February 2, 2019

Border cowards

Congressional Democrats are cowards. They are so fearful of violating the party’s new orthodoxy on border security they are abandoning sensible policies. Democrats still serving in Congress voted for border fences in 1996, 2006, 2007, and 2013....

January 26, 2019

Senator Warren: A demagogue's delight

Senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren proposes a new tax – not on income, but on wealth.  There are a variety of economic arguments against a wealth tax, but I will let economists argue those.  My objection is ...

January 3, 2019

The End of Everything...or Not

The media and many political elites are warning me to prepare for pretty much the end of everything.  But the life I lead seems to be going along on its usual pedestrian path.  Is it possible that the impending doom highlighted by...

December 1, 2016

Refuting government happy talk on Medicare fraud

Here's a radical idea.  When government departments and agencies issue press releases crowing about something they've done, put the accomplishment in context with the size of the problem. This came to mind as I was reading the October...

July 30, 2016

The 2016 Democratic Platform: Be Happy

In these troubled times, are you feeling anxious? Do you wake up at night wondering if the country is on the right track? Well, friends, I have in my hand a document with words of comfort and encouragement for troubled souls: the 2016 Democratic...

July 14, 2015

Hillary's song

Don’t cry for me Puerto Rico The truth is I always used you All through my campaigns My fab existence I kept my millions Don’t keep your distance The Evita of American politics, Hillary Clinton, has announced her new economic prog...

July 8, 2015

HRC: MsJudgment

For the upcoming presidential election, good advice came years ago from Lt. General Russel L. Honoré: don’t get “stuck on stupid.”  General Honoré was asking everyone to get ready for an impending storm (Hurricane...

April 3, 2015

Ted Cruz - Truth Teller?

In his presidential campaign announcement speech, Ted Cruz said, “It is a time for truth.” And on TV the day after his announcement he said, “I’ll tell the truth…” and he said, “My plan is to speak the truth...

February 13, 2015

Hillary and Jobs: Haiti yes; America no

When unemployment reached its highest levels, Hillary Clinton had a chance to push through a project creating thousands of jobs in America. Instead she pushed through a $300 million project creating thousands of jobs in Haiti. The two projects had...

February 7, 2015

And the next president is...

Based on historical patterns, the next president is likely to be a Gen Xer.  This is not good news for the many baby boomers running, or thinking about running, in 2016. When voters decide it is time to move the presidency on to the next gene...

January 21, 2015

Hillary Clinton's Peace Talks with the Taliban

As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton orchestrated peace talks with the Taliban.  The first meeting took place in Germany on November 28, 2010.  Clinton sent a State Department official to meet with the Taliban leader’s chief of staf...

January 6, 2015

A great idea from Larry Summers

Now that energy prices are down, Lawrence Summers argues that this is the right time for a carbon tax.  In a Washington Post column (1/5/15), Summers explains that since consumers have received a windfall, “it would be possible to impose s...

December 20, 2014

Jeb Bush and Tenet Healthcare Corp.

Jeb Bush left the Florida governor’s office in January of 2007, after eight years of service.  Three months later, he joined the board of a hospital company that had been pillaging government health programs and abusing patients, in Florid...

December 11, 2014

The Rule of Law's Abusers and Enablers

Is it smart to launch a major government program by claiming that it is authorized through an ambiguity in the law? And do those who allow ambiguities in the law have a leg to stand on when they complain about their use? Translation: The Obama adm...

November 26, 2014

The Rule of Memo

Turn now to the President’s “executive action” on immigration. What did he do? According to a wide variety of media sources, the President issued an executive order. Maria Cardona, political commentator for CNN (11/21/14): ...

May 8, 2014

Rude Behavior at Rutgers

Like most people, I still think of myself as someone from my birth state, even though I have not lived there for almost 50 years.  I was born in New Jersey, in the same hospital where my father was born so many years before me.  It is where...

March 15, 2014

Members of Congress: Your Friendly Insurance Agents

Who knew?  Members of Congress want to be insurance agents.  Perhaps they are jealous of all the attention lavished on the gecko, the duck, and Flo. In 2012, the wannabe congressional insurance agents wrote a new flood insurance policy. ...

March 8, 2014

When Democrats Defended the Constitution

On March 5, 2014 President Obama again amended the Affordable Care Act, enacted into law four years earlier. George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley (who supports national health care) said, “What the president is doing is ef...

March 3, 2014

Legislative Grotesquerie

President Obama signed the 2014 farm bill this February. News media described the bill as “hideously complex,” as “sprawling legislation,” and my favorite, as a “legislative grotesquerie.” The House and Senate A...

October 31, 2013

Obamacar? A bad dream come true

We took our 1994, paid for, still running, Toyota Corolla in for an oil change. That's when the nightmare began. After we checked in at the service desk, the service rep asked us to step into a small room. "We are confiscating your car," she said...

September 5, 2013

Foreign Policy by Slogan

As long as I can remember, policies that made no sense on their own have been dressed up in slogans, designed to make the ridiculous appear serious. On the ground in Vietnam I heard about "Vietnamization" or "strategic hamlets" or "light at the end ...

April 29, 2013

Lying about the law? How can you tell?

When the U.S. Senate failed to pass the Manchin/Toomey background check amendment in April of this year, President Obama complained that opponents were lying about the gun control bill.  The bill and the amendment were written in what amounts to...

February 22, 2013

Fix the Law to Fix America

Federal law is a confused mess.  Under the fog of that confusion, new laws are written that expand, duplicate, and complicate government.  Since reading the law is nearly impossible for the average citizen, we rely on the "explanation" from...