Why Was Ronald Reagan the Greatest President of the 20th Century?

No president of the 20th century had a more positive and enduring influence than Ronald Reagan, who was born 99 years ago today. Other presidents, from Wilson to FDR, exceeded Reagan in their impact, but much of it was negative. Sure, they won wars, but they almost destroyed the American economy as well.

Reagan, by contrast, won the Cold War and also revived the American economy from decades of abuse. He was successful both at home and abroad.

Since President Reagan left the White House in 1989, the U. S. has stumbled, so it is wise to ponder why Reagan did so well. Was it natural intelligence or careful political training? Not really—and that fact both galls and baffles his critics. Reagan was a C student at lowly Eureka College and from there he went into small-town broadcasting, and then to Hollywood. He didn’t try to be governor of California until he was 55 years old.

Reagan had three parts to his genius. First, he was a visionary; he believed that people wanted freedom and would do well when more of it was given to them. Whether he was undermining the Soviets, challenging an unlawful union, or deregulating oil production he tried to move in a consistent direction of greater freedom and less government. According to Dinesh D’Souza, “Reagan’s greatness derives in large part from the fact that he was a visionary—a conceptualizer who was able to see the world differently from the way it was.” Reagan knew where he wanted to go: Jimmy Carter, by contrast, had multiple plans to create energy, to generate revenue, and to cut inflation. Often they were contradictory; all of them failed. Reagan was more consistent because he had vision: He knew where he wanted to go and how he wanted to get there.

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Tags: FDR, History, Obama, Ronald Reagan
Posted Feb 6th 2010 at 6:41 am in Featured Story, History, Politics | 70434147 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/bfolsom/2010/02/06/why-was-ronald-reagan-the-greatest-president-of-the-20th-century/Why+Was+Ronald+Reagan+the+Greatest+President+of+the+20th+Century%3F2010-02-06+14%3A41%3A14Burt+Folsom

Happy Birthday Ronald Reagan Open Thread

Today, in 1911, Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in rural Illinois. He’s the kind of leader who ordinarily comes along only once in a life-time. We’re hoping we can beat those odds.

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Posted Feb 6th 2010 at 3:13 am in Open Threads | 70698173 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/02/06/happy-birthday-ronald-reagan-open-thread/Happy+Birthday+Ronald+Reagan+Open+Thread2010-02-06+11%3A13%3A25Publius

The Continuing Deflation of Little Green Footballs

Chuck Johnson is at it again. He must be out on a weekend pass. I was compelled to answer the Little Green Monster after I saw him go after James O’Keefe with that same tired wet noodle of a charge he has leveled at so many, calling him a white nationalist. Johnson claimed in an LGF post that “according to a group called ‘One People’s Project,’ ACORN sting filmmaker James O’Keefe was photographed attending a 2006 white nationalist conference titled ‘Race and Conservatism.’”

Sounds terrible, right? Sure, until you get the facts that Johnson doesn’t tell you. When it became clear that it wasn’t a “white nationalist conference,” Johnson tried to slither out of responsibility for his words by saying in a new post: “It’s very clear that I attributed the ‘white nationalist conference’ claim to One People’s Project; that’s what the words ‘according to’ mean.”

Busted! As if it weren’t obvious that in his original post, he was approving of and endorsing what One People’s Project said. But this is typical of Johnson’s weaselly hit-and-run smear tactics.

Meanwhile, Larry O’Connor at Big Journalism uncovered the truth about O’Keefe’s supposed participation in this conference:

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Tags: Ann Coulter, Barrett Brown, Big Journalism, Charles Johnson, CPAC
Posted Feb 5th 2010 at 3:51 pm in Media Criticism, News, Politics | 70674127 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/pgeller/2010/02/05/the-continuing-deflation-of-little-green-footballs/The+Continuing+Deflation+of+Little+Green+Footballs2010-02-05+23%3A51%3A51Pamela+Geller

Federal Court: No, the Government May Not Prevent Further Discovery of the Takeover of AIG

This week we broke the story of possible criminal wrongdoing in the government takeover of insurance giant AIG. In the last several months, the US government has tried, unsuccessfully, to throw out plaintiff Kevin Murray’s case, alleging that the government’s takeover of AIG puts it in the position of supporting and promoting Islam and Shariah finance.

This past Tuesday, Federal district court judge Lawrence P. Zatkoff rejected the Treasury Department’s and the Fed’s effort to prevent any further discovery while the government attempts to convince the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to overrule Judge Zatkoff’s earlier ruling rejecting the government’s motion to dismiss the federal lawsuit challenging the government’s takeover of AIG on First Amendment-Establishment Clause grounds.

Tim Geithner: The “extraordinary move to depose a sitting Treasury Secretary”

The lawsuit, captioned Murray v. Geithner et al., was brought by attorneys David Yerushalmi and Robert Muise, representing the plaintiff, Kevin Murray, a tax payer and former combat Marine who served in Iraq. The federal lawsuit alleges that the U.S. government’s takeover and financial bailout of AIG was in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

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Tags: AIG, AIG takeover, Ben Bernanke, David Yerushalmi, Establishment Clause
Posted Feb 5th 2010 at 3:07 pm in Economics, Justice/Legal, News | 70606153 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/fgaffney/2010/02/05/federal-court-no-the-government-may-not-prevent-further-discovery-of-the-takeover-of-aig/Federal+Court%3A+No%2C+the+Government+May+Not+Prevent+Further+Discovery+of+the+Takeover+of+AIG2010-02-05+23%3A07%3A16Frank+Gaffney

That Didn’t Take Long… ABC Reporter Attacks National Tea Party Convention Leaders During Press Conference

You just knew before this weekend was over that the mainstream media would insert itself into the story.

The presss conference was packed today at the National Tea Party Convention but not everyone acted like they were glad to be there.

The media elites could only sit on their hands for so long. After biting his lip for twenty minutes New York-based ABC reporter John Berman ripped into the National Tea Party Convention leaders at their press conference today.

John was visibly upset after attending former Rep. Tom Tancredo’s speech last night at the conference. Instead of confronting Tancredo, Berman attacked the organizers of the event and demanded they speak for the former representative. Berman also attacked organizer Mark Skoda for not listing the names of the board members of a newly formed organization after Skoda said he would have the names listed by the end of the week… Funny, Berman’s never been this hard on Team Obama?

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Tags: ABC News, Founding Bloggers, John Berman, Mark Skoda, National Tea Party Convention
Posted Feb 5th 2010 at 1:51 pm in Media Criticism, Tea Party | 70638132 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/jhoft/2010/02/05/that-didnt-take-long-abc-reporter-attacks-national-tea-party-convention-leaders-during-press-conference/That+Didn%E2%80%99t+Take+Long%E2%80%A6+ABC+Reporter+Attacks+National+Tea+Party+Convention+Leaders+During+Press+Conference+2010-02-05+21%3A51%3A24Jim+Hoft

Transformational Leadership or Constitutional Statesmanship?

Lots of politicians make promises they can’t keep.  Statesmen, by contrast, promise less and deliver more.  Knowing their own limitations and those of the people they serve, they act according to principles, not just promises.

As a presidential candidate Barack Obama promised the American people nothing less than a new nation.   “. . . We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America,” he said just before he was elected president in November 2008.

Since his victory the president has made very clear his reverence for the idea of transformational leadership.  He has identified “transformative moments” that must be seized,  lauded “leaders who are able to bring about transformative change,” and heralded his administration’s steps towards “a transformation of how government works.”

The president’s efforts to make his idea of “transformational leadership” real are everywhere.  Whether in massive bailouts, sweeping health care reform legislation, an attempt to overhaul the student loan system, or a proposed revamping of financial regulations, the president has sought a transformation of huge swaths of American life with little regard to the constitutionality of these efforts.

Mr. Obama has done all of this while at the same time linking his idea of transformation to the sixteenth American president.  Asked in July 2009 who his heroes are, President Obama singled out Abraham Lincoln for the highest praise.

The president’s admiration both of Lincoln and the idea of transformational leadership is perplexing, because for Lincoln the idea of “transformational leadership” was not just foreign, but something he had to fight.

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Tags: Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama, james macgregor burns, leadership, lincoln douglas debates
Posted Feb 5th 2010 at 1:17 pm in History, Obama, Politics | 70230130 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/dbobb/2010/02/05/transformational-leadership-or-constitutional-statesmanship/Transformational+Leadership+or+Constitutional+Statesmanship%3F2010-02-05+21%3A17%3A26David+J.+Bobb

Your Neighbor Hearts Socialism

… at least that’s what the latest Gallup numbers would suggest: “Socialism Viewed Positively by 36% of Americans”

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Tags: Gallup poll, socialism
Posted Feb 5th 2010 at 11:59 am in Politics, Tea Party | 70086302 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/bjacobson/2010/02/05/your-neighbor-hearts-socialism/Your+Neighbor+Hearts+Socialism2010-02-05+19%3A59%3A45Bret+Jacobson

An Honest IPCC Scientist Warns His Colleagues: Don’t Dismiss ‘ClimateGate’

The 13th Annual Energy & Environment Conference, held in Phoenix Feb. 1-3, isn’t the sort of place where global warming “deniers” are exactly welcome. In fact, by my observations, the skeptical caucus at the event consisted entirely of: James M. Taylor, a senior fellow for environment policy at The Heartland Institute; Keith Lockitch, a fellow of the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights; and me. All the other attendees spent their time discussing how the U.S. government — or, even better, a “global government” — needs to compel us all to live “greener” lives through schemes like cap-and-trade. Environmentalists are a bossy and power-hungry lot.

Lockitch gave a presentation arguing free-market economies are better positioned than socialist societies to deal with any severe weather events caused by climate change — and was called a “denier” and compared to a shill for “Big Tobacco” for his trouble. Taylor got off a little easier, receiving only scoffs and curious-to-annoyed glances for asking inconvenient questions.

But that’s not to say we were the only people to question the assumptions of the attendees who believe the “science is settled” on global warming. Perhaps the greatest challenge came from one of their own — renowned climate scientist William Sprigg — who urged his colleagues to stop treating the ClimateGate scandal as irrelevant noise promoted by “deniers.” In an amazingly telling moment, green energy consultant Andy Van Horn, who introduced Sprigg, admitted he’d never heard of ClimateGate until Sprigg suggested it a few weeks ago as a topic worthy of discussion. (Who are the real “deniers” again?)

Sprigg, adjunct research professor in the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Arizona, believes the planet is on a potentially dangerous warming path and atmospheric carbon dioxide is to blame. He also led the technical review of the first global warming report issued by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1990. Clealry, Sprigg is no “outlier” or “rebel,” but one of the most respected and “mainstream” scientists in the field of climatology. So it came to a bit of shock to the audience when Sprigg expressed concerns about how contrarian scientists are treated with contempt by many of his colleagues.

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Tags: Ayn Rand, cap-and-trade, climate change, climategate, EUEC
Posted Feb 5th 2010 at 10:57 am in Environment, News, Politics | 7044655 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/jlakely/2010/02/05/an-honest-ipcc-scientist-warns-his-colleagues-dont-dismiss-climategate/An+Honest+IPCC+Scientist+Warns+His+Colleagues%3A+Don%27t+Dismiss+%E2%80%98ClimateGate%E2%80%992010-02-05+18%3A57%3A31James+G.+Lakely

Liveblogging Tea Party Nation: Smart Girl Politics

Smart Girl Politics led a breakout session this morning on “Conducting a Voter Registration Drive.” One of Smart Girl Politics goals is to focus on educating conservative women. As part of that goal, SGP members members Michelle Moore (r) and Bridget Blanton led the meeting.

Michelle Moore, SGP Director of Technology, and Bridget Blanton, SGP National Voter Registration Coordinator, led the training session at the event focusing on Women in Politics and Voter Registration. Michelle Moore will be tweeting the conference this weekend. The Smart Girls give a voice to smart, strong, well-informed conservative women. The Smart Girls are the women who will take back this country.

Smart Girl Politics is committed to providing a conservative community for women to express their opinions and ideas in an open and welcoming environment. SGP is dedicated to reaching out into the community to engage, educate, and empower conservative women to take a more active role in politics. And finally, we will debate and develop clear positions that encourage conservative activism in order to counter the negative activity of popular culture that is often found in the main stream media.

Michelle opened up the session and was terrific. She made St. Louis proud. Michelle said she found a home in Smart Girl Politics. She says she is inspired and empowered by the strong women of this movement.

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Tags: bridget blanton, get out the vote, GOTV, Massachusetts election, michelle moore
Posted Feb 5th 2010 at 9:50 am in Politics, State Politics, Tea Party | 7046257 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/jhoft/2010/02/05/liveblogging-tea-party-nation-smart-girl-politics/Liveblogging+Tea+Party+Nation%3A+Smart+Girl+Politics2010-02-05+17%3A50%3A59Jim+Hoft

Sex, Drugs and Violence: All in One Illinois Politicians Divorce File

In what quickly became the headline story from the results of the Illinois Primary on February 2nd, Scott Lee Cohen was nominated as the Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor. This charming gentlemen spent around $2-$3 million of his own money to win the election.  Here is where things get weird.

Dem Lt Gov Candidate Scott Lee Cohen

The Chicago Tribune, in writing on his victory, immediately highlighted he was charged with domestic battery. Then news came fast and furious. He was a chronic user of anabolic steroids. He was abusive to his wife and children and even went so far as to try to “force himself” on her. He held a knife to his prostitute girlfriend’s throat. As he was spending millions running for office, he was a dead beat dad falling behind on child support payments he obviously could afford. His divorce file was found and put online. Those documents were not even sealed.

This, of course, presents a huge problem for Illinois Democrats. The Lt. Governor runs independent in the Primary but in the General the Governor and Lt. Governor are paired.  Governor Pat Quinn is, understandably, less than pleased. However, by law, there is no way to get rid of the Lt. Governor candidate unless that person drops out. To say the Democrats are in a state of panic is to put it mildly.

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Tags: deadbeat dad, democrat nominee, domestic violence, Gov. Pat Quinn, pawnbroker
Posted Feb 5th 2010 at 8:59 am in Media Criticism, News, Politics, State Politics | 7030660 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/jbambenek/2010/02/05/sex-drugs-and-violence-all-in-one-illinois-politicians-divorce-file/Sex%2C+Drugs+and+Violence%3A+All+in+One+Illinois+Politicians+Divorce+File2010-02-05+16%3A59%3A20John+Bambenek

How to Get Our Democracy Back: If You Want Change, You Have to Change Congress

Editors Note: This post is re-printed with permission from The Nation magazine, where it appears as the February 4, 2010 cover story. You can see a video interview with Professor Lessig about the piece here, or take action on issues raised in the piece by visiting FixCongressFirst.org.

We should remember what it felt like one year ago, as the ability to recall it emotionally will pass and it is an emotional memory as much as anything else. It was a moment rare in a democracy’s history. The feeling was palpable–to supporters and opponents alike–that something important had happened. America had elected, the young candidate promised, a transformational president. And wrapped in a campaign that had produced the biggest influx of new voters and small-dollar contributions in a generation, the claim seemed credible, almost intoxicating, and just in time.

Yet a year into the presidency of Barack Obama, it is already clear that this administration is an opportunity missed. Not because it is too conservative. Not because it is too liberal. But because it is too conventional. Obama has given up the rhetoric of his early campaign–a campaign that promised to “challenge the broken system in Washington” and to “fundamentally change the way Washington works.” Indeed, “fundamental change” is no longer even a hint.

Instead, we are now seeing the consequences of a decision made at the most vulnerable point of Obama’s campaign–just when it seemed that he might really have beaten the party’s presumed nominee. For at that moment, Obama handed the architecture of his new administration over to a team that thought what America needed most was another Bill Clinton. A team chosen by the brother of one of DC’s most powerful lobbyists, and a White House headed by the quintessential DC politician. A team that could envision nothing more than the ordinary politics of Washington–the kind of politics Obama had called “small.” A team whose imagination–politically–is tiny.

These tiny minds–brilliant though they may be in the conventional game of DC–have given up what distinguished Obama’s extraordinary campaign. Not the promise of healthcare reform or global warming legislation–Hillary Clinton had embraced both of those ideas, and every other substantive proposal that Obama advanced. Instead, the passion that Obama inspired grew from the recognition that something fundamental had gone wrong in the way our government functions, and his commitment to reform it.

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Tags: Barack Obama, Ben Nelson, Bill Clinton, bush v gore, cap-and-trade
Posted Feb 5th 2010 at 7:04 am in Congress, Culture, Featured Story, Healthcare, History, Justice/Legal, Obama, Politics, Tea Party | 70270130 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/llessig/2010/02/05/how-to-get-our-democracy-back-if-you-want-change-you-have-to-change-congress/How+to+Get+Our+Democracy+Back%3A+If+You+Want+Change%2C+You+Have+to+Change+Congress2010-02-05+15%3A04%3A13Lawrence+Lessig

America’s Decline, And Where Recovery Begins

“We have never had, in the history of the world, periods of sustained economic prosperity and growth accompanied by a sustained decline in population. Today, every developed nation in the world is witnessing this decline.”

It’s time for your weekly dose of markets and politics with Coffee and Markets, our podcast from The New Ledger with Francis Cianfrocca, brought to you by BigGovernment.com.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed

You can subscribe to the podcast by following the links above, and if you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Sanger: Obama’s Permanent Deficits
TNL: Once Was America
TNL: Marriage and Children in Our New America
Hymowitz: Explosion in Single Young American Men
Spengler: America’s Decline

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Tags: Barack Obama, Coffee and Markets, deficits, Economy, podcast
Posted Feb 5th 2010 at 6:17 am in Coffee and Markets, Politics | 700947 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/newledger/2010/02/05/americas-decline-and-where-recovery-begins/America%27s+Decline%2C+And+Where+Recovery+Begins2010-02-05+14%3A17%3A54The+New+Ledger

The Tangled Web of Green: Manufacturing a Public Scare

On November 30^th, the same day the Food and Drug Administration was scheduled to issue a statement regarding the long-used plastics additive Bisphenol A (BPA), the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editors urged the agency with the headline “Get on with it!”  They charged that “the agency blew its own self-imposed deadline for issuing a ruling on the safety of the ubiquitous chemical,” and went on to complain that “The FDA is taking more time to have its scientists analyze studies of the chemical’s effects.”

The Milwaukee newspaper, along with the Los Angeles Times health blog, called on Congress to ban the product.  Then, on December 14, the examiner.com reported that Democrat Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand had proposed a bill outlawing the use of BPA in food container linings for infant and toddler food.  Washington, with its Senate vote on Friday, is the latest among several states that are not waiting for federal bans.

But as reported here, in the fall, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) had announced the award of $30 million in research grants, $14 million of which represents Obama administration stimulus money, to study BPA further.

What might account for such odd behavior?  There are enough peculiarities and strange connections to suggest that the media, the academy, and liberal political forces are working together to pursue an ideological agenda—with the help of stimulus funds.

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Tags: Bisphenol A, BPA, Chapel Hill Consensus, Christine Flowers, Chuck Schumer
Posted Feb 5th 2010 at 5:35 am in Environment, Featured Story, Media Criticism, News | 7017024 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/mgrabar/2010/02/05/the-tangled-web-of-green-manufacturing-a-public-scare/The+Tangled+Web+of+Green%3A+Manufacturing+a+Public+Scare2010-02-05+13%3A35%3A40Mary+Grabar

Friday Free-For-All: Carlyle Edition

Today, in 1881, Scottish historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle died. These days are an interesting test of Carlyle’s beliefs.

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Tags: Barack Obama, Thomas Carlyle
Posted Feb 5th 2010 at 3:13 am in Open Threads | 7018632 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/02/05/friday-free-for-all-carlyle-edition/Friday+Free-For-All%3A+Carlyle+Edition2010-02-05+11%3A13%3A51Publius

With Scott Brown, America Chose the Pickup Truck Over the Prius

Later today Scott Brown will be sworn in as the 41st Republican in the United States Senate.
He is on his way to Washington DC right now with certificatation in hand.

One of the many players who contributed to Scott Brown’s victory is Ken Pittman from WBSM in Massachusetts. Ken interviewed Democrat Martha Coakley the week before the Massachusetts election. It was during this interview that Martha told Ken that if you object to abortion and are a devout Catholic then…

“You probably shouldn’t work in the emergency room.”

That was the wrong answer.

Ken sent me this article last night that he wrote on this historic Massachusetts election:

America Chose the Pickup Truck Over the Prius

In what has to be the most important non-presidential election race in many decades, Scott Brown won a most unlikely race in the state bluer than Frank Sinatra’s eyes, Massachusetts. So much weighed on the outcome outside of our state that the RNC finally heeded to the desperate cries for help from those of us here who have fought behind the enemy lines, praying for the cavalry for a half century.

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Tags: curt schilling, ken pittman, martha coakley, massachusetts senate election, massachusetts special election
Posted Feb 4th 2010 at 12:41 pm in Congress, News, Politics, State Politics | 70014135 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/jhoft/2010/02/04/with-scott-brown-america-chose-the-pickup-truck-over-the-prius/With+Scott+Brown%2C+America+Chose+the+Pickup+Truck+Over+the+Prius+2010-02-04+20%3A41%3A10Jim+Hoft

The Center Of American Politics

Despite what Congress and the current administration would have the people believe, the inconvenient truth is that fiscal conservatives are the dead center of American politics. Amidst accusations of extremism, Americans are responding to a message of limited government, fiscal responsibility, and less taxation. In a recent interview, FreedomWorks chairman Dick Armey said this:

“This is the broad center of American politics. Look at the polling data, Right now, the Tea Party polls higher than the Republicans and the Democrats, and it is becoming increasingly clear to the electorate out there and they’re expressing their understanding… we have a Democrat majority in Congress and a President that’s on the liberal fringe, and we are in the center.”

Despite differing messages on various social agendas and battles over the role of government in our everyday lives, most Americans understand the necessity of fiscal responsibility – which is even more apparent in the midst of a struggling economy. As the government battles “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” and takes on country-altering legislation in the form of Cap and Trade and the Health Care reform bill, unemployment sky rockets and Congress raises the debt ceiling yet again.

Americans are concerned with jobs. They are concerned with Federal spending. The President’s State of the Union proposal to place a spending freeze on an already swollen base line is not convincing them – only 9% believe that it will reduce the deficit significantly.

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Tags: Dick Armey, Fiscal Conservatives, Matt Kibbe, Tea Party
Posted Feb 4th 2010 at 10:22 am in Tea Party | 6944666 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/mkibbe/2010/02/04/the-center-of-american-politics/The+Center+Of+American+Politics2010-02-04+18%3A22%3A29Matt+Kibbe

Rep. Brad Miller and Dr. Anna Chacko: The Politicalization of Government Health Care

Late in the afternoon of December 4th of 2006, laboratory staff of the Veterans Administration Pittsburgh Health Services (VAPHS) based on an order from Dr. Mona Melhem, the associate chief of clinical services, a few minutes earlier – in less than three hours destroying a unique collection of legionella and other isolates that had been collected by two prominent infectious disease researchers over their nearly three decades of research.

So starts a report by the Science Sub Committee chaired by Congressman Brad Miller of the 13th District of North Carolina into a strand of legionella that was destroyed by the Pittsburgh VA and with it thirty years of research by Dr. Victor Yu and his partner Dr. Janet Stout.

This report and its conclusions began a series of events that climaxed with this news broken on in January by Walter Roche of the Pittsburgh Tribune about the same Pittsburgh VA.

A top Pittsburgh Veterans Affairs physician, who got her job back temporarily after congressional intervention, is about to be terminated from her position as the head of radiology in the Pittsburgh facility.

VA officials have issued a formal notice of termination effective Jan. 25 to Dr. Anna Chacko, who has been on administrative leave from the University Drive facility since October.

What, one might ask, does an investigation into a destroyed strand of legionella have to do with the firing of the chief of radiology at a hospital nearly two years later? In reality, the two probably have little do with each other, except in the mind of Congressman Brad Miller. Because Miller made a connection, the events of one lead directly to the events of the other.

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Tags: Anna Chacko, Base Camp Lejeune, Brad Miller, BU Medical Center, Butte Montana
Posted Feb 4th 2010 at 9:43 am in Healthcare, Justice/Legal, News, Politics | 6065024 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/mvolpe/2010/02/04/rep-brad-miller-and-dr-anna-chacko-the-politicalization-of-government-health-care/Rep.+Brad+Miller+and+Dr.+Anna+Chacko%3A+The+Politicalization+of+Government+Health+Care+2010-02-04+17%3A43%3A51Michael+Volpe

Sen. John Kerry Letter Supporting Code Pink’s Hamas-Aid Gaza Freedom March

[Note: This is the latest segment in an ongoing series about Code Pink and its co-founder Jodie Evans. Click here to read earlier articles.]

Massachusetts senior U.S. Senator John Kerry provided a letter on Senate stationery that supported constituents who participated in last December’s anti-Israel, pro-Hamas Gaza Freedom March, led by President Barack Obama ally Code Pink.

Democrat Representative Andre Carson of Indiana’s 7th District also provided a letter of support for participants in the so-called Gaza Freedom March.

Kerry is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and was the Democratic Party’s 2004 presidential nominee.

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Tags: Andre Carson, Christopher Wyman, Code Pink, Electronic Intifada, Gaza Freedom March
Posted Feb 4th 2010 at 8:57 am in Defense, News | 6949066 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/taylorking/2010/02/04/sen-john-kerry-letter-supporting-code-pinks-hamas-aid-gaza-freedom-march/Sen.+John+Kerry+Letter+Supporting+Code+Pink%27s+Hamas-Aid+Gaza+Freedom+March2010-02-04+16%3A57%3A06Kristinn+Taylor+and++Andrea+Shea+King

Obama’s Big Tax Hike on Multinationals Means Fewer American Jobs and Reduced U.S. Competitiveness

The new budget from the White House contains all sorts of land mines for taxpayers, which is not surprising considering the President wants to extract another $1.3 trillion over the next ten years.

One of the worst proposals targets American companies that compete in foreign markets. Under current law, the “foreign-source” income of multinationals is subject to tax by the IRS even though it already is subject to all applicable tax where it is earned (just as the IRS taxes foreign companies on income they earn in America). But at least companies have the ability to sometimes delay when this double taxation occurs, thanks to a policy known as deferral. The White House thinks that this income should be taxed right away, though, claiming that “…deferring U.S. tax on the income from the investment may cause U.S. businesses to shift their investments and jobs overseas, harming our domestic economy.” In reality, deferral protects American companies from being put at a competitive disadvantage when competing with companies from other nations, and therefore protects American jobs. This video has the details.

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Tags: Big Government, Competitiveness, Corporate Income tax, Corporate Taxation, Deferral
Posted Feb 4th 2010 at 8:03 am in Economics, News, Obama, Politics, Tax Reform, Uncategorized | 700223 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/dmitchell/2010/02/04/obamas-big-tax-hike-on-multinationals-means-fewer-american-jobs-and-reduced-u-s-competitiveness/Obama%27s+Big+Tax+Hike+on+Multinationals+Means+Fewer+American+Jobs+and+Reduced+U.S.+Competitiveness2010-02-04+16%3A03%3A57Dan+Mitchell

‘Tough’ Decisions on Spending Include $2.5M on Super Bowl Ad

Where to cut the spending? Obama has told us we have to make some tough choices. Yup, it wasn’t easy, but they decided to keep in the $2.5 million for a Census ad during the Super Bowl. That’s just a part of the $132 million we will spend to tell people to fill out and mail in their census forms.

We’d get a better bang for our buck by gambling it in Vegas. No matter what Obama says about the town, at least there we would have a chance to win big.

I understand that our constitution requires a census every ten years, but it does not require we waste our money advertising for it.  You don’t turn it in – you’re not counted. Next!

Here are some of the proposed cuts listed on the White House blog as  ”tough choices” for 2011:

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Tags: Barack Obama, Big Government, Fox News, Harry Reid
Posted Feb 4th 2010 at 8:01 am in Economics, Obama, Politics, Tax Reform, federal spending | 6949446 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/gknapp/2010/02/04/tough-decisions-on-spending-include-2-5m-on-super-bowl-ad/%27Tough%27+Decisions+on+Spending+Include+%242.5M+on+Super+Bowl+Ad2010-02-04+16%3A01%3A00Greg+Knapp

The Tea Party’s Focus: Elections

For the Tea Party movement, 2009 was about coming together, meeting our brothers and sisters in arms, and standing athwart socialism, yelling, “Stop!”  It worked. President Obama entered office promising socialized medicine, card check, and cap and trade all before the August recess.  He went 0 for 3 thanks a grassroots uprising that came together like spattered quicksilver.

In our desire to fix things, we also launched a lot of legislative initiatives.  These initiatives included various sovereignty amendments in the states, petitions for Constitutional Conventions, petitions for redress of grievances, petitions of right, and state laws exempting states from any national healthcare legislation.  Each of these was a bold and important step, and such laws, amendments, and petitions should continue.  Next year.

Let’s not fool ourselves. While the Tea Party movement has been very effective, it has been effective only when focused on a very narrow set of compelling causes.  Our quick responses to card check and cap and trade convinced the White House to suspend those initiatives until we weren’t looking. Our overwhelming attack on ObamaCare took the last bit of energy and time from each Tea Party patriot.  We left it all on the field.

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Tags: august town halls, cap-and-tax, cap-and-trade, government health care, leftist policies
Posted Feb 4th 2010 at 7:13 am in Tea Party | 6969886 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/bhennessy/2010/02/04/the-tea-partys-focus-elections/The+Tea+Party%27s+Focus%3A+Elections2010-02-04+15%3A13%3A01Bill+Hennessy

Senator Paul Kirk Must Resign His Seat This Morning

Reporting yesterday on Big Government, I reiterated the fact that interim Senator Paul Kirk should have resigned his Senate seat after the election. However, Kirk certainly has no option but to vacate the MA Senate seat once Brown’s election is certified–all based on Massachusetts state law and Senate rules. In following-up the story it is being reported by The Hill that Senator-elect Brown will be sworn in about 5PM Thursday, February 4th.

In learning this information, I wanted to confirm when Senator Kirk was going to resign his interim Senate seat. Staff at Kirk’s office said that he would step down once Brown was sworn in.

In case Kirk needs a reminder of the changed Massachusetts law that allowed for his appointment by Governor Patrick as the interim senator, here it is:

Chapter 92 of the Acts of 2009
AN ACT RELATIVE TO FILLING A TEMPORARY VACANCY IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

Section 140 of chapter 54 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2008 Official Edition, is hereby amended by adding the following subsection:–

(f) Upon failure to choose a senator in congress or upon a vacancy in that office, the governor shall make a temporary appointment to fill the vacancy; provided, however, that the person so appointed shall serve until the election and qualification of the person duly elected to fill the vacancy pursuant to subsection (a) or (c). Approved September 24, 2009. Emphasis mine.

The original MA law can be found here.

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Tags: deval patrick, election certification, election law, paul kirk, scott brown
Posted Feb 4th 2010 at 6:29 am in Congress, Justice/Legal, News, Politics, State Politics | 6969473 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/sahiller/2010/02/04/senator-paul-kirk-must-resign-his-seat-this-morning/Senator+Paul+Kirk+Must+Resign+His+Seat+This+Morning2010-02-04+14%3A29%3A15SusanAnne+++Hiller

ClimateGate: Penn State Initial Report Signals Whitewash

I have looked over the Penn State University’s report issued yesterday, “RA-10 Inquiry Report: Concerning the Allegations of Research Misconduct Against Dr. Michael E. Mann, Department of Meteorology, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences”. Below are eight points addressing my initial impressions, in the order they appear in the report (with one bracketed exception from page 4, moved up slightly in order of appearance here].

Findings_Mann_Inquiry –

My take-away, to spoil the ending for you, is that the panel revealed most of what we need to know about the ability of this internal inquiry to credibly assess charges of misfeasance, by limiting their evidentiary pursuit outside of select blogs and media reports to speaking with Mann, aided by a supportive NAS report (to the exclusion of the Wegman Committee report, inexplicable including for a factor cited, below) and one panel member interviewing ex parte two Mann supporters.

In my opinion, by this approach they did not do, and will in hindsight not be deemed as having done, themselves or their institution any favors.

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Tags: climate email, Climate Research Unit, climategate, independent inquiry, Michael Mann
Posted Feb 4th 2010 at 5:41 am in Environment, Featured Story, News | 6951483 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/chorner/2010/02/04/climategate-penn-state-initial-report-signals-whitewash/ClimateGate%3A+Penn+State+Initial+Report+Signals+Whitewash2010-02-04+13%3A41%3A41Christopher+C.+Horner

Thursday Open Thread: Washington Edition

Today, in 1789, the Electoral College unanimously elected George Washington as the first President of the United States. (Yes, we understand there were a few other “presidents” preceding Washington, but he was the first President under the U.S. Constitution.)

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Tags: Electoral College, George Washington, President, President of the United States in Congress Assembled
Posted Feb 4th 2010 at 3:21 am in Open Threads | 6987899 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/02/04/thursday-open-thread-washington-edition/Thursday+Open+Thread%3A+Washington+Edition2010-02-04+11%3A21%3A26Publius

Shariah Finance, Criminal Wrongdoing in the AIG Takeover: Will the Special Inspector General for the TARP Funds Investigate the Illegal Trust?

Yesterday we broke the story of possible criminal wrongdoing in regards to the bailout of AIG by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, then Director of the New York Federal Reserve, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

It appears that, through it’s 77.9% control of AIG’s equity and voting rights, the NYFed “sought to accomplish an illegal financial transaction through false means” by creating an “independent”: trust that was in fact not independent, placing it “in violation of federal anti-money laundering statutes (18 USC § 1956).” Here we elaborate a bit further, laying out the issue in the text of a letter submitted to Neil Barofsky, Special Inspector General for TARP (SIGTARP)– as the government takeover of AIG was accomplished using funds provided to the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

First, however, some context: Crucially, these facts were discovered while securities litigator David Yerushalmi and the Thomas More Law Center was representing Iraq War vet Kevin Murray in Murray vs. Geithner, et al. Mr. Murray is rightfully horrified that the very doctrines of the enemy he faced in combat would be promoted by the US government. Specifically, prior to the U.S. government’s takeover of the insurance giant AIG, the company was the world’s leading promoter of Shariah-compliant finance products and businesses. Bailing out and forcefully (and illegally) taking ownership of AIG put the American taxpayer in the position of advocating Shariah-compliant finance, which is troubling on many levels:

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Tags: AIG, AIG bailout, Ben Bernanke, Fed Bank of New York, Federal Reserve
Posted Feb 3rd 2010 at 4:47 pm in Economics, Exclusives, Uncategorized | 6965088 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/fgaffney/2010/02/03/shariah-finance-criminal-wrongdoing-in-the-aig-takeover-will-the-special-inspector-general-for-the-tarp-funds-investigate-the-illegal-trust/Shariah+Finance%2C+Criminal+Wrongdoing+in+the+AIG+Takeover%3A+Will+the+Special+Inspector+General+for+the+TARP+Funds+Investigate+the+Illegal+Trust%3F2010-02-04+00%3A47%3A23Frank+Gaffney

Penn State’s ‘ClimateGate’ Inquiry Determines Further Investigation Is Needed

In looking at four “possible allegations” of research misconduct against meteorology professor Michael Mann, a Penn State University panel has determined that further investigation is warranted for one of them.

The allegations — or “possible allegations” as they put it — stem from Mann’s alleged involvement in the “ClimateGate” e-mails scandal that surfaced in early December and seemed to show evidence of fraud and conspiracy among the research scientists and others whose work formed much of the basis of calls for extreme climate change regulation.

At the center of the scandal was Mann, the inventor of the famous “hockey stick” graph which claimed to show that, after 1,000 years of decline, global temperatures had shot up to their highest level in recorded history. It was made famous in Al Gore’s Academy Award®-winning documentary on global warming, “An Inconvenient Truth.”

While this is good news, I suspect panel members are secretly hoping someone else will shoulder responsibility for determining Mann’s guilt or innocence before they’re forced to reach any conclusion(s).

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Tags: climate change, climategate, global warming, Michael Mann, penn state
Posted Feb 3rd 2010 at 3:07 pm in Environment, News | 6940299 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/bmccarty/2010/02/03/penn-states-climategate-inquiry-determines-further-investigation-is-needed/Penn+State%27s+%27ClimateGate%27+Inquiry+Determines+Further+Investigation+Is+Needed2010-02-03+23%3A07%3A34Bob+McCarty

Sorry, Wade: James O’Keefe’s Actions Don’t Excuse ACORN

ACORN founder Wade Rathke has been gloating on his blog about the recent arrest of James O’Keefe in Rathke’s hometown of New Orleans.

Andrew Breitbrat and his www.biggovernment.com site stopped pretending that James O’Keefe, bungler-in-charge, was not his boy, and realized that he needed to stop shouting and start ‘splaining.

Breitbrat?  Zing!  How adult of you, Wade.

Similarly, current ACORN chief organizer Bertha Lewis issued a statement upon the news:

The recent arrest of James O’Keefe, is further evidence of his disregard for the law in pursuit of his extremist agenda. From the day that O’Keefe’s undercover “sting” videos came out, ACORN leadership pledged accountability for its own staff while pointing out that the videos had been shot illegally and edited deceptively in order to undermine the work of an organization that has empowered working families for four decades.

It’s as if O’Keefe’s problem somehow is vindication for the corrupt web of organizations she oversees.

Bad news, Bertha: it’s not.

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN embezzlement, ACORN videos, Andrew Breitbart, Bertha Lewis
Posted Feb 3rd 2010 at 2:17 pm in ACORN | 69466216 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/kolson/2010/02/03/sorry-wade-james-okeefes-actions-dont-excuse-acorn/Sorry%2C+Wade%3A+James+O%E2%80%99Keefe%E2%80%99s+Actions+Don%E2%80%99t+Excuse+ACORN2010-02-03+22%3A17%3A03Kyle+Olson

Why You Should Know About Craig Becker (and Why You Need to Be Worried)

Craig Becker is President Obama’s nominee to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), and you should be afraid…very, very afraid.

According to the NLRB website, Congress established the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in 1935 to administer the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), the primary law that governs relations between unions, employees and employers in the private sector. The Act guarantees employees the right to organize and to bargain collectively with their employers or to refrain from such activities. The Act, which generally applies to all employers involved in interstate commerce, implements the national labor policy of assuring free choice and encouraging collective bargaining as a means of maintaining industrial peace.

The NLRB has two primary functions: one, to prevent and remedy unfair labor practices, whether committed by labor organizations or employers, and; two, to establish whether or not certain groups of employees desire labor organization representation for collective-bargaining purposes, and if so, which union.

Becker will be the third person on the five person Board and the second Democrat thus giving them majority on the Board. To say that Becker’s views are “extreme” would be an insult. His views of employer-employee relations invites thoughts of hammers and sickles.

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Tags: Craig Becker, NLRB
Posted Feb 3rd 2010 at 1:29 pm in Big Labor, Congress | 6939066 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/brjohnson/2010/02/03/why-you-should-know-about-craig-becker-and-why-you-need-to-be-worried/Why+You+Should+Know+About+Craig+Becker+%28and+Why+You+Need+to+Be+Worried%292010-02-03+21%3A29%3A30Brian++Johnson

Reason.tv: 3 Reasons Not to Sweat Citizens United

No recent Supreme Court ruling have evoked more liberal fury than Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a campaign-finance case involving government censorship of a political documentary called Hillary: The Movie. The Federal Election Commission prevented the anti-Hillary Clinton film from being shown on television just before the 2008 Democratic primaries, a decision that was upheld by lower courts. Siding with The First Amendment, the Court struck down laws regulating independent political advertising by for-profit and non-profit corporations before an election even as they reaffirmed rules about disclosure and disclosures for ads and against direct corporate giving to candidates.

Critics fear that corporations will now overwhelm the political marketplace with commercials and advertisements that will program citizens to vote for whatever agenda “the corprations” want at a given moment.

MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann railed against the decision, calling it “a Supreme Court-sanctioned murder of what little democracy is left in this democracy” and comparing it to the notorious Dred Scott decision, which ruled that  had no rights under the Constitution. His fellow corporate media host at MSNBC, Rachel Maddow, exclaimed, “If you are a regular person who has ever made a campaign donation before, forget about ever having to do that again. What’s the point?”

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Tags: Barack Obama, campaign finance, campaign finance reform, Citizens United, Dred Scott decision
Posted Feb 3rd 2010 at 12:59 pm in Big Labor, Congress, Justice/Legal, Media Criticism, Obama, Politics | 6929867 Comments »http://biggovernment.com/ngillespie/2010/02/03/reason-tv-3-reasons-not-to-sweat-citizens-united/Reason.tv%3A+3+Reasons+Not+to+Sweat+Citizens+United2010-02-03+20%3A59%3A01Nick+Gillespie