Mitt Romney might feel that entitlement reform is an electoral loser, but it is precisely his unprincipled Mittness Protection Program of a political platform that will lose him the nomination. Republicans are looking for a leader – and leaders show courage by articulating bold solutions to our most consequential public policy problems, such as retirement security; not by ducking behind them and palavering liberal demagoguery. | Read More »
You’ve probably read by now Mitt Romney adviser Stuart Stevens’ gleeful email to Ben Smith – and might I add that there is something unseemly about an ostensible Republican using Politico for what is essentially an internal debate? – crowing over Governor Rick Perry’s rather sensible observation that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme: He has lost. No federal candidate has ever won on the | Read More »
Karl Rove is joining the left-wing/Romney camp alliance against Rick Perry’s candid statements about Social Security in his book, Fed Up. Even Baghdad Jim McDermott is praising Karl Rove’s broadside on Perry. Earlier today, on Good Morning America, Rove had this to say about Perry’s condemnation of Social Security as a Ponzi scheme in his book: What they’ve done thus far is, I think, inadequate. | Read More »
After Labor Day, Obama plans to unveil his highly unanticipated jobs plan. Much like his first jobs plan, this one will include massive stimulus handouts to special interests, prodigal infrastructure spending (as much as $556 billion), unprecedented extensions of unemployment benefits, and more welfare transfer payments. Concurrently, he will inveigh against “rich” job creators and offer a healthy dose of vapid rhetoric regarding regulatory reform. | Read More »
Immediately prior to breaking for the August recess, Congress passed a bipartisan agreement to cut spending. Well, sort of. Leaders in both parties got together to do something evil and stupid; they agreed to the largest increase in the debt ceiling, without solving our debt problem. They cut discretionary spending by $6.67 billion for FY 2012, from $1.0497 trillion to $1.043 trillion. That’s a bit | Read More »
Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca and Congressman Paul Ryan to discuss the latest in the debt ceiling negotiations, the Senate’s Gang of Six plan, and the need to means test entitlement reform. We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If | Read More »
As a rule of thumb, any idea coming from a gang is not a good one. This holds true in the real world; it is certainly true in the gangster world of the U.S. Senate. Members of the media are agog with glee over the supposed Gang of Six deal to cut the deficit by $3.7 trillion over 10 years. There is much hype over | Read More »
From the diaries by Erick Barack Obama has taken a page from the Clinton playbook, and is threatening to cut social security if a deal is not reached to extend the debt limit. Social security and interest on the debt are, collectively, less than half of the revenue stream which would continue to come into the government, even if the government couldn’t borrow a penny. | Read More »
The Social Security Ponzi scheme is perhaps the most consequential government infringement upon our lives. Conservatives are justifiably outraged that Obama egregiously mandated that we purchase health insurance. However, the individual mandate is not nearly as meddlesome and tyrannical as the government’s complete control over our retirement security. The only reason why these two programs are regarded differently by the public, is because Social Security | Read More »
OK, that’s not the title of the piece. The title of the piece is “Social Security reform splits White House political, economic teams.” I’m merely providing a translation from the original Beltwayese. The problem is this: somebody told The Hill that Obama’s advisers are broken up into two groups. The first group consists of the financial people, who are patiently explaining that Social Security is | Read More »
Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss stock derivatives, the Flash Crash and the failing financial status of USA Inc. We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We | Read More »
Imagine for a moment a private financial services firm caught running a ponzi scheme in which public funds were spent on lavish projects for the manager’s friends. Astoundingly, instead of incarcerating the perpetrators and returning the money to the investors, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) negotiates with the criminals. That’s right. The SEC collaborates with the criminal executives to force the public to contribute | Read More »
You can really tell that Russ Carnahan desperately wants to be seen as a smart man. Why else would he speak so forcefully about a topic without knowing much about it. That’s exactly what he did in his debate against Ed Martin. Carnahan attempted to gain some political points against Martin by railing against Social Security privatization, tying his wisdom to the drop in the | Read More »
A headline at CNN back on August 13th proclaimed “Democrats to use Social Security against GOP this fall”. There is just one problem. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that it is Barack Obama’s own debt commission that intends to destroy social security as we know it. In addition to raising the retirement age, which is now set to reach age 67 in 2027, specific | Read More »
When it comes to the ‘framing’ of public discourse on entitlements, Paul Krugman is accustomed to writing columns that are more about issuing commands than making arguments; he has railed in the past even against President Obama for admitting that yes, we do have a problem paying for the explosive present and future growth of entitlements. But even for this genre of “there is no | Read More »
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