Dec. 2, 2010--The Washington Times

The profit = innovation dynamic was everywhere at the mine rescue site.

By: Daniel Henninger

October 14, 2010--Wall Street Journal

By: Brody Mullins, Tom McGinty, and Jason Zweig

October 11, 2010--Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON—Chris Miller nearly doubled his $3,500 stock investment in a renewable-energy firm in 2008. It was a perfectly legal bet, but he's no ordinary investor.

Mr. Miller is the top energy-policy adviser to Nevada Democrat and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who helped pass legislation that wound up benefiting the firm.

Jim Manley, a spokesman for Mr. Reid's office, initially defended Mr. Miller's purchase of shares in the company, Energy Conversion Devices Inc. He said the aide had no influence over tax incentives for renewable-energy firms, and that other factors boosted the stock.

But on Sunday, Mr. Manley added: "Mr. Miller showed poor judgment and Senator Reid has made it very clear to Chris and all his staff that their actions must not only follow the law, but must meet the higher standards the public has a right to expect from elected officials and their staffs."

By: Philip K. Howard

October 10, 2010--New York Daily News

Government is broken and the economy is gasping. The reason is the same: Americans no longer feel free to roll up their sleeves and make the choices needed to fix things. Governors come to office and find that 90% of the budget is pre-committed to entitlements and mandates enacted by politicians long dead. Teachers no longer have authority to maintain order in the classroom.

Legal mandates and entitlements have accumulated, like sediment in the harbor, until it is almost impossible for Americans to get anywhere without trudging through a treacherous legal swamp. Only big businesses, not small entrepreneurs, have the size (and legal staffs) to power through the legal sludge.

By: Steve Pearce

October 8, 2010--AOL News

By: Alexander Bolton

September 28, 2010--The Hill

Democrats are considering cramming as many as 20 pieces of legislation into the lame-duck session they plan to hold after the Nov. 2 election.

The array of bills competing for floor time shows the sense of urgency among Democratic lawmakers to act before the start of the 112th Congress, when Republicans are expected to control more seats in the Senate and House.

But, given the slow pace of the Senate, it also all but guarantees that Democrats will be hard-pressed to pass even a small part of their lame-duck agenda.

The highest-profile item for November and December is the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, passed under President George W. Bush, which expire at year’s end.

Democrats have promised they will not allow tax rates to rise for families making less than $250,000 a year.

Democratic leaders have also prioritized the defense authorization bill, which includes a repeal of the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that bans gays from serving openly in the military.

Democrats and gay-rights activists fear repeal could prove impossible if Republicans control the House or additional Senate seats.

By: George F. Will

September 16, 2010--The Washington Post

JERSEY CITY

The crime scene at 138 Griffith St. has changed in 76 years. Today it is a barber shop. In 1934, it was a tailoring and cleaning establishment owned and run by Jacob Maged, 49.

With his responsibilities as a father of four, Maged should have shunned a life of crime. Instead, he advertised his criminal activity with a placard in his shop window, promising to press men's suits for 35 cents. This he did, even though President Franklin Roosevelt's New Dealers, who knew an amazing number of things -- his economic aides were not called a "Brains Trust" for nothing -- knew that the proper price for pressing a man's suit was 40 cents.

The National Recovery Administration was an administrative mechanism for the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933, which envisioned regulating the economy back to health by using, among other things, codes of fair competition. The theory was that by promoting the cartelization of labor by encouraging unions, and the cartelization of industries by codes that would inhibit competition, prices would be propped up and prosperity would return.

December 3, 2009--New Mexico Federal Lands Council

September 1, 2010

I was making my way toward Las Cruces yesterday when I saw a long time friend along the highway, and stopped to visit with him and his wife. Tom and Pam are ranchers east of Mayhill.  They have endured the rigors of ranching for decades in this very rural part of New Mexico. 

Tom told me yesterday that government regulators had completely wiped out the sheep ranching business in New Mexico. The US Fish and Wildlife Service implemented new regulations that prohibit ranchers from controlling the population of nearby predators, such as mountain lions and coyotes. As a result, Tom and Pam have completely quit raising sheep. Just a year or two ago New Mexico had 20,000 sheep grown and marketed here. Now it is zero. The jobs are gone. 

The revenue to the state is gone. The vitality of our nation’s economy is shrinking and prosperity is disappearing, because of our own government.