Right Opinion

Liberals Always Lie

The motto of liberalism should be, "Do as we say, not as we do." There are a myriad of examples to bear this out. The question that comes to mind is why there isn't a reward for bringing in their pelts. For instance, in spite of their insistent demand that taxes be raised -- especially on the rich -- people like George Soros, the Kerrys, the Kennedys and Senators Jay Rockefeller and Dianne Feinstein, all receive the bulk of their wealth through low-taxed family trusts and offshore accounts. As I have pointed out in the past, there's no law on the books preventing them or any of their left-wing cronies from donating all they like to Uncle Sam's coffers. I'm sure he'd appreciate it, and I know the rest of us would enjoy a respite from their self-righteous rants.

From The Comedy Store

Senate Democrats blamed the massive federal budget deficits on Republican tax cuts last Friday in TV interviews. They said the wealthy aren't paying enough taxes to meet the nation's needs. Democrats believe it is okay to be rich as long as you just feel awful about it.

Obama: Incorrigible Statist and Debt Menace

In my book "Crimes Against Liberty," I described President Obama as dishonest, hyper-partisan, a bully, a narcissist and a hard-core left-wing ideologue. Anyone who thinks my description is exaggerated or too harsh didn't hear his Wednesday speech on the budget. One might have expected that a newly elected president who had "inherited" such a disturbingly high deficit, a growing national debt, and a forecast of unfunded entitlements soon to explode because of baby boomer demographics alone would roll up his sleeves and tackle this deficit and debt problem.

Women's Work Is Never Done

Nancy Pelosi was howlin' mad, eager to lead the charge on behalf of women everywhere (whether they want her to or not) against the Republican congressional regiments "at war with women." She sees a battlefield littered with bloody female bodies. It's mostly about abortions, of course, and whether the government should require everybody to pay for them. She's aiming most of her fire at Rep. Paul Ryan and his proposed budget.

Busted

WASHINGTON -- We finally know how President Barack Obama wants us to handle our nation's crippling national debt. If we can believe his words, the president intends to ignore the monster under the bed -- Social Security entitlements -- while he raises taxes and cuts deeply into our nation's defense. Haven't we heard this song before? On April 13, more than a week after Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., provided a detailed "Choice of Two Futures" blueprint for how the GOP would reduce our disastrous deficit, Obama showed up late at George Washington University to describe how he now wants to fix the problem he failed to address in his fiscal year 2012 federal budget proposal. The geniuses at the White House decided to call the president's address "The Country We Believe In." Set aside the grammatical anomaly of ending the title with a preposition.

Justice and Decency

Delay and indecision are beginning to define the Obama administration. One matter the Obama Justice Department cannot decide is whether to file an appeal to the Supreme Court in the "fleeting profanity" case called Fox vs. FCC. They've filed two extensions to kick the can down the road. Their latest deadline is April 21. Without an appeal, the Second Circuit's evisceration of any limitation on broadcast cursing will stand. That's right. All bets will be off. If you think the Idiot Box is foul now, wait until Hollywood is allowed to be as gross as it wants.

Budget Battle, Budget Prattle

I cannot remember a more depressing week in Washington. The Republicans boasted a heroic accomplishment: slashing $38.5 billion from the budget, purportedly the largest cuts in history. But the cake was made from sawdust. Strip away the gimmicks and shine a light on the shadows, and it turns out the real cuts amounted to $352 million, or less than 1 percent of what was promised.

The Grand Compromise

WASHINGTON -- The most serious charge against Rep. Paul Ryan's budget is not the risible claim, made most prominently by President Obama in his George Washington University address, that it would "sacrifice the America we believe in." The serious charge is that the Ryan plan fails by its own standards: Because it only cuts spending without raising taxes, it accumulates trillions of debt and doesn't balance the budget until the 2030s. If the debt is such a national emergency, they say, Ryan never really gets you there from here.

Obama's Equivalent of 'Death Panels'

I've never felt so simpatico with Joe Biden as I did after President Obama's Great Deficit Speech. Ol' lunch bucket Joe seemed to doze off during the president's oration. Perhaps he only appeared to be snoozing. But I can report that your faithful correspondent, despite the best intentions, did actually nod off a few times in the course of the address myself. The first time I found my lids drooping was around paragraph four, when the president rhapsodized about the greatness of government: "We've laid down railroads and highways to facilitate travel and commerce. We've supported the work of scientists and researchers whose discoveries have saved lives, unleashed repeated technological revolutions and led to countless new jobs and entire industries. Each of us has benefited from these investments, and we are a more prosperous country as a result."

Spare Us the Hypocrisy, Mr. President

President Obama offered few concrete suggestions for spending cuts this week in his much-anticipated speech on reducing the federal debt, but he had lots to say about raising taxes. "As a country that values fairness, wealthier individuals have traditionally borne a greater share of this burden than the middle class or those less fortunate. Everybody pays, but the wealthier have borne a little more," the president said. So he wants to raise the top marginal tax rate to 39.6 percent and eliminate itemized deductions for the top 2 percent of earners.

America, the Dependent

So much for the new era of fiscal responsibility. The federal government's dependency drones have been spared the chopping block. After vowing to eliminate funding for President Obama's bloated $6 billion AmeriCorps social justice army, House Republicans retreated -- and will shrink the AmeriCorps budget by a minuscule 6.7 percent. Politicians originally sold AmeriCorps as an alternative to big government -- a program to "renew the ethic of civic responsibility and the spirit of community throughout the United States." With bipartisan support, the program has morphed into an all-purpose progressive slush fund. Instead of reining in the national service boondoggle, Washington has turned taxpayer-subsidized helping hands into a legion of Nanny State handout helpers. Goodbye, AmeriCorps. Hello, FoodStampCorps.

Tax and Debt Bomb

We thought tax reform meant lowering rates and broadening the base by eliminating or cutting back on various deductions, credits and loopholes. That's what the Bowles-Simpson commission proposed. That's what Paul Ryan and David Camp are working on. And that's the pro-growth model. But President Obama unveiled a much different tax-reform vision in his much-anticipated debt speech on Wednesday. He would raise tax rates on upper-income earners and small businesses. He also would eliminate deductions and credits, or so called "tax expenditures." The president referred to these tax-expenditure reductions as "spending cuts." In his context, they most certainly are not. They are more tax hikes.

The Curse of Free Money

ANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The lobby of the Federal Reserve Bank building here contains a money museum where a sign offers visitors "Free Money." It is an amusing anomaly, considering the views of the man in charge of the building. The free money in the lobby consists of shredded currency in small plastic bags. The free money that distresses Tom Hoenig, in his 20th and final year as president of one of the Federal Reserve's 12 regional banks, is being pumped into the economy by two policies of the Federal Reserve in Washington -- very low interest rates and a second "quantitative easing" (printing money).

Dreamland, USA

Barack Obama just gave a belated but stern warning about escalating debt -- a few weeks after he presented a 2011 budget with a $1.6 trillion annual deficit, the largest shortfall in American history. Congressional Republicans are now crowing about reducing Obama's red ink by forcing some $38 billion in cuts. Such supposed slashing means America will borrow just $1,562 billion this year rather than the scheduled full $1,600 billion. The administration expects that someone will have enough money to float our $4 billion- to $5 billion-a-day loans -- either foreigners such as the Chinese, whom we are accustomed to lecturing about their illiberal habits, or our own wealthy, whom President Obama so often chides and threatens with higher taxes. Meanwhile, shrill critics of the modest cuts claim that the elderly, poor, sick and helpless will be cast adrift if their government dares to trim its massive borrowing by about 3 percent -- or just about 1 percent of this year's projected $3.7 trillion budget.

Me and the Rotarians

On This Aborted Fetus, the Democrats Plant Their Flag

Back in February, Obama's director of the Office of Management and Budget, Jacob Lew, promoted the White House's allegedly draconian budget cuts in The New York Times. Saying Obama was going to cut the 2012 budget to the bone, Lew droned on about the "difficult" cuts to "important" programs and the "many tough choices and deep cuts" in the proposed budget. All told, the White House's brutal, Depression-era austerity plan would have snipped a couple of billion from our multi-trillion dollar federal budget.

Why Isn't Obama 'Racist' for Ignoring Black Africa?

Suppose President John McCain, as with President Barack Obama, justified military force in Libya to avert "a humanitarian crisis." But then gave no thought of using the military to stop the human slaughter in places like the Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe and the Congo. How long would it take before the Congressional Black Caucus and the Rev. Jesse Jackson call him "racist"?

Romney and Obama -- Bipartisan Brothers

Mitt Romney is too much like Barack Obama. I don't see how he'd win the 2012 GOP nod because he's got too much in common with the guy he wants to replace. Both men began a run for the White House during their first term in statewide office. Romney never bothered to run for re-election as Massachusetts governor. He didn't stick around to solve the state's problems. He treated the job like a stepping-stone.

No CRs in 2012

Republicans acted on the message voters sent in the 2010 congressional elections when they elected more than enough members of the House to control that body; they tackled the scandal of out-of-control spending and the voters responded. So far they have shoved a poison pill down the throats of spending-happy House Democrats, chopping a cool $38 billion from the 2011 federal budget. They now face a new challenge in enacting a budget for 2012 by passing the one introduced by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., which begins to put the nation's fiscal house in order.

Atlas Shrugged: The Movie

Twenty-nine years after her death, novelist Ayn Rand is coming to a theater near you. After many failed attempts, her 1957 novel "Atlas Shrugged" has been made into a film. In an age when overspending, overreaching, higher-taxing and overregulating government increasingly strangles the private sector, robbing us of our liberties and transforming the country into the model of a socialist state, Rand's story reminds us how far ahead of her time she was and just how dangerous a time we live in now.