Obama administration
February 26, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The Wall Street Journal focuses attention on two questions regarding Jack Lew and the paychecks he received from private employers before returning to government. First, why did New York University pay severance to Lew in 2006 when he left there voluntarily to work at Citigroup? In my experience, employers don’t pay folks to quit their job. Severance pay is what you get when you are, in effect, sacked. Second, why
»
February 26, 2013 — Scott Johnson
President Obama’s transparent mendacity about his responsibility for the sequester is revealing. The obtuse Chuck Todd doesn’t think it’s a story; he characterizes it as a traditionally sterile argument about who is to blame for the unpleasantness (which is the way the New York Times treats the issue it when it deigns to touch it). Todd can’t be that stupid, can he? True, it would be nice to know how
»
February 25, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Mackubin Thomas Owens serves on the faculty of the Naval War College. He is also the editor of Orbis, the quarterly journal of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and author of US Civil-Military Relations After 9/11: Renegotiating the Civil-Military Bargain. Saturday’s Wall Street Journal published Mac’s column “America’s kinder, gentler Department of Defense,” expanding on a theme he touched on here on Power Line. Although the column is accessible via
»
February 22, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
We sometimes hear of the savings that could be realized by eliminating “waste, fraud, and abuse” at federal government agencies. But substantial savings might also be achieved if only we could eliminate absurdity. Consider a lawsuit brought by the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against United States Steel and the United Steelworkers Union under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). The suit challenges a practice, approved by the
»
February 20, 2013 — John Hinderaker
In our republican form of government, politicians are not our rulers, they are our employees. That goes, too, for the bureaucrats who staff the many federal agencies. But these days, it seems clear that many politicians, and perhaps even more bureaucrats, have lost track of who is working for whom. To cite just one of many examples, President Obama and Congressional Democrats would not have rammed Obamacare through Congress against
»
February 19, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesteday, in a post called “Waiting for Lefty,” I noted the complaint of some Republican Senators that President Obama hasn’t reached out to them to talk compromise on the big issues of the day. My take was that Obama isn’t calling them because he isn’t interested in compromises on the big issues of the day. His focus, instead, is on positioning Democrats to retake control of the House (while holding
»
February 18, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
According to Politico, “GOP senators [are] waiting for Obama outreach” and disappointed that none has been forthcoming: President Barack Obama will need Republican senators to pass his ambitious agenda — and the White House has even identified the top prospects. But after months of buildup and a week since his State of the Union address, key aides on the Hill and at the White House acknowledge that even GOP senators
»
February 18, 2013 — Scott Johnson
On its home page, the Daily Caller flags Charles Johnson’s story with the heading above. Clicking on the story shows the headline to be the more prosaic but perfectly serviceable “Supporter of Iranian dictatorship brought Chuck Hagel to Rutgers for 2007 speech.” Charles Johnson reports: A pro-Hezbollah, pro-Hamas candidate for the Iranian presidency, a man linked to Iranian-controlled front groups, brought former Republican Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel to speak at
»
February 16, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Megan McArdle makes this point in the context of the minimum wage, but it is one that I have tried to make a couple of times in the context of Obama’s many and varied employment-suppressing policies generally: The thing about unemployment is that it’s much, much worse than having a crap low-wage job. It’s worse than almost anything. It’s one of those life events that people never really recover from.
»
February 15, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Our friend Mac Owens, of the Naval War College and Orbis, writes: You all know Jim Webb–bona fide Vietnam war hero, prize winning novelist, secretary of the Navy, assistant secretary of defense, Senator from Virginia. He is a man of conviction who says what he means. It turns out that his son–also Jim–is cut from the same cloth. Webb the younger gave up a promising college baseball career to join
»
February 15, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, Judicial Watch has compelled the powers-that-be to cough up the video of one self-described citizen of the world (Thomas Betances) conducting government-approved, government-sponsored, government funded racial harassment (i.e., “cultural sensitivity training”) at the United States Department of Agriculture. It took the USDA eight months to cough it up, but it was worth waiting for. Judicial Watch plucks out quotable quotes with film clips
»
February 13, 2013 — John Hinderaker
President Obama has nominated Jack Lew, his Chief of Staff, to succeed Tim Geithner as Secretary of the Treasury. Obama has made so many bad nominations that it is hard to keep track of them all, but Lew stands out in a bad crop. The Senate should reject his nomination. Today the Senate Finance Committee held its first, and probably only, day of hearings on Lew’s nomination. News accounts suggest
»
February 12, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Tonight, President Obama is expected to use his State of the Union address to further his permanent campaign, which essentially is a permanent war on the Republican Party. Obama’s problem is that the American people don’t want a permanent campaign. Or so I hope. I’m actually listening to the speech on the radio, rather than watching it on television. So I’ll miss much of the ambience. Or so I hope.
»
February 12, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The Republican National Senatorial Committee has issued a memo called “Cementing A Liberal Legacy While Ignoring 2014.” Its thesis is that “while President Obama and his team burns [sic] the political capital that he believes was earned last November, he is lighting an inferno under the electoral prospects for a number Democratic Senate candidates in 2014.” The Committee promises that it is “prepared to pounce” on the opportunity Obama is
»
February 12, 2013 — John Hinderaker
These numbers, from Gallup, are really quite stunning: The only area where Obama scores reasonably well is national defense, where most people think he has continued the policies of his predecessor, George W. Bush. Other than that, after four-plus years, Americans have pretty well decided they don’t like what Obama is trying to accomplish. Tonight the president will push hard to legalize millions of illegal immigrants, an issue on which,
»
February 12, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, I speculated that President Obama will use his state of the union speech primarily to prepare the battle field for upcoming fights pertaining to the budget. With the sequester looming and a debt-ceiling deadline not far behind, Obama will want to re-introduce tax increases into the debt reduction debate (it had occupied the prime spot in that debate until the end of 2012). In that way, he can shed
»
February 11, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
It’s a curious fact of the Obama presidency that the American people basically tuned him out during much of his first term. Despite his stellar communications skills, Obama was unable to convince Americans to support his signature program — Obamacare — and none of his prior state of the union speeches seems to have moved the needle. We also know that the president’s utterances on behalf of Democrats in 2010
»
