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 »

Rick Santorum: A Massively Expanded Welfare State is ‘The Genuine Conservatism our Founders Envisioned’

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  January 11th at 09:00 PM  | 

Despite strident opposition from supporters who maintain that Rick Santorum is a “true conservative” in the mold of – you guessed it – Ronald Reagan, the already huge mountain of evidence that he is, at heart, a ‘big-government conservative’ continues to grow. As Erick noted previously, in 2008 Santorum said: This whole idea of personal autonomy, well I don’t think most conservatives hold that point | 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 »

We Need Employment Benefits, Not Another Permanent Welfare Program

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  December 4th at 10:46 PM  | 

Here we go again.  After a full year of grandstanding against another extension of unemployment benefits, some Republicans are ready to cave. “do we believe in free-market doctrine, which suggests that extended UI hurts the economy, or the Keynesian multiplier, which suggests that UI helps the economy?” If you ever wondered why it is so hard to cut spending, and more importantly, to downsize government, | Read More »

The College of Hypocritical Big Government Cardinals

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  November 30th at 11:46 AM  | 

There is an old adage in Washington that describes the political system as consisting of three political parties; Democrats, Republicans, and Appropriators.  The Appropriations Subcommittee chairmen, often referred to as the “College of Cardinals,” usually agree to concoct legislation that fuses the worst elements of the evil and stupid parties, resulting in something worse than a pure Democrat proposal. This is exactly what transpired with | Read More »

The $15 Trillion Super Circus

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  November 17th at 08:39 AM  | 

The day has arrived.  Our total debt has surpassed $15 trillion.  At the close of business on Wednesday, the debt stood at $15.033 trillion, and is on the cusp of overtaking our GDP.  Overall, the federal debt has risen $4.41 trillion (41.5%) since Obama took office and $6.36 trillion (73%) since the Democrats took control of Congress in 2007.  Our GDP has grown by only | Read More »