The financial services 'reform' mess »
By J.C. Watts
During my service in Congress, whenever legislation was dubbed “reform” it was especially necessary to analyze the details and consequences. So it is with congressional passage of President Barack Obama’s financial services “reform”– the biggest expansion of government power over banks and private markets since the Great Depression.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the 2,300-page law– crafted by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Rep. Barney Frank, …
Business undermined by greedy politicians »
By T.R. Fehrenbach
President Calvin Coolidge said that the business of America was business, for which he was castigated or ridiculed by the aboriginal American intelligentsia.
Coolidge was disdained because he didn’t do much in office, but few presidents did unless faced with wars, rebellion, or other crises.
But the fact is, old Cal was right. Business is the thing most Americans do best, even better than government.
Everything that …
Attacks on Freedom »
By John Stossel
Something’s happened to America, and it isn’t good. It’s become easier to get into trouble. We’ve become a nation of a million rules. Not the kind of bottom-up rules that people generate through voluntary associations. Those are fine. I mean imposed, top-down rules formed in the brains of meddling bureaucrats who think they know better than we how to manage our lives.
Cross them, and we are …
Judges, the Constitution & Gun Control Laws »
By Thomas Sowell
Now that the Supreme Court of the United States has decided that the Second Amendment to the Constitution means that individual Americans have a right to bear arms, what can we expect?
Those who have no confidence in ordinary Americans may expect a bloodbath, as the benighted masses start shooting each other, now that they can no longer be denied guns by their betters. People who think …
In Washington, 'Disclose' Means Stifle »
By Debra Saunders
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR5175, also known as the Disclose Act, by a 219-206 vote. “Disclose,” you see, is an acronym for “Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections.”
The measure’s author, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., also happens to chair the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — so you know that the bill has nothing to do with helping Democrats …
Americans Relate to Founders, Not Progressives »
By Michael Barone
Democrats are reportedly planning to raise $125 million for a campaign to sell Obamacare to the voting public. Apparently, the idea is that what 50-plus presidential speeches and statements and months of congressional debate could not do can be done by $125 million spent on everything from TV ads to community organizers.
Maybe. But there seems to be a more fundamental problem here. The Obama Democrats didn’t …
You're losing your plan: ObamaCare's true face emerges »
By SCOTT GOTTLIEB
Late last week saw the first leaks of the administration’s draft regulations for implementing the ObamaCare law — and everything is playing out just as the critics warned.
The 3,000-odd pages of legislation left most of the really important (and controversial) policy decisions to the regulations that government agencies were told to issue once the bill passed. Now that those regs are starting to take shape, it’s …
Which America will it be after 2010? »
BY J.C. WATTS
Let’s take stock of where the United States is going.
The nation has a $1.4 trillion deficit and is $13 trillion in debt. Retirement security for millions of Americans is in jeopardy. The new health care law slashes Medicare by $500 billion over 10 years, destroys the traditional doctor-patient relationship and imposes new taxes. Continuing illegal immigration takes jobs from unemployed Americans, and the illegals take from …
U.S. Embraces Model That's Failed Europe »
The newspaper headlines say it all. On the one hand, “Crisis Imperils Liberal Benefits Long Expected by Europeans,” while in this country: “Private Pay Plummets, Government Handouts Soar.”
The modern European welfare state has proven unsustainable. From Greece to Britain, from France to Portugal, European countries are slashing social welfare benefits, raising the retirement age and dismantling government bureaucracies. Yet, even as Europe is learning that you can’t forever rob …
Free to Choose »
by John StosselAmerica’s current struggles notwithstanding, life here is pretty good. We have a standard of living that’s the envy of most of the world.
Why did that happen? Prosperity isn’t the norm. Throughout history and throughout the world, poverty has been the norm. Most of the world still lives in dire poverty. Of the 6 billion people on earth, perhaps 1 billion have something close to our standard …