Archive

Archive for February, 2017
February 28th, 2017 at 1:51 pm
Image of the Day: Education Spending Has Skyrocketed, Educational Performance Has Stagnated
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Courtesy of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), educational spending has actually skyrocketed over recent decades, yet educational performance has stagnated:

Education Spending Up, Performance Stagnant

Education Spending Up, Performance Stagnant

Something to forward whenever someone claims that education spending has somehow been starved, or that insufficient funding is the source of our problems.

February 27th, 2017 at 3:12 pm
This Week’s “Your Turn” Radio Lineup
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Join CFIF Corporate Counsel and Senior Vice President Renee Giachino today from 4:00 p.m. CST to 6:00 p.m. CST (that’s 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. EST) on Northwest Florida’s 1330 AM WEBY, as she hosts her radio show, “Your Turn: Meeting Nonsense with Commonsense.” Today’s guest lineup includes:

4:00 CST/5:00 pm EST:  John Malcolm, Director of the Edwin Meese II Center for Legal Studies and the Ed Gilbertson and Sherry Lindberg Gilbertson Senior Legal Fellow at The Heritage Foundation – Judge Neil Gorsuch and Senate Confirmation Hearings;

4:15 CST/5:15 pm EST:  Steven Hayward, Senior Resident Scholar at the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley and Author – “Patriotism is Not Enough: Harry Jaffa, Walter Berns, and the Arguments that Redefined American Conservatism”;

4:30 CST/5:30 pm EST:  Michi Iljazi, Vice President of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance – Tax Reform;

4:45 CST/5:45 pm EST:  Timothy Lee, CFIF’s Senior Vice President of Legal and Public Affairs – CPAC Summary and the Economic Freedom Index;

5:00 CST/6:00 pm EST:  Phil Kerpen, President of American Commitment – ObamaCare; and

5:30 CST/6:30 pm EST:  Kristen Marks, Founder of My Pink Lawyer and Author – “Wise Women Protect Their Assets”.

Listen live on the Internet here. Call in to share your comments or ask questions of today’s guests at (850) 623-1330.

February 21st, 2017 at 8:42 am
Ramirez Cartoon: Mainstream Media Inc.
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Below is one of the latest cartoons from two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Ramirez.

View more of Michael Ramirez’s cartoons on CFIF’s website here.

February 16th, 2017 at 6:05 pm
What Happened to the Millions of Dollars Raised by Standing Rock Protesters?
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Over the past seven months, millions of dollars have poured into online crowdfunding accounts associated with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s unjustified crusade against the Dakota Access Pipeline.  To date, the violence-plagued protest has cost North Dakota taxpayers more than $33 million dollars, and diverted countless resources to assist local law enforcement.

Through February 14, over $13.5 million has reportedly been raised for the protesters through at least 350 different online accounts setup on sites like GoFundMe and FundRazr.  While the list represents some of the more serious fundraising efforts, it’s estimated that upwards of 20,000 individual campaigns exist, likely equating to millions in additional income.

So where is all of that money going?  Nobody really knows.

There’s little to no accountability or transparency on how the money raised is allocated and spent.  For example, the Sacred Stone Camp boasts of GoFundMe balance of over $3.1 million dollars, but where has that money gone?  The camp’s founder, LaDonna Allard, says the organization is a registered 501 (c) (3) charity, but at least one exhaustive search of state and federal nonprofit registries produced no evidence to support claim.

Other six and seven figure campaigns include, “Tattoos in Support of Standing Rock” ($150,826), “Sacred Stone Legal Defense Fund” ($2,924,705), and “Veterans for Standing Rock #NoDAPL” ($1,155,780).   Again, where did this money go?  Has $13.2 million now just joined the abandoned mountain of trash left by protesters now threatening to contaminate the Cannonball and Missouri rivers?

Fortunately, all of that questionable funding isn’t just raising the eyebrows of everyday Americans.  It also grabbed the attention of the North Dakota tax authority who recently told the Washington Times that he plans to launch an investigation if income tax forms reflective of these earnings are not submitted.

There’s one thing of which we can be sure: This disturbing story isn’t going away anytime soon.

February 15th, 2017 at 5:21 pm
The Tax Code Isn’t Working for America
There’s perhaps no greater defining mark of American politics today than the polarization that plagues our discourse.  Acrimony has become the default posture of the major political parties and their supporters on even the most mundane issues.

But there is one issue—a major issue—that holds enormous bipartisan potential, despite the political animus:  the need for comprehensive tax reform.  Yes, disagreement naturally exists over some of the details on how to reform the tax code, but few argue against the need and urgency to do so.

The U.S. tax code is almost surreal in its complexity, making it impossible for most people and businesses to prepare their own returns. Roughly 70% of Americans rely on some form of paid assistance with their taxes, and the tax preparation industry is forecast to generate an incredible $11 billion in revenues in 2018. That’s a lot of money that could be better spent in productive ways in the real economy.

Small businesses, in particular, bear the brunt of the tax code’s many problems, creating significant and ongoing drag on our economy.  And all U.S. businesses have to contend with a growth-killing 35% corporate tax rate, the highest among OECD countries.

Today, most businesses’ competitors reside not just next door and down the street, but across the globe.  It’s no wonder why most of America’s global competitors have been cutting corporate tax rates for many years—to make it easier for their businesses to compete in the global marketplace. With its enormous complexity and sky-high rates, the U.S. tax code, meanwhile, actively stifles growth, entrepreneurship, innovation, investment and job creation.

The current tax code is broken. It must be simplified and set fair rates for businesses of every size. Only when this happens will the United States once again be the best place in the world to start and run a business.

The time for tax reform is now!

February 13th, 2017 at 4:22 pm
Poll: Right Track/Wrong Track Positivity Under Trump Continues Near Record High Levels
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Whatever your opinion of Donald Trump, one must admit that this stunning new survey result scores a point toward the idea of “Making America Great Again”:

Forty-five percent (45%) of likely U.S. voters think the country is heading in the right direction, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey for the week ending February 9.  That’s down a point from the previous week and down two points from the week before that, which was the highest level of optimism in over 12 years of regular surveying.  By comparison, the weekly finding was in the mid- to upper 20s for much of 2016.”

February 13th, 2017 at 3:20 pm
This Week’s “Your Turn” Radio Lineup
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Join CFIF Corporate Counsel and Senior Vice President Renee Giachino today from 4:00 p.m. CST to 6:00 p.m. CST (that’s 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. EST) on Northwest Florida’s 1330 AM WEBY, as she hosts her radio show, “Your Turn: Meeting Nonsense with Commonsense.” Today’s guest lineup includes:

4:00 CST/5:00 pm EST:  David Adesnik, Policy Director at the Foreign Policy Initiative – National Security;

4:15 CST/5:15 pm EST:  Peter Cove, Nationally-Acclaimed Advocate for Private Solutions to Welfare Dependency – “Poor No More: Rethinking Dependency and the War on Poverty”;

4:30 CST/5:30 pm EST:  Andrew M. Grossman, Partner in the Washington, DC office of Baker & Hostetler – SCOTUS Nominee Neil Gorsuch;

4:45 CST/5:45 pm EST:  Timothy Lee, CFIF’s Senior Vice President of Legal and Public Affairs – An Update on Dakota Access Pipeline, Cuomo’s Green Energy, and the EPA;

5:00 CST/6:00 pm EST:  Quint Studer, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist and Mentor – Studer Community Institute and Pensacola-Early Learning City; and

5:30 CST/6:30 pm EST:  Greg Brown, Santa Rosa County Property Appraiser – News and Developments from SRCPA.

Listen live on the Internet here. Call in to share your comments or ask questions of today’s guests at (850) 623-1330.

February 10th, 2017 at 2:49 pm
New York: Even the Albany Times Union Excoriates Gov. Cuomo’s Green Energy Subsidy Boondoggle
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Things are going from bad to worse for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s crony capitalist green energy subsidy boondoggle.

For readers who remain unaware of this catastrophe, last August the state’s Public Service Commission (appointed entirely by Gov. Cuomo himself) rushed through a “Clean Energy Standard” requiring 50% of state power to come from green sources by 2030.  It forces healthy power companies to buy “Zero Emission Credits” from a state bureaucracy, whose proceeds in turn go to struggling upstate plants.  And here’s the kicker.  In addition to costing New York citizens and businesses $1 billion in its first year and an estimated $8 billion over the course of the scheme, all of those subsidies go to plants owned by a single company named Exelon.  In other words, a state-level Solyndra.

The plan is so objectionable that even environmentalists and those on the political left have turned against it, and the Cuomo Administration has already been forced to dramatically scale it back.

Now even the left-leaning Albany Times Union is excoriating this debacle in a new piece entitled “A Surprise Tax on the Way”:

By its own account, 2016 was a ‘monumental year’ for Exelon, for good reason.  It’s not every year that a company gets a $7.6 billion boost courtesy of New Yorkers.

Exelon is slated to reap that windfall over the next 12 years through a fee on just about anyone who gets an electric bill in New York, all to support its nuclear power plants in the state.  That’s an energy tax by any other name, but as a fee levied by a state commission, it has drawn far less attention that, say, an income tax increase of that scale would receive…

One might be tempted to say, fine, let communities make up their own minds about nuclear power, except for this:  The entire state will have to foot the bill for a $7.6 billion economic development program to pay for 2,100 jobs for just a dozen more years and directly enrich one of the nation’s wealthiest power companies.  All this was decided by the governor and three members of the Public Service Commission (which will shortly be down to only two).  Hardly taxation with representation.”

The good news, as the Times Union notes, is that the state legislature can quickly remedy the situation:

Lawmakers, however, will have a chance to take a closer look at this huge corporate subsidy for a company with an annual net income of more than $2 billion…

With the fee due to take effect in April, and the legislature next week scheduled to review the energy and environment portions of the governor’s budget, it’s a good time for lawmakers to consider if this is the best route to a clean energy future, the best way to help upstate communities, and the best use of the public’s money.  They may agree this is a reasonable short-term strategy.  Or they may conclude there are far better investments the state could make in these areas and in clean energy, at far less cost to hard-working New Yorkers.”

For the sake of New York consumers and businesses, hopefully legislators will heed that advice and put an end to a program that has already proven a disaster, and will only get worse if allowed to continue into the next decade.

February 9th, 2017 at 10:21 am
CFIF Reiterates Concerns Re: Proposals to Restructure Nation’s Air Traffic Control (ATC) System
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In a letter sent to House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee  members today, the Center for Individual Freedom reiterated its deep concerns regarding  proposals to restructure the nation’s air traffic control (ATC) system.

In addition to pointing out ongoing concerns outlined in a coalition letter that was sent back in August, CFIF highlighted new concerns:

Since that letter, the Defense Department stated just last week that creating a separate new ATC organization “raises serious concerns.”  In its analysis, the Pentagon said, “The establishment of a new entity separate from the FAA raises serious concerns regarding the disposition of certain unique National Defense procedures, programs and policy.”  It noted, “It is significant to note that the DOD relies on FAA ‘command and control’ capabilities in the execution of the national defense mission.”

Additionally, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) determined last year that creation of a nonprofit ATC corporation would widen the federal budget deficit by $20 billion between 2017 and 2026, and increase net direct spending by an alarming $90 billion over that same period.  Separately, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) also determined that the proposed ATC restructuring may delay implementation of the NextGen air transportation system while necessary new safety oversight procedures were developed.

Read CFIF’s full letter here.

February 5th, 2017 at 10:05 am
The Pressing Opioid Epidemic
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In an interview with CFIF, Sally Satel, M.D., Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, discusses how to treat America’s pressing opioid epidemic, mental health policies, and political trends in medicine.

Listen to the interview here.

February 2nd, 2017 at 12:33 pm
Image of the Day: Obama’s Legacy = Worst Economic Growth Record
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The  Obama Legacy:  the worst economic growth rate of any president since official recordkeeping began.

Obamas Economic Legacy

Obama's Economic Legacy