Posts belonging to Category Congress

The Least Obama Could Do for Civil Liberties

By Julian Sanchez

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has just fired off a letter to Barack Obama urging him to finally appoint some members to the long-vacant Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, echoing a similar recent request from a coalition of civil liberties groups.
I don’t think anyone should make excuses for Obama’s appalling about-face on Patriot Act reform, [...]

Poll Suggests Caution on Citizens United Response

By John Samples

The Center for Competitive Politics has just published a new poll measuring public views about the recent Citizens United decision. The poll provides a lot of interesting information.
About one in five said they were aware of the decision. Fully 60 percent of respondents said they were not aware of the case, and it is fair [...]

Poll Suggests Caution on Citizens United Response

By John Samples

The Center for Competitive Politics has just published a new poll measuring public views about the recent Citizens United decision. The poll provides a lot of interesting information.
About one in five said they were aware of the decision. Fully 60 percent of respondents said they were not aware of the case, and it is fair [...]

Ray LaHood as Santa Claus

By Tad DeHaven

U.S. News & World Report’s columnist Paul Bedard reports that Transportation secretary Ray LaHood told him that it’s fun playing Santa Claus to states and cities around the nation.
So let’s take a look at some recent examples of DOT gift-giving with federal taxpayers’ money:

DOT’s Federal Highway Administration helped restore an old brewery in Petosi, Wisconsin [...]

Six Reasons to Downsize the Federal Government

By Chris Edwards

1. Additional federal spending transfers resources from the more productive private sector to the less productive public sector of the economy. The bulk of federal spending goes toward subsidies and benefit payments, which generally do not enhance economic productivity. With lower productivity, average American incomes will fall.
2. As federal spending rises, it creates pressure to [...]

Six Reasons to Downsize the Federal Government

By Chris Edwards

1. Additional federal spending transfers resources from the more productive private sector to the less productive public sector of the economy. The bulk of federal spending goes toward subsidies and benefit payments, which generally do not enhance economic productivity. With lower productivity, average American incomes will fall.
2. As federal spending rises, it creates pressure to [...]

Before Administering the Lethal Injection, Dr. Obama Offers to Sterilize the Needle

By Michael F. Cannon

In a letter to congressional leaders, President Obama wrote of his openness to including Republican proposals in his health care legislation.
Dropping a few Republican ideas into a government takeover of health care is like sterilizing the needle before a lethal injection: a nice thought, but the ultimate outcome is the same.

Two of the four [...]

Patriot Act Update

By Julian Sanchez

It looks as though we’ll be getting a straight one-year reauthorization of the expiring provisions of the Patriot Act, without even the minimal added safeguards for privacy and civil liberties that had been proposed in the Senate’s watered down bill.  This is disappointing, but was also eminently predictable: Between health care and the economy, it [...]