'They're for Communism'

Andrew Roth

Radio personality Howard Stern vowed recently to never vote for a Democrat again. He said, "They’re for communism."

Posted at 4:16 PM, July 24, 2008 | Trackback (0) | Print | | #

It's Satire, But It's Not Really Satire

Andrew Roth

From ScrappleFace.com:

Today’s 70-cent per hour increase in the federal minimum wage has sparked a boost in prices at grocery stores and gas stations as employers attempt to recoup the cost of the higher wages they must now pay their entry-level employees.

As a result, many minimum wage workers can no longer afford the groceries they sack, nor the fuel dispensed at the convenience stores where they work.

Democrats who pushed the minimum wage hike through Congress last year, said they plan to address the problem by requiring retailers to raise their prices so they can afford to pay their workers enough to buy the pricier products.

Posted at 4:11 PM, July 24, 2008 | Trackback (0) | Print | | #

'Too Lazy to Be Corrupt'

Andrew Roth

A Democrat running for state representative is Iowa let an online community come up with his campaign slogans. My favorite: "Too Lazy to Be Corrupt."

Posted at 1:04 PM, July 24, 2008 | Trackback (0) | Print | | #

Dumb Law in Great Britain

Andrew Roth

A self-employer painter was fined £30 for smoking in the workplace, which is illegal. He was in his own van at the time.

Posted at 12:26 PM, July 24, 2008 | Trackback (0) | Print | | #

Dumb Law in Russia

Andrew Roth

Mary Katharine Ham points to a new proposal in Russia that would essentially ban dumb teenagers from being dumb teenagers.

Posted at 12:17 PM, July 24, 2008 | Trackback (0) | Print | | #

Thursday's Daily News

Andrew Roth

THE DAILY NEWS
Voters Want Less Pork, Even in Their Own District - Pat Toomey, WSJ
After Bailout, Fannie, Freddie Need Reform - Rep. Paul Ryan, IBD
Housing Bill Hammers Taxpayers - Wall Street Journal Editorial
House Passes Housing Bill - Jessica Holzer, The Hill
Reid Thinks He's Putting Coburn on the Hot Seat - David Freddoso, NRO

No Bailout for the Earmarked Highway Bill - Ron Utt, Heritage
Is Upside Surprise In Store For GDP? - IBD Editorial
What’s Charlie Rangel Hiding? - Daniel Ikenson, Cato Institute
Losing Faith in What? - Will Wilkerson, The Fly Bottle
Income Taxes and the Rich - Kurt Brouwer, Fundmastery Blog

Cubs 10, D'Backs 6 - Associated Press (I hate these late West Coast games)

Posted at 10:30 AM, July 24, 2008 | Trackback (0) | Print | | #

How Many Zeros in Septillion?

Andrew Roth

From Reason's Michael Moynihan:

The economic woes of Zimbabwe—an understatement, I know—continue apace, and BBC News is reporting the odd nomenclatural difficulties facing local economists. For instance, can the average Zimbabwean count the zeros in a quadrillion? A septillion? With wads of worthless billion dollar notes in circulation and inflation showing no sign of abating, one woman told the BBC that she is using the Internet to make sense of all those zeros in her wallet: "I actually Googled what comes after trillion about a month ago, and sent that out to all my friends so they'd be prepared."

Posted at 9:36 AM, July 24, 2008 | Trackback (0) | Print | | #

Another Bailout

Andrew Roth

Obama wants to give Detroit automakers $4 billion.

Posted at 8:32 AM, July 24, 2008 | Trackback (0) | Print | | #

Can You Say 'Conflict of Interest'?

Andrew Roth

From Roll Call ($):

Rep. Jerry Costello (D-Ill.) said Wednesday he will ask the House ethics committee whether he may continue to seek earmarks for a community college in his district after his wife was named president of the school last week.

You need an ethics committee to decide on whether this is a conflict of interest or not? Costello got a 0% score on our 2007 RePORK Card.

Posted at 8:22 AM, July 24, 2008 | Trackback (0) | Print | | #

Voters Want Less Pork, Even in Their Own District

Andrew Roth

Club President Pat Toomey had an op-ed in this morning's Wall Street Journal about a nationwide poll that we did on earmarks. Excerpt:

If you want to know how out of touch Congress is on the issue of wasteful spending, listen to Florida Rep. John Mica defend his pork projects: "There's no way in hell I would support banning earmarks. That's our job, getting elected and making decisions." Mr. Mica is the most powerful Republican on the Transportation Committee.

The idea that bringing home federal dollars is integral to a politician's job and essential to getting re-elected is a favorite of Republicans and Democrats alike. Three months ago, Hillary Clinton told the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, "I'm very proud of my earmarks. It's one of the reasons I won 67% of the vote, because I took care of my people." Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young, a professional earmarker, sees a direct correlation between earmarks and political longevity. "I listen and I provide. That's what I'm elected for. You show me a congressman who says, I'm not going to have any earmarks, and I'm not going to listen, and I'm not going to provide, and I'll show you a short-timer."

There is just one problem with this theory. It is dead wrong.

Click here to learn why.

Posted at 8:10 AM, July 24, 2008 | Trackback (0) | Print | | #

A Monument to Adam Smith

Andrew Roth

Congrats to the Adam Smith Institute. From their website:

On the 4th of July 2008, the ASI unveiled the world's first major public monument to Adam Smith – the great Scottish economist, philosopher, and author of The Wealth of Nations.

The monument, which takes the form of a 10-foot bronze statue on a massive stone plinth, sits on Edinburgh's Royal Mile – right in the heart of Scotland's capital city, where Adam Smith worked and died. The statue was created by Alexander Stoddart, Scotland's leading monumental sculptor, and was unveiled by Nobel Laureate Economist Professor Vernon L. Smith.

Posted at 6:17 PM, July 23, 2008 | Trackback (0) | Print | | #

Private Taxis in Cuba

Andrew Roth

Raul Castro has apparently lifted the ban on private taxis.

HT: Mark Perry

Posted at 6:05 PM, July 23, 2008 | Trackback (0) | Print | | #

The McKinley Tariff

Andrew Roth

The Tax Foundation's Alicia Hansen reminds readers of the dreaded McKinley Tariff of 1890.

Thanks to Hansen, I also found a link to this virtual Tax Museum. Cool.

Posted at 5:58 PM, July 23, 2008 | Trackback (0) | Print | | #

Goolsbee vs. Holtz-Eakin

Andrew Roth

The presidential economic advisers engaged in a debate.

Posted at 5:41 PM, July 23, 2008 | Trackback (0) | Print | | #

A Must See Movie

Andrew Roth

David Zucker, the director behind Airplane!, has a new movie that targets Michael Moore and other liberals.

HT: Mary Katharine Ham

Posted at 5:14 PM, July 23, 2008 | Trackback (0) | Print | | #

$25,000 For An Autograph

Andrew Roth

All is forgiven, Bartman. Show up to the convention, sign your name, collect the money, and give it to the Cubs Care youth baseball program.

Posted at 5:00 PM, July 23, 2008 | Trackback (0) | Print | | #

Ironic Facts of the Day

Andrew Roth

The United State has the greatest free market economy in human history. But amid an energy crisis, a housing crisis, expiring tax cuts, and wasteful government spending, only 15% of Americans believe the country is on the right track.

On the other hand, China is a country that was decimated by communism in the 20th century where brutal government oppression lead to millions of deaths. However, over the last couple of decades, especially over the last several years, the country has increasingly accepted the free market and the wondrous benefits of capitalism. And 83% of the Chinese believe their country is on the right track.

Posted at 4:39 PM, July 23, 2008 | Trackback (0) | Print | | #

Harry Reid's Monkey Pork Bill

Andrew Roth

As I blogged about before, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Democrats are extremely frustrated with Tom Coburn. Since Coburn is blocking more than 80 of their big spending bills, they can't appease their special interest cronies. So Reid has decided to create a 398-page, lard-stuffed, omnibus bill composed of more than 30 of those blocked bills. Preliminary estimates suggest that it authorizes over $11 billion in new spending...without any spending offsets. And it would create at least 36 new government programs.

One of those blocked bills is the Captive Primate Safety Act, which spends $17 million preventing the interstate sale of monkeys.

According to Rob Bluey at RedState.com:

Coburn said the bills included in Reid's omnibus have virtually no requirements for accountability, making it impossible to measure their effectiveness. "If we send a billion dollars in one direction, how do we know we accomplish what we intended to do?" he asked. "They refuse to put metrics on to hold people accountable. … It's the hard job that we're paid to do to provide oversight and get rid of waste, fraud and abuse."

Amanda Carpenter at Townhall.com adds:

Reid said the GOP would have a choice to pass these bills “or continue to stand beside a colleague or two intent on blocking virtually everything.” Reid singled out Coburn again in a news conference last week by telling reporters, "For those of you who may not know this, you cannot negotiate with Coburn. It's just something that you learn over the years is a waste of time."

Reid is desperate to move pass the energy debate since it's a losing issue for Democrats, so he could try to put the Monkey Pork bill on the Senate calendar for consideration as early as next week.

Posted at 3:50 PM, July 23, 2008 | Trackback (0) | Print | | #

Who Pays Taxes?

Andrew Roth

From the good folks at NTU via Rep. John Campbell, here's who paid taxes in 2006, the most recent year the IRS has data on. As in previous years, the top 50% are essentially taxpayers while the bottom 50% are tax-receivers.

Posted at 3:43 PM, July 23, 2008 | Trackback (0) | Print | | #

Absurd Statement of the Day

Andrew Roth

When asked if California had a revenue problem or a spending problem, State Sen. Darrell Steinberg said it had a "revenue problem."

Jaw. Drop.

Posted at 3:33 PM, July 23, 2008 | Trackback (0) | Print | | #

Lou Dobbs Is At It Again

Andrew Roth

Yesterday, Lou Dobbs blamed the housing crisis on free market capitalism:

"And I love the idea that all these free traders, free marketeers now got to have the government to, to bail them out. If I hear one of these ignorant, hypocritical, sanctimonious free traders ever talk about free markets again, they should be pilloried. I mean they are absolutely - this is an administration of jerks and cowards and fools. I mean it's unbelievable."

Jeff Poor at NewsBusters has the details.

Posted at 3:08 PM, July 23, 2008 | Trackback (0) | Print | | #

60 Democrats in the Senate?

Andrew Roth

From Roll Call ($):

Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Charles Schumer (N.Y.) said for the first time this election cycle that Democrats could wake up on Nov. 5 with a filibuster-proof, 60-seat Senate majority.

If you look at the poll numbers for each race, it's hard not to reach the same conclusion.

Posted at 3:02 PM, July 23, 2008 | Trackback (0) | Print | | #

What Was the First Stock Market?

Andrew Roth

Answer.

Posted at 2:05 PM, July 23, 2008 | Trackback (0) | Print | | #

Emotional Battle Over Sales Tax Hike

Andrew Roth

Check out this video. Cook County Democrats defend their support for a sales tax hike, which is now the largest sales tax (10.25%) in the United States. Apparently, they aren't listening to the voters.

Posted at 1:43 PM, July 23, 2008 | Trackback (0) | Print | | #

Business 101 by Gary Busey

Andrew Roth

I have no idea what Busey is saying in this video, which is probably the point. Anything he says is funny. EBITDA = Abeadia? Check out the other Busey clips on YouTube, like this one. Hysterical.

Posted at 10:59 AM, July 23, 2008 | Trackback (0) | Print | | #