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I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen this. The Congressional Democrats' latest scheme to block efforts to increase energy supply is a beaut: Designating a Massachusetts industrial river as "wild and scenic." They live in bizarro world. |
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Wednesday, 02 July 2008 10:45 |
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On its blog, the good folks at the National Taxpayers' Union have given Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty a bum rap on the tax issue. They label Pawlenty's record on taxes "a disaster." That is demonstrably wrong.
While many of us were frustrated with the governor's "health impact fee" of a few years back, he has been a stalwart protector of taxpayers in the face of large liberal majorities in the state House and Senate who have an insatiable appetite for raising taxes.
In the 2007-2008 legislative session, the Governor vetoed massive increases in personal and corporate taxes. His veto of a multi-billion dollar increase in the gas tax and other associated vehicle and local sales taxes was, unfortunately, overridden.
Additionally, the Governor appointed a Tax Reform Commission to look at fundamentally overhauling Minnesota's punitive and burdensome tax code.
Like any politician, especially one with hostile liberal majorities, Governor Pawlenty's record isn't perfect, but it is very solid. I will provide a more detailed analysis of the Pawlenty tax record, but didn't feel as though NTU's analysis should go unchallenged. |
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Wednesday, 11 June 2008 11:22 |
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...and Tip O'Neil is laughing his ass off in his.
Why?
Chris Cilizza in The Fix has this article about the ads being run by Republican incumbents up for re-election. The Senators mentioned in the article, Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Elizabeth Dole, have taken the O'Neil political model of All Politics is Local to its logical conclusion and are running ads focusing on the federal boodle they are bringing home to their respective states.
When you consider the programs they mention, it isn't pretty. Readers of my recent NRO article on the subject know that I think adopting the O'Neil strategy is one of the primary reasons for the downfall of the nominally conservative party. Recent events in Washington demonstrate that things are getting worse in this regard, not better. We aren't seeing an effort to renew our governing principles and actually present a coherent agenda, we're seeing every man, and woman, for himself.
To paraphrase Bette Davis, fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy election. |
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Tuesday, 10 June 2008 09:17 |
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Senator McCain weighed in on CEO pay today. I'll take a backseat to no one in expressing outrage about ill-deserved pay, benefits, and severance; however, is this a job for politicians or corporate boards?
"Americans are right to be offended when the extravagant salaries and severance deals of CEOs ... bear no relation to the success of the company or the wishes of shareholders," he will say, adding that some of those chief executives helped bring on the country's housing crisis and market troubles.
"If I am elected president, I intend to see that wrongdoing of this kind is called to account by federal prosecutors. And under my reforms, all aspects of a CEO's pay, including any severance arrangements, must be approved by shareholders."
As the Sarbanes-Oxley overreaction demonstrated, politicians can turn any short-term problem into a much worse long-term one. Deploying government power to further micro-manage corporate governance strikes me as another dead weight around American competitiveness and job creation.
Do we need better corporate governance? Always. But count me unconvinced that Washington is going to provide it.
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Thursday, 22 May 2008 07:58 |
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The good folks at National Review Online gave me some space to discuss what ails conservatism. I think you'll find it interesting. |
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