The Obama tax-the-rich campaign strategy is simply a grand diversion from the nation’s badly sputtering economy and from Obama’s failure to effectively do much about it. It is also an exercise in sophism designed to draw attention away from his
The question about giving armed support to the Syrian people has now come front and center. As is usually the case, if America doesn’t lead, nobody will. It has become clear that the Obama Administration, has no stomach to do
Once again we are playing cold war politics with the Russians. Nothing seems to change when it comes to Russia and missiles. President Obama’s and Hillary Clinton’s pushing the reset button hasn’t worked, and in fact, it was the wrong
The Euro Humpty Dumpty (17 of 27 EU countries tied to the Euro) is not comfortably perched on, shall we say, the EuroWall. Euro Humpty Dumpty is falling, and the only question is whether it can be gently caught before
We do not know who will be the next President of the United States. As we opined last week, Republican nominee-apparent Mitt Romney is not likely to win if he doesn’t soon articulate an inspiring message or vision. President Obama,
Our focus in these weekly essays has been largely related to economic issues and political matters. We divert this week to examine what might well be the most important issue facing the country: the health care case recently argued in
We Americans like to think of the economy as a single organic reality: as a big picture that is immediately discernible on its surface, something that is simply good, or not so good, something that produces a sense of well-being, or something
All things good and bad come to an end, and that is true of the long recession, which, according to the economic statisticians, we are in no longer. When the jobs numbers for last month came in President Obama was
Okay, we made up the word. But in medicine, as any physician knows, a blastoma is a malignancy of so-called precursor cells called blasts. Should such an anomaly go untreated…well, let’s not go there. Anyway, we decided to refer to
It seems as though the politics of envy as skillfully practiced by the left has metastasized to the right. Mr. Gingrich demanded that Gov. Romney release his tax returns as if something illegal or dirty would come to light, but
In last week’s essay, we quoted Winston Churchill’s memorable statement that “Democracy is the worst system there is except for all the others. We also restated Churchill’s observation by noting that we need to revise our delegate selection process and
Sure, we understand that the people who run political campaigns and the candidates who hire or encourage them will stretch or bend the truth in return for a bump in the polls. That’s why, as Harry Truman understood, it gets
As the Republican presidential hopefuls slug it out debate after debate, and sound bite after sound bite, and President Obama endlessly drones on from the sidelines with his mantra that the wealthy must pay their fair share (according to CBO
With the GOP debates mercifully coming to an end, the nation is getting ready for the 2012 elections starting with the Iowa caucuses in January. At this point, President Obama appears likely to face Mitt Romney (seemingly no one’s first
For very good and valid reasons, Americans understand the extraordinary importance of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the right peacefully to assemble for redress of grievances. That, of course, is the rationale for the Occupy Wall Street (“OWS”)
As lawyers say, lets stipulate that the political system is broken. We have, in the past, railed against special tax incentives for business that are often outmoded, ill conceived, and are generally ineffective. These, more often than not, merely distort
It is not necessarily true that as goes the Euro, so goes the Dollar, but as goes the EU, so goes the US is as certain as the rising (or setting) sun. At least, if American fiscal policy continues to
President Obama and his re-election strategists seem like moths circling the glow and heat of a candle as they cozy up to the Occupy Wall Street crowd. This just might be a grassroots movement we can call our own, they
There is a long 20th century history of Wall Street protests in America. After all, Wall Street is the financial center of the country. Today, we’re in a financial crisis so Wall Street (or its financial center equivalent in other
It was a year and a half ago (May 17, 2010) when we first warned about Greece and hypothesized just how close France and the UK might be to the continental vortex we thought was in the process of spinning
There are two things we know for sure about the European financial meltdown: Its cause and its potential ramifications for America. No one should lull themselves into thinking we are mere spectators to those European economies that are collapsing of
We ignore most polls because most are not meaningfully instructive and, often, the phrasing of the questions hideously corrupts the results. There are, however, some polls we do watch carefully because we believe they are instructive. The Rasmussen “wrong direction,
Yes, we understand that politics is a blood sport and that name-calling has become the common coin of the political realm. But this past week, following the passage of the bill to raise the debt ceiling, and before the nation’s
As we issue this week’s essay, the leadership of both parties and the White House have announced agreement to end the debt ceiling crisis. The deal, which still requires congressional approval, will increase the nation’s debt ceiling by $2.4 trillion
We don’t recall when wordsmithing was used so liberally (by both parties) to confuse or mislead the public. George Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” pales next to the complete abandon with which President Obama eloquently manipulates language and information to influence public
The President’s Rope-A-Dope strategy has failed. President Obama tried to convince the Republican House Leadership that a fair deal would be to trade a reduction in spending, which given the nation’s burgeoning debt and deficit, should be the country’s first
Sometimes we wonder if what has become obvious to a majority of Americans really has eluded our ruling class in Washington. “We don’t have a precise read on why this slower pace of growth is persisting,” said Federal Reserve Chief
It all seems so remote, not just in geography, but as a unique economic issue affecting only Greece and, perhaps, the rest of the EU. But it isn’t. The world is very interconnected. Many Americans directly or indirectly (through their
Following last week’s essay, “The American Dream: Is It Dying a Death of a Thousand Cuts?” a loyal reader of long standing urged, in a thoughtful comment, that we spend more time focusing on the solutions we would propose to
No, we’re not talking about cuts in the gargantuan federal budget. We’re talking about the endless array of smothering regulations, budget-busting entitlements, special interest ear-marks, economically regressive taxes and bureaucratic agencies that have been steadily extinguishing the dream, the American
The Democrats in Congress are crowing about the upset victory by Kathy Hochul in the special election to fill a Congressional seat in upstate New York, which has been consistently held by Republicans. Ms. Hochul based almost her entire campaign
The spin-doctors at the White House are, no doubt, busily patting themselves on the back about how well the President has finessed his “67 border precondition” (yes, he has made it a defacto pre-condition) which he recklessly inserted into the
We’re defining “here” in the headline above as the hard realities that exist on the ground, as well as some of the apparent conditions laid down by President Obama last Thursday during his speech on the Middle East. We hasten
Earlier this year, under the title “Who Needs Congress: Legislation by Regulatory Fiat,” we expressed concern that the Obama Administration was moving to checkmate the 2010 Republican electoral sweep by getting its acolytes and bureaucrats in the regulatory agencies, which
So Hamas and Fatah have reconciled just as the summer push gets underway to have the United Nations, when it convenes in September, recognize Palestine as the 193rd member of this august world body. How nice. The usual pontificators who
No offense to the classic movie thriller, “Friday the 13th ” but heees baaack! Yes, James Earl “Jimmy” Carter is, once again, sticking his nose and misguided views into international relations and continues, further complicating American policy in the world’s
As we have opined in the recent past, we believe the Ryan budget plan is still a work in progress and not a panacea for the nation’s budget, deficit and debt woes. It is, however, the first serious congressional attempt
The ink wasn’t dry yet in the Saturday editions of the NY Times and the Washington Post and the news stories were all about “winners and losers” from the last minute agreement which had been reached to avert a government