Lawrence Meyers

Raising Tobacco Taxes is Dumb

by Lawrence Meyers

Isn’t it interesting how every time a state government is in fiscal trouble that the first thing they decide to do is to raise taxes on the sale of tobacco?  Somehow, legislators have it in their heads that the only people who might be upset by raising the cost of tobacco are smokers.  And, since smoking is bad for smokers, and smokers shouldn’t be smoking anyway, maybe making smokes more expensive will dissuade smokers from smoking.

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Of course, this is government we’re talking about.  So it never works out they way they think it will, no matter who tries to tell them.  In fact, this plan to raise revenue from tobacco taxes doesn’t actually work at all.

See, governments don’t understand free markets.  If you raise the price of a certain good or service beyond a certain point, people who want the product badly enough will find a way to procure it more cheaply.  Remember Prohibition? Same thing.  To avoid paying the higher taxes, they will cross state lines, buy from an Indian reservation, buy over the internet, or even resort to black market purchasing.

And, if raising taxes does actually cut down the number of smokers, then the expected revenue from this tax increase will be less than expected…because there will be fewer smokers!

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Posted Mar 11th 2010 at 10:51 am in Culture, Politics, State Politics, Tax Reform | Add a Comment »

Jim Hoft

VICTORY! Senator Corker Calls Off Deal With Dodd

by Jim Hoft

Grassroots conservatives were rightly up in arms over Senator Corker’s game of footsie with far left Democrat Chris Dodd. The two worked together on President Obama’s effort to impose a massive new regulatory scheme on the American economy. Dodd, of course, is one of the architects of the current financial crisis. His decades long support of ACORN, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Community Reinvestment Act should have disqualified him from these negotiations in the first place.

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The word from the halls of the Capital last week was that Corker was still trying to cut a deal with democrats… a bad deal.

But, it looks like Corker bailed after the constant pressure from conservatives this past week…
Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) just backed out of a deal with Dodd and democrats to establish a new federal bureaucracy to regulate the financial industry.
Congress Daily reported:

Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd said today he will unveil legislation to revamp the nation’s financial regulatory system without the support of Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., with whom he had been working to strike a bipartisan deal.

“Over the last few months, Banking Committee members have worked together to try and produce a consensus package. Together we have made significant progress and resolved a many of the items, but a few outstanding issues remain,” Dodd said in a statement.

Dodd said he intends to unveil the bill Monday and hold a markup during the week of March 22 to move the bill out of committee.

“I have been fortunate to have a strong partner in Senator Corker, and my new proposal will reflect his input and the good work done by many of our colleagues as well,” Dodd added. “Our talks will continue, and it is still our hope to come to agreement on a strong bill all of the Senate can be proud to support very soon.”

Corker is scheduled to hold a news conference at 11 a.m. to give his version of the breakdown of the talks.

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Posted Mar 11th 2010 at 9:16 am in Congress, Economics, News, Politics | 57 Comments »

Rep. John Boehner

Breaking: House GOP Adopts Unilateral Ban on All Earmarks

by Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)

This morning, the House GOP Caucus adopted a unilateral ban on all earmarks.

For millions of Americans, the earmark process in Congress has become a symbol of a broken Washington. Today House Republicans took an important step toward showing the American people we’re serious about reform by adopting an immediate, unilateral ban on all earmarks. But the more difficult battle lies ahead, and that’s stopping the spending spree in Washington that is saddling our children and grandchildren with trillions of dollars in debt. Only then will we have succeeded in bringing fundamental change to the way Congress spends taxpayers’ money.

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Posted Mar 11th 2010 at 9:04 am in Congress, News, federal spending | 65 Comments »

Josie Wales

The Constitutional Case Against Progressives

by Josie Wales

[Do not read this article without a copy of the Constitution, and if you do not have one handy, shame on you (link here).]

A line is being drawn in the sand between the statists and Americans, and I use the term American in the grandest sense.  The United States of America represents one of the last bastions of traditional liberalism, which is why the Left should no longer be identified as liberal, but rather we should continue to identify its members as progressive statists.  The Left believes the precepts of our Constitution have failed society, and thus, we must look towards the “enlightened democracies” of socialized Europe for guidance in the progression of American society.

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We hear the mantra of rights professed daily by the progressives: education, work, social security, health care, etc.  And since we do not live in a state of nature, the guarantor of those rights must be the government.  This is the definition of a statist, and adherence to these beliefs is inherently in opposition to the Constitution.  The Founders recognized that government could NEVER be the guarantor of rights which is why so much of the Constitution is written in terms of limiting powers conferred upon the government.

Take for example Article I § 1:

All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives (emphasis added).

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Posted Mar 11th 2010 at 8:37 am in Culture, History, Justice/Legal, Politics | 104 Comments »

Bob McCarty

Stimulus Dollars Buy Greyhound Buses in Missouri

by Bob McCarty

I’ve never had the kind of fun enjoyed by passengers in this 1980 Greyhound commercial, but I’m thinking about taking a ride on the commercial bus line soon. Why? Because, as a taxpayer, I’m paying for it.

I came across this news after reading a release on the White House web site that listed the Missouri Department of Transportation as the recipient of $4.9 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (a.k.a., “stimulus”) funds for use in “construction of two facilities and purchase of two intercity vehicles.” Curious as to the specifics of the spending, I placed a phone call to MoDOT and reached spokesperson Jorma Durant.

During the first conversation, he explained that his agency would be spending the money on construction of buildings for two nonprofit transportation agencies — one each in Poplar Bluffs and Macon, Mo. — as well as on the purchase of two Greyhound buses.

Somewhat surprised, I asked him to explain why the MoDOT was buying Greyhound buses. Durant’s reply was open and honest.

“You have a great question,” he said. “You have an amazing question. Why are we dealing with Greyhound bus? Actually, it kind of surprised me as well. And I’m probably not going to have the right answer for you.”

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Posted Mar 11th 2010 at 7:47 am in Earmarks, federal spending | 51 Comments »

Kyle Olson

Heads Up Talk Radio: The President’s Foot Soldiers Have Your Number

by Kyle Olson

Newsmax first reported that Organizing for America, the community organizing outfit under the auspices of the Democratic National Committee, has launched a plan to inundate talk radio shows with callers.  The action will occur when a particular radio show is discussing ObamaCare.

This is an extension of OFA’s and Health Care for America Now’s campaign to flood last summer’s town hall meetings with union members and left-wing activists supporting Obama’s government takeover of health care.

TalkRadio

The intent then, just as it is now, was to drown out average taxpayers showing up  to voice their concerns or vent their frustrations.  The intent is also to run out the clock on real debate and take a vote on health reform with as little resistance as possible.

HCAN and ACORN were busing non-constituents, some from as far as 200 miles away, to fill the seats and skew the crowd.  It was to give the false impression that constituents really wanted ObamaCare.

But the result was even worse.  HCAN and union members, particularly SEIU, were filling the seats which would have otherwise been occupied by the average person just getting out of work.

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Posted Mar 11th 2010 at 7:01 am in Big Labor, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics | 71 Comments »

SusanAnne Hiller

If Pelosi Has the Votes, Then Why Does the House Need the Slaughter Solution to Pass ObamaCare

by SusanAnne Hiller

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is bluffing here when she says:

“Yes,” Pelosi said when asked if she believed the House would end up having the votes to approve healthcare.

“If we took it up today, yes,” the speaker quickly added.

The speaker still cautioned, though, that the timing and actual vote count on the bill couldn’t be entirely set in stone until the final legislative language was finalized and until the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) delivers its score of the bill’s impact.

There is no chance Pelosi has the votes to pass ObamaCare and she knows it. If she did have the votes, she would have already had the vote and wouldn’t need the “Slaughter Solution.”

House Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter is prepping to help usher the healthcare overhaul through the House and potentially avoid a direct vote on the Senate overhaul bill, the chairwoman said Tuesday. Slaughter is weighing preparing a rule that would consider the Senate bill passed once the House approves a corrections bill that would make changes to the Senate version. Slaughter has not taken the plan to Speaker Pelosi as Democrats await CBO scores on the corrections bill. “Once the CBO gives us the score we’ll spring right on it,” she said.

The Slaughter Solution has one very large obstacle–the Constitution Article I, Section 7–which states:

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Posted Mar 11th 2010 at 6:16 am in Congress, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics | 115 Comments »

Ken Blackwell

If Guantánamo Closes, use ADAK!

by Ken Blackwell

I have to say, I did not agree with Sen. McCain during the 2008 campaign when he took the Guantánamo issue off the table by endorsing candidate Obama’s call to close it. The U.S. detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, is an ideal place to hold military tribunals for jihadists captured on the battlefield. And it would still be the ideal place to hold Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year old Nigerian jihadist, who tried to blow up his inbound jet in Detroit on Christmas Day.

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Claims that detainees were being mistreated there were false. Capt. Pete Hegseth of Veterans for Freedom served at Guantánamo during the time that Newsweek and other liberal sources were spreading false claims that U.S. guards had “defiled” copies of the Koran. These false reports circulated throughout the world and sparked riots among Muslims.

Capt. Hegseth served a year at “Gitmo” with the New Jersey National Guard. He supervised guards at the detention facilities. He set the record straight. The only time their Korans were besmirched was when the detainees themselves threw human waste on their guards. Gitmo was never Abu Ghraib. No photos of abuse by guards ever came out of Gitmo, because there was none.

But if, after all is said and done, sensible voices in Congress do not prevail, then I have a recommendation for where the detainees should be held and tried. Adak was an important naval installation throughout the Cold War. It’s an island in the central Aleutians, that thousand-mile chain off Alaska.

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Posted Mar 11th 2010 at 5:33 am in Defense, Justice/Legal, News, Obama | 62 Comments »

Publius

Thursday Open Thread: Lend Lease Edition

by Publius

Today, in 1941, FDR signed the Lend-Lease Act, allowing the United States to ship supplies on loan to nations fighting Nazi Germany. At the end of 2006, Great Britain made its last annual payment ($83 million) to the United States, paying off its debts to the US arising from WWII.

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Posted Mar 11th 2010 at 3:03 am in Open Threads | 48 Comments »

Capitol Confidential

California Regulators: Climate Change a Bigger Threat than Felons

by Capitol Confidential

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is known for its relentless pursuit of initiatives to combat pollution and emissions it deems harmful, including carbon dioxide. However, one of its efforts designed to counter climate change has the agency attracting incoming fire, with critics charging that CARB is more concerned about the prospect of global warming than protecting the public from felons.

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At issue is a CARB measure known as the “Cool Cars” rule that requires the application of certain additives to window glass. The theory behind the mandate is that reflective windshields will prevent cars from overheating, and thus reduce reliance on air conditioning, which affects how much fuel is burnt by a car. Proponents of climate change theory attribute changes in temperature to human activity, including the burning of fossil fuels, whereas skeptics charge that such theory amounts to a load of hot air.

What is certain in the debate over this mandate is that CARB’s action has a lot of people hot under the collar: While the glaze ostensibly prevents excess solar heat from entering cars, critics say it also seriously degrades the signal sent by a whole host of electronic devices, including GPS navigation systems, cellular phones and—perhaps most critically— ankle monitoring bracelets worn by felons, which utilize GPS technology.

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Posted Mar 10th 2010 at 8:14 pm in Environment, Politics, Regulation, State Politics | 91 Comments »

Mike Flynn

The Little Fed Report that Could…and Did Create a Housing Bubble

by Mike Flynn

While most of the public is consumed by the health care-death-march spectacle, Senators Bob Corker and Chris Dodd are making serious progress on the Senate’s “financial services reform” legislation. The legislation was dead just a couple weeks ago, but Sen. Corker thought he could snag a seat at the grown-up table and stepped forward to ‘cut a deal.’

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As is the new DC operating procedure for major legislation, there are almost no firm details on the current language. We know there will be a large new federal bureaucracy, somewhere within government, to provide “consumer protection” for financial products. We know there will be a $50 billion tax on banking customers to provide a permanent bailout fund, or as Sen. Corker would describe it, a “wind-down” fund. Unfortunately, we also know that the bill will do nothing to reform Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, who continue to drain billions from the U.S. Treasury.

We’re told the Corker-Dodd Bailout Bill is a necessary response to the financial melt-down triggered by the collapse of the housing bubble. But, if it doesn’t take even small steps to reform Fannie and Freddie, then, simply, it isn’t a serious proposal. Its like rebuilding the porch on a house, while ignoring it’s cracked foundation.

Washington politicians would rather ignore this, but the housing bubble was the result of very explicit government policy. Throughout the 90’s and early 2000’s, officials from both parties became addicted to forever pushing homeownership rates higher than the laws of economics would otherwise allow.

If you want to identify the roots of the homeownership-cult among elected officials, fire-up the way-back machine and check out a little report issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in the early 90’s. Under the leadership of Richard Syron, then-President of the Boston Fed (more on him later), the report was the result of discussion among the bank’s staff and the usual collection of academics and professional activists. It was to make recommendations to the nation’s bankers on addressing alleged discrimination in mortgage lending.

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Posted Mar 10th 2010 at 5:22 pm in Congress, Economics, Featured Story, News, Politics | 66 Comments »

SusanAnne Hiller

Gibbs: If Senate Bill Passes House It Will Go to the President’s Desk

by SusanAnne Hiller

The other day I exposed the fact that Harry Reid switched the language in the House-passed H.R. 3590 Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act of 2009 and inserted the Senate version of the healthcare bill via a manager’s amendment in order to meet the requirement that all legislation raising taxes must originate in the House.

Harry-Reid

The Senate passed the revised bill with the healthcare language in it, and now the House must revote on the deceptively gutted changed bill because, according to the Constitution, the identical bill must pass both the House and Senate in order to be signed into law.  And, once the Senate Health Care bill pass the House, President Obama will sign it right away.

The threat of reconciliation in the Senate is hollow. There isn’t going to be any reconciliation.

On January 31, 2010, before the House was set to take up the Senate bill, WH Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” stated:

“If the House would take up the Senate bill then that bill would go to the president’s desk,” Gibbs said.

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Posted Mar 10th 2010 at 3:11 pm in Congress, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics | 216 Comments »

Central Illinois 9/12 Project

ShoreBank: A Key To Green Jobs

by Central Illinois 9/12 Project

If you ask people on the street (outside of Chicago) if they have ever heard of ShoreBank, the answer would likely be “no.” While ShoreBank isn’t a Goldman Sachs, a Bank of America, or a JP Morgan, to the Progressives, this “little” bank is in many ways every bit as big and important as the aforementioned “large banks.”

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Why?

One of the core components of President Obama’s fundamental change for America is to create clean energy jobs, also known as “green jobs”.  During his campaign and as recently as his State of the Union Address, President Obama continues to talk about the need “green” jobs. In fact, during his State of the Union 2010 speech, the President stated, “We should put more Americans to work building clean energy facilities –  and give rebates to Americans who make their homes more energy-efficient, which supports clean energy jobs. “

In a speech given by the President in Virginia on Dec. 15, 2009, he said, “The simple act of retrofitting these buildings to make them more energy-efficient — installing new windows and doors, insulation, roofing, sealing leaks, modernizing heating and cooling equipment — is one of the fastest, easiest and cheapest things we can do to put Americans back to work while saving families money and reducing harmful emissions.”

In the  stimulus package last year, President Obama devoted nearly $60 billion of his plan for building a new green-based economy.

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Posted Mar 10th 2010 at 1:01 pm in Congress, Culture, Economics, Environment, News, Obama, Politics | 40 Comments »

Capitol Confidential

National ID Card Being Considered By Senators

by Capitol Confidential

As Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) are working on a Senate version of comprehensive immigration reform and it includes a very controversial idea.  There is a provision in the draft bill to force all Americans to possess a biometric ID card.  Sources on Capitol Hill confirm to Big Government that the idea of a national ID card is part of the comprehensive immigration reform bill being negotiated between Graham and Schumer.

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Laura Meckler of the Wall Street Journal reports:

Lawmakers working to craft a new comprehensive immigration bill have settled on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants: a national biometric identification card all American workers would eventually be required to obtain.

Under the pre-text of halting illegal immigration, Congress may consider forcing citizens to carry an ID card as a condition of citizenship.  For those who mistrust big government and treasure freedom, this idea should be revolting and a shocking example of a bad idea run wild.  American citizens’ freedoms have been eroding over the past few years, yet this idea is much more than an erosion of rights.  It is an all out assault on the idea that Americans have a natural right to be free of government monitoring. (more…)

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Posted Mar 10th 2010 at 12:31 pm in Congress, Defense, Justice/Legal, News, Politics | 291 Comments »

Publius

Its Only Money: Democrats Prepare $100 Billion Jobs Bill for Local Governments

by Publius

From The Hill:

No Americans Need Apply

Democrats are set to unveil a new jobs initiative Wednesday that will provide grants to local governments to save or create jobs.

House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) will join other lawmakers and mayors to announce a $100 billion program to support jobs initiatives in local governments and municipalities.

“Our goal is to retain or create a million jobs,” Miller said during an appearance on CNBC Wednesday morning. “There’s some very serious concern that the small, good news we’re getting right now on the unemployment figures could be wiped out by what’s going to happen in local governments, if they don’t get some assistance.”
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Posted Mar 10th 2010 at 10:59 am in Big Labor, Congress, Economics, Local Government, News, Politics, federal spending | 110 Comments »

Bob Parks

Ryan: ‘This Bill Is More About Ideology Than Health Care Policy’

by Bob Parks

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) told Greta on Tuesday night that Obamacare is all about politics and has nothing to do with health care.

“And, I really think it comes down to a political philosophy. And they believe in a political philosophy that is more like a cradle to grave, more of a social welfare state, kind of like you see in Europe versus the American ideal that we’ve known and loved and grown up with. And, so really what this is more about is ideology than health care policy. Because if this was about health care policy we could get a bi-partisan agreement tomorrow. It’s not about health care policy. They are trying to ram it through as fast as they can before their power slips away from them and that’s why they’re trying to create this brand new entitlement which really does have the government takeover 17% of our economy.”

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Posted Mar 10th 2010 at 10:29 am in Healthcare, Politics | 159 Comments »

Andrew Marcus

Drudge By Numbers: Gov’t Spends $71,433 Surfing Drudge Report In First 9 Days Of March

by Andrew Marcus

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We noticed with amused curiosity, reports of an email circulating the digital halls of Congress warning staffers not to visit the Drudge Report for fear of viruses.

Senate Staffers Warned to Stay Clear of Drudge Report

The Senate’s official gatekeeper, said the Drudge Report, a conservative news aggregator, and whitepages.com “are responsible for the many viruses popping up throughout the Senate,” according to an e-mail to the Environment and Public Works Committee.

Drudge responded that his millions of other satisfied customers have had no complaints. He also revealed the following statistics:

“The site was seen 149,967 times since March 1st from users at senate.gov and 244,347 times at house.gov. [10,825 visits from the White House, eop.gov]” the Drudge Report wrote.

We made some very rough calculations and arrived at the following analysis:

149,967 Hits to Drudge from senate.gov since March 1 = 16,663 hits per day

244,347 Hits to Drudge from house.gov = 27,150 hits per day

If one spends just 30 seconds scanning headlines, that’s 139 hours per day of scanning headlines in the Senate. That requires 17 Senate staffers putting in a full 8 hour day.

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Posted Mar 10th 2010 at 9:34 am in Congress, News | 88 Comments »

John Berlau

The Corker-Dodd-Alinsky Bill? : Center-Right Coalition Letter Warns about ‘Proxy Access’

by John Berlau

Capitol Confidential and Jim Hoft have done an excellent job laying out concerns with the potential “compromise” bill that comes out of Sen. Bob Corker’s negotiations with Chris Dodd.  But when it comes to the destructive provisions that could come out of a Dodd-Corker deal, they may have just scratched the surface.

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In addition to the troubling new powers for a new nanny-state consumer agency and possibly the Federal Reserve added to the prospect of billions more in bailouts for reckless financial firm, the bill may also contain the sneaky  “proxy access” power grab for unions, radical environmentalists, and other groups on the Left. This rule, inspired by Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, is contained in Dodd’s “discussion draft” bill from late last year.

As I detailed in BigGovernment last week, “proxy access would federalize and override decades of state law governing the structure of corporations and force publicly-traded companies to put shareholders’ nominees for a board of directors on a company’s proxy ballot along with the firm’s own nominees for those positions.” Many shareholder groups that are pushing this are union pension funds, the radical Tides Foundation, and other progressive groups — from animal rights to anti-Israel — who place their own political agenda items at the expense of ordinary shareholders.

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Posted Mar 10th 2010 at 8:53 am in Big Labor, Congress, Economics, News, Politics | 37 Comments »

Veronique de Rugy

Who Is The Stimulus Money Stimulating? Teachers

by Veronique de Rugy

Based on the Recovery.gov data, more than two third of the 594,754.3 jobs “created or saved” with the stimulus funds were “created or saved” in the Department of Education (see chart).  Basically, what the administration meant by shovel ready projects was funding for your next door teacher.

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Now, let’s recap some of findings and news of the previous weeks.

1. Most jobs are created in the Department of Education

2. In 2009, for the first time ever, more public-sector employees (7.9 million) belonged to a union than did private-sector employees (7.4 million) despite there being five times more wage and salary workers in the private sector.

3. A third of all union jobs are in Education

4. 33 percent of the education industry is unionized

5.  The union boss, Andy Stern, was appointed to be on the president’s debt commission.

It all makes sense, doesn’t it?

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Posted Mar 10th 2010 at 7:51 am in Big Labor, Education, News, Obama, Politics | 93 Comments »

Thomas Del Beccaro

With No Primary Fight, Brown Launches ‘Reasonable Jerry’ Tour

by Thomas Del Beccaro

No surprise: Jerry Brown is running for office again.  In Jerry’s words, “I’ve run for more offices than any other candidate that still is alive.”  This time, he is the lone Democrat candidate running for Governor in California.  Since his belated announcement last week, Jerry has done his best to sound reasonable as a candidate.  Surely, California voters should know it is only an act.

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In running for those many offices, Brown has taken countless liberal positions.  As Governor, Brown empowered public employee unions, strongly opposed the death penalty and appointed judges who strongly opposed it.  He opposed Prop 13 before he was for it – but only after the voters passed it. When he ran for President, in 1980, he was for universal health care and said his economic agenda was based, in part, on Buddhist Economics – followers of which endeavor to measure “Gross National Happiness.”  In 1992, when he ran for the Presidency a third time, he touted “living wages,” fought free trade agreements and said he would consider Jesse Jackson as a running mate notwithstanding Jackson’s controversial if not anti-Semitic remarks.  Such is the life of a career liberal like Jerry Brown.

In 2009, while still in the race for Governor, liberal Gavin Newsom said of Jerry Brown’s candidacy: “We’re not content to relive history. We’re going to keep making it.”  To ensure that Brown’s latest history would not include a loss to Newsom, Brown resumed his liberal ways.

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Posted Mar 10th 2010 at 7:00 am in Featured Story, Politics, State Politics | 45 Comments »

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