AMERICAN ISSUES PROJECT

Latest Blog Posts

31 Oct 2009
So, how much longer will the Obama administration call the Cash For Clunkers program a success? Back in September I posted about an assessment of the program , which basically confirmed anything someone with basic understanding of economics should have been able to figure out before the program began. A new report this week gives us an interesting analysis in terms of how many new car sales the program...
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30 Oct 2009
Next week, there are going to be major gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia. Many political observers will look at these races and will try to understand how their results foreshadow what the national mood will be in the midterm elections next year. However, even before the election, one can get a sense of where the national mood might be heading by the results of a recent Wall Street...
30 Oct 2009
As if things weren't bad enough for House Democrats, what with the defections from Obamacare and the growing pressure on Speaker Pelosi to investigate Charlie Rangel's tax inconsistencies , Now, it looks like the Mother of All Ethics investigations is coming and, this time, the House leadership might not be able to turn it aside. Nearly half the members of a powerful House subcommittee in control...
29 Oct 2009
Enjoy these conservative articles and blog posts from around the web: Charles Krauthammer considers President Obama's blame game in Afghanistan. Larry Kudlow demands we fight back against tax hiking Democrats. Megan McArdle wonders if GDP growth means we're okay. Thomas Sowell wants our President to earn our respect . Victor Davis Hanson sees President Obama's pattern of "voting present"...
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29 Oct 2009
When I blogged about Gov. Jay Nixon's nearly half-a-billion dollars in budget cuts back in June, I wrote that [a]lthough deeper cuts in government waste are always preferred, the Governor's reasonably modest cut backs are more than welcome. Almost half a year on, it looks like those cuts are getting a bit less modest. Gov. Jay Nixon cut an additional $204 million from Missouri's budget...

Recent Columns

29 Oct 2009
It only seems that I am the only Constitutionally-eligible registered Republican in Illinois that has not declared himself a candidate for governor. After all, Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) has launched a bid for the U.S. Senate. But the field for governor is crowded, and for the first time in more than a decade Illinois could make a right turn in many of the statewide elections. The 2010 midterm election...
28 Oct 2009
Five days from now the voters of New Jersey and Virginia will elect governors. Voters in the 23rd district of New York and the 10th district of California will elect new members of the House of Representatives to replace incumbents, a Republican and a Democrat, who were appointed to positions in the Obama Defense and State departments. All four of these constituencies voted for Barack Obama 51 weeks...
28 Oct 2009
What is Barack Obama's stimulus plan really accomplishing? Looking strictly at the numbers, one can't help but conclude that it's accomplishing very little. Unemployment is at 9.8 percent and is only expected to go up further, perhaps as high as 10.5 percent . It is expected to remain at that level for several years. Government tax revenues continue to decrease while government expenditures...
28 Oct 2009
Combing through statistics can be time consuming and, at times, confusing. Recently though, I jumped into a chart at the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Statistics website and had a hard time coming up for air. The chart shows the most recent month's unemployment rates organized by state, along with historic highs and lows for each state (plus the District of Columbia) since 1976. The figures...
27 Oct 2009
WASHINGTON -- During his immersion in his new job, Gil Kerlikowske attended a focus group of 7-year-old girls and was mystified by their talk about "farm parties." Then he realized they meant "pharm parties" -- sampling pharmaceuticals from their parents' medicine cabinets. What he learned -- besides that young humans have less native sense than young dachshunds have -- is that...
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