GOP should embrace the fiscal cliff
If no legislation intervenes before January 1 2013, all George W. Bush tax cuts will expire and a pre-determined set of sequestrations will automatically cut federal outlays. That is the law of the...
View ArticleFree bread and circuses are destroying the United States republic
The Roman Empire famously destroyed itself from within by cultivating the support of its citizens by showering them with free bread and indulging them with diversionary circuses. Little did the...
View ArticleBoehner to Obama: take us over the cliff of no return
The break-down of bargaining between Barack Obama and John Boehner was predictable from the outset. Unfortunately, no one, however smart, who has to carry his GOP majority in the House, can bargain...
View ArticleObama, Reid and Boehner should hole up for Christmas at The Willard Hotel
Obama, Reid and Boehner are highly paid representatives of the American People. They are servants, not masters of the People. So far, they have made a mess of post-election bargaining over a...
View ArticleObama set on course for second term blues
Throughout his first term as President, Barack Obama demonstrated grave limitations in his ability to bargain with Congress. Throughout the first two years, with overwhelming majorities in both houses...
View ArticleIt is boom time in Satan’s city
Much of the United States is still struggling its way out of recession. One major city is a huge exception. For Washington, DC, it is party-time in boom city. Beltway homeowners are partying like it...
View ArticleRepublics fall because of this kind of corrupt fiscal posturing
When James Madison read his way through the histories of all the then-known republics, he realized that every single one had failed. He did his best to write a constitution for a republic that would...
View ArticlePresident Obama frustrates budget deal: he should rot in a debtor’s prison
If the House of Representatives signs off on the budget squib that trickled through the Senate on New Year’s Eve, Washington will have reduced the 2013 budget deficit from a little over $1 trillion to...
View ArticleLeft uppercut followed by right cross from Jeffrey Sachs
In a second hard-hitting round, the ‘born again’ Jeffrey Sachs leaps out of his ring corner with a powerful left-right assault against two slow-footed opponents. His ring performance is reminiscent of...
View ArticleCellophane president bears ill fiscal fortune for his country
Throughout the fiscal cliff debates, President Obama performed in full conformity with rational expectations. A man who clearly possesses no diplomatic skills once again is sidelined while smarter...
View ArticleIn Memoriam: James McGill Buchanan (October 3, 1919-January 9, 2013)
James Buchanan, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences 1986, passed away today after a short illness. He was 93 years of age. He spent much of his career building Virginia Political Economy into a leading...
View ArticlePolitics without Romance
Obituaries published by the press tend to pick up on one column. In the case of James M. Buchanan the key column is that published by The New York Times. Since that Obituary focused on Buchanan’s...
View ArticleIf the U.S debt ceiling is not increased?
This column identifies three fallacies about the technical consequences of any failure to increase the federal debt ceiling in the United States: 1. Failure to raise the debt ceiling will generate a...
View ArticleBarack Obama seeks second-term dictatorship
In these columns, I have long suggested that Barack Obama is intellectually-challenged. When low intelligence combines with personal vanity in the head of state of a nation, it becomes a blend toxic to...
View ArticleEconomic freedom on the wane in the United States
‘Land of the Free‘ It is right up there in the national anthem. And it is surely treasured by many Americans. But economic freedom is just as surely on the wane during the early years of the 21st...
View ArticleThe sequester is the only feasible way to cut federal spending
President Barack Obama suggested the sequester in 2011, as a means to lever a reluctant Congress to increase income taxes on high-earners if a grand bargain could not be forged. Obama then reneged on...
View ArticleUS tax reform
Although President Obama is unlikely to make this the centerpiece of his State of the Union address, an overhaul of the complex US federal tax system should form a key component of any growth-oriented...
View ArticleObama’s sequester law should remain in place
In 2011, President Obama proposed a spending cut sequester to Congress. Congress complied with his request. And the President signed the bill into law. So the sequester that confronts the nation on...
View ArticleThis time the law favors the G.O.P.
The law governing the fiscal cliff at the beginning of January 2013 favored President Obama and the Democratic Party. If nothing new was legislated the Bush tax cuts would be rescinded in their...
View ArticleBob Woodward calls out Obama on his sequester lie
All politicians circumnavigate the truth – that is one political disease that will never be eradicated. It comes with the territory. When a president of the United States engages in blatant lying,...
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