Grover Norquist, Hypocrite on Ethanol

Posted on Tuesday, April 12, 2011 by Sean Patrick Hazlett

Source: The Economist

Normally, I generally agree with Grover Norquist’s calls to reduce the size of America’s bloated government. However, this recent article in The Economist made me furious.

Mr. Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), an organization whose raison d’etre is to reduce the size and complexity of goverrnment, is against ending the ethanol tax credit.

Really?

The tax credit Norquist opposes cutting is the same tax credit that supports a commodity that takes almost as much energy to produce as it provides in fuel. Ethanol also consumes a vast amount of the country’s corn production, which raises prices on food globally. As the world has seen in the Middle East, rising food prices have consequences.

Yet, Mr. Norquist thinks it is fine to spend $6 billion a year on ethanol subsidies. Hell, even Al Gore is against ethanol subsidies. Surely, that has to account for something.

I understand Mr. Norquist’s concern that the net effect of eliminating the tax credit will be a $6 billion increase in government revenue. He believes that the government should offset this credit with $6 billion in tax relief elsewere. This would make ending the subsidy revenue neutral.

While I agree that finding a way to make ending the subsidy revenue neutral is better, I do not believe it is a good argument for keeping that particular subsidy outright.

Let’s face it, the ethanol subsidy is the Boss Hogg of pork and America needs to end it.

 

Posted in Business, Clean Energy, Clean Tech, Energy Security, Finance and Economics, Food Security, Investing, Policy, Politics | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

The Death of Common Sense

Posted on Tuesday, April 12, 2011 by Sean Patrick Hazlett

This video outraged me.

The TSA continues to pat down and drug test random children. What’s the point? What ever happened to critical thinking in this country?

There is no logical security reason to pat down children unless one has reasonable suspicion that a terrorist planted a bomb on them. Rather than following the security procedures of El Al, the Israeli airline that has not had a terrorist hijacking since 1968, the TSA’s agents blindly follow a crude algorithm like stiff automotons.

According to an Israeli security expert, almost nothing slips through El Al’s security. If anything does, the company fires screeners on the spot. Yet, in the United States in 2002, screeners failed to identify 70% of knives and 60% of false explosives that testers placed on the X-Ray belt. I would not be at all surprised if the TSA employees who misssed these items are still employed.

The reason for El Al’s success is the firm focuses more on the passengers and less on the baggage. By asking simple questions, they can quickly root out potential terrorist threats and act accordingly.

In the United States, all a terrorist need do is beat the manual.

Posted in Defense, International Security, Policy, Politics, Terrorism | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Pakistan Is a Mess

Posted on Tuesday, April 12, 2011 by Sean Patrick Hazlett

Yesterday, The New York Times reported on Pakistan’s demand that the United States sharply reduce the number of CIA and Special Forces personnel operating in the country. Many of these personnel have been involved in the United States’ highly successful Predator drone strikes against Islamic militants operating on the Af-Pak border. Removing these personnel will undoubtably be a major blow to American counterterrorism operations in the region. As such, the United States government should use every effort to persuade the Pakistani government to drop the request. Continue reading →

Posted in Central Asia, Defense, International Security, Nuclear proliferation, Policy, Politics, War | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Obama’s Debt Reduction Plan

Posted on Monday, April 11, 2011 by Sean Patrick Hazlett

On Wednesday, President Obama will present his debt reduction plan to a university audience.

According to The New York Times, the President will urge Republican lawmakers to join him in finding ways “to raise revenues and reduce the growth of popular entitlement programs.” However, the administration’s proposal will likely differ dramatically from the one House Republicans proposed last week. That plan focused on shrinking Medicare and Medicaid, but largely spared defense spending.

President Obama’s plan “would include tax increases for the richest taxpayers, cuts to military spending, savings in Medicare and Medicaid, and unspecified changes to Social Security.”

Like many of President Obama’s policy initiatives, the speech will likely sound reasonable and pragmatic, but vague. However, actual administration policy will likely uphold traditional Democratic entitlement programs, while pushing for tax increases on the “wealthy.”

Several weeks ago, the President used a similar bait and switch on his energy policy. What sounded in his speech like a reasonable bipartisan effort to increase domestic drilling and develop alternative technologies turned out in the more detailed policy document to be the same old Obama plan dressed in new clothing (See my article on Breitbart’s Big Peace site for more details).

That said, the American people should listen to the President’s speech with open minds. However, they should also scrutinize his more detailed policy proposal after that speech.

I suspect the speech will be inconsistent with the more detailed policy document. I hope I am wrong.

Posted in Business, Finance and Economics, Policy, Politics, Predictions, Social Security | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

Political Compass

Posted on Sunday, April 10, 2011 by Sean Patrick Hazlett

I discovered another fun application this week called the Political Compass via Divided We Stand United We Fall. The application administers a brief test that asks users a host of political questions. The application then scores their answers and plots these scores on the following grid:

Source: politicalcompass.org

I scored a 3.88 on the economic left/right axis and a 1.23 on the social libertarian/authoritarian axis. In essence, I favor free market economic policies (within reason) and am slightly more conservative when it comes to social policies (again, within reason).

The site also provides a map of where several famous and/or notorious world leaders would place on the grid.

Source: politicalcompass.org

I encourage folks to take this test and post the results on this site.

Posted in Business, Finance and Economics, Policy, Politics | Tagged , | 18 Comments

My Plan to Balance the Budget

Posted on Sunday, April 10, 2011 by Sean Patrick Hazlett

To be honest, I am writing this blog to take advantage of a nifty little application The New York Times published a few months ago that actually makes the task of balancing the budget fun (No, really, I’m serious).

I first tried to come up with a plan that balanced the budget without any tax increases. Amazingly, it is possible, but draconian. This is what I call “The Draconian Option.”

Then, I came up with a more reasonable and balanced plan, which I call “The Sensible Option.” This plan balances the budget with 19% of the savings from tax increases and 82% from spending cuts.

Either way, I encourage folks to come up with their own plans using this great little application.

Posted in Business, Defense, Education, Energy Security, Finance and Economics, Healthcare, International Security, Policy, Politics, Predictions, Social Security, War | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Government Still Growing, Even After Compromise

Posted on Saturday, April 9, 2011 by Sean Patrick Hazlett

Now that the dog and pony show surrounding last week’s budget brinkmanship is over, it is more clear than ever that neither political party truly grasps the magnitude of the government’s spending problem (or they do, but do not care).

$38 billion is a rounding error on the President’s proposed $3.8 trillion budget. Now members of each party are patting each others’ backs for successfully bamboozling the American public.

Before the compromise, the OMB projected President Obama’s FY2011 budget would grow by 10.5% over FY2010. After the compromise, it will still grow by 9.4%.

In essence, the compromise did nothing to reduce the size of government. It merely slowed its growth rate by a paltry 1%.

At this rate, government is expanding more than 3.2 times faster than The Economist Intelligence Unit forecasts the American economy will grow in 2011.

Our political leaders are failing us.

They are not serious about cutting spending. It is now clear that both Republican and Democratic politicians are focused on nothing but self-preservation and expansion of government power and influence. The drama and brinksmanship were nothing but a distraction that lulled the American people into a false sense of security.

Enough is enough.

Posted in Business, Finance and Economics, International Security, Media, Policy, Politics | Tagged , , , , | 14 Comments

Not Paying Military in Shutdown Bad Idea

Posted on Friday, April 8, 2011 by Sean Patrick Hazlett

When the government shutdown in 1995, the United States was at peace. However, President Clinton rightly made sure that the government still paid its military.

For some bizarre reason and at a time when the United States is actively involved in three military conflicts, President Obama has come to a different conclusion.

Yesterday, Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn III issued a message to the Department of Defense workforce on a potential government shutdown.

The good news is the following:

“Operations and activities that are essential to safety, protection of human life, and protection of our national security, are ‘excepted’ from shutting down. The DoD will continue to conduct activities in support of our national security, including operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Japan; Libya-related support operations; and other operations and activities essential to the security of our nation. The department must also continue to provide for the safety of human life and protection of property.”

The bad news is that the government will not be paying the military to do these critical tasks during the shutdown period:

“If the government shuts down due to the absence of funding, the DoD will have no funds to pay military members or civilian employees for the days during which the government is shut down. However, both military and civilian personnel will receive pay for the period worked prior to the shutdown. Military personnel, and civilians occupying excepted status positions and required to work, are entitled to be paid for work performed during the shutdown, and will be paid retroactively once the department receives additional funding. Congress would have to provide authority in order for the department to retroactively pay non-excepted employees for the furloughed period.”

This decision is crazy. These people are putting their lives in danger on a daily basis and the President is not going to move heaven and earth to pay them? This is not only an ill-advised action, but also it is stupid.

Defense Secretary Gates said it best this past Thursday during his comments to troops in Iraq:

“As a historian it always occurred to me the smart thing for government was always to pay the guys with guns first. But in all seriousness, based on some stuff I read this morning, if the government shuts down starts on the 8th and goes for a week, you’d get a half a check. If it goes from the 15th to the 30th, you wouldn’t get a pay check on the 30th but you would be back paid for all of it.”

Let’s hope President Obama listens to his own advisors. Many of them, do, after all, know what they are talking about.

Posted in Defense, Energy Security, International Security, Middle East, Policy, Politics, War | Tagged , , , , , | 25 Comments

Hope Isn’t Helping

Posted on Friday, April 8, 2011 by Sean Patrick Hazlett

Today, I provided some red meat for the folks at Big Peace on various economic, social, and political data comparing and contrasting the Bush and Obama administrations.

Click here for the full article.

Posted in Business, Defense, Energy Security, Finance and Economics, Middle East, Policy, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Budget Impasse Silly When Put in Perspective

Posted on Thursday, April 7, 2011 by Sean Patrick Hazlett

As the threat of a government shutdown looms in less than thirty-four hours from now, it is important to put the whole impasse in perspective. When confronted by the sheer weight of the country’s budget and budget deficit, a difference of $28 billion is a drop in the bucket.

Putting the Numbers in Perspective

So far, both sides have tentatively agreed to a cut of $33 billion. However, the Republican plan calls for a reduction of $61 billion. Given the state of the economy and the $28 billion gap between the two sides, the Republicans seem like they are overreaching.

However, if one puts these numbers in the context of the overall FY2011 budget and deficit, both sides are fighting over scraps. The President’s 2011 budget is $3.8 trillion with a projected deficit of $1.6 trillion. The Republican’s more aggressive proposal of $61 billion represents a paltry 1.6% cut, while the Democratic proposal is less than 1.0%! Furthermore, the Republican proposal would only reduce the 2011 deficit by 3.7%, while the Democratic proposal would reduce it by 2.0%.

Yet, both sides are willing to shut the government down over a difference that represents just 0.7% of the 2011 budget!

The greater problem is raising more debt to fund the government’s spending binge. One way out of this problem is by printing money. However, the market is already voting with its feet. PIMCO, the world’s largest bond fund, recently sold all its U.S. Treasury holdings on expectations that the Fed will have to make a second round of debt purchases (which is the Fed’s equivalent of printing money).

The bottom line is that the U.S. government is fighting over scraps, while it continues to build up an avanlanche of debt.

What Do Americans Think?

It is still unclear whom most Americans would blame for a government shutdown. An April 5th Gallup poll suggests that 58% of Americans want their elected leaders to compromise on the budget to avert a government shutdown. A recent poll by Pew suggests that 39% of Americans would blame Republicans for a shutdown, while 36% would blame the Obama administration. However, a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal Survey suggests that 37% of Americans would blame Republicans, but 42% would blame the President, Democrats in Congress, or both.

I find it hard to believe that both sides cannot find an additional 0.7% of the budget to cut. The concept seems ridiculous to me.

Posted in Business, Finance and Economics, Policy, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , | 44 Comments