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June 2010
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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Author: Merrill Matthews Jr. || Location: Lewisville, Texas, USA