Year: 2013

If President Barack Obama, the Republican House and the Democratic Senate cannot cut $85 billion from this year’s $3.8 trillion budget without laying off first responders, tying up airport security lines and furloughing food safety inspectors, what good are they? The answer is: Not much. It turns out we elect lawmakers so they can hold […]

At the end of 1995 and stretching into January 1996, the federal government “shut down” because of an impasse between President Bill Clinton and House Republicans led by then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich. The issue was increased taxes vs. less spending. Sound familiar? The government re-opened when a bipartisan agreement was reached to balance the budget […]

President Obama boasts that his Obamacare legislation will reduce the number of uninsured by thirty million. But recent actions by the states to reject his proposed expansion of Medicaid auger about a 25 percent reduction in his stated goal. The Roberts decision affirming the constitutional validity of the individual mandate in Obamacare left the states […]

America is fed up with GOP obstructionism. So undoubtedly, everyone is hopeful that Republicans will allow President Barack Obama’s sequestration plans to proceed unhindered. It’s only right. The GOP, in fact, should quit while it’s ahead. Rather than penning editorials and appearing on Sunday morning talk shows to try to pin the blame on others, […]

One of the interesting things about recent elections is that Republicans have tended to do better the farther you go down the ballot. They’ve lost the presidency twice in a row, and in four of the last six contests. They’ve failed to win a majority in the U.S. Senate, something they accomplished in five election […]

If radical gun-grabbers have their way, your daughters, mothers and grandmothers will have nothing but whistles, pens and bodily fluids to defend themselves against violent attackers and sexual predators. Women of all ages, races and political backgrounds should be up in arms over the coordinated attack on their right to bear arms. In Colorado this […]

President Obama has new priorities. That means new spending. In his State of the Union, he said, “The American people don’t expect government to solve every problem.” But then he went on to list how, under his guidance, government will solve a thousand problems, including some (like climate change and a loss of manufacturing jobs) […]

Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” has been a box-office hit and nominated for 12 Academy Awards, including best picture, best director and best actor for Daniel Day-Lewis, who portrayed our 16th president. I haven’t seen the movie; therefore, this column is not about the movie but about a man deified by many. My colleague Thomas DiLorenzo, economics […]

PARIS — U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced last week that the Pentagon has created a new military award for keyboard cyber-warriors and drone joystick jockeys. The Distinguished Warfare Medal will recognize those whose ability to incinerate a designated target from the comfort of an office chair wasn’t prohibitively affected by a jumpy trigger finger […]

If your head hurts, rush to the podiatrist. This is the logic that animates the sequester debate. The entire debate focuses on the two areas of discretionary spending in the budget — defense and nondefense. But these are not the problem areas. The big problem with federal spending is that 32 million households — 27 […]

Over President’s Day weekend, President Barack Obama took off for a mini-vacation in Florida. There, he participated in golf lessons with professional coach Butch Harmon — Harmon normally charges $1,000 per hour, and Obama spent 8 hours with him — and then he took to the links with disgraced golf icon Tiger Woods. The press […]

Amid the umpteen conferences, panels, meetings and informal conversations in the wake of the presidential election, this idea has been a near constant among conservatives who feel like the country is slipping through their fingers. Mitt Romney and the Republican National Committee combined raised just more than $1 billion, and all we got are these […]

As the global currency war intensifies, the majority of attention has been paid to the 17% fall of the Japanese yen against the U.S. dollar over the past few months. The implosion has given cover to the sad performance of another once mighty currency: the British pound sterling. But in many ways the travails of […]