Henry Ford told buyers they could get a Model T in “any color as long as it’s black.” Californians may soon find that black is banned. California’s Air Resources Board (CARB) conducted a public workshop this month, outlining their plan to regulate the color of cars. CARB’s website explains: In 2006, California adopted the California [...]
Archive for March, 2009
26 Mar
Sayonara Social Security Surpluses
The federal budget deficit is set to quadruple in 2009 to $1.75 trillion and President Barack Obama’s budget will add another $4.9 trillion in public debt from the beginning of 2010 through 2016. But our fiscal future is in even worse shape than that. As PBS’s Nightly Business Report noted last night, the recession is [...]
26 Mar
CAP Wrong Again: Public Plan Will Kill, Not Create, a Competitive Health Insurance Market
The Center for American Progress has a new report out titled “Competitive Health Care: A Public Health Insurance Plan that Delivers Market Discipline”. Listing everything that we disagree in their report would result in something much longer than a blog post, but since they mention us by name, we need to make one fact clear: [...]
26 Mar
In the Heat of Battle, Secretary Clinton Faults Drug War Strategy
In her March 25-26 visit to Mexico, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attracted considerable attention when she said, “Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade. …So yes, I feel very strongly that we have a co-responsibility.” Secretary Clinton acknowledges that the U.S. market and American habits are a major contributor to drug [...]
26 Mar
Liberal Interest Groups 2, Arizona Children 0
Yesterday, the teachers unions and the ACLU celebrated a victory: the Arizona State Supreme Court ruled that two school voucher programs serving special needs students and foster children were unconstitutional under state law. Of course, this victory for liberal interest groups is a big setback for some of the most at-risk children in Arizona. The [...]
26 Mar
The Bailout Parade Continues (When will this end?)
First Washington decided auto makers needed bailing out, next it was auto parts suppliers, not to mention “too big” insurance companies. Now one Congressman is proposing federal bailouts for individual auto dealers. At today’s House Financial Services Committee hearing one Congressman floated a new proposal: Federal Floor Plan Financing. Auto dealers generally pay for new [...]
26 Mar
Carpe What? Obama’s Plan to Seize Non-Banks
Should the federal government have broad authority to seize private financial institutions on the verge of collapse to keep them from harming the economy? President Obama and his treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, are arguing just that – saying that such power would have eased problems associated with recent bailouts. “(It) is precisely because of the [...]
26 Mar
Is Government Now A Bad Credit Risk?
The credit crunch is hitting Washington, DC, as Uncle Sam maxes out his credit cards. In addition to the enormously costly Obama budget, all the multi-trillion dollar bailouts, stimulus, and government expansion plans depend on one thing—the ability of the U.S. government to get money and spend it. Uncle Sam gets his money from one [...]
26 Mar
Avoiding Vietnam in Afghanistan
Last Monday, Jackson Diehl wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post, which highlighted some necessary steps for success in Afghanistan. Writing from his position in the country, Mr. Diehl noted that troops continue to stream into Afghanistan and the counter-insurgency strategy by General David Petraeus, which was so successful in Iraq, is being implemented. Further, [...]
26 Mar
Currency Misdirection from Beijing
A paper by Chinese central bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan — arguing the world should move off the dollar system — has attracted much attention. Like so many economic stories involving the PRC, there is less here than meets the eye. It is hardly a new thought. Beijing has wistfully imagined for almost a decade a [...]
