6 January 2010
Today’s Tabbloid
PERSONAL NEWS FOR craig.kirchoff+fisccon@gmail.com
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Dem. Senator Byron Dorgan
Announces Retirement [The
Club for Growth]
JAN 05, 2010 06:24P.M.
Democrat Senator Byron Dorgan is retiring. But still, it is a great
privilege to serve and I have the utmost respect for all of the men and
women with whom I serve.
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Private Sector Guts and Growth
[Cato at Liberty]
JAN 05, 2010 05:12P.M.
By Chris Edwards
The Wall Street Journal has an article today for people who think that
we need government to thrust itself into the economy because major
projects, like energy and technology projects, are too big or risky for
private businesses. The article focuses on Chevron’s offshore oil
development:
Chevron is leasing the Clear Leader, which floats in 4,300
feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico, to drill for oil through
nearly five miles of rock. Big Oil never wanted to be here, in
4,300 feet of water far out in the Gulf of Mexico, drilling
through nearly five miles of rock…
It is an expensive way to look for oil. Chevron Corp. is paying
nearly $500,000 a day to the owner of the Clear Leader, one
of the world’s newest and most powerful drilling rigs. The
new well off the coast of Louisiana will connect to a huge
platform floating nearby, which cost Chevron $650 million to
build. The first phase of this oil-exploration project took more
than 10 years and cost $2.7 billion — with no guarantee it
would pay off….
“This is technology capable of going to the moon,” says Robin
West, chairman of consulting firm PFC Energy, involving
“extraordinary uncertainty, immense levels of information
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processing, staggering amounts of capital.” …
“What has enabled us to do that is technology,” says David
Rainey, BP’s head of exploration for the Gulf of Mexico. “We
have been pushing the limits of seismic-imaging technology
and drilling technology.”…
The push into deeper water hasn’t always been smooth
sailing. Offshore projects are expensive, time-consuming and
prone to failure. Chevron boasts of a 45% exploration overall
success rate in recent years, a remarkable run by industry
standards, but one that also means the company has spent
billions on projects that haven’t panned out.”
Bravo for gutsy and aggressive American capitalism! Chevron is taking
huge investment risks, making remarkable technological advances,
creating jobs, and finding new energy supplies to keep own homes bright
and warm.
Political leaders in Washington should be encouraging such private
business activities to pull the nation out of its slump. So rather than
trying to hike taxes on multinational corporations and oil companies —
as the Obama administration proposed in its budget last year —
policymakers ought to be cutting corporate tax rates and making other
pro-investment changes in federal tax and regulatory policies.
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
When Do We Go to War in
Yemen? [Cato at Liberty]
JAN 05, 2010 05:01P.M.
By Christopher Preble
That is the question posed at the National Journal’s National Security
experts blog.
My response:
We shouldn’t even be contemplating war in Yemen, but we should also
understand that the proposed expansion of security assistance to the
government there is likely to pay only meager dividends.
Steven Metz gets at the nub of this problem in his two thoughtful posts
(here and here). We have an unreliable ally. We have minimal capacity
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR craig.kirchoff+fisccon@gmail.com 6 January 2010

for making them more reliable. Neither of these observations are unique FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
to Yemen. The same could be said of many other countries. Accordingly,
we should concentrate our limited resources in a proactive and Backlash Against Senator Ben
strategic – as opposed to a reactive and haphazard — way.
Nelson: Don’t Forget About
Contrast that with Jim Carafano’s invocation of a new “axis of evil” and
the implication that we have no choice but to deepen our involvement in Taxpayers [Americans for Tax
Yemen (and Saudi Arabia and Somalia) while continuing to fight in
Afghanistan and Pakistan. Oh, and let’s not forget that there are still Reform]
about 110,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. JAN 05, 2010 04:27P.M.

To wit: “Sorry we have to fight on so many fronts….but it beats battling With all the talk about “backlash” against Senator Ben Nelson (D-Neb.),
them on the Tarmac in Detroit.” there’s one group that’s been left out. This group is taxpayers. Nelson
signed the Taxpayer Protection Pl...
Sorry, but that just doesn’t fly.

While impeding al Qaeda’s ability to carry out major terrorist attacks has
and will entail multiple fronts in many countries, it is not obvious how FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
this fight should be conducted, nor is it obvious that the fronts in Yemen
and Somalia and Saudi Arabia (or Afghanistan and Pakistan, even) are Andy Stern Pressed on
instrumental to success or failure. Safe havens exist in many places,
including stable democratic countries. Are we really committed to ATR/AWF Investigation on
preventing any country from providing a safe haven? Does the concept
of a physical safe haven even make sense in the virtual world of CNN [Americans for Tax
globalized communications and the Internet?
Reform]
Leaving aside the dubious safe haven argument, Carfano’s either/or JAN 05, 2010 04:15P.M.
proposition (fight them there or fight them here) is equally flawed. We
should think of security in layers. A man from Nigeria who trained CNN’s American Morning today did a piece on SEIU lobbying on the
in Yemen and attempted to detonate his underwear bomb in Detroit was healthcare bill. CNN’s Carol Costello asked Stern about the ATR/AWF
thwarted by his own incompetence and the alertness of the airliner’s investigation into Stern’s potential violation of...
passengers. Too close for comfort, to be sure, and we have since learned
of numerous points along the way where his travels could have been
interdicted. But what we’ve learned about this failed attack
doesn’t confirm that our only option is to focus on the one layer (Yemen FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
= terrorist training ground) at the expense of the other layers. An equally
compelling case could be made for ignoring Yemen, per se, and focusing State Budgets and Employee
on other means of interdicting terrorists that are not so heavily
dependent upon unwilling and duplicitous allies, or that burden our Compensation [Cato at Liberty]
overtaxed military with an open-ended mission in yet another failed JAN 05, 2010 02:15P.M.
state.
By Chris Edwards

Today, Cato released a report on employee compensation in state and

local governments. As states struggle to balance their budgets in coming
months, they should look to find savings in employee compensation,
which represents half of all state and local spending.

The particular issue of excessive state pensions is being probed by

newspapers across the nation. Over at Reason, Nick Gillespie discusses
the problem in his home state of Ohio. That state’s newspapers teamed
up to pen a series of articles on government pensions, which are
representative of the growing pension problems in many states.

There has been a parallel series of articles across the nation on “pay-to-

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR craig.kirchoff+fisccon@gmail.com 6 January 2010

play” state pension scandals. These scandals involve Wall Street firms
bribing public officials to get a slice of the government’s financial
business. There is pay-to-play corruption in California and pay-to-play
corruption in New York and many other places.
The solution to both of these problems is the same: moving the nation’s
20 million state and local workers from defined-benefit to defined-
contribution pension plans. That way, governments wouldn’t have to
hold giant pools of pension investments, the benefit structure of
government workers would be more transparent, and policymakers
could more easily cut compensation to balance state budgets.
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
New Rothenberg House Ratings
CPAs, tax lawyers, and enrolled agents — were unable to figure out how
to correctly fill out a hypothetical family’s tax return. But since the IRS
routinely makes major mistakes as well, perhaps the moral of the story is
that we need fundamental tax reform, not IRS rules to create a cartel for
the benefit of H&R Block and other big firms. Would any of this be an
issue if we had a flat tax or national sales tax?
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
On CNBC’s Kudlow Report
Tonight [Larry Kudlow’s Money
Politic$]
JAN 05, 2010 11:57A.M.

[The Club for Growth]

JAN 05, 2010 01:42P.M.

Political strategist Stu Rothenberg has released the latest edition of his
2010 House ratings. Jason Pye

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS

This evening at 7pm ET:
H&R; Block and the IRS: An A RISING TIDE OF FREE MARKET POPULISM?
Unholy Alliance to Ransack *Matthew Continetti, Weekly Standard
Taxpayers [Cato at Liberty] *Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary; “Supercapitalism” Author

JAN 05, 2010 12:56P.M.

HEALTHCARE: HOW BILL’S TWO POSSIBLE DIRECTIONS
WILL IMPACT THE WEALTHY
By Daniel J. Mitchell
CNBC chief Washington correspondent John Harwood reports.

The late George Stigler, winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, is

2010 AGENDA: CARD CHECK, CAP & TRADE & JOBS BILL
famous in part because of his work on “regulatory capture,” which occurs
when interest groups use the coercive power of government to thwart
*Dan Gross, Newsweek Columnist
competition and undeservedly line their own pockets. A perfect (and
*Steve Moore , Senior Economics Writer for the Wall Street Journal
distasteful) example of this can be found in today’s Washington Post,
Editorial Board; “The End of Prosperity” Co-Author
which reports that the IRS plans to impose new regulations dictating
who can prepare tax returns. Not surprisingly, the new rules have the
HOME MODIFICATIONS: WHERE DID THE $75 BILLION GO?
support of big tax preparation shops such as H&R Block and Jackson
Plus, pending home sales plunge while factory orders rise—what’s it
Hewitt, which see this as an opportunity to squeeze smaller competitors
mean for the economic road to recovery?
out of the market. The IRS and the big firms claim more regulations are
needed to protect consumers from shoddy work, but this is the usual
*Dan Mitchell, senior fellow at the Cato Institute
rationale for licensing laws and other government-imposed barriers to
*Christian Weller, senior fellow ar Center For American Progress
entry and the Institute for Justice has repeatedly shown such rules are
designed to benefit insiders rather than consumers.
KUDLOW’S HOTLINE

Tax preparers do make many mistakes, to be sure, but that is a reflection

Give us a call! 800-800-CNBC. Phone lines open up at 7pm ET.
of a nightmarish tax code, and the annual tax test conducted by Money
magazine showed that even the most-skilled professionals — such as

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR craig.kirchoff+fisccon@gmail.com
Please join us. The Kudlow Report. 7pm ET. CNBC.
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Tuesday’s Daily News [The Club
for Growth]
JAN 05, 2010 11:04A.M.
If economists could write the news on trade protection. Economists
Brian Wesbury and Bob Stein ask, s Gene Healy says Obama flunked his
first year in office. Utah Senator Bob Bennett gets his third primary
opponent.
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Tuesday Links [Cato at Liberty]
JAN 05, 2010 10:51A.M.
By Chris Moody
• Cato Vice President Gene Healy grades President Obama. (Hint:
He doesn’t give him a “B+”).
• Afghanistan: A war we cannot afford. “Democrats say raise taxes.
Republicans say no worries. The best policy would be to scale back
America’s international commitments.”
• Doug Bandow: The war in Afghanistan was justified at the
beginning, but to escalate now is the “geopolitical equivalent of
shutting the barn doors after the horses have fled.”
• How U.S. membership in the World Trade Organization enhances
the liberty and prosperity of all Americans.
• Podcast: “TARP: A Congressional Failure” featuring John
Samples.
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6 January 2010
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
A Few Good Men...A Few Good
Medical Devices [The Club for
Growth]
JAN 05, 2010 10:49A.M.
Provided by the TigerHawk blog, here t give a damn what you think you
are entitled to.
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
“Green Energy” in the UK
[Americans for Tax Reform]
JAN 05, 2010 10:45A.M.
As radical liberals continue to push for job-killing cap & tax provisions,
designed to hike energy costs and hurt working American families,
Americans for Tax Reform has been continually poin...
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
The Start of Interstate Carbon
Tariffs? [Cato at Liberty]
JAN 05, 2010 10:26A.M.
By Sallie James
Not content with waiting for federal legislation on the matter, it seems
that Minnesota has introduced a “carbon fee” of $4-$34 per ton of
carbon dioxide emissions on energy produced –mainly using coal — in
North Dakota. The fee is scheduled to go into effect in 2012. (see here)
North Dakota plans to challenge the new tax, which it rightly says will
discourage the purchase of North Dakota power (that is, indeed, the
whole point of the tariff). I’m no constitutional scholar, but Article 1,
section 10 of the Constitution says that “No State shall, without the
consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or
Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its
inspection laws…” so the Minnesota tariff appears to be unconstitutional
(for whatever that’s worth these days…), at least unless and until
Congress gives its consent for it.
On the one hand, the current political make-up of Congress would
suggest that such consent might, disappointingly, be given. On the other,
the cap-and-trade bill has stalled in Congress despite the wishes of the
majority leadership and the administration, suggesting that the desire to
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR craig.kirchoff+fisccon@gmail.com 6 January 2010

regulate energy and greenhouse gas emissions is lacking crucial support.
In related news, another body supportive of carbon tariffs, the French
government, has seen its plans thwarted recently after the Constitutional
Court there struck down the proposed carbon tax as unconstitutional
[link]. President Sarkozy had intented to extend the carbon tax EU-wide
so as to prevent adverse competitiveness effects on French industry, thus
giving the EU the incentive to apply a trade bloc-wide tariff on imports
from less regulated countries. So the setback in France is good news for
those of us concerned about the damage that carbon tariffs would do.
HT: Scott Lincicome
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Quote of the Day [The Club for
Growth]
JAN 05, 2010 10:11A.M.
From Reid Wilson with National Journal
BusinessWeek, 11th best place in America to move by Forbes, and one of
the top 100 best places to live in America according to Relocate America.
Sounds like my town’s doing pretty good on its own, but on page six I’m
hit with a plea to make sure I participate in the census so the town can
grab federal dollars:
When you fill out the census form in April, you’re making a
statement about what resources [the town] needs going
forward…Accurate data reflecting changes in our community
are crucial in deciding how more than $400 billion per year is
allocated for projects like hospitals, public works projects,
infrastructure improvement, senior centers, schools and
emergency services. That’s more than $4 trillion over a ten
year period for things like new roads and schools, and
services like job training centers.
Not a single item listed by the newsletter is anything the federal
government is empowered to fund. There’s no practical or moral reason
why my thriving town should receive money from taxpayers in other
locals across the country. Nor should taxpayers in my town be forced to
send a portion of their paycheck to Washington so politicians can play
Santa Claus to their parochial interests. As such, the pork politics
surrounding the census is another reminder that a return to fiscal
federalism is desperately needed.

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FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Census Paves the Way for
The New Deal Constitution [The
Subsidies [Cato at Liberty]
JAN 05, 2010 10:10A.M. Club for Growth]
JAN 05, 2010 09:58A.M.
By Tad DeHaven
Don Boudreaux points to the New Deal Constitution, written by the
Our bloated government does a lot of things it shouldn’t, but the legendary H.L. Mencken.
decennial census is one of the handful of federal activities the
Constitution approves of. The census was intended simply to determine
the number of seats each state would have in the House of
Representatives. Today, census data is plugged into government
formulas to determine how more than $400 billion in subsidies from the
federal welfare state are allocated to state and local governments.

The impetus to grab federal dollars caused controversy back in

December when the National Association of Latino Elected Officials
distributed a census promo that read, “This is how Jesus was
born…Joseph and Mary participated in the Census.” The group’s website
says that, “For each uncounted Latino, more than $11,000 [in federal
funding] will be lost over the next decade.” Jesus did get stuck being
born in a manger because Joseph and Mary couldn’t find proper shelter,
but the Bible doesn’t say that the census led to Bethlehem receiving more
affordable housing subsidies from Rome.

I just received a newsletter from the town where I reside. It says that my
town was named the best place in the state to raise kids by

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FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Can the GOP Recover Its
Principles? [Cato at Liberty]
JAN 05, 2010 09:46A.M.
By Roger Pilon
Today, Politico Arena asks:
How helpful is it to the GOP to have its chairman say the
party’s “credibility snapped” while in power and it became
“just another party of Big Government?”
My response:
If GOP chairman Michael Steele means it, it’s very helpful for him to say
that the party’s “credibility snapped” while in power and it became “just
another party of Big Government?” You first have to recognize a problem
if you want to solve it.
For better or worse, we’ve had two major parties for most of our history,
and that’s not likely to change any time soon. At least since the New
Deal, the Democratic Party has been the party of government, especially
over economic affairs. By contrast, since the Goldwater revolution of
1964, the Republican Party has claimed to be the party of individual
liberty and limited government, although that claim was often
undermined by calls for restricting certain personal liberties, and the
party was slow, as were parts of the Democratic Party, in supporting the
civil rights movement. But broadly speaking, in our recent history the
two parties have been distinguished, nominally, by their different
conceptions of the proper role of government.
anything, it was incumbency protection. What better example than the
McCain-Feingold campaign finance “reform” bill, which Bush signed
while saying he thought it was unconstitutional. What’s the Constitution
among friends?
But rudderless, unprincipled government could not go on forever, and so
in time it came crashing down upon the Republican time-servers — and
the real party of government took over. Immutable principles, however,
such as you can’t get something for nothing, favor no party, and so
Democrats too are facing, or will soon face, the harsh realities that flow
from abandoning political and economic discipline. If the Republican
Party can recover the fundamental principles that are captured in the
nation’s founding documents, and take them to the people, it will then
fall to us to decide what we want. And if we too believe in something for
nothing, we will have no one to blame but ourselves for the consequences
that follow. But at least we will have had a choice, which we have not had
in recent years. So, yes, Mr. Steele’s call for a return to principle is
helpful.
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Bozeman Uses Stimulus Money
on Tennis Courts [The Club for
Growth]
JAN 05, 2010 09:11A.M.
From the Associated Press: Federal stimulus money to be spent on new
tennis courts in Bozeman drew the ire of Montana Read the rest here.

At no time was that contrast more sharply drawn than during the Reagan
administration. Yet even then there were internal struggles between the
Reagan people and the Bush people. Recall that when Bush ‘41 became
president, he called for a “kinder and gentler nation,” which was a slap at
Reagan’s limited government principles. And eventually, of course, he
broke his “no new taxes” pledge.

After Bush lost the presidency, the Gingrich “Contract with America,”
leading to the Republican take-over of Congress for the first time in 40
years, was supposed to return the party to a principled, limited
government path. It did so briefly, in those heady days of 1995, but by
the end of the year the siren song of government power was calling and
the party started its slow slide, at the end of which it was barely
distinguishable from the Democratic Party.

Thus, it was no accident that in 2000 the party selected as its standard-
bearer George W. Bush, who had been utterly absent from the
intellectual ferment of the Goldwater-Reagan years. Not unlike his
father, Bush ‘43 stood for “compassionate conservatism,” a slogan ripe
with promise for government programs. And the Republican Congress,
now rudderless, was anxious to supply them. If the party stood for