Monthly Archives: February 2014

Sam-Scam

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

They fall for it every time. Those in the media who decide what is and what isn’t news can’t help themselves.

Anything that has anything to do with the gay community has to immediately become a national issue.

So, of course, this stupid bill in Arizona had the feel of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Will we go to Def Con 4? Continue reading

Tax Reform: Starting the Conversation

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

“Don’t tax you. Don’t tax me. Tax that fella behind the tree.”

That’s how legendary Finance Committee Chairman Russell Long summed up the basic view of most Americans  about tax policy.

The Beatles put it a different way:
Let me tell you how it will be
There’s one for you, nineteen for me Continue reading

Ukraine

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

I have been to Ukraine twice in the past four years – in January 2010 and in October 2012. None of what has gone on there over the past few months is my fault. I was on my best behavior – for me – and I left the country more-or-less as I had found it in each instance.

Ukraine – and that is its preferred name, not The Ukraine – is basically divided into two parts: The west, that as you might expect is European-facing, and the east, that feels closer in distance and culture to Russia. Continue reading

First Lady, Knuckleheads, & the News

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

Young people are knuckleheads. That’s what the First Lady said on Jimmy Fallon last night.

Thanks for the clarification.

Michelle Obama was making the case that younger Americans need to wise up and sign up for her President’s health care plan. They don’t know how to cook and often slice their fingers on sharp knives. That is why young people need Obamacare.

Or they could buy Neosporin and a band-aide. Continue reading

What is this CBO?

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

Over the past three weeks the Congressional Budget Office (better known as the CBO) has made a great deal of news.

First, opponents of Obamacare (of whom I am one) pointed to a report at the beginning of February in which the CBO seemed to claim that the law would cause the loss of some 2.3 million jobs over the next three years.

It appears that what the CBO really said was even worse: The jobs will be there but more than two million people will find it financially more beneficial to sit at home and watch NCIS reruns, leaving home only to get their prescriptions for medical marijuana filled. Continue reading

Immigration Reform Without Police State

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

I am in favor of comprehensive immigration reform that tightens the border, legalizes the status of the 11 million immigrants who live in society’s shadows now, provides a fair pathway to folks who want to be citizens in this country, and provides both tools and incentives to businesses so that they don’t hire people who are here illegally in the future.

But I am opposed to turning this country into a police state.

That’s why I was concerned about a story I read in the Washington Post this morning. The story read: “The Department of Homeland Security wants a private company to provide a national license-plate tracking system that would give the agency access to vast amounts of information from commercial and law enforcement tag readers, Continue reading

U.S. Foreign Policy Posture in Slump

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON

“President Obama does a disservice to Norwegians, to himself and, above all, to the people of the United States by sending such an unqualified person to represent him and us in the capital of a long-standing NATO ally.”

Lehigh University professional Henri Barkey on the appointment of campaign bundler George Tsunis as Ambassador to Norway. Tsunis joins about 40 other political ambassadorial appointees, some of whom can’t speak the language, or know a great deal about the government, or ever visited the country to which they are being posted.

Continue reading

Debt Limit ≠ Immigration

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

Earlier this week Speaker John Boehner avoided a showdown on the debt limit through the simple maneuver of getting 193 Democrats to join 28 Republicans to pass the legislation taking the debt limit off the table until March of next year.

The Washington Post’s discussion of the whole thing called the 221-201 tally “a narrow vote” forgetting, perhaps, that the infamous vote to approve Obamacare cleared the House by an overwhelming 219-212. Seven votes.

199 Republicans voted against the debt limit bill – although I suspect there were several sitting on the edge of their pew waiting to see if their “Aye” vote would be needed. Continue reading

Bring Back the Gephardt Rule

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

Ted Cruz, the freshman Senator from Texas and Tea Party firebrand, is channeling his inner Don Quixote and promising to filibuster the clean debt limit that was just passed by Democrats in the House.

By taking this worthless step, Cruz is taking a huge problem for the Democrats and making it a problem for the Republicans.

The debt limit vote is universally unpopular and it always has been unpopular. The American people aren’t comfortable with extending the limit on the national credit card. Continue reading

A Glance at the Polls

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

The Gallup organization polls every day asking respondents a number of questions including how they think the President – in this case Barack Obama – is doing. This is known as Presidential Job Performance.

Gallup does this on a three-day rolling basis.

SIDEBAR
I know you understand this, but for the other person who doesn’t, here’s a quick explanation: A three-day roll Continue reading

No Sure Thing in Politics

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

Originally published in The Hill

Uncertainty is the one thing that seems certain in the world today. We are in an age of transition, sparked by changing social mores and unstoppable technological progress.

Where it will end, nobody knows.

Uncertainty breeds instability. And instability breeds insecurity.

Both political parties are embroiled in insecurity. Continue reading

The CBO & Obamacare

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

The best political snowball fight of the winter season broke out this week when the Congressional Budget Office (generally identified as the NONPARTISAN Congressional Budget Office) released numbers that infer Obamacare will cost jobs and, thus, slow economic growth.

You know that I am generally careful when I wade into these things and tend to take a “yes, but …” position. So much so that some of you have gone so far as to call me a Ceratotherium simum cottoni (Northern White Rhino).

Continue reading

Reid Tips Balance on Trade

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

Originally published in The Hill

It was typical Harry Reid: blunt, to the point, and unambiguous.

“Everyone knows how I feel about this….The White House knows. Everyone would be well-advised to not push this right now.” The “this” is trade promotion authority. And with that unadorned statement, the Democratic Senate majority leader killed the president’s most important job-creating initiative.

Earlier in the year, the Commerce Department announced that the United States exported a record $194.9 billion in goods and services in November 2013. The New York Continue reading