Morning Briefing
For May 7, 2013
1. They Wouldn’t Act This Way If Ted Cruz Weren’t Putting Points on the Board
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board is upset with Ted Cruz for leading a filibuster against gun control.
John McCain tweeted out the Journal’s editorial in a moment of wackiness.
Bill Richardson, the scandal plagued former Governor of New Mexico, says Ted Cruz can’t be called hispanic despite being hispanic because Ted Cruz isn’t a race baiter like Richardson.
And now Harry Reid calls Ted Cruz a schoolyard bully for Cruz objecting to Harry Reid trying to expand government in a bipartisan fashion.
Most interesting to me is this part of Harry Reid’s statement of frustration:
"He pushes everybody around and is losing and instead of playing the game according to the rules, he not only takes the ball home with him, but he changes the rules that way no one wins except the bully who tries to indicate to people that he has won."
Harry Reid is right. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
2. Now It’s Time to Deliver
The US government has a spending problem. The nation is over $16 trillion in debt. Federal spending must be brought under control to reduce the deficit, reduce the size of the government, and move toward a balanced budget. The Obama Administration and the Democrat-controlled Senate are committed to higher taxes, higher spending, and the government taking an ever-higher share of the US economy. This has got to stop. The House Republican majority are the ones who can stop it.
The House Republicans must use the power of the majority to pass a Republican agenda that controls spending. We cannot let another opportunity slip by with no gain. We are running out of leverage. Now it’s time to deliver. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
3. Robert Rector’s Study: Open Borders + Welfare State = Disaster
We’ve noted many times throughout the debate over amnesty that you simply cannot legalize so many low-skilled people without reforming the welfare state. Some people don’t like to hear it, but the reality of today’s redistributive society is that the higher-skilled population transfers a tremendous amount of wealth to the lower-skilled population in the form of the tax code, entitlements, welfare, and social services. Do we really need to import so many new low-skilled illegal and legal immigrants over the next decade to exacerbate the current unsustainable dynamic?
That is the question Heritage’s Robert Rector deals with in his cost study on amnesty today, at least in the case of illegal immigrants. And the answer is a resounding no. Under any amnesty plan, there would indeed be more people paying payroll taxes, but that revenue will never outweigh the cost of benefits they would inevitably receive.
According to Rector, “over a lifetime, the former unlawful immigrants together would receive $9.4 trillion in government benefits and services and pay $3.1 trillion in taxes.” That’s a net cost of $6.3 trillion in combined federal, state, and local benefits. The annual net cost will be roughly $112 billion. The majority of expense will be the result of increased educational and welfare costs. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
4. The FAA’s Sequestration Blues
As lines grew at airports and passengers began to fume, Congress lumbered into action, holding hearings on furloughs and sequestration, and, ultimately tweaking the law to allow the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to add more manpower at the nation’s air traffic control towers. The only silver lining to the whole calamity may be that some small part of the government actually had a real discussion about spending. Not that it solves the underlying problem or averts mounting complaints about flying. If Congress was serious about improving air travel, they would have moved forward with plans to modernize our aviation system with new technologies that would render many of the existing towers redundant and obsolete, while allowing private entrepreneurs to play a larger role in airport management.
Airlines were deregulated in 1978, saving consumers billions of dollars and opening air travel to a much larger public. But as anyone who has flown recently knows, air travel is far less enjoyable than it was in the days of regulation and pampered passengers. It’s not just the TSA security checks; airlines have restructured their routes to keep flights as full as possible while trimming back on amenities. And airport facilities lag far behind the growing demand for air travel. In short, air travel is a no frills experience that leaves many passengers dreading the trip to the airport. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
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