Archive

Archive for July, 2017
July 28th, 2017 at 12:48 pm
Image of the Day: Almost All European Nations Would Be Poor U.S. States
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From the Mises Institute, a helpful corrective to the strangely persistent myth that life is better in Europe than the United States.  As this graph demonstrates, if European nations were U.S. states, almost all of them would be poor ones.  That also includes Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Most European Nations Would Be Poor U.S. States

Most European Nations Would Be Poor U.S. States

Only three nations – Switzerland (which notably has no minimum wage), Luxembourg and Norway – exceed the U.S. median income, and keep in mind that doesn’t account for the far lower cost of living (i.e., purchasing power) in the U.S.  Something to keep handy the next time Bernie Sanders speaks of overseas utopias, or friends on social media instruct us all on some better way of living, as Merle Haggard would say.

July 24th, 2017 at 5:57 pm
CFIF Joins Coalition Urging Congressional Reversal of CFPB’s Anti-Arbitration Rule

The Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF) today joined a coalition made up of more than two dozen free-market organizations on a letter urging Congress to use the Congressional Review Act to reverse a new rule by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) that prevents financial services companies from using arbitration to resolve customer disputes.

“The CFPB’s arbitration rule has been described as ‘Christmas in July’ for America’s trial lawyers – and rightly so,” the coalition stresses in the letter.  “According to the CFPB’s own finding, the rule will cost consumers billions of dollars and unleash over 6,000 class action lawsuits every five years. This rule is an obstacle to the efforts to right America’s fiscal ship and create jobs and prosperity for the American people.”

The letter, which was organized by the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, can be read in its entirety here (PDF).

Read the Center for Freedom and Prosperity’s official press release here.

July 23rd, 2017 at 8:08 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. CDT to 6:00 p.m. CDT (that’s 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. EDT) 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 CDT/5:00 pm EDT:  Jean Morrow, Research Assistant for Domestic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation – Overview of Health Care Bills and Their Prognosis;

4:15 CDT/5:15 pm EDT:  Curtis Kalin, Communications Director and Spokesman for Citizens Against Government Waste – 2017 Congressional Pig Book;

4:30 CDT/5:30 pm EDT:  Timothy Lee, CFIF’s Senior Vice President of Legal and Public Affairs – Arbitration;

5:00 CDT/6:00 pm EDT:  Phil Kerpen, President of American Commitment – Congress as a Small Business;

5:15 CDT/6:15 pm EDT:  Anthony Ruggiero, Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies – North Korea;

5:30 CDT/6:30 pm EDT:  Steve Milloy, Junk Science Commentator and Author – Cleaning House at the EPA; and

5:45 CDT/6:45 pm EDT:  Roslyn Layton, Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute – How Title II Harms Consumers and Innovators.

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

July 21st, 2017 at 1:32 pm
Poll: Americans Still Prefer Smaller Government
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Amid the dire mainstream media cacophony, there’s more good news to report.  Not that any of those outlets will so much as mention this, but a new nationwide Rasmussen survey finds that Americans continue to support smaller government over big government, and the disparity has only increased in recent months:

Voters still place preference on a smaller, more hands-off government than on a larger, more hands-on one.  A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 57% of likely U.S. voters would prefer a smaller government with fewer services and lower taxes over a larger, more active government with more services and higher taxes.  That’s up from 52% in March.”

Who knows?  Perhaps even the mainstream media themselves are responsible, in a boomerang effect.  Regardless, it’s welcome and encouraging news on a summer Friday.

July 14th, 2017 at 11:48 am
Image of the Day: Obama “Recovery” Worst On Record
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On multiple measures, the economic “recovery” under Barack Obama was the worst in recorded U.S. history, due to his policies of more regulation, higher taxes and administrative fiat.  The most consecutive months of unemployment above 8% (despite promising that his trillion-dollar spending “stimulus” would prevent it from exceeding 8% at all).  The worst deficits in history, and the most debt in history.  The first time that we never reached even 3% economic growth in a year (the post-World War II average was 3.3%).  And so on.

Now here’s another.  The worst record of new business creation following a recession.

Obama Economic Record

Obama Economic Record

Keeping in mind that most new jobs are created by new businesses, that explains a lot.

July 12th, 2017 at 9:54 am
Ramirez Cartoon: ObamaCare
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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.

July 10th, 2017 at 2:29 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. CDT to 6:00 p.m. CDT (that’s 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. EDT) 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 CDT/5:00 pm EDT:  James Carafano, Vice President for the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation – President Trump’s Foreign Trip;

4:15 CDT/5:15 pm EDT:  Carrie Severino, Chief Counsel and Policy Director at the Judicial Crisis Network – The “Blue Slip” Process;

4:30 CDT/5:30 pm EDT:  William J. Conti, Partner at Baker & Hostetler – Will the US “Go It Alone?”;

4:45 CDT/5:45 pm EDT:  Sherman “Tiger” Joyce, President of the American Tort Reform Association – Special Interest Advocacy;

5:00 CDT/6:00 pm EDT:  Starlee Coleman, Senior Policy Advisor at State Policy Network – People United for Privacy Project and IRS Schedule B;

5:15 CDT/6:15 pm EDT:  Jason Riley, Wall Street Journal Columnist and Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow – His Latest Book, “False Black Power?” and

5:30 CDT/6:30 pm EDT:  Representative Jayer Williamson (R-District 3), Florida House of Representatives – 2017 Legislative Term.

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

July 7th, 2017 at 11:19 am
Image of the Day: U.S. Petroleum Supremacy
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Answering the call for greater American energy independence, and refuting false claims of “peak oil,” America over the past decade has applied its famed ingenuity to lead the world in petroleum production.  Drill, baby, drill!

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Drill, Baby, Drill

Drill, Baby, Drill

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