Everyone in Washington seems to agree that a huge package of “stimulus spending” will get the economy back on track to prosperity. The problem with stimulus spending is that the government has to get the money from somewhere. Every dollar the government spends has to come from either taxing or borrowing, or deliberately causing inflation. One might be tempted to conclude that there is a finite supply of wealth, and government can divide up the pie in different ways, but can’t make it any bigger. This is of course not …
On Wednesday Nevadan officials met to discuss the transportation of used nuclear fuel to the geologic repository Yucca Mountain. Needless to say, officials had concerns over transporting radioactive waste claiming the plan “lacks so much specificity.” If a few politically entrenched officials in Nevada are going to halt a completely safe process that could grow the state’s ailing economy, maybe we should let them. In fact, since shipping spent fuel is supposedly so dangerous, maybe no radioactive shipments should head to Nevada. Let’s take a look at some of the …
The Heritage Foundation is no believer in Keynesian economics. There simply is no credible evidence that it works. But there are many in President Barack Obama’s administration that are Keynesians. And before they were in Obama’s administration, some even laid out what a stimulus package would have to have in order to be even theoretically effective. Before he was appointed to be the head of the White House’s National Economic Council Larry Summers wrote (thanks to The Atlantic for the link): Poorly provided fiscal stimulus can have worse side effects …
In these opening hours of the federal administration of change, it would appear very little is different. The ill-conceived big-government schemes of the past are being given a 21st Century spin, but are nonetheless the same policies shown to fail mankind over and over. Fortunately, Texas is more wisely governed. The Lone Star State is better weathering the economic crises griping the nation because our governor and legislature have refrained from meddling where government shouldn’t tread. In this video available on our YouTube channel, Texas Gov. Rick Perry rejected the …
The appointment of a Senior Representative on Afghanistan and Pakistan is a welcome development that should help fulfill a long-standing need to better integrate U.S. policy toward these two key countries. It will be helpful to have the focused attention of a senior official who is neither attached to the Embassy in Afghanistan nor the Embassy in Pakistan to bring these two countries together to counter the Taliban/al-Qaeda threat that spans both countries. Part of the problem of dealing with terrorism in South Asia over the past seven years has …
Remember the media’s relentless criticism of the Bush Administration’s “groupthink” leading up to the Iraq War? Now the media is engaged in its own groupthink on how best to stimulate economic growth. The great macroeconomic debate of the past century has been over the role of government in economic growth. Economists representing Keynesian, Supply-side, Monetarist, and Neo-classical theories have battled it out in academic journals, in university classrooms and in faculty lounges. Yet Time’s new cover story, “How to Spend $1 Trillion” declares that debate over. It states: … [W]e …
Sarah Palin is not the VP of the United States but we can still drill, baby, drill. Although President Obama and some Democrats have hinted at reinstating the ban on offshore drilling and implementing restrictions on oil shale development in the West, nine Republican members of Georgia’s congressional delegation are on the offensive – emphasizing the need for more domestic energy supply. Yesterday, they wrote a letter to President Obama asking him to reconsider any plans to halt energy production in America: Dear Mr. President: We write in regards to …
The federal stimulus package is allowing the Governor and Legislature to put off making the hard and necessary decisions to put Maine’s economy on a sustainable, long-term financial footing. For example, recent research by The Maine Heritage Policy Center finds that the state workforce is both over-employed and over-paid when compared to national averages. A restructuring of the state workforce would have saved up $435,224,338 in 2007. To Governor Baldacci’s credit, his latest budget does propose eliminating 219 positions—too bad he has another 4,278 to go. Instead of making additional …
NAME: Mark Sanford OCCUPATION: Governor of South Carolina Chairman, Republican Governors Association HOMETOWN: Charleston, SC Mark Sanford was elected in 2002 after serving six years in the U.S. House, making good on a campaign pledge to serve only three terms as a Congressman. After graduating from Furman University, he went onto receive an MBA at the University of Virginia. He is married to Jenny Sanford, and they are busy raising four boys – Marshall, Landon, Bolton and Blake. You can learn more about what the Governor is up to at …
Blogging for the AFL-CIO, Mike Hall extols the benefits of socialized medicine, including: (1) lower heath care costs, and (2) higher health care costs. Here’s how he puts it: The incoming Obama administration is developing a comprehensive plan to address a broad range of health care concerns. The AFL-CIO has not endorsed a specific plan but has established certain principles that any plan should be built around. Reform must secure high-quality health care for all; lower the costs that are now crushing working families and businesses and share responsibility among …
