25 July 2009

Today’s Tabbloid
PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS make every effort to prevent legislative disaster from repeating itself,
especially during this period of economic turmoil. ...
DNC Pays For Its Lying
Campaign [The Club for
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Growth]
JUL 24, 2009 06:21P.M. A Picture Is Worth A 1000
As I mentioned earlier this week, the DNC ran a false attack ad in South Words [Americans for Tax
Carolina against Jim DeMint because of his very valid “Waterloo”
comment. Reform]
JUL 24, 2009 04:29P.M.
Well, it turns out that DeMint is getting the last laugh. From a DeMint
press release: The picture on the left demonstrates the importance of private property
rights more than words ever could. Taken in Zimbabwe, and put up by
Today, two major cable providers in South Carolina decided the Center for Global Development, this is an ariel view wh...
to pull down a false television advertisement purchased by
the DNC attacking Senator Jim DeMint. After reviewing the
legal arguments presented by attorneys for DeMint for
Senate, both Charter Media in Greenville, SC and Cable FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Vantage in Columbia, SC have pulled the ad from circulation.
Race to the Takeover [Cato at
As of this afternoon, this untrue attack ad will no longer run
on television anywhere inside the State of South Carolina. Liberty]
JUL 24, 2009 04:15P.M.
Senator DeMint said, “The President’s ad was both false and
misleading and I am grateful it is off the South Carolina With the federal takeover of health care stalled, President Obama was
airwaves. Looking forward, my hope is that the President will able to enjoy a little feeling of success today at an event celebrating the
engage in an honest debate of ideas to truly reform America’s “Race to the Top Fund,” a $4.35 billion kitty of education money created
health care system.” under the economic “stimulus” law. Not much actually happened
today — the draft state application for fund dollars was released — but
Sweet vindication. that was enough to produce a full-on, Department of Education dog-and-
pony show topped off with a speech by the president. The administration
even had a bit of a media blitz leading up to the show, with numerous
articles appearing in major papers, a Washington Post op-ed by
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS Secretary Duncan, and the president participating in a lengthy Post
interview.
Protectionism Rears Its Ugly
Unfortunately, there’s nothing about the Race to the Top Fund actually
Head in Energy and Water worth celebrating. Despite rhetoric by the president about “evidence-
based policymaking” and promises that “politics won’t come into play”
Appropriations Bill [Americans with fund money, this is just another escalation of politicized,
destructive, federal education interference. It pours more taxpayer
for Tax Reform] ducats into the edu-abyss, and with new data-collection requirements
JUL 24, 2009 04:55P.M. and money for national (read: federal) standards and tests, further
tightens Washington’s grip on our schools. And don’t expect any of this
You’d think that after the Great Depression members of Congress would to translate into better outcomes: The people employed by government

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 25 July 2009

schools, who have the greatest incentive and ability to control education Bulletin News, which summarizes news media coverage:
policy, will still be calling the shots in a soon-to-be even tighter
monopoly. Heck, just ask American Federation of Teachers president • Senate, Obama Back Off Healthcare Reform August Deadline.
Randi Weingarten and National Education Association president Dennis
Van Roekel. Both were in attendance at today’s big event, and both were • Obama Rakes In Cash For DNC, Criticizes Media Coverage Of
singled out for praise by Secretary Duncan and President Obama. Healthcare Debate.

The race to the federal takeover just keeps getting faster. • Obama’s Performance At Wednesday’s Press Conference Comes
Under Fire.

• President’s Media Strategy Raises Eyebrows.

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
• House Democrats Consider Sidestepping Committee.
55% Duties on Chinese Tires
• Democratic Caucus Holds “Contentious” Meeting.
Would Be Plain Stupid in Every
• Black Caucus Blasts Blue Dogs; AARP, Unions Also Criticize
Respect [Cato at Liberty] Group.
JUL 24, 2009 03:29P.M.
• Freshmen Senators Ask Baucus To Hold Costs Down, Praise His
Last month, I posted about the upcoming decision confronting President Efforts.
Obama on the question of whether or not he should impose trade
restrictions (55% duties) on passenger tires from China, as • More Criticism Of Obama.
recommended by the U.S. International Trade Commission.
Now that reform seems less inevitable, interest groups will be less likely
I am in the process of finishing a short paper on the issue, explaining to settle for a bad deal. Instead, they will be more likely to demand
why doing so would be disastrous for the economy and foreign relations, higher payoffs than before, because their clients believe the expected cost
but am taking a break to share this brilliant op-ed that appeared in of alienating Church elders has moved away from “getting punished” and
today’s Detroit News. Ross Kogler, Jr., president of Tire Wholesalers, toward “the status quo ante.”
really hits the nail on the head, articulately and succinctly, explaining
that there is no upside, only misery, in the proposed tariffs. So, good luck paying for this thing.

Michigan could sure use several more Ross Koglers and far fewer of the
business-as-usual pols and union leaders who have run the state into the
abyss. FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS

More Bureaucrats To Reduce

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS Government?!?!?! Really?!?!?
The Price of Universal Coverage [Americans for Tax Reform]
JUL 24, 2009 02:49P.M.
Just Went Up [Cato at Liberty]
JUL 24, 2009 03:15P.M. First we had vice-president Biden calling for us to spend more money to
avoid bankruptcy. Now, with similar logic, President Obama wants to
Since at least February, President Obama and other elders of the Church hire more public servants and increase the defi...
of Universal Coverage have labored to create the impression that
universal coverage is inevitable, because a sense of inevitability reduces
its cost. If interest groups think this train is leaving the station, they are
less likely to stand in its way. Lobbyists are more likely to cut whatever
deal they can if their clients believe, “It could have been much worse.”
That’s why Obama has demanded haste: the longer the process, the
harder it is to maintain a sense of inevitability.

Here’s a sampling of today’s health care headlines from the non-partisan

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 25 July 2009

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS complete with digital pictures, diagrams and text
summaries on just about anything that happens. Recon a
Debating the Individual water pump? Make a storyboard. Conduct a key leader
engagement? Make a storyboard. Award a microgrant?
Mandate [Cato at Liberty] Make a storyboard.”
JUL 24, 2009 02:18P.M.
In addition, the PowerPoint slide that was to have conveyed the “Phase
Mark Pauly is usually an ally of those who support free-market health IV” (reconstruction and stabilization) plan in Iraq has been the topic of
care reform. But, occassionally, he strays off the reservation. Recently, he much discussion, but Starbuck actually posts the final slide:
and I debated the merits of an individual mandate for health insurance
on publicsquare.net. Click here to listen.

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS

Media Spotlight—DeMint vs.

Obama, Tax Increases blocked
in CA [Americans for Tax
Reform]
JUL 24, 2009 02:17P.M.

Politico Arena: What do you think Sen. DeMint meant by “it will break
him?” Grover Norquist: “What DeMint probably meant was that
With this much detail, how could we have gone wrong?
Obama’s public campaign for massive tax incr...

In fairness, before PowerPoint we had “flow charts,” the logic of which

was best summed up here. (There is a much better version with some
blue language, but this is a family blog.)
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS

More Anti–PowerPoint
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Catharsis [Cato at
Lindsey Graham Is At It Again
Liberty–PowerPoint Catharsis]
JUL 24, 2009 01:11P.M. [The Club for Growth]
JUL 24, 2009 01:04P.M.
In relation to the story that prompted my moaning and wailing about
abuse of PowerPoint, “Starbuck” at the Small Wars Journal has posted a Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was the subject of a front page article in
follow on. In it, s/he passes along the following story: today’s Politico. Graham seems to think that appeasing liberals will allow
him and the GOP to regain the majority. Graham said, “‘If we chase this
In January 2009, a military-oriented site, “Company attitude … that you have to say ‘no’ to every Democratic proposal, you
Command”, asked current Army commanders and platoon can’t help the president ever, you can’t ever reach across the aisle, then I
leaders in Iraq what they spent most of their time doing. One don’t want to be part of the movement because it’s a dead-end
officer, Lt. Sam Nuxoll, answered flat-out: “Making movement,’ Graham said.”
PowerPoint slides”.
From the same article:
When pressed, the lieutenant continued:
Club for Growth president Chris Chocola says Graham “has it
“I’m dead serious, guys. The one thing I spend more time on backwards.”
than anything else here in combat is making PowerPoint
slides. I have to make a storyboard [a PowerPoint slide] “It’s not about purity,” he said. “It’s about sticking to the

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 25 July 2009

fundamentals in order to build a sustainable majority. If you program for three years read two grade levels ahead of their peers who
play a sport and you’re not performing well, you don’t say, “I remained in public schools. And that’s according to Duncan’s own
have to try 10 new things.” You ask, “What are the Department of Education.
fundamentals I’ve forgotten about?” The same thing is true in
politics. If you’ve had a few bad cycles, what are the Obama and Duncan may well train state education leaders to follow their
fundamentals you’re ignoring?” commands, but there’s no reason to believe those commands will
improve American schools.
If Graham needs a reminder, those fundamentals include lower taxes,
limited government, and other pro-growth policies that encourage and
support prosperity.
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS

Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, Wrong,

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
WRONG!! [Cato at Liberty]
Education Reform’s Moon Shot JUL 24, 2009 12:35P.M.

Moonshine [Cato at Liberty] The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review quotes Republican National Committee
JUL 24, 2009 12:57P.M. chairman Michael Steele on how Congress should go about reforming
health care:
In today’s Washington Post, education secretary Arne Duncan describes
the administration’s $4.5 billion “Race to the Top” fund as “education Having Congress reshape health care puts “the wrong people
reform’s moon shot” — a watershed undertaking that will transform the at the table,” Steele said. He said stakeholders — “doctors,
way children learn and dramatically improve outcomes. No doubt he lawyers, health care employees, insurance companies” —
believes that. But since he also seems to believe that he brought about should develop a solution and present it to Congress, rather
dramatic academic gains in Chicago — something that I and others have than the other way around.
shown is not the case — the secretary’s beliefs should be taken with a
grain of salt. Steele needs to brush up on his Adam Smith:

“Race to the Top” funds will be used to reward states that pursue People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for
education policies favored by Duncan and President Obama, and, by merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a
extension, to punish states that don’t. It is obedience training writ large. conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise
States that Duncan felt were going in the wrong direction in recent prices.
weeks, like Rhode Island, were rapped on the nose: keep it up, and we’ll
withhold millions in education funding kibbles, they were told. States Like I said, Jonathan Chait was on to something.
like Colorado have already been brought to heel. “We all know Colorado
needs this money,” Lt. Gov. Barbara O’Brien told the Washington Post,
and she and other state officials have poured over Duncan’s every word
to ensure that they follow his commands to the letter. FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS

And what commands Duncan and Obama are giving! High on their Pat Toomey’s New Book [The
agenda is bringing the nation’s schools into lock step when it comes to
standards and testing. They promise, with little evidence, that this will Club for Growth]
drive educational excellence. Meanwhile, just this month, British schools JUL 24, 2009 12:19P.M.
secretary Ed Balls terminated that nation’s decade-long national math
and reading strategies, saying that: “I think the right thing for us to do Buy it now! (And click on the Kindle link to encourage Amazon to offer
now is to move away from what has historically been a rather central it)
view of school improvement through national strategies.” If central
planning were a panacea for education, why are the Brits — who have
years of experience with it — turning away from it?

And if the president and his education secretary really cared about
evidence-driven education reform, they would not have decided to kill
the D.C. opportunity scholarships program that gives low income
families in the nation’s capital access to private schools. Children in that

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 25 July 2009

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS

MoveOn Rally vs. Tea Party

[The Club for Growth]
JUL 24, 2009 11:56A.M.

This is great. From yesterday’s Dallas Observer:

Local MoveOn.org members had penciled in on today’s

schedule a protest in front of Senator John Cornyn’s Spring
Valley Road office, during which they had hoped to pressure
the senator to support President Barack Obama’s public
health care legislation. But when Paula Anderson, a
MoveOn.org member and spokeswoman, showed up at 11:30
a.m., she found another contingent had beat her to the
proverbial punch: A large number of Dallas Tea Party
members were already set up, voicing their opposition to the
proposal.

Anderson was stunned: “We really did not expect them to

show up.” She estimated the crowd at about 130. “From our
perspective we took names of everyone there, and we had
about 30 people,” she told Unfair Park. “And I would assume
they maybe had 100.” As it turned out, according to Jessica
Sandlin, Cornyn’s Texas press secretary, Tea Party-hearties
also showed up to health-care legislation rallies in Austin and
in San Antonio.

HT: Instapundit

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS

Friday’s Daily News [The Club

for Growth]
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS JUL 24, 2009 11:49A.M.

Do You Love Waiting in Line for THE DAILY NEWS Stocks Surge as Obamacare Implodes - Larry
Kudlow, Money Politics Health Reform’s Hidden Victims - John Fund,
Health Care? [The Club for Wall Street Journal How Obama Stumbled on Health Care - Kim
Strassel, WSJ Health Reform Puts Innovation At Risk - Sally Pipes, IBD
Growth] Bad Reform Is Worse Than No Reform - Michael Tanner, Cato Institute
JUL 24, 2009 12:00P.M. Blown Deadline, Blown Chance? - Carrie Brown & Chris Frates, Politico
More Health Care Stumbling by Team Obama - KeithHennessey.com
Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01) thinks some of her constituents would Paying the Price for Obama’s Lack of Trade Policy - Ikenson &
love (not just like) to wait in line for health care. Lincicome, LAT Bankers Warn Over Financial Protectionism - van Duyn
& Tett, FT.com Government by a Single Faction - The Unions - Fred
Siegel, City Journal

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 25 July 2009

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS

Timeless Wisdom from Walter Small Business to Under Attack

Williams [Cato at Liberty] By Obama’s Record High Tax
JUL 24, 2009 11:26A.M.
Hike [Americans for Tax
Back in the 1980s, the irreplaceable Walter Williams produced a
documentary based on one of his more controversial books, The State Reform]
Against Blacks. Someone has done a great service and posted the JUL 24, 2009 11:14A.M.
documentary on youtube. Everything Walter said back then is true today
- and just as applicable. The only discordant note is that when Walter On Wednesday, President Obama endorsed a House committee’s plan to
refers to “welfare reform,” it is important to understand that he is talking ensure American taxpayers will face a higher top marginal tax rate than
about the expansion of handouts and centralization in the 1960s and either communist China or Cuba. This plan, which ...
1970s, not the pro-market welfare reform of the 1990s:

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Reporting the Minimum Wage
And Now a Word From
[Cato at Liberty]
Vladimir Lenin... [The Club for JUL 24, 2009 10:54A.M.

Growth] Economists generally agree that minimum wage laws tend to put low-
JUL 24, 2009 11:24A.M. skilled workers out of work. (Even economists who support minimum
wage laws for reasons of politics or “justice” don’t really argue that the
From the talented John Cox: laws don’t raise unemployment.) But that message hasn’t really reached
journalists. Today’s stories on the mandated rise in the minimum wage
take one of two forms: Assuming that the raise is “good news” for low-
paid workers, or quoting one economist on each side. The latter is
certainly better, but it does convey the sense that “economists disagree
about the effects of minimum wage laws,” which doesn’t really reflect the
state of economic knowledge.

NPR used both versions. Some of its hourly newscasts led with “The
minimum wage hike means 70 cents more per hour for low-income
workers.” But some also noted, ”That’s supposed to be good news for
low-income workers, but economists disagree about whether it will help
or hurt the economy.” NPR did a somewhat balanced story yesterday.

Many journalists went with the easy, mostly wrong, “good news”
approach, as these headlines and first sentences illustrate:

• ABC News: Relief for Workers at Bottom: Minimum Wage

Goes Up

• Time: With the U.S. trillions of dollars in the hole, 70 cents an hour
sounds like chump change. But it’s a big boost for the millions of
workers who earn that much extra as of July 24.

• Philadelphia Inquirer: Minimum-wage workers to get a pay

bump today

• WFMY (Greensboro, NC): Starting today, minimum wage workers

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 25 July 2009

will see extra cash in their pay checks. to intensify the cruel competition among the poor for scarce
jobs.” For this reason, it said, “Minimum wage legislation has
• News on 6 (Tulsa): Thousands of Oklahoma workers will receive a no place in a strategy to eliminate poverty.”
pay raise on Friday when a new federal minimum wage takes effect.
In the 1980s, the Times became even more aggressive in its
But some did at least acknowledge the controversy: denunciations of the minimum wage. Rather than simply
argue against increases, it actively campaigned for abolition
• AP: Minimum wage hike could threaten low earners’ jobs of the minimum wage altogether. Indeed, a remarkable
editorial on January 14, 1987, was entitled, “The Right
• USA Today: The third minimum wage increase in three years, Minimum Wage: $0.00.”
effective Friday, is a moneymaker and a money-taker: Millions of
workers soon will see pumped-up paychecks, while many already- Everything in that editorial is still true today. “There’s a
struggling businesses face the burden of increased payroll costs. virtual consensus among economists that the minimum wage
is an idea whose time has passed,” it said. “Raise the legal
• CNN: Minimum wage hike: More money or fewer minimum price of labor above the productivity of the least
jobs?/On Friday the federal minimum wage jumps to skilled workers and few will be hired,” it correctly observed.
$7.25 an hour from $6.55. Economists differ as to In conclusion, “The idea of using a minimum wage to
whether that will hurt or help low-income workers. overcome poverty is old, honorable — and fundamentally
flawed. It’s time to put this hoary debate behind us, and find
• Kansas City Star: The federal minimum wage rises today from a better way to improve the lives of people who work very
$6.55 to $7.25 an hour, bringing with it controversy about whether hard for very little.”
the increase is good or bad for the economy.
Even in the 1990s, the Times remained skeptical about the
The New York Times gets the prize for its stark decline in economic value of raising the minimum wage. An April 5, 1996,
understanding. Its editorial today begins, in a triumph of hope over editorial conceded that a proposed 90 cent increase in the
economic reasoning: minimum wage would wipe out 100,000 jobs. It said that
Republican critics of the minimum wage as a “crude”
An estimated 2.8 million employees will get a raise on Friday, antipoverty tool were right.
as the federal minimum wage rises from $6.55 an hour to
$7.25. Another 1.6 million whose hourly pay hovers around By 1999, however, the nation’s newspaper of record had
$7.25 are also expected to get a boost as employers adjust completely reversed itself. In a September 14 editorial, it
their pay scales to the new minimum. The raise is badly endorsed a sharp increase in the minimum wage, arguing
needed. It is also wholly inadequate. that it would have no impact whatsoever on unemployment.
“For millions of workers, a higher minimum wage means a
But for decades the Times’s editors knew better. Sure, Henry Hazlitt better shot at self-sufficiency,” it stated.
wrote some of their editorials back in the 1930s. But that doesn’t explain
the paper’s continuing criticisms of the minimum wage into the 1990s. Bartlett suggested that the Times ought to tell its readers why it changed
Richard McKenzie wrote a short book in 1994 called Times Change: The a long-standing, well-grounded, and indeed correct editorial position.
Minimum Wage and the New York Times. Bruce Bartlett reported some
of the history in 2004:

For decades, that paper had carefully and consistently FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
editorialized against the minimum wage. But 5 years ago, for
no apparent reason, it reversed a policy dating back to 1937 Top 12 Spamming Countries
and suddenly endorsed a higher minimum wage. Its latest
editorial on this topic appeared on July 24, in which [The Club for Growth]
legislators in Albany were urged to agree on a “much-needed JUL 24, 2009 09:23A.M.
increase in the minimum wage” for New York State.
Like in most international competitions, the United States is #1.
When I first began clipping Times editorials on the minimum
wage back in the 1970s, they were unambiguous in their
condemnation of it as misdirected, inefficient, and having
negative consequences for most of those it was supposed to
help. For example, an August 17, 1977, editorial stated, “The
basic effect of an increase in the minimum wage … would be

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FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS

Obama Fiddles While Trade

Policy Burns [Cato at Liberty]
JUL 24, 2009 09:19A.M.

At least, that was our preferred title…