Law prof Richard A. Epstein has a withering look at the “Cash for Clunkers” program that gave car buyers a $4500 check to trade in an old car for a new one. As with any government program, the intentions of the program and the reality of the program were not quite at odds with each [...]
Tags: Cash for Clunkers, Congress, Economics, government, policy
As the media fixates on the death of Michael Jackson, Congress stands ready to enact the largest and most regressive tax hike in history in the guise of “cap-and-trade.” Jim Lindgren explains why this bill is so dangerous: The cap-and-trade bill, if passed by the Senate and actually implemented over the next few decades, would [...]
Tags: cap and trade, Congress, Democrats, Economics, environmentalism, Obama, taxes
The U.S. economy shed 598,000 jobs in January, the worst job loss since 1974. There is no doubt that the U.S. economy is in a state of crisis. Our government is only making it worse. It is more than mere coincidence that this huge job loss occurred in the same month that President Obama signed [...]
Tags: business, Congress, depression, economy, Obama, regulations, taxes
Popular Mechanics has a great piece on the myth of “shovel ready” infrastructure projects: The programs that would meet the bill’s 90-day restriction are, for the most part, an unappealing mix of projects that were either shelved after being fully designed and engineered, and have since become outmoded or irrelevant, or projects with limited scope [...]
Tags: Congress, economy, infrastructure, Obama, pork, stimulus
Jim Geraghty notes a curious provision in the stimulus bill directed at the State of Illinois: None of the funds provided by this Act may be made available to the State of Illinois, or any agency of the State, unless (1) the use of such funds by the State is approved in legislation enacted by [...]
Tags: Blagojevich, Congress, constitution, federalism, Illinois, law
Colin Powell’s endorsement of Obama, although not unforeseen, is the big political story of the day. The Editors of National Review have a well reasoned response to the Powell endorsement that is well worth reading. Contrary to Gen. Powell, Obama will be another divisive and polarizing political figure… The problem with Powell’s endorsement of Obama [...]
Tags: 2008, Congress, Obama, politics of division, Powell
The financial services bailout bill just failed to pass the House with a bipartisan rejection The bailout bill was a turd sandwich, but it was a necessary one to keep the markets from going into an absolute freefall. Which, coincidentally, is what’s going to happen now that the bailout is unlikely to happen. I can [...]