Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Defending the Dream
Every election, we're told, is important. Critical, even. But it's more than the usual hyperbole this time. Right now, our nation's on the wrong path. If nothing is done, our next generation will experience not liberty, freedom and prosperity, but crushing debt, higher taxes, and job-killing regulations. Unlike any generation before us, we face the very real possibility that our grandchildren may be worse off than their grandparents. But a comprehensive program that we at The Heritage Foundation have developed, "Saving the American Dream," shows how we can preserve the American Dream. First, the budget problem must be addressed. Left alone, entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and their unfunded liabilities will cripple the nation.
Election Year Blues
I can certainly understand why Gingrich is so angry with Mitt Romney. It's because of all the negative ads that Romney ran in Iowa. You know, the ones that told the truth about Gingrich's having been censured by Congress for financial shenanigans when he was the Speaker of the House; that he had fully supported mandated health care; that he had joined Nancy Pelosi and Al Gore in promoting the fraud known as global warming; and that he had been paid 1.6 million of our tax dollars by Freddie Mac. Frankly, I think that nobody was more surprised than Newt when he found himself riding high in the polls back in December. After all, this was the same guy who went off to the Greek islands with Mrs. Gingrich at the start of the primary season, leading his entire election team to quit, after having decided that he obviously wasn't a serious candidate. It also helps explain why he didn't bother getting his name on the Virginia ballot. All along, I figured that he had thrown his hat in the ring for the very same reason that Pat Buchanan used to throw his. It's called branding, the human equivalent of the way that Coca Cola, GE and Disney promote themselves. By keeping his name in front of the public, it helps Newt sell books, videos and make certain that his big, fat lecture fees remain big and fat.
Obama Thumbs Nose at Founders With One-man Rule
Of course President Obama is not concentrating on campaigning, White House press spokesmen assured us -- as the president headed off to Chicago for three fundraisers and a drop-in at his campaign headquarters, two days after a high-roller fundraising choked off traffic five blocks from the White House, with the assistance of a score of D.C. police cars. No one, or at least no one who is paying attention, is fooled. It's standard presidential procedure to say you're not absorbed in campaigning even as you go out to raise money every other day. Bill Clinton, in my view, spent an undue amount of time fundraising, George W. Bush spent more, and Barack Obama makes them both look like pikers.
Business No, Government Yes: Embryonic Stem Cell Research
Once again, government rushes in where business fears to tread. Just before Christmas, the National Institutes of Health made three more lines of embryonic stem cells eligible for federal funding. Could it possibly have anything to do with the fact that a month before, a major private company decided that there was no profit in embryonic stem cell research? You see, in November, the drug company Geron announced that it would be abandoning its embryonic stem cell research program. Geron was a leader in the embryonic stem cell field, the first company to be approved to run trials with these stem cells.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Running Competitiveness Aground
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Thanks to globalization, and to containerized shipping that began in 1956 and makes globalization work, commodities swiftly move vast distances around the planet. Wal-Mart alone imports 400,000 containers a year. Trade flows can, however, be deflected or even defeated by a distance of just five feet. Herewith a story of the high costs of a few feet and of too many years required for our nation's increasingly sluggish public processes to move. This city's port, the East Coast's fourth busiest (1.38 million shipping containers a year), is 45 feet deep. But in two years the Panama Canal will open a larger set of locks capable of handling ships 50 percent wider and with deeper drafts than today's "Panamax" ships -- the largest that can currently transit the canal.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Brankrupt Greece to Pay for 'Disabled' Exhibitionists, Kleptomaniacs and Pedophiles
For those wondering where the permutations of progressives' infatuation with government-enforced moral relativism lead, Greece is a bellwether. Despite teetering on the brink of national insolvency, Greece's Labor Ministry has decided to expand its list of state-recognized disability categories. The latest additions? Exhibitionism, kleptomania -- and pedophilia. "What's happened is incomprehensible. I think there is some big mistake. The ministry should have a different policy on disability," said Yiannis Vardakastanis, leader of Greece's National Confederation of Disabled People (NCDP). "The list contains major changes to disability quotients, which could effectively remove many people from access to benefits." The NDCP itself called the ruling "incomprehensible" and noted that pedophiles will now be awarded a greater level of disability payments than some people who receive organ transplants. "It's really not serious to grant Peeping Toms a 20-30 percent disability rate, and 10 percent to diabetics, who have insulin shots four or five times a day," fumed Vardakastanis.
The Sad State of the Union
Recently, a reader wrote to ask me why anyone would spend a million dollars to become a member of Congress, a job that pays less than $200,000 a year. I explained that there were several reasons. One, they seek fame. Celebrity is a major goal for a large number of people, and not just kids who are dying to switch places with rock stars and fashion models Two, they want to oversee fiefdoms that would have been the envy of English royals. You often see the likes of Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner striding down congressional corridors, dozens of attendants in their wake. They don't have anywhere in particular to rush off to, they just enjoy leading parades. Too bad they can't twirl a baton.
From The Comedy Store
Michelle Obama went on CBS news to refute tales told about her in the new book, The Obamas. She's angry that the book depicts her as angry. She said she doesn't interfere with West Wing meetings, hardly any European resorts offer in-room teleconferencing.
Isn't a Bainful Turnaround What America Needs?
There's a very troubled company out there called U.S. Government Inc. It's teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. And it badly needs to be taken over and turned around. It probably even needs the services of a good private-equity firm, with plenty of experience and a reasonably good track record in downsizing, modernizing, shrinking staff and making substantial changes in management. Yes, layoffs will be a necessary part of the restructuring. A quick look at the income statement of this troubled firm tells the story. Just in the past year (FY 2011), the firm spent $3.7 trillion, but took in only $2.2 trillion in sales revenues. Hence its deficit came to $1.5 trillion.
Friday, January 13, 2012
It Isn't Just the Mandate
Most people have heard that Obamacare is being challenged as unconstitutional because it contains an individual mandate forcing people to purchase health insurance. That challenge is due to be heard by the Supreme Court this year. But while the mandate is certainly problematic in a system that, at least notionally, is one of limited and enumerated powers, the mandate is not the worst part of this bill -- not by a long shot. Truly, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) belongs in a museum somewhere in an exhibit about what can happen when you elect Democrat majorities to the House, Senate and White House. Like so much else in the Democratic agenda (Dodd-Frank, environmental regulation, mortgage relief), it relies not on incentives, competition or patient choice but on blatant government coercion.
To Take Down Obama, Romney Must Win Battle of the Bloat
One thing is clear: At best, Mitt Romney is a work in progress. Romney is under attack for being a hugely successful private equity banker at Bain Capital. Bain identified distressed companies and found value in them for shareholders, investors and, ultimately, consumers. When things worked right, Romney and his team streamlined firms and injected fresh capital, and helped companies thrive by returning them to their "core competencies." He took his turnaround skills to the Winter Olympics (and, he argues, to the governor's mansion in Massachusetts). When the 2002 games were in utter disarray, he swooped in, cut out all the self-dealing nonsense by consultants and contractors, made the fat cats and moochers pay for their own meals, and got things back on track.
Ron Paul's Remarkable Achievement
WASHINGTON -- There are two stories coming out of New Hampshire. The big story is Mitt Romney. The bigger one is Ron Paul. Romney won a major victory with nearly 40 percent of the vote, 16 points ahead of No. 2. The split among his challengers made the outcome even more decisive. Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich were diminished by distant, lower-tier finishes. Rick Perry got less than 1 percent. And Jon Huntsman, who staked everything on New Hampshire, came in a weak third with less than half of Romney’s vote. He practically moved to the state -- and then received exactly one-sixth of the vote in a six-man contest. Where does he go from here?
Hollywood’s Snotty Day in Court
It was symbolically perfect that on the same day Hollywood went to the Supreme Court to make the case for broadcast profanity, Entertainment Weekly reported that the next showing of the ABC smutcom "Modern Family" would feature a two-year-old girl dropping the F-bomb. The episode's title will be "Little Bo Bleep." Shameless. There's no other way to describe the people running these networks. We're told "It might be the first time in a scripted family broadcast TV series where a child has said the F-word." But it won't be the last -- especially if the high court grants Hollywood's demands and shreds any regulation of nudity or profanity on TV.
Missing the Mark -- Again
WASHINGTON -- Our so-called mainstream media have launched a new anti-military feeding frenzy. The furor is over a crude 39-second video showing four Marines apparently urinating on the bodies of three dead Taliban combatants. In hysteric rhetoric akin to "news reports" on the 2004 Abu Ghraib photos, hordes of print and broadcast "correspondents" rushed to describe the viral video, which surfaced Jan. 11, as evidence of an "atrocity" and "desecration" that reflects the "depravity" of our military in general and the U.S. Marines in particular. As usual, the effort to denigrate our armed forces means that the potentates of the press ignored far more important stories.
Everything Is at Stake, All Right
On this we can agree with President Obama: Everything he stands for is at stake in 2012. Obama told 500 fawning sycophants in Chicago that he is unrepentant about his policy agenda and intends to treat us to more of the same, much more, in a second term. Obama said, "Everything that we fought for is now at stake in this election." Lest there be no mistake, he repeated the message in the smaller settings of private homes.
Obama's 'Razist' Lobbyist Moves Up
With public attention focused on the GOP primaries, the White House quietly promoted another self-dealing lobbyist to serve as President Obama's top domestic policy adviser. Promises? What broken promises? Cecilia Munoz, the current director of intergovernmental affairs at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., will now serve as head of the Domestic Policy Council. She'll wield heightened influence at Obama's daily morning briefings and expand her reach from immigration issues to education, health care and beyond. Gushing headlines heralded the advancement of Obama's top Hispanic civil rights "advocate" as a win for the "middle class." But Munoz is a veteran member of the Beltway lobbyist class whose former organization is reaping a taxpayer-funded windfall as she climbs the government ladder.
Don't Abandon Capitalism
It's bad enough when Democrats start playing class warfare, but when Republican presidential contenders begin using phrases like "vulture capitalism," it's time to be really worried. It's easy to dismiss as sour grapes Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry's attacks on Mitt Romney and Bain Capital, which Romney co-founded. It's no coincidence that the attacks are getting nastier in South Carolina, site of the next presidential primary and perhaps the last chance one of the challengers has of stalling Romney's path to the nomination. But Romney's critics should be ashamed of themselves for promoting anti-business stereotypes.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Defense Spending Is a Shovel-Ready Investment
President Obama just ordered massive cutbacks in defense spending, eventually to total some $500 billion. There is plenty of fat in a Pentagon budget that grew after 9/11, but such slashing goes way too far. Fairly or not, the cuts will only cement a now familiar stereotype of Obama's desire to retrench on the world scene. They follow symbolic apologies for purported past American sins, bowing to foreign royals, and outreach to the likes of Iran and Syria. Abroad, such perceptions can matter as much as reality, as our rivals begin hoping that Obama is as dubious about America's historically exceptional world role as are they.
Some Inconvenient Facts
Mr. President: Do you really think you are riding high with the rate of unemployment standing at a whopping 8.5 percent? 8.5 percent! Wow!! Perhaps we should take a real good look at the real numbers. The rate of unemployment was 7.8 percent when you took office, and look how much money you have spent since then trying to improve it. Remember that before you took office our deficit was about $400 billion. Now it's well over a trillion -- $1.5 trillion, more or less, and the national debt totals $15 trillion. Can you even begin to count to 15 trillion, much less deal with that number?
Time to Run a 'Tebow' Media Option Play
Even fair-minded liberals, of which there must be a few, should acknowledge that the Saturday-Sunday "blitz" of the Republican presidential candidates by ABC and NBC correspondents looked like a play designed by the left wing of the Democratic Party. Clearly the questions by ABC's George Stephanopoulos and Diane Sawyer about contraception and same-sex marriage were asked to trap the GOP candidates into delivering sound bites that the Obama re-election campaign could use against the eventual nominee and the party at large. These were the types of accusatory questions that would never be asked of a Democratic president. One would not expect to hear, for example, a question like this to President Obama: "Mr. President, millions of babies have been legally aborted in this country since 1973; how can you so callously dismiss unborn children, many of whom would now be productive, taxpaying citizens, by taking a pro-choice stance on abortion?"