Centrally planned job creation and scientific research pose many of the same problems: extraordinary expense, a pattern of politically shaped insider transactions, and less than promising results. This occurs for substantially the same reason: government attempts to pick winners and losers in developing fields ignore the discipline of the marketplace and the wisdom of personal investment. Consider the story of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). California voters approved Proposition 71 in 2004, which authorized the creation of the institute and permitted it to raise up to $3 billion …
For years, supporters of Internet regulation have argued that it is a political winner—that voters would flock to candidates who promised to impose so-called neutrality rules on the Web. Last week, that proposition was put to the test, as a group called the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) released a statement signed by 95 candidates for Congress pledging to support net neutrality regulation if elected. At the time, a spokesman for the PCCC predicted that “the announcement would help generate enthusiasm for net-neutrality legislation in the next Congress.” The test …
It doesn’t matter who asks the question (CNN, Gallup, Pew, Fox, ABC, or CBS) the answer is always the same: the American people believe President Barack Obama’s $814 billion economic stimulus failed. The White House believes that this is a failure of communications not a failure of policy. Enter newly minted White House Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, and 1991 college National Debate Team of the Year champion, Austan Goolsbee. Goolsbee has begun doing a series of videos trying to convince Americans that, despite nearly a trillion dollars …
Maybe international treaties do send perfectly good jobs overseas after all; it’s just that these treaties do so by regulating commerce at home rather than facilitating it abroad. The Kyoto Protocol is evidence of this fact. Less than a week ago, as the European Environment Agency was celebrating reducing carbon production by close to 17%, the Guardian reported that, based on consumption of carbon rather than production of it, European greenhouse emissions actually increased significantly over the past decade: The original 15 EU member states who signed Kyoto have dropped …
A new messaging strategy, based on public polling results from top Democratic pollsters, suggests that congressional lawmakers should wave the white flag when discussing Obamacare in their election campaigns. The PowerPoint presentation, released in a conference call organized by Families USA, encouraged officials to “keep claims small and credible: don’t overpromise or ‘spin’ what the law delivers.” In other words, abandon ship on claims that lawmakers made for months during the health reform debate—that the legislation would in any way reduce the nation’s deficit or lower health care costs (in …
The 2010 United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen ended as another colossal failure for the Obama administration, but the loss did not come cheap to American taxpayers. As CBS News reported last night, over 101 people (including Senators, Representatives, their spouses, and staff) took three military planes and racked up 321 hotel nights and ate tens of thousands of dollars in meals … all on the taxpayers dime. Watch CBS News Videos Online
Earlier today the White House promised a “shocking” report on the intelligence failures leading up to the aborted Christmas Day bombing and an address by the President directly from the White House. Neither the report nor the President’s remarks told us much new nor anything particularly shocking. It was pretty clear from the outset that government screwed up big time. It is hard to be in awe of an administration that seems to behind the rest of us. Likewise, the President’s laundry list of remedies seem like cold comfort. Trying …
Dr. Jeffrey Flier writes in today’s Wall Street Journal: As the dean of Harvard Medical School I am frequently asked to comment on the health-reform debate. I’d give it a failing grade. Instead of forthrightly dealing with the fundamental problems, discussion is dominated by rival factions struggling to enact or defeat President Barack Obama’s agenda. The rhetoric on both sides is exaggerated and often deceptive. Those of us for whom the central issue is health—not politics—have been left in the lurch. And as controversy heads toward a conclusion in Washington, …
It is already well established that the European Union’s cap-and-trade plan has not only failed to actually reduce carbon emissions, but even if the reductions were met, they would have no impact on world temperatures. Now we learn that global collapse in commodity prices has rendered the system completley inoperable. The London Times reports: In only three months, life has become a lot cheaper for polluters. The financial cost of warming the planet has plummeted in Europe’s emissions trading system (ETS) and the effectiveness of such a volatile market mechanism …
