December 15, 2014
The Spending Battle’s Winners and Losers
(This originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank) So, now that we have dispensed with the “cromnibus,” who won and who lost in the latest budget battle? Here are my picks: Winners: *The House Appropriations Committee: The committee members reasserted their...
December 13, 2014
A Modest Proposal to Improve the Tone of Our Political Discourse
(This originally appeared in the Ripon Society’s Forum) Should we be surprised that so many Americans hold Congress in such low regard? For the last decade, Congressional approval ratings have held steady between 10 and 20 percent. John McCain likes...
December 13, 2014
Taming the Wild West of Campaign Spending
(This originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank) Over the objections of then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert (my former boss) and incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, President George W. Bush signed into law the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. And with that...
December 12, 2014
An Update: Sam the Dog Does Have a Soul
So, several years ago, I wrote a post about Sam the Dog. Sam was my favorite Labrador retriever. And he died. Here is what I wrote about Sam then: My Uncle Bob used to tell me when I was a...
December 11, 2014
The Certain Benefits of Long-Term Tax Policy
(This originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank) When the president threatened to veto a congressional plan to permanently extend a tax credit for research and development, he did it not on the grounds that the proposal cost too much...
December 11, 2014
Torture
“Boys only love you when it’s torture. Don’t say that I didn’t warn you.” That piece of wisdom comes from Taylor Swift’s newest hit, (Just in time for the holidays and Diane Feinstein’s report on the CIA and its methods)....