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Sunday, March 14, 2010

Slaughter Solution Unconstitutional

John_Paul_Stevens,_SCOTUS_photo_portrait.jpgJustice Stevens' majority opinion in Clinton v. New York signals the Supreme Court's likely view of the Slaughter Solution

Frustrated by their inability to get President Obama's health care plan through Congress, the House leadership is now considering a mad new scheme, dubbed the "Slaughter Solution," to get the Senate version of the bill through a reluctant House.

As described by Mark Tapscott of the Washington Examiner, the Slaughter Solution would "pass [the] legislation by 'deeming' it approved under a House rule instead of following the process required by the U.S. Constitution in which they actually vote on the proposal itself... Slaughter's approach would bring to the House floor a reconcilliation bill to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions of health care reform with the rule deeming the House to have approved the Senate version."

Mark goes on to say a senior House of Representatives GOP staffer has told him the Republicans can find no evidence such a ploy has ever been tried before in the history of the House.

In my view, there's a good reason why not: the legislation would stand a very good chance of being tossed out by the U.S. Supreme Court.

A dozen years ago, in a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the line item veto unconstitutional in Clinton v. City of New York, 524 U.S. 417 (1998).

Writing for the majority, Justice John Paul Stevens laid a likely roadmap for how the Court might rule on a challenge to the constitutionality of the Slaughter Solution:
...our decision rests on the narrow ground that the procedures authorized by the Line Item Veto Act are not authorized by the Constitution. The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 is a 500-page document that became 'Public Law 105--33' after three procedural steps were taken: (1) a bill containing its exact text was approved by a majority of the Members of the House of Representatives; (2) the Senate approved precisely the same text; and (3) that text was signed into law by the President. The Constitution explicitly requires that each of those three steps be taken before a bill may 'become a law.' Art. I, §7. If one paragraph of that text had been omitted at any one of those three stages, Public Law 105--33 would not have been validly enacted. [Emphasis added] If the Line Item Veto Act were valid, it would authorize the President to create a different law - one whose text was not voted on by either House of Congress or presented to the President for signature. Something that might be known as 'Public Law 105--33 as modified by the President' may or may not be desirable, but it is surely not a document that may 'become a law' pursuant to the procedures designed by the Framers of Article I, §7, of the Constitution.
Whether one agrees or disagrees with the Court in the line item veto case, one cannot deny that the majority decision here is a powerful sign that the Slaughter Solution would not be ruled constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.


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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 6:40 PM

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Britain Censors Climate News

ASALogo.png...but maybe not in the way you expect.

It seems Britain's independent, non-governmental Advertising Standards Authority, charged with monitoring advertising for truthfulness, has banned advertisements by Britain's Labour government for exaggerating the risk posed by greenhouse gas emissions.

The ads claimed heat waves, storms and floods will become more "frequent and intense" thanks to "climate change."

The Advertising Standards Authority ruled it is impossible for the government to make such a claim with certainty.

ADDENDUM: Here's what the banned ads look like (open in another window to enlarge):

BritishGovJackandJillb031610.png


BritishGovRubaDub031610.png

The ruling doesn't mean the government has stopped telling mis-truths about global warming, however. For example, on a webpage entitled "Climate change myths and misconceptions," the British government claims climate regulations will lower the cost of energy:

actonco2.direct.gov.uk-031510.png

If this were true, the market would take care of the matter without the need for government interference.

I don't mean to single out the British government, however. Our own lies about global warming rather often.


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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 5:38 PM

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Friday, March 12, 2010

Eric Holder Blames the "Process" (Mafia Attorneys: Please Don't Read This)

I just love how Attorney General Eric Holder blames an inanimate "process" for his own failure in a quote cited at the end of this Legal Times blog post:
"While I made a good faith effort to fully answer the Committee's questions in my initial submission," Holder wrote, "it appears that the process I used to search manually and electronically for relevant material from my three decades in public life was deficient."
Should we have confidence the errors were inadvertent, when the Attorney General sees such a need to couch his terms?

I wonder how many defendants being prosecuted by DOJ for obstruction of justice will now use this defense before a jury:
"While I made a good faith effort to fully comply with the Justice Department's subpoena, it appears that the process I used to search manually and electronically for relevant material was deficient."
Defense lawyers may have a bit of fun with this one. Here's hoping the ones who do are defending innocent people.


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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 6:53 PM

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Extremely Liberal Guy Criticizes Glenn Beck...

...and CNN considers it newsworthy.


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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 6:37 PM

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Alleged Vaccine-Autism Link Receives Another Blow

A special court that examines cases of alleged vaccine injuries has ruled in three cases that there is insufficient evidence to conclude that vaccines containing the preservative thimerosol caused cases of autism.

Autism, however caused, is tragic enough, without having people die because the increasingly-unlikely possibility that vaccines cause autism frightens parents away from vaccines.

It also would be nice if the dollars being spent researching the autism-vaccine link start being more comprehensively spent on more scientifically-objective research into the cause(s) of autism.

Given a choice between a search for a cure or a search for someone to blame, we should be choosing the former.


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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 6:30 PM

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Thanks to Hostway, An Unintended Hiatus for Our Blog

Since March 1, this blog had been on an unintended hiatus, as posts written for it were not publishing to the site.

So we were writing, but you weren't seeing.

Since 2003, this blog has been published by ftp from Blogger, which has been owned by Google for most of that time, to our nationalcenter.org website hosted by Hostway. When publishing went dead, the question was: Is Blogger not sending the files, or is Hostway blocking the files?

Our queries to both firms revealed that each considered the other responsible. With that kind of response, we weren't getting anywhere.

In an effort to break the logjam, we opened a hosting account at Network Solutions (a competitor of Hostway's) and attempted to publish the blog there. It worked, which pretty much means that Google-owned Blogger is off the hook, and Hostway must have been the problem all along. To publish the blog now, we are publishing it to Network Solutions, and manually moving the files from our server space there to our server space at Hostway.

It is a cumbersome and inelegant solution, but it at least means the blog's posts are once again visible to readers here at nationalcenter.org, and to those who subscribe to our RSS feed. It also means you will see a bunch of posts in coming days to catch folks up -- in abbreviated form at least -- with a few of the things we have been up to during the unintended hiatus.

I would like to think Hostway's technical support will fix its problem and start accepting incoming ftp files from Blogger as it has since 2003, but I can't say things are looking good. Although I have had numerous email exchanges and phone conversations with Hostway personnel about the problem, today I received the following email from Hostway:
Hello,

Please accept our sincere apologies for the delay and any inconveniences caused in our services.

We will need some additional information on the issue you are experiencing so we can further troubleshoot. Please provide us with step by step instructions and all necessary information so we can replicate the error on our end. We appreciate your elaboration in this matter.

Thank you!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us again.
It seems that Hostway's technical support staff has yet to grasp what I've been telling them for more than ten days: that sometime on or just before March 1, Hostway began blocking files coming in via ftp from Blogger. Either that, or Hostway is pretending it doesn't understand. So I'm not at all sure we can rely on Hostway to repair the problem, though thanks to our Network Solutions workaround, our readers at least should be able to see our posts while we execute a more permanent solution.


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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 6:24 PM

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Thursday, March 04, 2010

Deneen Borelli Discusses Health Care and Tea Party Movement on Fox and Friends


On this morning's edition of Fox and Friends, Project 21 full-time fellow Deneen Borelli discussed the Tea Party movement's reaction to President Obama's continuing push for the big government health care plan.


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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 6:29 PM

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Project 21's Robin Martin on Michelle Obama's Anti-Obesity Campaign


On a recent edition of the PBS Show "To the Contrary," Project 21's Robin Martin discussed Michelle Obama's health food and anti-obesity campaigns.


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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 6:15 PM

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Wednesday, March 03, 2010

The Madness of King Barack

Matt Patterson has a few words about the President's announcement that the health care reform debate is over.


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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 9:57 PM

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Project 21's Deneen Borelli on "Fox and Friends" Thursday Morning

Project 21 fellow Deneen Borelli is scheduled to appear on "Fox and Friends" on the Fox News Channel on Thursday, March 4 at approximately 6:15 AM eastern.

Deneen is expected to talk about health care reform efforts and other breaking morning news. Deneen and her husband, National Center Free Enterprise Project director Tom Borelli, just authored a commentary on how tea party politics factor into the Obama health care plans that was published on the channel's "Fox Forum."

Check your local listings for Fox News Channel on cable. Fox News Channel is available on channel 118 on Fios, channel 205 on Dish Network and channel 360 on DirecTV.

This post was written by David Almasi, executive director of the National Center for Public Policy Research. Write the author at info@nationalcenter.org. As we occasionally reprint letters on the blog, please note if you prefer that your correspondence be kept private, or only published anonymously.


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Posted by David W. Almasi at 9:15 PM

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Articles We'd We'd Like To See Removed from the Internet

TheRoot030210upload.pngI see "The Root," a website run by the Washington Post and Henry Louis Gates, has declined to remove an article equating black conservatives with criminals just because they are conservative.

Project 21 members complained about this article on February 24; others have as well, but as usual, black conservatives are considered fair game.

I think their rule is that white people are allowed to think for themselves, but black people aren't, though you'd have to confirm that's what the logic is with the Washington Post and Henry Louis Gates.

Shameful.


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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 6:42 AM

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Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Treat All Car Companies the Same

Thomas Lifson at American Thinker asks: "Will GM execs be dragged before Congress?" as the Toyota executives were?

Ordinarily I oppose Congressional show trials of corporate CEOs, finding it repulsive that people responsible for the insolvent Medicare and Social Security systems pretend to be morally qualified to sit in judgment of the business acumen of others, but now that the U.S. government is in the car business, Congress must bend over backwards to be neutral.

While the GM executives are testifying, I hope someone asks them to account for their membership in the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, which lobbies for cap-and-trade legislation. Tax money should not be used for lobbying.

P.S. My opinion in this situation is unrelated to my past ownership of a Chevrolet Cavalier with a so-called "sticky accelerator." Very scary situation to be in. I was able to get out of it by braking as hard as possible while switching the car out of drive and coasting to a stop. I took it to a Chevy dealership for repair, but the dealership said it could not replicate the problem, so I was left to take my chances. I sold the car instead (with full and emphatic disclosure) to a car dealer, and bought my first foreign car of my life to replace it. These days, ironically, I own a Toyota. 83,000 miles on it so far, and no problems.


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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 10:38 PM

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Monday, March 01, 2010

Did Charles Rangel Vote for Sarbanes-Oxley?

Yes, on July 25, 2002, Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) voted to agree to the conference report for the Corporate and Auditing Accountability and Responsibility Act, better known as Sarbanes-Oxley.

If you just came back from a deserted island, Rep. Rangel has been admonished by the House Ethics Committee for breaking House rules regarding corporate sponsorship of Congressional travel; Rep. Rangel's defense is that he didn't know corporations paid for his travel, his staff did, and he shouldn't be held responsible for the actions of his Congressional staff.

Under Sarbanes-Oxley, corporate CEOs can be held criminally responsible for signing false reports, including reports prepared by staff (as most are).

Regardless of the double-standard Rangel seeks to hide behind, Peter Flaherty of the National Legal and Policy Center -- which broke the Rangel scandal in the first place and is still the best source of information on it -- says it simply is not credible that Rangel didn't know he was violating House rules by accepting direct corporate support for his travel.

Go here to visit the National Legal and Policy Center's website, which shows pictures of Charlie Rangel at the Caribbean conference, facing a sign listing the conference's many corporate sponsors.

Perhaps next the Congressman will claim he cannot read?

In related Charlie Rangel-scandal news, House Democrats are increasingly pressuring House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to ask Rangel to step down from his post as chairman of the uber-powerful House Ways and Means Committee.


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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 11:57 PM

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Friday, February 26, 2010

One Man's "Talking Points" Might be Another Man's Point

At yesterday's "Health Care Summit," President Obama frequently expressed opposition to the use of talking points during the conversation.

In our biz, that is to say, the non-political public policy arena of the think-tank world, "talking points" are simply a succinct version of one's remarks, distilled in such a way as to present information in an orderly an efficient manner. I assume the same goes for the use of the term in business settings.

As it is likely President Obama is not opposed to succinct presentations, his definition of "talking point" must be something else.

Might that "something else" be "speech uttered for political gain"?

My sense in watching the summit was that that President continuously assumed speakers who disagreed with him were engaging in political rather than policy-oriented speech. He could not, or would not, not see that disagreement with his proposed methods could be based on principle.

This says something, I think, about the insular world he inhabits.


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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 6:26 PM

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"We Don't Think the Government Should Be in Control of All This"

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) on the differences between conservatives and the White House on the way to improve our health care system:

Hat tip: RealClearPolitics.


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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 6:25 PM

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No Climate Bill In 2010

InvestorsBusinessDailyLogo.jpgIn an article by Ed Carson that includes embedded video of our Tom Borelli, Investors Business Daily's "Capital Hill" Politics and markets blog is reporting that President Obama will fail to get his climate legislation adopted by the Senate this year.

This failure could turn out to be the best thing the Obama Administration ever does to reduce unemployment.


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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 4:30 PM

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More Project 21 Criticism of NAACP Image Award for Van Jones

Project 21 chairman Mychal Massie criticized the NAACP for giving an Image Award to Van Jones ’Äî the former Obama Administration ’Äúgreen jobs czar’Äù who was thrown under the bus by the White House last September. Massie gave a stern rebuttal to a commentary written by NAACP president Benjamin Todd Jealous that was posted on CNN.com in which Jealous sought to justify the award to Jones.

Mychal’Äôs comments about the award can be found here.

But Mychal is not the only Project 21 member speaking out about this dubious selection made by the NAACP. Here is what other Project 21 members are saying:

R. Dozier Gray:
The NAACP, through president Ben Jealous, christened Van Jones a ’ÄúAmerican treasure.’Äù Really? Why?

If he were such a treasure, why would the Obama Administration no longer have a place for him? It was certainly not because the White House disagrees with his bent on green jobs. It was because, through his past radicalism and current demeanor, he became a political liability.

So the question is, how is it that Van Jones is not too caustic for the NAACP?

It seems that regardless of the baggage that Jones carries with him, the NAACP thinks it worthwhile ’Äîeven beneficial ’Äî to associate with him.

The NAACP says Jones is qualified for one of its special Image Awards because of his work in helping develop a ’Äúgreen collar’Äù economy. We only need to look to Spain to see how silly this is. Every one Spanish green job cost 2.2 regular jobs in its creation, and one-in-ten of those green jobs might actually last. So, what is the value of this treasure? Anti-capitalism? Anti-jobs?
Deneen Borelli:
After Van Jones effectively slit his own throat by not being able to keep his radicalism in check ’Äî and was forced out of the White House as a result ’Äî it would appear the NAACP is helping Jones rebuild his image. I don’Äôt think this is what the Image Awards was originally intended to do.

In bestowing an Image Award on this once self-proclaimed communist and 911-truther, the NAACP is again showing its real aim these days is to promote and defend the left-wing agenda. With so many blacks making legitimate achievements in American society today, it’Äôs outrageous that the NAACP is picking from the bottom of the barrel with Jones.

The main beneficiaries of this award are Jones and the shamed Obama Administration that hired him. With their flawed cap-and-trade energy tax on the ropes, they are likely hoping a rehabilitated Jones will be an asset in touting the false benefits of a ’Äúgreen economy.’Äù
This post was written by David Almasi, executive director of the National Center for Public Policy Research. Write the author at info@nationalcenter.org.

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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 5:00 AM

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Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Obama's Health Care Strategy in Under 25 Words

Writing in the Examiner, National Center for Public Policy Research policy analyst Matt Patterson nails the White House strategy on health care in 23 succinct words: "The President's strategy is clear: First turn the insurance companies into government utilities. Then run them out of business. Then fill the void."


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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 7:20 PM

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Bloomberg Covers National Center Questions for John Deere Management

JohnDeereLogo.jpgBloomberg News is covering Tom and Deneen Borelli's appearance at the John Deere stockholder meeting today:
...[John Deere CEO Samuel] Allen defended Deere's membership in the U.S. Climate Action Partnership amid questions from Tom and Deneen Borelli, with the conservative think tank National Center for Public Policy Research, who say proposed cap-and-trade legislation will push up fuel prices and hurt job growth. U.S. CAP is a coalition of companies and environmental groups seeking legislation to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

Cap and Trade

Allen said Deere wants to be part of the debate and is evaluating all proposals, and that cap and trade can succeed if done the right way.

'The best opportunity to help is to be at the table,' Allen said in response to public questions at the meeting.

Tom Borelli said cap and trade will be a tax on fossil fuels and hurt customers ability to buy Deere products. He noted the decision by Caterpillar Inc. not to renew its membership.

'Sitting at the table is not good enough,' Tom Borelli said.

Allen said he would evaluate cap-and-trade policy with the interests of Deere, its customers and shareholders in mind...
Read Bloomberg's entire article here.

Tom and Deneen attended the meeting as representatives of the National Center, which is a John Deere stockholder. Tom directs our Free Enterprise Project, and Deneen is a full-time fellow with the African-American leadership group we sponsor, Project 21.


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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 7:02 PM

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Why is John Deere Lobbying for Cap-and-Trade?

JohnDeere022410DBorelli.jpg
Tom Borelli, director of the National Center for Public Policy Research's Free Enterprise Project, and his wife Deneen Borelli, Project 21's full-time fellow, are spending the day at the John Deere headquarters, attending the stockholder meeting and asking company executives: Why are you members of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership? Why are you part of an organization that exists to lobby for cap-and-trade, which will hurt your customers and the American people?

In an article published today by FoxNews.com, Tom sets out the issues in more detail:
Big business support of President Obama's health care and energy policy has put CEOs on the front lines of the nation's biggest political battles. Big PhRMA - the drug industry trade group - is credited with bringing Obama's health care plan to the precipice of passage and the United States Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) - a coalition of business and environmental special interest groups - played a key role in passing the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill in the House of Representatives last year.

Clearly, CEOs see big bucks in big government.

Beyond dreams of fortune, chief executives also proved to be a national risk when their mismanagement drove our nation into greater debt through taxpayer-funded bailouts.

While liberty-minded citizens can seek to elect politicians that support limited government, big government CEOs (or, perhaps, progressive CEOs) remain largely beyond our reach.

Because CEOs can represent as much of a risk to liberty as elected officials, limited government advocates need a voice in the boardroom.

For this reason, my wife Deneen and I are attending the John Deere annual shareholder meeting today in Moline, Illinois on behalf of the National Center for Public Policy Research, a free-market think-tank that owns shares in John Deere.

Our goal is to press management to justify why John Deere remains a member of USCAP and why these executives believe a cap-and-trade scheme is in the company's best interest. These questions are especially timely, as BP, Caterpillar and ConocoPhillips made national news this month, after they abandoned USCAP...
You can read the rest of the FoxNews.com article here.

We'll have more updates later.


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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 12:41 PM

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What's the Rush?

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The Navy has announced it will allow females to serve on submarines, but these ladies don't look old enough to drive.


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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 1:45 AM

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Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Harry Reid Proves Deficit Commission is a Joke

What a joke President Obama's "deficit commission" (deficit of leadership, I'd say) is. Majority Leader Harry Reid has announced that one of the three big-spending liberals* he's appointing to a commission intended to convince us the left isn't spending us into perdition is Montana Senator Max Baucus.

Baucus has since 2007 held the chairmanship of the Senate Finance Committee, which has oversight over the fiscal fortunes of Social Security and Medicare, both of which are insolvent. Does Baucus do anything about this? Does he even hold hearings to seriously discuss what to do?

No, except for spending much of the last couple of years working to expand the burden under which these systems operate (when he wasn't taking his girlfriend, who was on his taxpayer-financed staff payroll, on taxpayer-financed tours of exotic locales), Baucus has been doing nothing about the insolvent Social Security and Medicare systems.

And now we're supposed to believe he cares enough about the federal deficit to help make the hard decisions that can get the country out of this mess? Ha!

P.S. I hope the GOP gives one of its slots to Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who is likely to sit at all the meetings -- these meetings all will be on C-SPAN, right Mrs. President? -- and say "where in the Constitution does it give us the authority to spend this? Where in the Constitution does it give us the authority to spend that?" The leftists will ignore him but the public would love the fact that they can't give him an answer.

* The other two are Senators Dick Durbin and Kent Conrad, whose big-spending ways are legendary.



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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 10:01 PM

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Why is Lindsay Graham Helping Obama and GE?

Why is Senator Lindsay Graham seeking to bail out GE and Obama's failing [anti-]energy plan?


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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 8:05 AM

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Monday, February 22, 2010

Obamacare = Socialism

Obamacare, says National Center policy analyst Matt Patterson, is socialism by any other name.


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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 5:45 PM

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Friday, February 19, 2010

Thoughts on Tiger Woods

FoxNews.com has published Deneen Borelli's reflections on what Tiger Woods said in his press statement today.

Deneen begins:
The silver lining in Friday's dark cloud was Tiger's frank discussion of how fame and fortune lead to an entitlement power trip. His assessment could serve as a warning to anyone who thinks they are above the earthly constraints of normal human relations...
Read it all here.


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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 2:29 PM

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Global Warming Strikes Again

Go here for details.


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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 12:55 AM

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Thursday, February 18, 2010

National Center's Tom Borelli Discusses Corporate Retreat from Cap-and-Trade on Fox Business Network's "Cavuto" This Friday

IMPORTANT UPDATE: This interview has now been cancelled.

Tom Borelli, director of the National Center's Free Enterprise Project, is scheduled to appear on the Fox Business Network's "Cavuto" program on Friday, February 19 at 6:00 PM eastern.

Tom has been asked to talk about the recent defection of several corporations from the business-special interest USCAP lobby coalition. A key player in the push for the Obama Administration's cap-and-trade energy tax agenda, five businesses were reported to have abandoned their USCAP memberships this week.

Tom personally took on the leaders of many of these same corporations for their USCAP membership at past shareholder meetings.

National Center press releases on this major development in global warming politics can be found here and here.

Check your local listings for Fox Business Network on cable. Fox Business Network is available on channel 117 on Fios, channel 206 on Dish Network and channel 359 on DirecTV.

This post was written by David Almasi, executive director of the National Center for Public Policy Research. Write the author at info@nationalcenter.org.


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Posted by David W. Almasi at 4:29 PM

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Deneen Borelli on Fox Today

Project 21's full-time fellow, Deneen Borelli, will be a guest today on the Fox New Channel's America Live with Megyn Kelly at 2:15 PM Eastern.

The topic is to be issues related to Tiger Woods.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Deneen has just been informed that the segment must be cancelled due to breaking news.


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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 12:28 PM

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Global Warming Strikes Again

Global warming is so snowy in Britain, it's turning some lawns pink.


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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 9:25 PM

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Here's How Big Business Benefits from Cap-and-Trade

Tom Borelli explains how General Electric plans to benefit from President Obama's cap-and-trade plan on a recent edition of Stuart Varney's Varney and Co. show:


Unfortunately for the American public, GE's gain would be our loss.


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Posted by Amy Ridenour at 12:48 PM

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