THE FOUNDATION
"How strangely will the tools of a tyrant pervert the plain meaning of words!" --Samuel Adams, to John Pitts, 1776TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS
Tax Freedom Day Is Coming
The Tax Foundation calculates "Tax Freedom Day" each year. "Tax Freedom Day is the day when the nation as a whole has earned enough money to pay its total tax bill for the year," says the group. This year, Tax Freedom Day falls 111 days into the year -- on April 21 -- three days later than last year. However, if the government's borrowing were included, we'd have to wait until May 6. The delay is "due mainly to the country's continued slow economic recovery." Way back in 1900, Tax Freedom Day came on Jan. 22. Those were the good 'ole days.Comment | Share
Holder Exploring Gun Tracking
Despite another study affirming that more guns still equal less crime, Eric Holder made clear that efforts to implement draconian gun control measures aren't going away. Holder said possible technological "improvements" might help, for example, by limiting use "either through finger print identification, [or] the gun talks to a bracelet or something that you might wear." His declared objective is to see "how guns can be used only by the person who is lawfully in possession of the weapon. It's those kinds of things that I think we want to try to explore so that we can make sure that people have the ability to enjoy their Second Amendment rights." Leaving aside the fact that Holder's "bracelet concept has barely passed the theoretical stage," Hot Air's Ed Morrissey adds, "I'm old enough to remember when the only people on whom government wanted to put electronic bracelets were criminals." A fitting analogy considering "gun clingers" are criminals in the eyes of Holder and Democrat elitists. Their idea of enjoying the Second Amendment is gun confiscation and the abolition of your right to bear arms.Comment | Share
The Ever-Changing Law
Stop us if you've heard this before: The White House has made a unilateral change to ObamaCare to help Democrats in the November elections. This time they've canceled the planned $200 billion in cuts to Medicare Advantage that were meant to offset the cost for ObamaCare, the stated reason being that the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services says they don't need the money thanks to an "increase in healthy beneficiaries under Medicare." Imagine -- people over 65 are suddenly becoming healthier as the 2014 election draws nearer. The CBO recently estimated that ObamaCare's subsidies and other outlays will cost $2 trillion between 2015 and 2024. But hey, what trumps this year's election?Comment | Share
'Standing on the Throat of Our Economy'
It's no secret that Democrats want to raise the minimum wage this election year, or that they think it's a winning issue. So it was no surprise to hear Rep. George Miller (D-CA) blasting Republicans: "So what are the Republicans doing when they won't vote for the minimum wage?" he asked. "They're standing on the throat of our economy. Because the economy is sluggish and your wages are the key to the recovery, we have to increase those wages." Actually, raising the minimum wage would hurt the economy, the reason why Republicans oppose it. The CBO says it will destroy 500,000 jobs and cost the economy $15 billion. In fact, 500 economists have urged Congress to not raise it by the proposed 40%. So who's standing on the throat of our economy?Comment | Share
Standoff in Nevada
A Nevada cattle rancher is experiencing the full force of the federal government over the land on which his cattle are grazing. Cliven Bundy claims that his family has homestead rights going back more than 100 years to the 600,000-acre Gold Butte area north of Las Vegas. The federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM), however, says otherwise and has begun confiscating his cattle while armed law enforcement officials are stationed around the ranch. Bundy recalls Waco and Ruby Ridge and hopes it doesn't come to that. The disagreement goes back to 1993 when Bundy quit paying for grazing rights. In 1998, the land was declared "off-limits" for cattle in order to protect the desert tortoise. Bundy has lost several times in court, hence the current impounding of his cattle. Yet when 87% of Nevada land is public land, what's a rancher to do? Stay tuned as the situation may escalate.Comment | Share
For more, visit Right Hooks.
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WE'RE DIFFERENT AND YET THE SAME
We've made big changes here at The Patriot Post over the last year. In August, we began a transition to a Daily Digest complete with a new website design that better highlights the solid conservative analysis we hope you've come to appreciate and even rely on over the years. But given the tough economy, we've also been forced to tighten our belts. That means we're providing you with more while doing it for less.We're supported 100% by the voluntary support of readers like you, so we hope you'll stand with us in the ongoing battle for Liberty by making a secure online donation to The Patriot Post today!
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RIGHT ANALYSIS
The White House Equal Pay Bait and Switch
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The 77-cents figure is simply an aggregate number based on the averages of wages for women and men in the U.S. It does not take into account several factors. Women frequently leave the workforce to have and raise children, delaying their level of experience and skill acquisition in many industries. Men are more prone to work dangerous jobs that pay more. In 2012, 92% of workplace fatalities were male. Also more men take jobs in banking and finance, which have higher wage risks but also higher rewards. Among the college educated, women tend to embrace lower-paid professions that require only liberal arts degrees, while men tend to fill more jobs that require extensive study like engineering and medicine. When these factors are taken into account, the wage line between men and women virtually disappears.
And if corporations were as greedy as the Left maintains, wouldn't they hire more women if they could really get away with paying them so much less?
The White House would rather not look at the specifics, though. Indeed, despite acknowledging that the "77 cents" number is bunk, they will continue to use it anyway. Betsey Stevenson, a member of the Council of Economic Advisers, told reporters that women are "stuck at 77 cents on the dollar ... across the income distribution, within occupations, across occupations, and we see it when men and women are working side by side doing identical work." When pressed by reporters, Stevenson was forced to walk back her statement, saying, "If I said 77 cents was equal pay for equal work, then I completely misspoke. So let me just apologize and say that I certainly wouldn’t have meant to say that." Oh, well never mind then.
Except that Barack Obama repeated that very claim after the aforementioned exchange, playing to low-info voters who won't know the difference.
Ironically, if there is any place where men and women are not treated equally regarding their pay, it's in the White House. Women make 88 cents on the dollar compared to men, and in the White House, just how varied can the work really be? Either way, Press Secretary Jay Carney says, rest assured, "What I can tell you is that we have, as an institution here, have aggressively addressed this challenge, and obviously, though, at the 88 cents that you cite, that is not a hundred, but it is better than the national average."
Obama's argument for equal pay is many things, but it has nothing to do with fairness in the marketplace. Closing the so-called equal-pay gap between men and women is a bright shiny object for the White House to use to distract from its other policy disasters from ObamaCare to Russia. Democrats will spend the rest of this year fighting against the imaginary "war on women." Obama's executive order is a power grab that allows the government to inject its will upon the private sector. And it's also an opportunity for Obama to take the country one step closer to dictatorship as he once again flaunts the constitutional process for his own political gain.
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NLRB Seeks Unprecedented Expansion of Union Power
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Read the rest of the story here.
For more, visit Right Analysis.
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TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS
- Arnold Ahlert: 'Gender Gap' Fraud Backfires on Obama
- Ben Shapiro: The Rise of American Totalitarianism
- Terence Jeffrey: Will 'Health Care' Kill American Medicine?
- John Stossel: Taxing Life Away
- Walter E. Williams: How to Assist Evil
OPINION IN BRIEF
John Stossel: "The tax code oddity that may have the most destructive influence on America might be the fact that if you buy private health insurance, you pay more tax than if your employer buys you a plan. It's why we ended up with a sluggish health care market unresponsive to individual desires -- leading to the insistence that we need a government-managed alternative like Obamacare. The code is incomprehensible. You can get a deduction for feeding feral cats but not for having a watchdog, for clarinet lessons if your orthodontist thinks it'll cure your overbite but not for piano lessons a psychotherapist prescribes for relaxation. It seems so arbitrary. In the marketplace, individuals shop around for the most efficient, low-cost way of getting services they really want. Every time tax rules nudge us in a chosen direction, they preempt the market's signals. Government gets moralistic about it, too, placing 'sin taxes' on items like cigarettes and fat, plus luxury items like yachts that some find decadent. ... America suffers when government turns taxes into a manipulative maze."Comment | Share
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862): "The law will never make men free; it is men who have got to make the law free."
Columnist Arnold Ahlert: "Democrats and Obama have long embraced the idea that the accumulation and maintenance of power is all that matters. Thus, if it takes lying, hypocrisy, contempt for the law and deliberately turning Americans against each other to achieve that end, so be it. Their desperation is amplified by the ObamaCare debacle, but that doesn't obscure one over-riding reality: Democrats would rather rule over a bitterly divided and failing nation, than serve as a minority party in a united and prosperous one. In seven months, Americans get their chance to thoroughly repudiate that odious worldview. They should make the most of it."
Comedian Jimmy Fallon: "The No. 1 movie this weekend was 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier,' which has already made $303 million at the worldwide box office. So in other words, Captain America has more money than regular America."
Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team
Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform -- Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen -- standing in harm's way in defense of Liberty, and for their families.
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