Posts By Author » David Harsanyi

Get the IRS out of Speech Business
16 May 2013 12:02 am

So, the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups (or, more precisely, groups displaying a bit too much gusto for limited government) was far more widespread than its initial apology would have led Americans to imagine.

Yes, it is disturbing — a dangerous abuse of power, no doubt. What’s more disturbing — or should be, at least — is the fact that the IRS has the capacity to undermine free speech in the first place. Despite President Barack Obama’s assurances, there are no safeguards that can be put into place to …

Obama’s ‘Fairness’ Economy Has Backfired
2 May 2013 12:02 am

One of the most seductive parts of President Barack Obama’s political message (and the message of progressive Democrats in general) is sympathy for the poor and a willingness to talk about the disparities of capitalism — about the rich being too rich and the poor being screwed. In some ways, it’s the predominant message of the Obama era.

And though it’s reasonable to contend that Republicans need to display more compassion — if for nothing else than their own political survival — isn’t it also reasonable to take stock of how …

Michael Bloomberg’s Authoritarian Instincts
25 Apr 2013 12:03 am

So, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg believes that the public’s interpretation of the Constitution must evolve in the face of terror attacks such as the one in Boston. “You’re going to have to have a level of security greater than you did back in the olden days,” the man explained, “and our laws and our interpretation of the Constitution, I think, have to change.”

Of course he thinks they do. That’s why we have constitutions — so they can be changed in tumultuous times. As Bloomberg sees it, the first obligation …

Who Cares What the Majority Wants on Guns?
18 Apr 2013 12:02 am

President Barack Obama has been struggling to wrap his head around the “unimaginable” idea that Congress may “defy” the American people and stop a vote on a gun control package compromise. The notion, he says, resists the “overwhelming instinct of the American people” after the massacre in Newtown, Conn., to pass gun control legislation.
Well, the unthinkable happened. The Senate’s sweeping gun legislation came up short on the votes required to move forward. And despite all the idealistic calls for passage and despite the fact that many pundits and advocates seem …

The Myth of Obama’s Centrism
11 Apr 2013 12:04 am

Barack Obama’s quest for a “balanced approach” is the lifeblood of his political success — and also its biggest myth. Witness the coverage of the purportedly centrist president’s 2014 budget proposal.
“Obama sends Congress $3.77T spending plan, riles both sides,” says one prominent headline; “President Obama’s risky ‘goodwill’ gambit,” begins another fairy tale. “Obama Budget Is Meant to Draw GOP to the Table,” claims The New York Times.
Nearly every story stresses that the budget has drawn critics from both the left and the right. Obama, you see, is so moderate he’s …

On the Environment, the Alarmists Are Still Losing
4 Apr 2013 12:03 am

All that money. All that effort. All the sermonizing and bloodcurdling imagery and still, Americans don’t seem to be evolving quickly enough on the environment.
A new poll by Pew Research Center, for instance, finds that a wide majority of Americans support building the Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport Canadian oil to refineries in Texas. Sixty-six percent of Americans favor finishing the pipeline, with only 23 percent in opposition. Strong support cuts through every political distinction — other than “liberal” Democrats.
The Obama administration, which likes to count every organism that’s …

Don’t Give Up on Obamacare Yet, GOP
28 Mar 2013 12:04 am

P.J. O’Rourke once remarked, “Feeling good about government is like looking on the bright side of any catastrophe. When you quit looking on the bright side, the catastrophe is still there.” With all the doom and gloom free-market advocates must be feeling these days, there’s one truth that should bolster their resolve about the future: The catastrophe will still be there.
Conventional wisdom says that Republicans need a major attitude adjustment on cultural and social views in both substance and tone. That may very well be true. But the concern from …

Sorry, GOP, but You Will Never Out-Care the Democrats
21 Mar 2013 12:03 am

Republicans now have a comprehensive “autopsy” report detailing some of the perceived and some of the real shortcomings of the 2012 presidential election. And the rather optimistically named Growth and Opportunity Project’s report is jampacked with so many painfully obvious observations that one wonders why it had to be written in the first place.
You may not be surprised to learn, for instance, that a bunch of people find the Republican Party “scary,” “narrow minded,” “out of touch” and a party of “stuffy old men.” Alas, the “perception that the GOP …

In Reality, Debt Matters. It Matters a Lot
14 Mar 2013 12:03 am

No worries, America. Debt is a preoccupation of the fringe, a mere distraction for anyone interested in progress. And anyway, as President Barack Obama explained this week, “we don’t have an immediate crisis in terms of debt. In fact, for the next 10 years, it’s going to be in a sustainable place.”
That’s a pretty convenient position, wouldn’t you say, for a man who’s helped pile on trillions of dollars of new debt and created an entitlement that promises to escalate this non-crisis crisis of ours? Problem is that there are …

Thank You, Mr. President
21 Feb 2013 12:02 am

America is fed up with GOP obstructionism. So undoubtedly, everyone is hopeful that Republicans will allow President Barack Obama’s sequestration plans to proceed unhindered. It’s only right.
The GOP, in fact, should quit while it’s ahead. Rather than penning editorials and appearing on Sunday morning talk shows to try to pin the blame on others, leadership would be far better off simply saying: “Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for dreaming up a plan that implements some minimal spending cuts. Thanks for signing it into law. It’s not much, but we …

Creating the Jobs of Yesterday, Tomorrow!
14 Feb 2013 12:02 am

Does it bother anyone else that the president of the United States seems to believe that our collective future entails assembling battery parts in a government-subsidized factory for $9 an hour? Is that really what Americans envision for their kids — an assembly line? Because when you look past Barack Obama’s mesmerizingly hollow rhetoric, what he’s proposing is a return of jobs that progress and prosperity have left behind.
In his State of the Union speech, the president laid out a vision that we’ve heard countless times. In his world, billionaires …

Maybe Rove Has a Point
7 Feb 2013 12:03 am

Let’s put ideology aside for a moment.
Karl Rove, architect of the George W. Bush-era Republican victories, says he’s sick of fanatics running his party into the ground. So he’s devised a strategy to pre-emptively sink unelectable candidates early in the process. He’s formed a new super PAC to implement this strategy. It’s called the Conservative Victory Fund, and it’s led by a guy named Steven Law, who was the head of another super PAC, called American Crossroads, which went something like 0-7 in the 2012 election cycle. (Not that anyone’s …

Stagnation, the New Normal
31 Jan 2013 12:02 am

So, U.S. consumer confidence unexpectedly plunged in January to its lowest level in more than a year. The U.S. economy unexpectedly posted a contraction in the fourth quarter of 2012 — for the first time since the recession — “defying” expectations that economic growth is in our future.
If the economy were as vibrant as President Barack Obama has told us it is, a belt tightening in a single sector of government surely wouldn’t be enough to bring about “negative growth.” But one did. Unexpectedly. No worries, though. Pundits on the …

On Guns, an Abuse of Power
17 Jan 2013 12:03 am

When Barack Obama implored Americans to “do the right thing” on gun restriction during a news conference this week, the “right thing” should have been obvious to everyone. Absolute moral authority — it’s the only way to go.
If you fail to see the picture as clearly as the president, you may be an extremist or, more than likely, you’re too feeble-minded to withstand the Jedi mind tricks employed by gun merchants or radio talk show hosts or the National Rifle Association or all those folks “ginning up fear” on the …

Can Republicans Win a Government Shutdown?
10 Jan 2013 12:09 am

If Republicans do happen to force a shutdown in Washington, it’s very possible they’ll be embracing a political loser while doing the rest of us an immense favor.
With three Washington-manufactured fiscal apocalypses — sequestration, the debt ceiling and a new “budget” — on the docket, the idea of shutting down government to extract concessions from the iron trap sometimes known as the Obama administration has gained traction among Republicans. Or, I should say, the idea of threatening to shut down Washington has.
Pat Toomey, John Cornyn and other conservatives have said …

So What’s Next, Mr. President?
3 Jan 2013 12:03 am

The worst part of the fiscal cliff deal isn’t the specifics — though they do stink. It’s being reminded again how utterly detached Washington is from reality.
The question, now that we’ve finally hiked taxes on the rich (and doesn’t everyone feel better knowing that life is that much fairer?), is: How are we going to continue paying for the government we’ve been promised? As it turns out, raising tax rates on the “wealthy,” the most pressing issue of the Obama Age, amounts to a mere $62 billion of new revenue.
To …

The Auto Bailout Failure Is Now Complete
20 Dec 2012 12:02 am

You may recall that during the presidential election, the Treasury Department refused requests by General Motors to unload the government’s stake in the giant automaker.
Taxpayers had sunk $50 billion into a union bailout in 2009 and were now proud owners of 26.5 percent of the struggling company. Reportedly, GM had growing concerns that the stigma of “Government Motors” was hurting sales in the United States. At the time, any transaction would have come at a steep loss to taxpayers and undermined the president’s questionable campaign assertions that the auto union …

No One Is Serious About Debt
6 Dec 2012 12:02 am

The “fiscal cliff” deal House Republicans and President Barack Obama are debating can be called many things — the “avoiding a political nightmare” deal or a “Yes, Mr. Obama, may I have another” deal — but please let’s stop referring to it as a “deficit reduction” deal. We’ve yet to see a serious proposal on debt.
Actually, by proposing a tax increase for spending with no real corresponding cuts, the president has been arguing for growing deficits. And with a priority on “fairness” over prosperity, any chance of easing the $16 …

For GOP, Losing Might Be the Only Way To Win
29 Nov 2012 12:03 am

According to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, 73 percent of Democrats and 63 percent of independents — and even 39 percent of Republicans — now favor raising taxes on those making $250,000 or more a year. So give the people want they want.
As it is, the GOP is engaged in an unwinnable scrum with Barack Obama, a man chasing the gold-plated Holy Grail of hiking top marginal tax rates on the rich and small businesses — bringing in, according to the Congressional Budget Office, a few days’ worth of …

Republicans Have Already Lost Fight on Fiscal Cliff
15 Nov 2012 12:03 am

You’ll remember that President Barack Obama was the only candidate with a detailed plan to deal with the impending fiscal unpleasantness. And, as the president explained this week during his first press conference since winning re-election, “more voters agreed” with him, so naturally, it’s time to give the people what they want.
So what do we win? Well, turns out there’s only one detail worth remembering when dealing with the slew of tax hikes that kick in next year: We must reverse Bush-era tax rates on the rich. According to rosy …

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