feeling. Such an argument is attractive because it can be compelling without being compulsory. Many

Class Warfare: Government Workers Vs. The Taxpayers

Thu, 17 May 2012 23:10:00 GMT
The real class warfare in this country isn’t rich vs. poor. It’s government employees vs. the taxpayers who pay their salaries. Working for the government is supposed to be a trade-off: You can’t be fired and don’t have to exert yourself, but you will receive smaller remuneration than in the private sector, where layoffs are common (especially in the Obama economy!). Instead, government jobs are safe, secure, pressure-free — and now amazingly

Pakistan Is Blowing Its Chance To Create Real Nation

Thu, 17 May 2012 23:10:00 GMT
As America begins to pull back its troops from Afghanistan, there’s one consequence that gets little notice but is likely to have lasting impact: Pakistan is losing the best chance in its history to gain political control over all of its territory — including the warlike tribal areas along the frontier. Pakistan has squandered the opportunity presented by having a large U.S.-led army just over the border in Afghanistan. Rather than work with the

Obama’s Wages An Unending War On American Capitalism

Thu, 17 May 2012 22:45:00 GMT
The Obama Record: The president has made Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital a target of his re-election campaign. That’s one way to divert attention from poor performance. It’s also a way to undermine capitalism. At a New York fundraiser Monday night, Obama called the free market “the greatest wealth generator ever devised by man.” Those are fine words for a campaign stop among the moneyed set. But those words aren’t backed by the actions of a

Class Warfare: Government Workers Vs. The Taxpayers

Thu, 17 May 2012 22:45:00 GMT
The real class warfare in this country isn’t rich vs. poor. It’s government employees vs. we, the taxpayers, who pay their salaries. Working for the government is supposed to be a trade-off: You can’t be fired and don’t have to exert yourself, but you will receive smaller remuneration than in the private sector, where layoffs are common (especially in the Obama economy!). Instead, government jobs are safe, secure, pressure-free — and now amazingly

Foreign Policy: How to Outsmart China

Thu, 17 May 2012 19:59:00 GMT
Quintus Fabius lives. And the third-century B.C. Roman dictator celebrated as Fabius “the Delayer” seems to be advising Philippine President Benigno Aquino III on strategy at Scarborough Shoal, where Philippine and Chinese ships have faced off for more than a month. In early April, the Philippine Navy flagship Gregorio del Pilar discovered Chinese fishing boats at the shoal, a group of rocks enclosing a lagoon some 120 nautical miles west of the

Bond Market May Not Warn When Debt Crisis Strikes

Thu, 17 May 2012 19:59:00 GMT
One by one, European nations are letting their voices be heard, tossing out the party in power and voting in those who have a more radical agenda or are just willing to say no to the status quo. Down with austerity! Up with growth! That’s how the trade-off is being portrayed, and perhaps that’s what policymakers pushing the idea, and individuals on the receiving end, want to believe. With many euro zone countries in a recession, one can understand

A Time for Leadership

Thu, 17 May 2012 19:59:00 GMT
Not for the first time, Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, R, has delivered a blunt assessment that the state is fast running out of money to build and improve its roads, bridges and rails. Once again, he has promised to seek new funds before the demand for upkeep drains away the last precious dollars for new construction. But even as the governor delivers a spot-on diagnosis, his prescription — which includes the proviso that any funding change

Chen Is Not The Only One

Thu, 17 May 2012 19:53:00 GMT
Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng is the symbol for the human rights struggle in that country, but many more dissidents suffer not only imprisonment but abuse as well. By now, the story of blind Chinese rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng’s remarkable escape is almost the stuff of legend. On the moonless night of April 22, he evaded the security forces guarding his small Shandong farm house, maneuvering sightlessly over several farm walls, past

What’s With Supply-Siders’ Scarlet Letter? Austerity Case Carries No Shame

Thu, 17 May 2012 19:53:00 GMT
NEW YORK — The scarlet letter these days is still an A, but it isn’t A for adultery. It is A for austerity. Especially careful to eschew the A label are conservatives and supply-side economists, those who wrote legislation for Ronald Reagan or subsequent Republican leaders. Supply-siders prefer to be known as advocates of growth. Many conservative policymakers fear they will earn the disdain of the supply-side giants, the movement’s eminences, by

Georgetown Gets It Right

Thu, 17 May 2012 19:41:00 GMT
The archbishop of Washington finds it “shocking” that Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia would defend the university’s decision to have Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius participate in a commencement event in the aftermath of the furor over the Obama administration’s rule on contraceptive coverage. What we find shocking is Cardinal Donald Wuerl’s failure to credit the proper role of a university and the importance

Another Game of Chicken

Thu, 17 May 2012 19:37:00 GMT
House Speaker Boehner again vowed to use the next debt-ceiling debate to extract additional spending cuts as the price of lifting the country’s borrowing limit. It’s not often that a senior political figure announces an intention to behave irresponsibly and risk inflicting great harm on the U.S. economy. It’s even rarer that the politician, having already behaved irresponsibly and inflicted harm on the U.S. economy, announces his intention to do

Yes, There’s a Case for Staying in California

Thu, 17 May 2012 19:37:00 GMT
California is at the top of “most hated” states, according to a recent national poll. It’s easy to see why a lot of Californians themselves agree with this assessment, after Gov. Jerry Brown’s latest scary description of the deepening hole the state is in. The state’s budget deficit has grown to $15.7 billion from $9.2 billion since January, proof that a governor who promised to provide an honest budget ended up relying on the same overly

The World According to the Avengers

Thu, 17 May 2012 19:37:00 GMT
This week, the Avengers continued to confront giant mechanical sea monsters from outer space on the silver screen. In the real world, politicians and businesspeople were locked in similarly intense contests of will. The stakes in both dramas were high. The dialogue was sharp. And as with the Avengers and their merry extended family of mayhem-makers, the collateral damage — from both their conflicts and their collaborations — was catastrophic. In

The Facebook Co-Founder Who Unfriended the U.S.

Thu, 17 May 2012 18:50:00 GMT
Facebook’s initial public offering reminds us of a story. Once upon a time, there was a young man who fled his homeland (Brazil) because his life was in danger (kidnappers). Like so many before him, he came to the United States. There, in the safety of the freest, most dynamic country on earth, he got a superb education (Harvard), the opportunity to exercise his entrepreneurial zeal (Facebook) — and the protections of the U.S. legal system to

War On Somali Piracy Needs Rules, And Impregnable Citadels

Thu, 17 May 2012 18:50:00 GMT
Question: How do you make a meeting of a slow-moving, little-known and largely powerless United Nations agency into a sexy event? Answer: pirates! The 90th session of the International Maritime Organization’s Maritime Safety Committee, under way in London, will cover much territory, including passenger-ship safety (“Remember the Costa Concordia”), standards for voyage data recorders and the protection of crew members’ hearing from engine noise.

Rob Portman May Be the Best Boring White Guy

Thu, 17 May 2012 18:50:00 GMT
WASHINGTON — The minute Senator Rob Portman, the Republican from Ohio who helped Mitt Romney win his state’s primary, walked into the room, I knew that he would be the Republican vice presidential candidate. As he conceded proudly, he is a Boring White Guy, which is the phrase of the moment after “a Republican official familiar with the campaign’s thinking” told Politico that’s what Romney is looking for in a running mate. (The actual phrase was

Anti-Gay GOP Vote Shows Virginia Gov. McDonnell’s Failure

Thu, 17 May 2012 02:00:00 GMT
If anybody needed further proof, the Virginia General Assembly’s homophobic rejection of a gay man for a judgeship Tuesday confirms beyond doubt that Gov. Robert McDonnell has failed in his ostensible effort to steer the state Republican Party away from conservative social causes that sully the Old Dominion’s reputation. GOP legislative leaders, with McDonnell’s quiet approval, originally backed the appointment of Richmond prosecutor Tracy

Can Obama Show Economy Has Improved On State-By-State Basis?

Thu, 17 May 2012 02:00:00 GMT
Special to The Washington Post. It will be interesting to see whether President Obama can use an economic-success argument more successfully state by state, instead of nationally. Consider that there’s been a lot of mixed economic news recently. The automobile industry is booming, as are parts of the farm economy. Both are major pluses for Obama. MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show had a good segment Tuesday with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who I

Is American Community Survey Intrusive, Inappropriate?

Thu, 17 May 2012 00:09:00 GMT
A Count Worth Keeping The following editorial appeared in Wednesday’s Washington Post: According to Rep. Daniel Webster, R-Fla., it is “intrusive,” “an inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars,” “unconstitutional,” and “the very picture of what’s wrong in D.C.” What manner of predatory government prompted Mr. Webster — supported by nearly all House Republicans — to issue such categorical condemnation? That intolerable federal boondoggle known as .

An Import-Friendly Stance From Germany Will Spur European Recovery

Thu, 17 May 2012 00:09:00 GMT
The following editorial appeared in Wednesday’s Washington Post: It may already be too late to prevent Greece from defaulting on its debts and leaving the euro, Europe’s common currency. But there still may be time to prevent Greece’s woes from dragging down the rest of Europe, and the world. For that to happen, though, Europe’s leaders must think clearly about the issues before them, especially the great “austerity vs. growth” debate. When

Bigotry Triumphs In Richmond, Virginia

Thu, 17 May 2012 00:09:00 GMT
(The following editorial appeared in Wednesday’s Washington Post: If anything, Tracy Thorne-Begland, a top state prosecutor in Richmond with a decade of courtroom experience, is overqualified for a judgeship on the General District Court. Mr. Thorne-Begland, who has prosecuted dozens of homicides and other major felonies, runs one of the biggest commonwealth’s attorney’s offices in Virginia. The caseload of the court to which he was nominated

Rob Portman May Be the Best Boring White Guy

Thu, 17 May 2012 00:04:00 GMT
Ohioan Rob Portman is steady U.S. Senator, making him not just a great GOP vice presidential candidate, but an Incredibly Boring White Guy WASHINGTON — The minute Senator Rob Portman, the Republican from Ohio who helped Mitt Romney win his state’s primary, walked into the room, I knew that he would be the Republican vice presidential candidate. As he conceded proudly, he is a Boring White Guy, which is the phrase of the moment after “a

Office Of Financial Research Deserves Full Support

Thu, 17 May 2012 00:04:00 GMT
For all the criticism of the Dodd-Frank Act, one thing the law does right is fill the informational and analytical blind spots that allowed our economy to unwittingly approach the precipice of disaster. Little noted among the law’s 2,300 pages and 16 titles is a section creating the Office of Financial Research within the U.S. Treasury Department. The humble pie on which JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon is now feasting should be shared generously

Europe Must Face Ugly Reality of Greek Exit From Euro Area

Thu, 17 May 2012 00:04:00 GMT
A Greek exit from the euro area could be the European Union’s most economically and politically destructive event of a generation. But it may happen anyway. A Greek exit from the euro area has the potential to be the European Union’s most economically and politically destructive event of a generation. Unfortunately, Europe has reached the point where it must prepare for such an outcome. Whether Greeks want it or not, circumstances could soon force

Regulators Snooze While JPMorgan Lights the Fuse

Thu, 17 May 2012 00:04:00 GMT
Don’t worry your pretty little heads, JPMorgan Chase Chief Financial Officer Douglas Braunstein seemed to assure listeners on the bank’s quarterly earnings conference call last month. Regulators knew everything JPMorgan’s chief investment office was doing, he said. “We are very comfortable with our positions as they are held today, and I would add that all of those positions are fully transparent to the regulators,” Braunstein said April 13. “They

Obama Tariffs On Chinese Solar Products Will Cost U.S.

Thu, 17 May 2012 00:04:00 GMT
Simple economics holds that if you want to promote mass adoption of something, you have to make it affordable and available. This week, the Obama administration is poised to slap potentially hefty tariffs on imports of Chinese solar products, a move that will satisfy a protectionist urge but undercut the U.S. energy agenda. It’s no secret China is aggressively subsidizing its solar manufacturers, driving down prices for solar panels and

Foreign Policy: Jesus Loves China, Too

Wed, 16 May 2012 23:58:00 GMT
Educated as an atheist like most Chinese, he learned about Christianity while studying english literature Like most Chinese, I was educated as an atheist. All textbooks, philosophy classes and conferences taught us that the Christian faith is an “opiate of the people’s spirit” that Westerners use to numb and neutralize the creativity of the Chinese mind. But as a student of English literature at Liaocheng University in Shandong province in 1987,

Foreign Policy: How Midland, Texas, Became A Champion Of Human Rights

Wed, 16 May 2012 23:58:00 GMT
If you’ve been following the story of Bob Fu, the Chinese human rights activist and evangelical who describes his mission in a piece for Foreign Policy this week, you might have noticed an odd geographical detail. It turns out that Fu runs his campaign for religious freedom in the People’s Republic of China out of the town where he and his family have been living for the past eight years. That would be Midland, Texas, population 100,000. Wait.

Foreign Policy: Why Is Putin Skipping The G-8 Summit?

Wed, 16 May 2012 23:58:00 GMT
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision not to attend the G-8 summit and send Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as a stand-in has been seen by many as a bold snub to Washington and has raised important questions about the Russian leader’s motivations. Beyond that looms the larger, and much more important, question about the future of Russia’s foreign policy and its relations with the West. What if Putin’s real motives, however, are exactly as

If Greece Quits Euro Zone, Its Ruin Will Be Pointless

Wed, 16 May 2012 23:58:00 GMT
The chaos in Greece has resumed and a new election that nobody expects to resolve anything looms. Exasperated European Union officials have begun openly discussing the country’s exit from the euro currency system. This is a grave mistake. Greece’s exit would be no less catastrophic than when the EU called it unthinkable — and not just for Greece. “Divorce is never smooth,” Luc Coene, the governor of Belgium’s central bank and a member of the

Why Have U.S. Jobs in Small Business Gone Missing?

Wed, 16 May 2012 23:58:00 GMT
Big business, we keep being told, has been so hampered by regulatory uncertainty over the past few years, it has been reluctant to hire workers. So it is surprising to read the results of a little-known survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: Very large businesses, it turns out, have been expanding their domestic workforces relatively rapidly. If, since January 2011, businesses of all sizes had hired at the same rate as those with 5,000 or

“Deb Who?” Belies Liberals’ Charges Of GOP “War On Women”

Wed, 16 May 2012 22:56:00 GMT
Politics: The victory of the little-known Deb Fischer in Nebraska’s Republican Senate primary is a reminder that the Tea Party is alive, well and volatile. And so is the phenomenon named Sarah Palin. Deb who? That was the reaction Tuesday after the state senator and her modestly funded campaign scored a huge upset against the GOP establishment candidate for the U.S. Senate nomination, Attorney General Jon Bruning, and state Treasurer Don

First Shoe Drops: Catholic School Drops ObamaCare

Wed, 16 May 2012 22:56:00 GMT
Health Reform: Faced with being forced to abandon its conscience while emptying its bank account, a Catholic university finds its students can’t keep the health insurance they like as it becomes prohibitively expensive. Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, finding itself at the nexus of cost and conscience regarding the demands and expenses imposed on it and other Catholic institutions by the onslaught of ObamaCare, has announced it will

War On Banks Spreads To City Hall

Wed, 16 May 2012 22:56:00 GMT
Regulation: A leftist movement to pass local “responsible banking ordinances” is sweeping the nation. Now banks will be harassed into making risky loans by city, not just federal, diversity cops. The two largest cities this week approved laws requiring banks doing business with them to meet race-based quotas for mortgage and small-business lending. They’ll also have to stop foreclosures on previous bad loans and vow to open new branches in urban

Democrats’ Budget Bust Is Not Only Sad, It’s Criminal

Wed, 16 May 2012 22:56:00 GMT
Budget Policy: As another fight over the budget looms, Democrats again choose to do nothing except blame those who try to fix the problem. President Obama and Senate Democrats are masters of this do-nothing game. House Speaker John Boehner went to the White House Wednesday to talk budget with President Obama. With $15.6 trillion in debt and a $16.4 trillion debt ceiling looming, you’d think the president would be keen to discuss ways of keeping us

ALEC And The Left’s War On Free Speech

Wed, 16 May 2012 22:38:00 GMT
Advocacy: If you want an insight into today’s left, look at its multifront war against the American Legislative Exchange Council for committing the grave sin of pushing free-market bills in state legislatures. At a recent meeting in Washington, Aniello Alioto of ProgressNow Colorado summed up the left-wing’s campaign against ALEC: “Never relent, never let up pressure, and always increase.” According to the Washington Free Beacon, ProgressNow was

President Obama’s Place In U.S. History: Debt-Monger

Wed, 16 May 2012 22:38:00 GMT
The U.S. economy generated federal tax revenues of $2.6 trillion in 2011 — a sizable pot of funds. Yet the federal government spent much more, with the result being a federal budget deficit of over one-third of tax revenues. That is very weak stewardship by President Obama. In comparison, Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, generated net revenue of $97 billion last year and was criticized by Obama for a $2 billion trading loss — a 2% hit on net

Territorial Tax System For U.S. Would Improve Global Competitiveness

Wed, 16 May 2012 22:38:00 GMT
America’s tax system needs an overhaul. It is too complex. Many provisions are unreliably temporary. Even rules that work as intended have been branded as loopholes. And the system is clearly uncompetitive, as shown by both our outdated worldwide system, which double-taxes American companies, and our corporate rate, now the highest in the developed world. The current administration deserves credit for releasing its recent tax reform document, “The

If Romney Likes Clinton So Much, He Should Be Pleased With Obama

Wed, 16 May 2012 22:38:00 GMT
Mitt Romney was against Bill Clinton before he was for him. There was Romney, campaigning Tuesday in Iowa, praising the nation’s last Democratic president and casting him as far superior to the incumbent. “Almost a generation ago, Bill Clinton announced that the era of big government was over,” Romney declared, adding that “Clinton was signaling to his own party that Democrats should no longer try to govern by proposing a new program for every

America To Reap Big On Jobs With The Colombia Free Trade Pact

Tue, 15 May 2012 22:57:00 GMT
Trade: Six years after it was signed, the U.S.-Colombia free-trade agreement took effect Tuesday, giving our economy a shot in the arm. Tell us again why this pact was a bad thing? Look at the Port of Long Beach. Monday, port officials drove the first golden pile into the water for their $1.2 billion upgrade and expansion, hailing a modernization that will double the port’s traffic when completed in 2019. The project restores the California port

Blood Of Housing Massacre On Obama’s Hands

Tue, 15 May 2012 22:57:00 GMT
Subprime Scandal: Analysts now say the housing market is so weak it may not rebound in our lifetimes. Yet the White House is pursuing the same policies that put it on its back. Worse, many of the officials it has put in charge of reviving the housing market are the same ones who crafted the fatal policies before the crisis. First, consider the latest data supporting a lost generation in housing: The average homeowner today has 7% equity in his

Law Of The Sea Treaty Is A Bad Deal For U.S.

Tue, 15 May 2012 22:52:00 GMT
The stunning repudiation of Sen. Richard Lugar’s, R-Ind., bid for a seventh term has sent shock waves through Washington’s internationalist lobby. A former Rhodes scholar, Lugar has spent his career promoting a globalist agenda since succeeding the late Jesse Helms as the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. One day after Indiana Republicans handed Lugar his walking papers, an outfit called the Atlantic Council held a forum to

Obama’s Slogan ‘Forward’ Is Used By Socialists Too

Tue, 15 May 2012 22:52:00 GMT
There is a modern parallel to Obama’s new campaign slogan, “Forward!” It is the motto of the modern Socialist Movement “Forward!” (translated: “Vperiod!”), founded in Russia in 2005. Its declared goal is the socialist transformation of society. In March 2011, the Socialist movement Forward officially merged with another organization, Socialist Resistance, to create the Russian Socialist movement. Its website states that the organization provides a

JPMorgan Chase Loss Is No Reason For New Regulation

Tue, 15 May 2012 22:52:00 GMT
It’s a teachable moment, but what’s the right lesson? Already, the $2 billion-plus trading debacle at JPMorgan Chase has inspired a powerful story line. Nothing has changed since the financial crisis, it’s said. Big banks remain out of control, gambling recklessly. If Jamie Dimon’s bank, reputed to be one of the best-managed, can get into trouble, what about the others? Government regulations and regulators need to be tougher to counteract

Obama Won’t Tell You About Impending Taxes And Cuts

Tue, 15 May 2012 22:52:00 GMT
Budget: Congressional Democrats plan massive tax increases and crippling defense cuts after November. Why not now? Because the voters would realize the Obama presidency has set the stage for fiscal catastrophe. ‘The way to deal with sequestration is put revenues on the table.” That is third-ranking Senate Democrat Charles Schumer of New York’s coded way of telling congressional Republicans that if you want to prevent the budgetary devastation of

Hurry Up And Spend? No, Slow Down And Think

Tue, 15 May 2012 22:52:00 GMT
High-Speed Rail: It says something that even struggling California may be willing to lose a $3.3 billion federal bullet-train grant. Maybe it senses some risk. Now how can that be? The Golden State is not known for its fiscal sobriety, but at least some of its top lawmakers are thinking twice about accepting the Obama administration’s invitation to waste money. Last week, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said a promised $3.3 billion federal

Obama’s Economic Winter: Can Adam And Steve Find Jobs?

Tue, 15 May 2012 22:52:00 GMT
Job Creation: With just 7% of Americans considering gay marriage the top issue, the presumptive GOP nominee asks: What about the 23 million Americans who are out of work, underemployed or have simply given up? The battle of the steel ads between venture capitalist Mitt Romney and venture socialist and incumbent President Barack Obama has ended with the advantage going to Romney. The Obama spot dubbed “Steel,” but which perhaps could have been

GAO To Obama: More Oil Than Rest Of The World

Mon, 14 May 2012 23:00:00 GMT
Energy: The Government Accountability Office tells Congress the Green River Formation out West contains an “amount about equal to the entire world’s proven oil reserves.” So why are we keeping it locked up on federal lands? Exploding the Big Lie pushed by President Obama that we can’t drill our way out of high gas prices because we have but 2% of the world’s proven oil reserves, Anu Mittal, GAO director of natural resources and environment,

Obama Campaign Practices Private Equity Double Standard

Mon, 14 May 2012 22:45:00 GMT
Hypocrisy: While the president blasts Mitt Romney’s private equity successes, he happily takes private equity campaign cash. If this election becomes “the company fixer” vs. “the economy wrecker,” Obama is in big trouble. How you made your money is evil, but to get re-elected president I’m happy to take lots of cash others made in the same way. That, in essence, is Barack Obama’s message in condemning Mitt Romney’s many years of work fixing and

Media Rekindle Their Obama Love Affair

Mon, 14 May 2012 22:45:00 GMT
Media Bias: The Washington Post defends its Mitt Romney hit piece by claiming it didn’t collude with the Obama White House on timing. Collusion isn’t the problem. The fact that they both share the same goal is. Three years ago, former CBS News correspondent Bernie Goldberg wrote the aptly titled book “A Slobbering Love Affair,” in which he detailed how the mainstream press had gone above and beyond its own well-established liberal bias to take on

California’s ‘Unexpected’ $16 Billion Deficit

Mon, 14 May 2012 22:45:00 GMT
States: California now forecasts a budget deficit this year of $16 billion, not the $9.2 billion first estimated. The governor calls this “unexpected.” But how can it be unexpected when it happens every year? Jerry Brown, who as governor in the 1970s began California’s long, sad decline from greatness, seems intent on finishing the job. “We are still recovering from the worst recession since the 1930s,” the governor formerly known as Moonbeam

President Obama Is No Bill Clinton, But He Should Be

Mon, 14 May 2012 22:14:00 GMT
Since the financial crisis and throughout the sluggish economic recovery, working families and small-business owners have watched as the federal government has engaged in a grand experiment in government-led economic engineering. That experiment has failed. The latest jobs report underscores the need to change our country’s direction. April’s unemployment rate was 8.1%, but if you include those who are underemployed, that rate shoots to 14.5%. The

The Freedom Of The U.S. Capital Markets Is Under Attack

Mon, 14 May 2012 22:14:00 GMT
Are you fed up with our lackluster recovery and stubbornly high unemployment?  Do you wonder why, three years after we officially pulled out of the Great Recession, we still haven’t hit our economic stride? Look no further than the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The reason economic growth is stuck in neutral is because the Obama administration is determined to regulate risk out of our capital markets. Put another way, President

Is A Race War Being Censored To Avoid White Backlash?

Mon, 14 May 2012 22:14:00 GMT
When two white newspaper reporters for the Virginian-Pilot were driving through Norfolk, and were set upon and beaten by a mob of young blacks — beaten so badly that they had to take a week off from work — that might seem to have been news that should have been reported, at least by their own newspaper. But it wasn’t. “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News Channel was the first major television program to report this incident. Yet this story is not

Bloomberg Saves 5,600, Hassles Hundreds Of Thousands

Mon, 14 May 2012 22:14:00 GMT
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has a new kind of crime statistic. It is not the astoundingly low number of murders committed in his fair city — 471 in 2009 vs. about 2,000 per year in the 1980s — but murders not committed in the last decade: 5,600. Those people are alive today by the grace of God and the policing policies of the Bloomberg administration, particularly what is known as stop-and-frisk. New York City is heaven on earth possibly

Three Different Ways to Look at the 2012 Campaign

Mon, 14 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT
Last week, I wrote about the standings in the presidential race and said it looked like a long, hard slog through about a dozen clearly identified target states, much like the contests in 2000 and 2004. Call it the 2000/2004 long, hard slog scenario. But I said there were other possible scenarios. I can think of three. The 1964/1972 scenario: Challenger disqualifies himself. Barry Goldwater and George McGovern were idealistic, intelligent senators

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