“Douglas Holtz-Eakin” on The Daily Caller

During a campaign stop in New Hampshire, Newt Gingrich made some surprising comments about the professional analysts whose data he once relied upon as Speaker of the House. (more)

The first rule of horror movies is that the villain is nearly impossible to kill. It would appear the same is true in public policy, where the worst proposals are dismissed — only to rise again like zombies. (more)

Economists agree that the jobs report Friday morning, showing non-farm payroll growing by only 54,000 jobs and the unemployment rate at 9.1 percent, is not a good sign and that the incredibly slow rate of growth of the economy is causes problems. (more)

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should keep its hands off greenhouse gases (GHGs). That doesn’t mean that emissions of carbon or other GHGs aren’t important national security, business investment, or pollution policy issues — that’s for citizens and policymakers to decide on the merits. It does mean that even if one decides in favor of limiting emissions, the EPA is the wrong way to go. (more)

For the first time in years, both Democrats and Republicans are talking about spending cuts. But what should be cut? The Daily Caller asked political pundits, policy analysts and activists from across the political spectrum which federal department or agency they would most like to see cut. Here’s what they said: (more)

America is barreling toward disaster. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) just released its analysis of the latest Obama administration budget: it is nothing but bad news. Over the next 10 years, deficits exceed 4.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) every year, debt in the hands of the public doubles, and the debt-to-GDP ratio rises above 87 percent. Net interest climbs to almost 20 percent of revenues — even with large tax increases — in 2020. The result: the U.S. faces having its debt downgraded beginning in 2018. (more)

It’s Valentine’s Day, and Washington just witnessed (now-former) Rep. Chris Lee fumble with shirtless photos and Craigslist in attempt to find true love. Or something. Perhaps Capitol Hill could use a few reminders of what romance really is. So we called around to find out: What is your idea of a romantic evening? Read and learn, ladies and gentleman. And have a happy Valentine’s Day. (more)

The White House launched Startup America Monday, an initiative designed to promote entrepreneurship and help people who want to start businesses gain access to the necessary capital and advice. The ultimate goal is to help create jobs through a partnership between the public sector and the private sector, but some are wary  about the initiative’s prospect for success. (more)

Everybody supports infrastructure. Opposing infrastructure is like being opposed to puppies, kittens and sunshine. Liberals love it because it is big government and big spending at the same time. Conservatives acknowledge that in a market economy there will be a targeted role for government activities like national security, infrastructure, primary education, and basic research that has economy-wide benefits. (more)

1.) FCIC dissenters defend bailing out Wall Street — Two reports will come out of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission today. The one written by the panel’s liberal majority will blame lax regulation and the banking industry for the collapse of the housing industry. The other, written by commissioners Bill Thomas, a former Republican congressman from California, Keith Hennessey, former chairman of the White House National Economic Council under President George W. Bush, and Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office, spreads the blame more broadly among “investors, creditors, regulators, homebuyers, and politicians,” all of whom must take “personal responsibility.” The dissenters also defended bailing out Wall Street: “For a policymaker, the calculus is simple: if you bail out AIG and you’re wrong, you will have wasted taxpayer money and provoked public outrage,” the paper reads. “If you don’t bail out AIG and you’re wrong, the global financial system collapses. It should be easy to see why policymakers favored action–there was a chance of being wrong either way, and the costs of being wrong without action were far greater than the costs of being wrong with action.” Thank goodness we didn’t destabilize the global financial system, which might have led to really scary stuff, like high unemployment. (more)

A group of three conservatives on President Obama’s financial crisis inquiry commission called the final report of the panel “unbalanced” and “incorrect,” in a 27-page dissent from the more than 500-page document endorsed by a majority of members. (more)

Republicans have said it over and over again: it’s time for Washington to focus on the economy and jobs. (more)

1.) Obama writes editorial against regulatory excess, can name only one excessive regulation — Overly schoolmarmish regulations have to go, Pres. Obama writes in an op-ed in the morning’s Wall Street Journal. In it, Obama pays lip service to America’s semi-free market system as the source of “dazzling ideas and path-breaking products” and “the greatest force for prosperity the world has ever known.” The op-ed is a curtain-raiser for this afternoon, when Obama will sign an executive order that “requires that federal agencies ensure that regulations protect our safety, health and environment while promoting economic growth,” as well as “a government-wide review of the rules already on the books to remove outdated regulations that stifle job creation and make our economy less competitive.” But do not get your hopes too high: Apparently, the only regulatory excessiveness that Obama could think of was artificial sweetener: “The FDA has long considered saccharin, the artificial sweetener, safe for people to consume. Yet for years, the EPA made companies treat saccharin like other dangerous chemicals. Well, if it goes in your coffee, it is not hazardous waste. The EPA wisely eliminated this rule last month.” Meanwhile, a spox for Rep. Eric Cantor wishes Obama had released this executive order in 2009, when House Republicans proposed it first. (more)

State governments are beginning to choose one of two directions to dig out of deep budget deficits, and the resulting clash of visions between raising taxes or cutting spending has some conservatives salivating at the contrast between liberal and conservative philosophies of how to create economic growth. (more)

Speaking for the President of the United States on ABC’s This Week, CEA Chairman Austan Goolsbee launched this analysis of the upcoming need to raise the limit on federal debt: (more)

Christmas is just around the corner, and in honor of the occasion The Daily Caller’s offices have turned into a “Winter Wonderland,” complete with a tree and lights. We’re making our lists and checking them twice because even if Santa Claus decides we’ve been too naughty, hopefully mommy and daddy will come to the rescue. (Office coordinator Laura Baños wants a “Le Creuset Demi teakettle in Caribbean or royal blue;” relevant persons take note). But in the immortal words of Mariah Carey, “all [TheDC] wants for Christmas is you,” which, at the end of the day, makes for a kind of short list. So to fill it out, we decided to call around town and find out what’s on some other people’s Christmas wish lists. We trust you’ll find the answers as amusing as we do. (more)

Tasked with examining the “cause, domestic and global, of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States,” the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC), it seems, is now embroiled in a public dispute, perpetrated by the commission’s partisan divide. (more)

Rep. Joe Barton, Texas Republican, is making his final pitch to head a crucial congressional energy panel as the man truest to conservative principles, offering colleagues a detailed battle plan to take on the Obama administration on the president’s health care law and the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) pending global warming regulations. (more)

How am I supposed to reconcile the following actions? (more)

“The Power to tax involves the power to destroy.” — Chief Justice John Marshall (more)