In his State of the Union address, President Obama emphasized, “We don’t begrudge financial success in this country. We admire it.” That may be the case if you make iPods, iPads, and iPhones, but when it is “big oil” (i.e., stockholders, pension funds, and IRAs investing in oil companies) that has a successful quarter, let the public onslaught commence. The most recent attack has been legislatively, when Representative Dennis Kucinich (D–OH) introduced “the Gas Price Spike Act.” The provisions in the bill threaten the entrepreneurial spirit and our system of …
On June 10, when CNBC’s John Harwood asked if high energy costs were good for America, Barack Obama replied: “I think that I would have preferred a gradual adjustment.” Obama did not say it directly, but the logical conclusion from his statement is that Obama does not believe the government should pursue policies that reduce the price Americans pay for energy. The “emergency plan” Obama released Friday is entirely consistent with Obama’s pro-high-energy-cost position. Nothing in the plan even attempts to lower energy costs. All it does is promise checks …
The House Appropriations Committee’s newest member, Rep. Jo Bonner (R-AL), visited The Heritage Foundation’s weekly blogger lunch today to pitch his new “Commitment to Reforming a Broken Process.” Bonner faced a hostile crowd of conservative bloggers who did not see why Bonner was willing to support a one-year moratorium on earmarks but refused to back an all out ban. Bonner responded with a number of points, including: 1) there is no good definition of what an earmark is; 2) the system can be fixed with transparency; 3) a one-year moratorium …
