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You’ve heard of the “October surprise,” when politicians pull some stunt right before an election to try and salvage it. Well, this year we may see a “Christmas surprise.”
The Wall Street Journal’s John Fund recently explained that Democrats are considering an ambitious lame-duck session when Congress returns after the November elections.
If Democrats lose control of the House and maybe even the Senate, their congressional leaders could return in early December with plans to tax and spend like there’s no tomorrow -- which, for them, there wouldn’t be.
If a number of Democratic incumbents has been defeated, why not “go for the gold” -- your gold, that is -- and ram through their Christmas wish list? New taxes, new spending, maybe “card check” for the unions.
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There is at least one bright spot in the recently passed health care reform legislation. Well, sort of.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act finally established a much-needed regulatory pathway for “biosimilars.” Those are the generic versions of “biologics,” complex drugs made from living (or products of living) organisms, such as vaccines, insulin, human growth hormones and many others.
Innovator companies will get:
- 12 years of data exclusivity for their products, providing reasonable intellectual property protection;
- An arbitration mechanism to settle patent disputes; and
- A transition pathway to approve biosimilars, which have been regulated like traditional drugs despite their greater complexity.
That’s all good as far as it goes, but the legislation doesn’t address a number of issues. Read More...
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President Obama and the Democratic leadership, as well as many of the Washington chattering class, seem to agree: Failure to throw even more money at the economy will prove disastrous for Democrats in November.
Politico quotes Howard Gleckman of the Urban Institute as saying, “The question is, can [Democrats] create the perception that they have done all these things to create jobs, or that they tried but the dastardly Republicans prevented them from creating jobs?”
Rather than blaming Republicans, Democrats ought to thank them. Had Republicans been able to stop the Democrats’ uber-spending spree even earlier, the economy might have come back quicker and unemployment might be trending down.
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After President Obama’s election, conservatives were afraid he would drag the U.S. down into European socialism. We underestimated his vision.
A mere 18 months later not even the European socialists want to go where the president wants to lead—ever more government spending. Indeed, most of Europe is headed in the opposite direction.
- The U.K. has announced new austerity measures, including 25 percent budget cuts and a two-year public-sector pay freeze. Even the queen’s allotment will be frozen next year.
- Germany has said it will cut its budget by nearly $100 billion over the next four years.
- And France wants to cut its budget deficit from 8 percent of GDP this year to 3 percent by 2013.
By contrast, Obama tried to convince countries at the G-20 meeting to, lemming like, follow us off the economic cliff. They declined en masse. Read More...
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This week Victoria Espinel, the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, submitted her long-anticipated 2010 Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement to the President and to Congress (PDF, 65 pages).
Intellectual property (IP) has become a controversial topic in the past few years, but thankfully there was very little controversy in the Joint Strategic Plan. It seems that one of the few truly non-partisan policy issues today is the recognition of the importance of intellectual property protection to our nation’s economy.
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When a child wastes his allowance on foolish things, wise and prudent parents will be reluctant to hand over more money if that child comes begging. And that’s just how taxpayers should feel about a new effort to bailout labor union pensions.
Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey has introduced the “Create Jobs and Save Benefits Act,” otherwise known as the “Buy Union Votes and Boost My 2012 Reelection Chances” bill. In essence, the bill would transfer billions of dollars in unfunded pension liabilities from mostly union-managed multi-employer pension plans to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), which is backed by taxpayers.
But even as unions push for taxpayers to fill the gap in their underfunded and mismanaged pension plans, they drop millions of dollars in union dues on political causes.
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Last week the FCC released a report showing that 91 percent of US residents are pleased with their broadband connection speed, even if they do not know exactly what that speed is. In response, the FCC expressed bewilderment that this could be true, demanding that customers must know the speed so that they could carefully shop.
Really?
Can most people rattle off the horsepower of their car or their lawnmower? Can most people even tell you what “horsepower” means? (Horsepower is a measurement of work over time. Move 33,000 pounds one foot in a minute and that is one horsepower). What about their furnace? Can they opine on how many BTUs it produces? (BTU stands for British thermal unit. Heat one pound of 60 degree water by one degree at a pressure equal to one atmosphere and you have one BTU).
Most people can tell you whether their vehicle can pull their trailer effectively or accelerate fast enough when needed. Read More...
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It’s not that often we get to praise the Obama administration, so when we get a chance we take it—which is what we’re doing here … sort of.
Anyone who knows Washington knows there is a fundamental flaw in the budget process. If an agency or department doesn’t spend all of its budget, the excess funds go back to the federal government.
Moreover, that agency may see its future budget cut by a similar amount, as the money gets redirected in the next budget cycle to the squeakier wheels. So agencies, reacting to the established economic incentives, routinely find ways to spend their allotments, whether they really need the funds or not.
Back in the 1990s, stories emerged that one of the defense department agencies found it had some $900,000 left at the end of the year and wasted it all on magazine subscriptions. That problem was fixed; the Pentagon can now shift leftover dollars around to other agencies.
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Piracy and Counterfeiting are back in the news again.
On piracy, there’s a new round of lawsuits against people who have been illegally sharing copyright-protected materials, although this time it’s movies, including the Oscar-winning film “The Hurt Locker.”
And on counterfeits, a cache of over seven million counterfeit pills, including counterfeit Viagra and other common prescription drugs, was just seized in Dubai, a central distribution port for destinations all over the world.
Two weeks ago, a Canadian man was arrested for selling counterfeit cancer medication through his Canadian Internet pharmacy website.
Oh, and the same guy was selling pirated business software. So he’s adept at both piracy AND counterfeiting.
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Republicans have kicked off their ObamaCare “repeal and replace” campaign, but there will likely be neither repeal nor replace unless Republicans control both Congress and the White House, and that’s 2012 at best — if then. However, by taking over only one house of Congress opponents can dramatically lower the unsustainable cost of ObamaCare by refusing to fund its worst elements. Here’s a few suggestions.
Reduce Medicaid eligibility. Historically, states have varied widely on Medicaid eligibility, with some setting the threshold significantly below the federal poverty level (FPL). ObamaCare sets a nationwide eligibility threshold at 133 percent, which increases the number of people in the government-run program by an additional estimated 15 million by 2019. Funding Medicaid eligibility only up to 100 percent of FPL would dramatically lower its cost. Read More...
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Even casual observers of the FCC should have noticed by now that the policy actions it has taken in the last year, and the comments made by some of the commissioners, make clear that at least a couple extreme so-called “consumer groups” that routinely visit with FCC staff are leading commissioners in radical policy directions.
Obviously we are supporters of the First Amendment and are cheered when the public speaks up, telling government what they think. It’s all part of our right to petition the government, including regulatory agencies. However, we also think that government agencies need to especially consider data and substantive facts and information, rather than just policy pressure.
We’re concerned that these days the FCC seems to be in the thrall of one or two left-leaning groups and is following ideology rather than working from easily observable business and market reality. Read More...
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I blogged the other day about bipartisan Congressional opposition to the FCC's attempt to expand their regulation of the Internet in the form of letters from 74 House Democrats and 37 Senate Republicans.
Well, today, the radical leftwing group Free Press that is agitating for more government regulation of the Internet put up a temper tantrum on their website. It musthave really knocked them for a loop to find out that not every Democrat on the Hill is smoking what Free Press is dealing. Read More...
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So you’re 62 years old and have been downsized, laid off or forced into early retirement because of the struggling economy. And you think to yourself, “I’ll take early retirement under Social Security, which will provide a small but reliable (let’s hope!) income, and get a job that will pay maybe $20,000 or $25,000 a year to make ends meet.”
In a word: fugetaboutit!
That’s because Social Security will withhold one dollar for every two you make above $14,160 this year. It’s called the Social Security earnings limit, and it exists to discourage older Americans from taking early retirement under Social Security.
The original earnings limit was created with the passage of Social Security in 1935 to fulfill social policy, not economic policy. Read More...
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Those who think that the FCC's aggressive attempt to begin regulating the Internet is a partisan issue should take careful note of a letter released today in which 73 elected Democratic Members of Congress oppose the FCC's actions.
As the letter notes,
We are writing to reinforce the strong bipartisan consensus among policymakers, industry participants, and analysts that the success of the broadband marketplace stems from policies that encourage competition, private investment, and legal certainty. The regulatory framework first adopted in 1998 by the Clinton administration's FCC has resulted in broadband industry infrastructure investment of approximately $60 billion per year.[italics mine]
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Recently the FCC decided it should examine the current “retransmission consent rules” to determine whether they are working for all parties, including broadcasters, content creators, service providers and customers.
Retransmission rules were adopted in 1992. They allowed US television stations to force video service providers, such as cable or satellite, to carry “local content” provided by the local television station (called “must carry”), or to negotiate with the video service provider for carriage of its broadcast programming.
But today, the rules need an update. Continuing the threat of “must carry” distorts price mechanisms and thus distorts negotiations—a short-sighted government construct rather than a true marketplace negotiation.
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The House Republican leadership has just announced You Cut (http://republicanwhip.house.gov/YouCut/) where, along with a greeting by House Republican Whip Eric Cantor explaining the need to get federal spending under control, the public can “vote” on several potential cuts in the federal budget. Votes can be rendered either on the website or from a cell phone.
This week’s choices include, among other options:
- $260 million for the presidential election fund. After singing the praises of government-financed elections, President Obama refused to take federal money because it would limit what he could raise. Eliminating this program would mean all presidential elections would be funded by private contributions.
- $600 million for taxpayer subsidized union activities. Read More...
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Lost in all the discussion about how irresponsible it was for U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to express concerns and opinions about Arizona's recently passed immigration law without having read it is something that's even more astonishing (and arrogant) to me.
He also showed up at a Congressional hearing without adequately prepping for the hearing.
Holder had to know he'd be asked about the Arizona law, and especially about the fact that he hadn't yet read the law when he made his comments over the weekend. But, knowing this, he still hadn't bothered to read the law in preparation for Thursday's hearing?
This is just astonishing to me, insulting to Congress, and indicative, I think, of the arrogance of this administration. Read More...
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A few years ago there was a popular book entitled All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Watching the FCC’s reaction to losing the Comcast case, we’re beginning to wonder if maybe some higher-ups at the FCC weren’t paying attention in Kindergarten.
Don’t Throw a Tantrum
Perhaps you remember the days when being told “no” was really hard to handle. Sooner or later, for the most part, people learn that being told “no” is simply part of life and that “no” is far from the worst thing that can happen, and is actually often the catalyst to other opportunity.
Some, however, do not learn to handle “no” well. Read More...
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When an 18-year incumbent Senator is defeated in his party nominating process, apart from scandal, that's a shock to the system, and it's no wonder every pundit has an opinion on the matter.
Trouble is, they're almost all wrong.
Typical of the chatter is Juan Williams, who reacted:
"A guy like Bob Bennett, who is a right-wing conservative, is being driven out because he's not sufficiently conservative?"
Juan Williams misses the point, and in the process forgets that "conservative" means more than pro-life and pro-gun. Conservative also means, at least it used to mean, responsible in fiscal matters as well as in sexual and social matters. Limiting government spending, and especially limiting government's role in the economy. And, in the worst case scenario, if a gradual expansi Read More...
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The National Broadband Plan debate has given rise to claims that the FCC intends to go beyond its traditional regulatory mandate and begin to aggressively refashion the Internet in such a way as to achieve particular social ends. As a case in point, today the FCC announced that is going to assert sweeping authority to begin to subject broadband networks to an outdated, decades-old regulatory framework.
So how should one view the recent comments by one FCC commissioner who would be exercising these new and expanded powers, Commissioner Copps, when he addressed the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies?
Throughout his comments he bemoaned the fact that broadband is not yet available to every American (even though electricity and telephone took decades longer to reach the near ubiquity we have today). Read More...
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Author: Merrill Matthews Jr. || Location: Lewisville, Texas, USA