After billions in stimulus funding failed to transform impotent green energy sources into profitable endeavors, even Obama has taken a break from promoting Wind and Solar. He is even talking more about oil and gas exploration, although his sincerity is in serious doubt. Unfortunately, some Republicans have not relinquished their affinity for using public funds to prop up their local wind industry. Yesterday, Iowa Gov. | Read More »
Immediately prior to the congressional recess in December, Congress passed an inefficacious two-month extension of the Social Security tax cut. Additionally, they reauthorized another two months of unprecedented long-term unemployment benefits, along with more spending for Medicare ‘doc fix.’ None of it, including the entitlement spending, was paid for in any meaningful way. Nevertheless, you might ask, didn’t we get the Keystone pipeline as part | Read More »
As the clock struck 12 am January 1, one of the most anti free market government interventions expired without renewal and without fanfare. In honor of the Iowa Caucuses, we can now declare that the ethanol subsidies and tariffs are finally dead. However, before we celebrate this rare piece of good news, we must remember that in order to deracinate the ethanol beast from our | Read More »
“will they finally hold the line on their own promises this time, or will they pass all the extensions without the reforms, riders, and spending offsets? This package must be the final offer.” Earlier today, House Republican leaders unveiled their package deal to extend the payroll tax and unemployment benefits for another year and to continue Medicare ‘doc fix’ for another two years. While bipartisan | Read More »
One of the more positive ancillary benefits of this presidential primary season is the newfound focus on taxation, regulation, and energy production. The prominence of the presidential election has helped jumpstart a vital discourse on long-term reforms for those three policies. The RSC, which is the most respected conservative group within Congress, has proposed a jobs growth plan today, which seeks to achieve those reforms, | Read More »
After three years of cumbersome red tape, environmental impact studies, and endless litigation, the Canadian Keystone KL Pipeline extension project is close to obtaining final approval from the State Department. This $7 billion pipeline project, when completed, would transport over 700,000 barrels of oil per day from the Canadian tar sands in northeast Alberta to the hungry oil refineries on the Texas Gulf coast. This | Read More »
The loss of jobs is only half of the result of the government interventionist equation. The other casualty of an economy driven by taxation, regulation, litigation, subsidization, monetary intervention, and debt is the crippling cost of living for all Americans. [Yes, I was about to say middle class, but we would be wise to eradicate that sort of socialist innuendo from our vernacular.] Earlier today, the | Read More »
When members of Congress return to Washington in September, they must confront the next budget challenge; a Continuing Resolution for FY 2012. While the top line discretionary spending level has already been agreed upon through the debt ceiling agreement, the specific levels of funding for each department and agency are still up for debate (or closed-door negotiations, in this case). Unfortunately, instead of prudently analyzing | Read More »
President Obama has asserted ad nauseam that expanding oil drilling would not affect the price of oil and generate price relief at the gas pump. He has scoffed at the ‘drill, baby, drill’ plan, denouncing it as insufficient in dealing with our “long-term” energy needs. Now that his reelection prospects are beginning to wither, Obama is undergoing a foxhole conversion and easing his aversion to that “addictive” | Read More »
Last month, during his weekly radio address, Barack Obama announced his plans to drill in NPR-A. No-he wasn’t planning to eviscerate his genuflecting media outlet; he was promising to issue more land leases in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Like most of his capricious gestures to conservative policy initiatives, this promise was vapid of substance and lacking accountability. He knew all along that his unelected bureaucrats | Read More »
“Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”~ President Ronald Reagan Democrats (and the Maine Republicans ladies) are agog to demonize oil companies and punish them with punitive tax increases. Their effort was defeat yesterday 52-48, but they plan to continue | Read More »
Many liberals in the media are expressing shock over Obama’s apparent willingness to increase oil production. We all know that he is full of …, I mean ethanol, and they do too. Those of you who were befuddled at the news that Obama will ‘expand drilling’ in Alaska are not missing anything. Obama has pulled this political chicanery a number of times. Whenever a specific | Read More »
Obama’s oil free utopia is precipitating yet more mayhem on our economy. Today, two major news stories concerning our lack of oil production highlight just how profoundly oil affects our economy. The first story concerns the Trans Alaska Pipeline. The pipeline employs 2,000 workers and delivers 11% of our domestically produced oil to the other states. During its early years, when we weren’t impounding the | Read More »
The Republican Study Committee has struck again. While Republican House leaders are tepidly tiptoeing around energy policy with an incremental approach, RSC Energy Task Force Chairman Bob Latta (R-OH) is pushing a comprehensive energy production bill. The Consumer Relief for Pain at the Pump Act, H.R. 1777, would open up thousands of acres worth of drilling fields, extirpate onerous regulations from the backs of our | Read More »
As the Democrats continue to bankrupt the nation with crushing debt, and stymie Republican attempts to balance the budget, we were beginning to wonder if they had their own plan to achieve budget solvency. The New York Times just revealed their monumental plan for the future of our fiscal stability. Drum roll……Labeling Republicans and tea partiers as extremists! “Moments before a conference call with reporters | Read More »
Wholesale Food Prices Highest since 74′ Food Stamps Surge in West These two headlines are quintessential examples of the perennial cycle of government intervention. They offer a vivid portrayal of how the Democrats perfidiously inflate the price of food so that the maximum number of people will be dependent upon their food programs, thus granting them a permanent electoral constituency. Obama and the Democrat economists | Read More »
While Obama continues his implacable war on fossil fuels and campaigns for impotent and unreliable energy sources, he incessantly condemns oil as ‘the energy of the past’. He is obviously referring to his self-fulfilling dream of eradicating oil from our economy; not the proven reality of our oil reserves. According to the latest research by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), America has more proven reserves | Read More »
In 1995, the Republican-controlled House and Senate passed a balanced budget act, which contained a provision to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) for oil drilling and exploration. On December 6th of that year, President Bill Clinton vetoed the bill, ensuring that not a drop of oil would be extracted from the barren land of this 20 million acre area. We have literally been | Read More »
The first few months of 2011 have given rise to a resurgence in federalism. States across the country are implementing their own legislation to circumvent onerous federal policies; ranging from immigration to environmental regulations. Red states, bolstered by fresh conservative governors and majorities in their legislatures, are asserting their power to mitigate the effects of odious federal initiatives. Unfortunately, blue states such as Maryland are | Read More »
Earlier today, Energy Secretary Steven Chu reiterated his insouciance to the plight of the American consumer of oil and gas. Chu told members of the Senate Budget Committee that there is no need to tap into the Strategic Petroleum Reserves because it will be corrected by spare world oil capacity: “we have spare capacity, we expect naturally that the market forces will take care of | Read More »
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