The nine robes have spoken. President Obama’s health care law just became the largest tax increase in American history. Surviving by a 5-4 decision, the president’s health care law will mean less coverage, less care and higher costs for the poor and middle class. The ruling is a major disappointment for the millions of Americans concerned about freedom and the cost and availability of quality health care, and it will likely be a political liability for the president.
1:20 PM 06/13/2012
During the Supreme Court’s oral arguments on the president’s health care law, Justice Antonin Scalia asked a good question: If Washington can control something as personal as our health care, what can’t it control? The question gets at the fundamental reason the health care law is so unpopular: It takes something --- health care --- that’s traditionally been left to individuals and families, and places it in the hands of unelected bureaucrats. It is no wonder Justice Anthony Kennedy called the law “unprecedented” in its scope and influence over the lives of Americans.
10:30 PM 06/05/2012
If you pause and listen carefully, you might be able to hear the despair coming from Jim Messina, President Obama’s 2012 campaign manager, and David Axelrod, Obama’s top strategist and communications director, as the meaning of Wisconsin’s recall election becomes clear.
2:28 PM 05/02/2012
It is no secret that Republicans are worried about attacking President Obama personally. He still enjoys a high likability rating and some GOP strategists fear that any personal attack on him would backfire. President Obama, on the other hand, has no problem with attacking Mitt Romney’s character and impugning his motives. Republicans are backed into a character corner, an easy target and willing punching bag for Team Obama. But a recent viral ad by Veterans for a Strong America points to an opening for the GOP.
5:02 PM 04/24/2012
Every cycle, the Republican and Democratic parties try and juke each other out by suggesting an unwinnable race is winnable. The idea is to get the other party to divert precious campaign funds and resources from races that are actually competitive. Sometimes it works.
11:17 AM 04/19/2012
According to some strategists, Republicans are in a political pickle. President Obama’s likability ratings are ahead of Mitt Romney’s by more than a 2-to-1 margin. Through focus groups, polls and surveys, Republicans are developing a strategy that cautiously avoids attacking Obama personally and instead focuses on attacking Obama’s incompetence and leadership failures. But is that the right strategy?
11:58 AM 04/12/2012
Every Mother's Day, Salary.com releases a survey about the “market value” of motherhood. According to this year’s results, stay-at-home moms’ salaries topped $112,940.45 in 2012. Salary.com’s 8,000-mom survey reveals that “stay-at-home moms work a total of 94.7 hours a week, with a 40-hour base and 54.7 hours of overtime on their mom duties.”
11:48 AM 04/03/2012
Arizona House Bill 2549 takes criminalizing speech to an entirely new level. The 1984-like bill, which has already passed both houses of the Arizona Legislature but is awaiting Governor Jan Brewer’s signature, would make it a crime to use any electronic or digital device to communicate “using obscene, lewd or profane language or to suggest a lewd or lascivious act if done with intent to ‘annoy,’ ‘offend,’ ‘harass’ or ‘terrify.’” It could make the most basic and routine Internet communication a Class 1 misdemeanor or worse.
1:16 PM 03/15/2012
On Wednesday, President Obama unveiled his NCAA tournament bracket picks. For the fourth consecutive year he has made as much fanfare about his picks as humanly possible, which for a brief moment of time allows him to get prime campaign coverage on not only ESPN but also most major networks covering college basketball’s March Madness.
5:43 PM 03/12/2012
Freshman Republican David Schweikert is in a heated primary battle with fellow freshman Republican Ben Quayle in Arizona. Democrats and their allies in the media are portraying the battle as evidence of a GOP civil war. It isn’t. In fact, it was manufactured by Democrats.
5:28 PM 03/01/2012
In the wake of Mitt Romney’s victories in Arizona and Michigan, it now seems more than likely that he will eventually capture the GOP nomination. When he does, he and the GOP will have to deal with the rising tide of anti-Mormonism, mostly from outside the party but from within it as well.
6:48 PM 02/23/2012
Rick Santorum is complaining about an alleged “deal” between Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. After Wednesday’s GOP debate, where it appeared that Romney and Paul had agreed to a sort of political détente, Santorum said, "You have to ask Congressman Paul and Gov. Romney what they've got going together.” Santorum’s chief strategist, John Brabender, echoed his captain’s complaint by stating, “Clearly there is a tag-team strategy between Ron Paul and Mitt Romney.”
3:52 PM 02/20/2012
Purists would strongly disagree, but the average conservative voter and the average libertarian voter are sometimes difficult to distinguish. Both believe in limited government and free markets. Both revere the Constitution. In fact, polls of Republican voters almost always lump conservatives and libertarians together, making it difficult to gauge the number of libertarians in the party.
11:10 AM 02/07/2012
In politics, the Waterloo metaphor is often overused, blindly lobbed by political opponents hoping to make a candidate’s or politician’s blunder the decisive sign of defeat or the ending of a political career. But is it possible that Obama’s latest battle with religious liberty is a sign of the president’s political decline?
12:16 PM 02/02/2012
It was just last February that the nation was fixated on Madison, Wisconsin. Governor Scott Walker’s budget and public employee union reforms made the Midwestern city ground zero for progressive and union activists. At the height of the demonstrations, there were approximately 100,000 protesters gathered in Madison. The massive protests were followed by recalls, faulty constitutional lawsuits and expensive judicial elections. Wisconsin was and continues to be a political zoo of epic proportions.
10:49 AM 06/29/2011
Imagine that after pouring your heart and soul into creating a thriving business, a government bureaucrat tells you to shut it down. The bureaucrat informs you that the only way to save your business is to go to a state-approved school that teaches nothing about your business, take a state exam that tests nothing about your business and pay for it all out of pocket, with curriculum and fees exceeding $10,000. The bureaucrat tells you that failure to comply could result in heavy fines and up to six months in jail. Does that sound like nothing more than a bad dream?
