National Politics
Obama’s budget proposal presents plans which run radically counter to the proper role of government if America is to remain a free society: …The widespread use of the market reduces the strain on the social fabric by rendering conformity unnecessary with respect to any activities it encompasses. The wider the range of activities covered by…
Commentators on the evolving Obama presidency: Charles Krauthammer: Obama proposes a European U.S. Not a great speech, but extremely consequential. If Barack Obama succeeds, his joint address to Congress will be seen as historic — indeed as the foundational document of Obamaism. As it stands, it constitutes the boldest social democratic manifesto ever issued by…
One could have expected that Barney Frank would know that he was playing to his own crowd at last night’s Ocean State Follies, and it also wasn’t surprising that his humor has a meanish, hyperpartisan tinge: stream, download. The clearest indication of his attitude came toward the end when somebody on the restaurant staff dropped…
Can we now be clear about what it fundamentally means to strive for “bipartisan” action? Reed said economists “on both sides of the political divide” concluded “this stimulus was necessary, that we had to stop the job losses, we had to get people back into the marketplace, that there was a very real fear of…
Most Anchor Rising readers are old enough to recall the School House Rocks cartoons that offered young TV viewers a bit of civic education back in the late ’70s and early ’80s. The one that I remember most clearly was the “I’m Just a Bill” song about how a bill becomes federal law. Well, Jim…
Of all the notions that spread from state to state, wouldn’t this be a breath of fresh air? Whereas, the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads as follows: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States…
Mark Patinkin’s bullet-list-style column, today, makes two quips that, helpful soul that I am, I’ll try to answer: Someone will have to explain to me why Palestinian militants feel it’s productive to keep firing rockets into Israel. Because, receiving no substantial international backlash against the practice, the terrorists wish to provoke Israel into military action,…
New Hampshire Senator Jud Gregg removed himself from consideration as Commerce secretary. While his disagreement over the “stimulus” package may be the main reason–his stand on principle–the shenanigans that the Obama Administration is engaged in with the 2010 Census may have been the final straw. John Fund recently explained the danger with having the White…
Forbes magazine examines the difference between America’s private and public sector (H/T): In public-sector America things just get better and better. The common presumption is that public servants forgo high wages in exchange for safe jobs and benefits. The reality is they get all three. State and local government workers get paid an average of…
Can we pause for a moment and be thankful for one thing — that this guy is a Democrat? Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said earlier, as the moderates struggled to complete their deal, “I couldn’t care less about bipartisanship.” Whitehouse said getting an economic pump-priming bill passed quickly was more important than drawing Republican support. The…