State of Union Disregards Economic Freedom

The Los Angeles Rams announced they were moving to St Louis. President Clinton gave Mexico $20 billion to bail out the peso. Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson married rock-n-roll bad boy Tommy Lee. And, the Index of Economic Freedom made its debut.

It was 1995.

This month, the Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation published the 20th edition of the Index. Its findings starkly rebut President Obama’s State of the Union assertion that “opportunity is who we are.”

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As for his claim that “the defining project of our geneation is to restore that promise [of opportunity]. We know where to start” … well, the index suggests otherwise. At least when it comes to this administration.

In every year of the Obama presidency, America has lost ground in economic freedom. When Mr. Obama first entered the Oval Office, the U.S. ranked sixth in the world. This year it dropped out of the Top 10, tumbling into 12th place.

Indeed, economic freedom has declined for seven straight years in America, and it’s the longest losing streak of any nation in the world. We are no longer even counted among the world’s “free” economies. Two years ago, the Index reported that the U.S. had become merely the land of the “mostly free.”

The Bush-era recession can’t be blamed for this sorry state of affairs. That recession’s impact spread worldwide. Other nations had to grapple with the same challenges, and did so far more successfully.

The president’s speech might lead you to believe the decline results from all the stuff Washington hasn’t done. But that’s got it completely backwards. All of the government initiatives pushed through by the administration — higher taxes, even greater spending and vast new regulatory regimes–have acted like a giant millstone weighing down the American economy.

Via: The Foundry

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Kirsten Powers: I'm Tired of 'Having to Defend This President' and ObamaCare

KIRSTEN POWERS: Well, I think his explanation is probably the true explanation, that they need to do this, but at the same time, it's now gotten to the point where it seems like there's an exemption made for pretty much everybody except for individuals. A lot of people who have really been screwed over by the law, you know, who are left without insurance or with extremely expensive insurance. So, I think that Ron Fournier of The National Journal wrote something that ran today about --

BRET BAIER: This was after he expressed himself last night on the panel.

POWERS: The headline is why I'm getting tired of defending Obamacare. And I'm going to say amen, brother, because it's exactly how I feel. People who have supported the law, who support universal health care, are constantly put in the position of having to defend this president, who has really incompetently put this together, rolled it out, and that's why he has to do this. It's why he has to keep doing this, because it's not working.

Via: Fox News

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Demonomics

This week the big story was the tag end of the old JournoList gang trying to spin gold out of the dross of the Congressional Budget Report. The CBO report projected that by 2021 under ObamaCare more than 2 million full-time workers will find it financially advisable to quit work entirely or switch to part-time jobs in order to get more subsidies for healthcare insurance. To most of us who studied real economics or just paid attention to human nature, subsidizing indolence means you'll get more of it.

But to the airheads on the left and their JournoList spinmasters -- the very people who believed in their hearts that young, healthy workers would willingly pay more for their health insurance to subsidize older, sicker Americans and learned nothing from the failure of that prediction , this devastating CBO report spelled out a wonderful new world of possibilities for American workers at the bottom rungs.

1. Job Lock

Working their dreidels overtime, the gang argued that the CBO report was going to end job lock -- long a Republican goal -- but as "Ignatz" posted on Just One Minute: "I believe the Republican idea was to decouple insurance from employment, not decouple the employee from employment"

Via: American Thinker

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Barack’s Assault on Work Merely His Latest Stupid Insult Against Common Sense

The confounding statement by Obama’s spokesman regarding whether Americans under ObamaCare will choose to work is nothing short of appalling and nonsensical. Certainly, of all the myriad attacks Obama has launched against Americans, this may be the most fundamental and perverse. For what kind of a person, let alone leader, tries to persuade others that work is an option?

That Barack has unbiblical and even anti-Christian ideals has been noted since his advent. But this recent broadside against work is a new low. For it is in the Garden that God commands Adam and Eve to be productive. But to reject this is to collectively turn our backs upon wisdom, common sense, experience, and revealed wisdom.

So what is Barack up to in his 2-term attack upon productivity? From a Marxist perspective, there are a number of reasons to oppose full-employment. First, since the US has a capitalist system, this must be overturned. Second, since capitalism is more highly productive than socialism, it must be shut down so as not to make Marxism suffer by comparison. Third, if Marxist revolution is needed to create a socialist utopia, then this will more likely happen if more people are out of work. Fourth, since unemployed people are more psychologically unwell, the more joblessness we have, the more dissatisfied will be Americans with the current system, and therefore more supportive of revolution.

Via: Canada Free Press

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Letters to the Editor: Obamacare may well be a disaster

Dear Editor,

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the people discover they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy; to be followed by a dictatorship."

— Alexander Tyler Fraser

Politicians are judged based on their ability to sell lunacy as public policy. Therefore, aspiring politicians must master the art of marketing, like the astute Barack Obama. Even if one does not revere Mr Obama, we must admire his skills has a marketer. Obama has managed to garner public support for the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare), which is, in essence, a bad policy. And, instead of engaging in a serious debate with his opposition colleagues about the implications of Obamacare, he is trying to score political points by lambasting them and, unfortunately, most people are succumbing to his antics.

It is not surprising that Republicans are being blamed for the government shutdown, although Obama refused to compromise. House Republicans voted to fund the entire government except Obamacare, and the president refused to budge, citing the need to protect a programme that will redound to the benefit of all Americans. But, contrary to the views of the mainstream media and Democrats, Obamacare may be a disaster. Obamacare will require firms with over 50 full-time employees to provide health coverage or pay a fine of $2,000-$3,000 per full-time worker. This has already created jitters in the private sector.

In a recent CNBC survey, 42 per cent of small businesses indicated that they have frozen hiring because of Obamacare; while 38 per cent have scaled down expansion plans, and 18 per cent have reduced working hours. Based on the Central Budget Office's research, the Affordable Health Care Act will result in 800,000 fewer full-time jobs. In addition, the myriad taxes and regulations introduced by this new policy will serve as a disincentive to the private sector.

Like most salesmen, Mr Obama has the potential to sell sloppy products like the Affordable Care Act, hence voters should become more discerning in order to avoid future disasters.

Lipton Matthews

Via: Jamaica Observer

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