Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich often comes up with ideas to change how the government works. One of his most recent suggestions has made a lot of people who care about property rights scratch their head. At a December 2, 2014 meeting of Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy executives, Speaker Gingrich was asked about the […]
Who’s the Obstructionist?
While I tend to write mostly about healthcare issues, a November 27 article from Investor’s Business Daily, entitled “Obama Taking Hard Line, Blows Up Bipartisan Tax Deal,” provides a brief look into what the next two years will be like. Says Investor’s: The White House move this week to torpedo a deal between House Republicans […]
DOE Doublespeak: The “Profit” in Solar Energy Loan Programs?
George Orwell would feel vindicated. As he wrote in his blistering essay, “Politics and the English Language” (1946), “…[the English language] becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts… In our time, political speech and writing are largely the […]
Family Feud
On October 22, 2014, Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-Okla.) released his annual “Wastebook 2014: What Washington Doesn’t Want You To Read.” The report listed 100 wasteful spending programs that cost taxpayers $25 billion annually. The Wastebook always brings chuckles and disbelief that the government could dish out so much money so foolishly. On the other hand, […]
Dueling Agencies
On October 22, 2014, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) released his annual “Wastebook 2014. What Washington Doesn’t Want You To Read.” The new edition includes 100 wasteful programs or projects, ranging from the bizarre to the truly egregious, worth $25 billion. Here are just a few examples: A $331,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) […]
Postal Delivery Times for Mail Slip, But Groceries Get Delivered in San Francisco !
Even as the USPS has ramped up a demo project to delivery groceries with Amazon in a few cities and made a deal to deliver some parcels for certain retailers on Sunday, the USPS is scaling back delivery standards for core customers, the folks who pay their bills, first class mail customers. While we support […]
By Your Leave: Federal Employees on Administrative Leave Cost Taxpayers Billions
ICYMI, this American Public Media interview with the Washington Post reporter Lisa Rein is a quick primer on a very big problem. In a nutshell, over a three-year period, 2011 to 2013, more than 57,000 federal employees hung out at home for a month or longer while cases of wrongdoing or malfeasance or whatever were […]
See You In Court – Again
One of the things that is becoming more disturbing each day is how the Obama Administration is issuing a tsunami of regulations, interpretive rules, sub-regulatory guidance, executive orders, guidelines, and even divine proclamations on White House tissue paper (just kidding on that last one) that contradict, subvert, or circumvent the law. Even though I just […]
John Locke was Right….
When he said “I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.” Partisan ideology, never-ending campaigning, and empty rhetoric is no substitute for leadership, competence, and good management. The Keystone Cop character of the “we first heard about it when we read about it in the news” Obama administration is […]
The War on (Minimum) Wage Payers
Our nation’s Founding Fathers never intended to put the government in charge of picking winners and losers, but as citizens look more and more to Uncle Sam for special favors and handouts, that is precisely what is happening. In the process, the storied American character that once valued hard work and venerated self-reliance has itself […]