Just a few weeks ago, President Barack Obama delivered the annual State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress, complete with the usual pomp and pageantry we’ve come to expect. With the nation watching, he delicately walked a fine line, trying not to offend anyone and please everyone. This, too, has become a tradition of sorts. (more)
Eric Cantor would really prefer you stopped using the phrase “government shutdown.” (more)
Americans are clamoring for honesty and action from their leaders. So it has been dispiriting to see the reaction from Democrats and Republicans to our nation’s grim financial outlook. (more)
“There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the U.S., and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others.” Try to imagine the fallout if current Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske made such a statement. Within 24 hours, he would be a political pariah and punch line. (more)
In the late 1970’s, with interest rates, inflation and taxes at back-breaking levels, a broad array of politicians and interest groups with a shared conviction that excess spending, taxes and regulation must be turned around coalesced into a “conservative movement” that elected Ronald Reagan and set into motion a fundamental shift in American politics. That coalition included a lot of different interests who did not necessarily agree on all issues, but for whom the imperative to save the economy was the rightful priority of the day. (more)
Bill Bennett engaged in a fine discussion of strategy on his radio talk show recently. Marc Thiessen, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, came on Bill’s Morning in America show to directly contradict the host. (more)
Last week the federal government released its official 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the last step in a process that’s repeated every five years. (more)
The new Republican majority in the House of Representatives possesses a short window to maintain the support and good will of both independent voters and the grassroots Tea Party movement. In fact, they have one budget cycle — from now until autumn — to act. (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)
The media are eager to nitpick over every word former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin or Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann say, but will they hold Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York to the same standard? (more)
As we approach the 100th anniversary of President Ronald Reagan’s birth, February 6, 2011, it is enlightening and entertaining to look back on the speech that launched his political career. This was a nationally televised address delivered on October 27, 1964, in support of Senator Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign. Reagan’s speech — called “A Time for Choosing” — remains incredibly fresh and relevant to current challenges confronting America. I will quote a few passages along with my contemporary spin. (more)
Hours before a State of the Union address expected to focus on government spending, Washington has come down with a case of budget-slash fever. (more)
In 1957, the Soviet Union launched a satellite into space. Therefore, taxpayers should give more money to politically favored corporations. This is not a rigorous line of thought. But it was typical of yesterday’s State of the Union address. (more)
President Obama is vowing to reorganize the federal agencies that make up the executive branch for the first time in “half a century,” according to material released by the White House and the President’s prepared remarks for the State of the Union. (more)
Remarks of Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) – As Prepared for Delivery
House Budget Committee Hearing Room, Washington, DC
January 25, 2011 (more)
1.) Everybody wants something from Obama’s SOTU — For two weeks now, yammer-faces and pols have rattled off what they’d like from tonight’s State of the Union address. The only thing they haven’t asked for is the moon. In an interview with The Daily Caller, Democratic Sen. Mark Warner added his own demands to the growing list of things Obama must pay lip service to during his address. “What I hope he says – and I think this will make some folks on my side upset – even if he has an innovation and growth agenda … just growth alone isn’t going to get us out of this problem,” Warner said. “We’re going to have to take on the size and role of government” and “the stuff that’s popular” like entitlement and defense spending. “You’ve got to earn good faith by showing willingness to do spending cuts,” Warner said. “There is some value in short term cuts that will at least show that we’re serious about doing something.” Obama’s more likely to promise the moon. (more)
1.) Obama’s jobs team gets green-washed — “President Barack Obama will name Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric Co.’s chief executive officer, to head his outside panel of economic advisers, replacing former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker,” reports Bloomberg News. “Immelt has sounded many of the administration’s themes: boosting jobs through U.S. exports, ensuring companies can compete with powers like China and India, and jumpstarting a clean-energy economy. Immelt wrote today that he and Obama ‘are committed’ to making the U.S. ‘the most competitive and innovating economy in the world.’” According to Bloomberg, “Immelt is among a group of executives — Boeing Co. CEO Jim McNerney; Motorola Solutions Inc. CEO Greg Brown, and Honeywell International Inc. Chairman David Cote — who have voiced support for Obama policies. The four serve on several of the president’s outside advisory boards”–and all four have made a killing on green jobs subsidies (more)
Got a problem? Form a committee. (more)
Critics of the Republicans who rode the so-called Tea Party wave into office often argue that the new congressmen don’t offer specifics on one of their key goals — reducing the size of government. But those who have made concrete recommendations are demonized for wanting to cut or privatize entitlement spending. (more)
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