Too Much Government, Too Little Spectrum

By: Commissioner Ajit Pai (Diary)  |  January 3rd at 09:30 AM  | 

From the diaries…

When conservatives complain about the federal government, we all know the usual litany. The government spends too much, taxes too much, borrows too much, and regulates too much. But there is another “too much” most people don’t even know about: The federal government controls too much spectrum.

Why is this important? Well, when you make a call on your cellphone, you’re using spectrum. When you listen to the radio or watch broadcast television, you’re using spectrum. And when you surf the Internet, send a text, download an app, watch a movie, or play a game on your smartphone or tablet, you’re using spectrum. Put simply, our daily lives are ever more dependent on the airwaves over which communications signals travel.

But guess who controls a majority of the best spectrum, the spectrum most suitable for mobile broadband? It’s the federal government itself. Almost 60 percent of that spectrum is in federal hands, primarily used by federal agencies for their own purposes.

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Have Republicans Boxed Themselves Into a Government Shutdown?

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  January 2nd at 09:09 PM  | 

First of all, I hope so. But have they boxed themselves in? Consider that the fiscal cliff deal is playing badly with lots of folks, not just partisan Republicans and partisan Democrats. Congress playing brinksmanship with nothing to show for it really is aggravating the American public. If both sides are going to play at brinksmanship, at some point the base of the parties and | Read More »

Let’s Give Up on Professor Louis Michael Seidman

By: AndrewHyman (Diary)  |  January 2nd at 04:30 PM  | 

Georgetown Law Professor Louis Michael Seidman had a really awful op-Ed on December 30, 2012 in the New York Times (even by that newspaper’s low standards) titled “Let’s Give Up on the Constitution”. I say let’s give up on him, instead.

Why anyone thinks this guy is qualified to be a constitutional law professor boggles my mind. Maybe it’s time to give up on tenure, too.

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Silver Linings in the Fiscal Cliff Deal

By: Dan McLaughlin (Diary)  |  January 2nd at 03:44 PM  | 

I will not try to convince any conservative that the final fiscal cliff deal that passed the Senate with only a few dissenting votes and needed Democratic votes to pass the House with a divided GOP caucus is a good deal, nor that it is the best deal available under the circumstances. It is, however, important to remember that this was a deal negotiated under | Read More »

The Cult of Paul Ryan

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  January 2nd at 03:12 PM  | 

Paul Ryan was a great pick for Mitt Romney’s Vice President. He’s a young, articulate guy the left has tried and failed repeatedly to paint as some sort of heartless monster. His “Ryan Plan” has some great points in it, though it is not as bold as the left would have you believe or as Ryan’s acolytes would have you believe. But this fiscal cliff | Read More »

It is Time for Some Honesty.

By: Thomas Crown (Diary)  |  January 2nd at 11:18 AM  | 

In a turn of events that should be a surprise only if you’ve never heard of Mitch McConnell before, the Senate — with one heck of a lot of Senate Republicans, including nominal conservatives, agreeing — just decided to hike taxes on small businesses and skip any spending cuts of any kind, and over a third of the Republican caucus including the Speaker agreed. Indeed, | Read More »

‘House GOP in Disarray’ Isn’t Just Liberal Media Spin

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  January 2nd at 09:17 AM  | 

Many Republicans are trying ton convince themselves that they will make up ground on the spending side of the equation come the debt ceiling fight. Mr. Obama says he will not negotiate, but he is going to have to. The problem for the GOP is that its House leadership is working at cross purposes and really is in the disarray the “liberal media” keeps saying. | Read More »

A New Agenda

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  January 2nd at 04:30 AM  | 

As we start the new year, it is sad to see so many Republicans patting themselves on the back, Grover Norquist included it seems, saying, “It’s ok, it really was a tax decrease because it is Tuesday.” The one pledge to rule them all got obfuscated away conveniently and it is time to move on to a new agenda for the Republican Party. We are | Read More »

The McConnell Tax Hike

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  January 1st at 08:38 PM  | 

The McConnell Tax Hike will become law of the land. Mitch McConnell can and should take responsibility for it. The McConnell Tax Hike raises taxes on people making over $400,000.00, but it also raises taxes on the middle class. “More than 80 percent of households with incomes between $50,000 and $200,000 would pay higher taxes.” Not only does the McConnell Tax Hike stick it to | Read More »

The House Must Act Now

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  January 1st at 02:59 PM  | 

Well, we really stuck it to the rich at 1:39 in the morning.  Whew, now we can breathe a sigh of relief.  The 40 Republicans who voted for Obama’s stimulus bill had to swallow hard voting for over $100 billion in new spending just in 2013, but at least those of us who are not super rich won’t see our taxes increase this year. Oh | Read More »

Obama Has His Revenue. Time for Republicans to Step Up or Get Out.

By: Ben Howe (Diary)  |  January 1st at 02:17 PM  | 

Most of my morning has been spent listening to the two camps on twitter and in the news. Half say we got a bad deal in the Fiscal Cliff debate. The other half say we got the best we could and should be happy with the concessions we extracted from the Democrats. From the beginning, this negotiation has been a mess. Every day we were | Read More »

House Republicans: Don’t Play the Game

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  January 1st at 10:15 AM  | 

Last night, without any legislative language, the Senate Republicans and Democrats voted to raise taxes. They did not just vote to raise income taxes. They voted to raise the payroll tax on all Americans. This will hurt small businesses. Ironically, this plan generates less revenue than even John Boehner’s Plan B option. But both options, as I have long maintained, were only about breaking the | Read More »

Hey House Republicans, Here’s What Obama is Saying Today

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  January 1st at 09:27 AM  | 

As Chad Pergram notes on twitter, Ed Henry reports the White House is calling getting the GOP to break its tax pledge, “One of the most consequential policy achievements of the last couple of decades.” See how this is already being spun. Do you really want to do this? You have a choice. Oppose this deal. It does nothing to solve our problems. It does | Read More »

Senate passes Obama’s fiscal cliff tax increases in dead of night

By: Dan Spencer (Diary)  |  January 1st at 06:52 AM  | 

In a move all too reminiscent of the passage of the ever unpopular ObamaCare, last night the Senate voted 89 to 8 to approve the so-called “American Taxpayer Relief Act” (H.R. 8, as amended). The deal was negotiated by Vice President Joseph Biden and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. You can read the 157 page bill here. It is very unlikely that any Senator actually | Read More »

Fiscal Deal: Tax Hikes, Green Pork, Stimulus, Oh My

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  December 31st at 06:58 PM  | 

Surprise surprise, they have a deal to avoid the politicians’ cliff.  Who didn’t see that coming? Here’s an enigmatic riddle for you: what happens when Republicans publicly obsess about the degree of tax increases they are willing to accept without a commensurate demand for spending cuts?  You get tax hikes and no spending cuts!  In fact, we will spend even more as a result of | Read More »