Archives: May, 2013

Is Kathleen Sebelius Barack Obama’s Oliver North?

By
Michael F. Cannon

I blogged earlier about how HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is unethically, and possibly illegally, shaking down industries she regulates to get them to fund ObamaCare’s implementation.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), the ranking member of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, says this is “arguably an even bigger issue [than] Iran-Contra,” and ably defends his position against the Washington Post’s Sarah Kliff.

Excerpts from Alexander’s comments:

[I]n Iran-Contra, you had $30 million that was spent by Oliver North through private organizations for a purpose congress refused to authorize, in support of the rebels. Here, you’re wanting to spend millions more in support of private organizations to do something that Congress has refused…

The cause in the first case was the cause of rebels in Nicaragua.  And the cause here is to implement Obamacare. Congress has refused to appropriate more for that cause. The administration seems to be making a decision that’s called augmenting an appropriation. Its a constitutional offense that’s the issue…

If you read the report of the Iran-Contra select committee, it said that the executive cannot make an end run around Congress by raising money privately and spending it. That seems to be happening here. That was essentially the problem. There the money came from a different place, but if you look at my statement [the Iran-Contra report said] “a president whose appropriation requests were rejected by Congress could raise money from private sources or third countries for armies, military actions, arms systems, and even domestic programs.” [Emphasis added.] It’s the same kind of offense to the Constitution. It’s the same kind of thumbing your nose at Article 1…

If that’s what they’re saying…that Congress has refused to appropriate the money, then you can’t do it. That’s a curb on the executive.

Alexander has sent a letter to Sebelius requesting information about her extracurricular fundraising activities.

Topics: 
General, Government and Politics, Health Care, Law and Civil Liberties, Political Philosophy, Tax and Budget Policy

Jon Stewart on the IRS Targeting the Tea Party

By
Michael F. Cannon

Last night, the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart said of reports the IRS singled out tea-party groups for extra scrutiny, “This seems like a genuine scandal.” Then he turned on the funny: “In their defense, there is a good reason why people using the IRS to crack down on political enemies would not want Americans educated about the Constitution.” Best line: “Wait a minute. I didn’t realize apologies were sufficient in IRS-related issues.” Video below. (Beware: some racy language.)

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Barack Trek: Into Darkness
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Indecision Political Humor The Daily Show on Facebook

In the very next segment, Stewart portrays HHS’s release of (wildly divergent) hospital chargemaster prices as an example of government doing things right, gives kudos to HHS, and laments that government doesn’t do more of that sort of thing. There’s only one problem. Outrageously high and divergent hospital prices are due to government policies that encourage patients to pay for more items through health insurance and that thereby destroy the cash market and any hope of competitive and transparent prices. So that episode is also an example of government failure. 

The show’s Moment of Zen was this priceless clip of former IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman denying that his agency was on a tea-party witch hunt:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Moment of Zen - The Nonpartisan IRS
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Indecision Political Humor The Daily Show on Facebook
Topics: 
General, Government and Politics, Health Care

Some Empirical Evidence of IRS Political Manipulation

By
Tim Lynch

This morning Politico reports that there are plans for some congressional hearings into the unfolding IRS scandal. According to that report, these hearings will “probe whether the targeting of right-leaning groups is systemic or isolated.” In that connection, members of Congress (and others) should read this article from the Cato Journal, “Political Influence and the Internal Revenue Service.” Here’s an excerpt from the conclusion:

While history is replete with anecdotal evidence concerning the misuse of the Internal Revenue Service, this paper attempts to offer, to our knowledge, the first empirical evidence of systematic political manipulation. Findings reveal that the IRS is more active in states where noncompliance is more likely, but we also find evidence that political factors help shape enforcement patterns. For example, the IRS audits fewer returns in states whose representatives are members of congressional committees charged with IRS oversight. In addition, taxpayers in those states that gave Clinton greater political support were subjected to significantly fewer audits. Using 1995 audit rate data from the 63 IRS districts across the nation, we find that political factors offer significant explanatory power. In particular, a 10 percent increase in the vote for Clinton in the 1992 presidential election led to a 0.1 percent reduction in returns audited from the state. Thus evidence supports our hypothesis that both public-interest and private-interest motives shape IRS enforcement activity.

George Will has additional thoughts on the IRS matter:

The Post reported Monday that the IRS also targeted groups that ‘criticized the government and sought to educate Americans about the U.S. Constitution.’ Credit the IRS’s operatives with understanding who and what threatens the current regime.

Read the whole thing.

Topics: 
Law and Civil Liberties

Is This the Libertarian Moment?

By
David Boaz

In 2008 Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch hailed a “libertarian moment,” encompassing everything from the Internet to the collapse of “legacy” industries and legacy entitlement programs. I’ve used the same term here, when NPR talked about Ron Paul and when polls showed rising support for smaller government, gay marriage, and drug legalization.

But suddenly, today, everyone seems to see a libertarian moment. Driving in to work, I got so tired of the smug self-satisfaction on public radio’s pledge drive, I switched to the vigorously right-wing Chris Plante Show just in time to hear Plante say, “This is a great day for libertarianism” in regard to the abuse-of-power stories dominating the mainstream media.

And then, mirabile dictu, I got to the office, opened the Washington Post, and found today’s column by Michael Gerson. Now, as he says in today’s column, Gerson is “conspicuously not a libertarian.” Indeed, he is the most vociferously anti-libertarian columnist in contemporary punditry. And yet his column today is titled (in the print paper):

Making libertarians of us all

Man, you’ve got to abuse power something awful to make Michael Gerson start thinking libertarian. So thanks, IRS and Justice Department!

And now that the Obama administration’s abuse of power has got our attention, can we broaden our focus to take in health care mandates, recess appointments, campus speech regulations, the anti-constitutional Independent Payment Advisory Board, similar extra-legislative bodies in Dodd-Frank, the expropriation of Chrysler creditors, and illegal wars? 

Topics: 
Government and Politics, Law and Civil Liberties

The First Amendment Protects Both Political Donations and Campaign Spending

By
Ilya Shapiro

The First Amendment broadly protects political speech and the use of resources (printing presses, the internet, money) to facilitate that speech. Yet when someone wants to engage in the most obvious kind of political speech — supporting election campaigns — the government is allowed to restrict this important constitutional right. In a new case coming to the Supreme Court, Shaun McCutcheon, a wealthy political donor, and the Republican National Committee contend that the limits on political donations are unconstitutionally low and not supported by a sufficient governmental interest.

Currently, an individual may contribute up to $2,500 per election to federal candidates, up to $30,800 per year to a national party committee, and up to $5,000 per year to any non-party political committee. The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended most recently by McCain-Feingold in 2002, also imposes an overall limit on the aggregate amount one may contribute in a two-year period. For 2011-2012, an individual could contribute up to $46,200 to all federal candidates combined, and $70,800 to political action committees and political party committees—a total of $117,000.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that the Supreme Court has dealt with contribution limits. In the seminal 1976 case of Buckley v. Valeo, the Court held that while contribution limits implicate fundamental First Amendment rights, such limits are justified if they’re closely tied to an important governmental interest, such as preventing quid pro quo corruption or the appearance thereof.

But the Court also decided that restrictions on campaign spending put a heavier burden on political expression, one which the government couldn’t justify. One of the plaintiffs’ arguments here is that the biennial contribution limits are simultaneously a limit on expenditures—a position which Cato elaborated in a new amicus brief.

We argue that Buckley’s distinction between contributions and expenditures, with limits on the former but not the latter being constitutional, is problematic. Not only does it allow infringements on the freedom of speech, but it has led to an unbalanced and unworkable campaign finance system.

Various justices over the years, some even in Buckley itself, have questioned the Court’s logic on this point. Justice Thomas in particular has assailed the distinction, pointing out that both contributions and expenditures implicate First Amendment values because they both support political debate. Moreover, candidates must spend an inordinate amount of time fundraising instead of legislating because they face an unlimited demand for campaign funds but a tapered supply. At the same time, money has been pushed away from politically accountable parties and candidates and towards unelected advocacy groups, leading to a warping of and decrease in political competition.

The special three-judge district court that first heard this case was legally bound to the framework the Supreme Court laid out in Buckley and restated that contribution limits are constitutional as such, dismissing the lawsuit. Still, Judge Janice Rogers Brown wrote that “the constitutional line between political speech and political contributions grows increasingly difficult to discern.”

In a truly free society, people should be able to give whatever they want to whomever they choose, including candidates for public office. We urge the Supreme Court to strike down the biennial contribution limits and give those who contribute money to candidates and parties as much freedom as those who spend money independently to promote campaigns and causes.

The Supreme Court will hear argument in McCutcheon v. FEC this fall.

Topics: 
Government and Politics, Law and Civil Liberties

CO2: 400ppm and Growing

By
Paul C. "Chip" Knappenberger and Patrick J. Michaels

The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) has recently reached a “milestone” of 400 parts per million (ppm). In some circles, this announcement has been met with consternation and gnashing of teeth. The proper reaction is celebration.

The growth in the atmospheric CO2 concentration over the past several centuries is primarily the result of mankind’s thirst for energy—largely in the form of fossil fuels.  According to the World Bank, fossil fuel energy supplies about 80% of the world’s energy production—a value which has been pretty much constant for the past 40 years. During that time, the global population increased by 75%, and global energy use doubled. Global per capita energy use increased, while global energy use per $1000 GDP declined.  We are using more energy, but we are using it more efficiently. In the developed world, life expectancy has doubled since the dawn of the fossil fuel era.

Of course, burning fossil fuels to produce energy results in the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, tipping the natural balance of annual CO2 flux and leading to  a gradual build-up.

There are two primary externalities that result from our emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere—1) an enhancement of the greenhouse effect, which results in an alteration of the energy flow in the earth’s climate and a general tendency to warm the global average surface temperature, and 2) an enhancement of the rate of photosynthesis in plants and a general tendency to result in more efficient growth and an overall healthier condition of vegetation (including crops).  There’s incontrovertible evidence that the planet is both warmer and greener than it was 100 years ago.

As we continually document (see here for our latest post), more and more science is suggesting that the rate (and thus magnitude at any point in time) of CO2-induced climate change is not as great as commonly portrayed. The lower the rate of change, the lower the resulting impact. If the rate is low enough, carbon dioxide emissions confer a net benefit. We’d like to remind readers that “it’s not the heat, it’s the sensitivity,” when it comes to carbon dioxide, and the sensitivity appears to have been overestimated.

As new science erodes the foundation of climate worry, new technologies are expanding recoverable fossil fuel resources. Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have opened up vast expanses of fossil fuel resources—mainly natural gas—that were untouchable just a few years ago. The discovery that the world is awash in hundreds of years of recoverable fuels is a game-changer, given  the strong correlation between energy use per capita and life expectancy.

400ppm of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere should remind us of our continuing success at expanding the global supply of energy to meet a growing demand. That  success which ultimately leads to an improvement of the global standard of living and a reduction in vulnerability to the vagaries of weather and climate.

400pm is cause for celebration. “A world lit only by fire” is not. 

Topics: 
Energy and Environment

The WaPo Keeps Fighting on Food Aid

By
Simon Lester

A few weeks ago, I blogged about how the U.S. government uses the idea of helping malnourished people abroad as a way to promote domestic agricultural interests.  As I explained there, “Instead of simply giving money to people to buy food from the cheapest source, the U.S. government buys food from U.S. producers and requires that it be sent overseas on U.S. ships.”  It turns what some might see as a noble cause into a means of industrial policy.

The Washington Post has been all over the issue, and has another good editorial today.  They note the argument of one politician that “political realities are such that foreign aid cannot get funding unless domestic U.S. constituencies also benefit.”  But then they have a great response:

Perhaps it’s true that funding for foreign aid, always politically tenuous, has depended on greasing interest groups. But it’s also true that foreign aid depends on persuading taxpayers in general that their funds are being well spent. And there are more taxpayers than special interests.

The Obama administration is pushing in the right direction on this.  Let’s hope they can successfully fight off the special interest groups who are resisting.

Topics: 
International Economics and Development, Trade and Immigration

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