Robert Rector’s Study: Open Borders + Welfare State = Disaster

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  May 6th at 12:08 PM  | 

We’ve noted many times throughout the debate over amnesty that you simply cannot legalize so many low-skilled people without reforming the welfare state.  Some people don’t like to hear it, but the reality of today’s redistributive society is that the higher-skilled population transfers a tremendous amount of wealth to the lower-skilled population in the form of the tax code, entitlements, welfare, and social services.  Do | Read More »

Gang Immigration Bill (S.744) is Comprehensively Flawed

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  May 2nd at 09:04 AM  | 

After picking apart the gang bill one issue at a time, I put out a summary of all the issues with the immigration bill for The Madison Project.  Here it is for those who have not seen it.  Note that some of this might be subject to change after the dust settles from the 350-page manager’s amendment that was tacked onto the bill.

Chain Migration Will Bury the Republic and Republican Party

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  April 26th at 10:36 AM  | 

Throughout the past week, we’ve focused on many of the individual details in the Schumer/Rubio bill.  However, it’s important to step back and look at the bill in totality.  Between all of the amnesties, guest worker programs, and massive expansions in legal immigration, this bill will set off a seismic chain migration.  The effects on the welfare system and our ability to absorb so many | Read More »

Rubio: Then and Now

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  April 23rd at 10:44 AM  | 

As far as amnesty, that’s where [Charlie Crist] and I disagree. He would have voted for the McCain plan. I think that plan is wrong…if you grant amnesty…you will destroy any chance we will ever have of having a legal immigration system that works here in America. [Marco Rubio, Fox News Sunday debate with Charlie Crist, March 28, 2010] It’s this sort of straight talk | Read More »

Obama’s Amnesty Voter Registration Drive Begins Today

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  August 15th at 03:30 PM  | 

This week we will witness thousands of illegal aliens lining the sidewalks of embassies and consulates in order to obtain documentation that will allow them to remain in the country indefinitely, and eventually, sign up to vote for Democrats.  This is all being done at the behest of our top law enforcement officers in contravention to our laws, yet there is nothing ‘we the people’ | Read More »

Mr. Speaker, Tear Up This Farm Bill

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  July 19th at 05:54 PM  | 

Dear Speaker Boehner, During every election cycle, virtually every Republican candidate affirms his or her support for limited government, free markets, and balanced budgets.  They all tout their conservative credentials on the flashy flag-waving issues of the day in an effort to ingratiate themselves with Republican primary voters.  However, it is the “inside baseball” issues such as the farm bill that expose many of them | Read More »

Republicans Help Grow HUD and Big Government

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  July 2nd at 02:00 PM  | 

The House just completed work on another FY 2013 spending bill; the Transportation-HUD Appropriations bill.  This is a unique appropriations bill because most of the underlying content is an anathema to conservatives.  A good part of transportation (highway spending) should be within the purview of state governments; mass transit spending should be eliminated; HUD should be abolished altogether.  As you can imagine, the open floor | Read More »

Tax Cuts for the Rich – Bad; Subsidies – Good

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  June 20th at 09:24 AM  | 

Barack Obama and the Democrats have promised to make this election a turning point in the fight to make the rich “pay their fair share” of taxes.  They are using biblical innuendo to suggest that it is immoral for the top 1% of earners (who happen to make 17% of nation AGI) to only pay 36.7% of the federal income taxes.  This is their hill | Read More »

Rubio’s Nightmare Act Folly

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  June 14th at 05:12 PM  | 

Why is a group of Republicans, led by Senator Marco Rubio, hell-bent on fumbling the football at the goalpost while Democrats are losing on the issue of illegal immigration? Nowhere do we find such a bifurcation between the views of those in the political class and the commonsense of the average citizen as with the issue of illegal immigration.  Among the political class, even some | Read More »

Dick Lugar Haunts the Free Market from the Grave

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  May 23rd at 10:45 AM  | 

You might have thought that we vanquished Dick Lugar from the levers of power a few weeks ago.  But if nothing is done to stop the impending 5-year Farm Bill, he might harm us with his regressive policies long past his time in Washington. Last month, the Senate Agriculture Committee passed a 5-year farm bill that continues to serve as one of the most potent | Read More »

RSC Budget: Cut, Cap, and Balance is Back – And Here to Stay

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  March 27th at 10:50 AM  | 

Last year, we were proud to be one of the first websites to publicly promote the Republican Study Committee’s Cut, Cap and Balance (CCB) plan.  What started out as an idea hatched by a few principled conservatives grew into a unifying rallying cry for the entire conservative movement.  Sadly, GOP leadership jettisoned the universally-heralded CCB plan in favor of the Budget [Out of] Control Act, | Read More »

The Real Problem With Romney’s Comments

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  February 2nd at 07:49 AM  | 

Yesterday, Mitt Romney caused a stir when he made the following remarks about the poor during an interview with CNN: “I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs a repair, I’ll fix it. I’m not concerned about the very rich…. I’m concerned about the very heart of America, the 90-95 percent of Americans who right now are | Read More »

CBO’s Budget Report: Perennial Debt for Generations

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  January 31st at 12:23 PM  | 

“The rosy predictions for revenues and reduced healthcare spending can come to fruition, but not with the current socialist policies as the baseline.” The budget season has officially commenced today with CBO’s release of its annual budget and economic outlook.  Here are some of the major takeaways from the report: FY 2012 Budget The topline figure that the media will focus on is the projected | Read More »

End Refundable Tax Credits for Illegals

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  January 30th at 12:26 PM  | 

Much ink has been poured over the fact that 51% of tax filers paid no federal income taxes in 2009.  There is less attention directed towards the more outrageous statistic; 30% of tax filers had a negative tax liability that year.  In other words, they made money off the tax system. Those who won the jackpot on tax day benefited primarily from refundable tax credits; | Read More »

Healthcare Doesn’t Need European Style Austerity Measures; It Needs Free-Market

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  January 17th at 04:07 PM  | 

“If our goal is to be shielded from any cost of healthcare, we will ultimately be exposed to all costs of healthcare.” Nothing typifies the inane cycle of government dependency and poverty more than the issue of healthcare.  Given that healthcare constitutes 18% of our economy and that millions of Americans are languishing under its crushing costs, it is important that we articulate healthcare reform | Read More »

What Does $40,000 Mean to You?

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  December 22nd at 03:55 PM  | 

Obama has been running around all day making a fool of himself as he promotes his $40 Social Security tax cut.  Yes, the tax plan that will create a new class warfare Social Security Taxable Wage limit in order to accommodate his totally unworkable two-month extension.  Obama has even set up a new web page asking people “what $40 per paycheck would mean to you.” | Read More »

More Problems With Senate Extenders Package

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  December 19th at 03:28 PM  | 

The Senate-passed payroll tax cut extenders package was already on the ropes with House Republicans over the weekend.  The bill (HR 3630) offers a pathetic two-month extension of the payroll tax cut.  In addition, it extends long-term unemployment benefits for the ninth time, along with the annual Medicare doc fix.  The bill gutted all House-passed reforms to medicare and unemployment insurance, while offsetting the cost | Read More »

So This is It?

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  December 16th at 09:13 AM  | 

This is what we get from a new House Republican majority? Call me naive, but from the onset of this legislative session I really expected we would witness some transformational change in the way Washington does business.  That was obviously a foolish expectation. GOP leaders agreed last night to pass the omnibus bill with largely the same provisions as the one they introduced yesterday.  After | Read More »

Annual Deficit Will Absolutely Top $1 Trillion in 2012

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  December 13th at 12:15 PM  | 

“It’s going to take a lot more than a few accounting gimmicks and unrealistic assumptions to cure our budget ailment” Yesterday, the media was agog with glee over reports that CBO is projecting an annual deficit “below $1 trillion for the first time in four years.” How did they arrive at that conclusion? This projection was extrapolated from the Treasury Department’s report of the first | Read More »

Don’t Conflate Super-Long Unemployment Extension With Payroll Tax Cut

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  December 7th at 02:54 PM  | 

The outcome of the impending payroll tax imbroglio seems to be clear.  With Republicans offering spending offsets and Democrats demanding tax increases, my safe premonition is that, for better or worse, the simple tax cut extension will pass, albeit without either “offset” plan.  Due to some divisions among conservatives, such an outcome seems to be intractable at this point. At this point, we must focus | Read More »