Too Conservative

As we’ve watched the Democrats frothing at the mouth over the last two weeks about Governor McDonnell’s Confederate History Month proclamation while giving a pass to Senator Jim Webb’s unabashed love of the Confederacy, one of the things that has bothered me the most is the blatant hypocrisy of some in the Democratic party. I know this shouldn’t surprise me – both sides tend to say one thing and do another (Newt Gingrich speaking about ‘family values’ comes to mind), but when it is such a 180 degree change – particularly on an issue that seemed so core to the other side’s belief system, it still surprises me.

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When I first read that President Obama had placed Anwar al-Aulaqi, the former Fairfax County cleric who now resides in Yemen and was linked to the Fort Hood Shooter and the Christmas underwear bomber, on a list of CIA approved targets, I wasn’t surprised. As an operational member of Al Qaeda, he’s up there with the rest of the Al Qaeda leadership on our hit list.  After a few seconds though, I realized that the President was basically authorizing the legal assassination of a U.S. citizen – without due process, without a jury trial, without any of the Constitutional protections that his status as an American citizen affords him.  And a quick search of Google showed that, other than Keith Olbermann and Glenn Greenwald over at Salon.com, the great liberal punditocracy has basically ignored this story.  No wall-to-wall coverage.  No angry panels on Meet the Press. Why?

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Apr 13th by Brian S

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This is a follow-up to this post where I discussed the mechanics of debt auctions and highlighted a recent near-failure.  I’d encourage you to read that first because it reinforces what I’m going to say in this article.

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First, I’d like to direct your attention to this document.  Yes, it’s a real document, and here’s the summary:

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“The Department of Labor and the Department of the Treasury (the “Agencies”) are currently reviewing the rules under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and the plan qualification rules under the Internal Revenue Code (Code) to determine whether, and, if so, how, the Agencies could or should enhance, by regulation or otherwise, the retirement security of participants in employer-sponsored retirement plans and in individual retirement arrangements (IRAs) by facilitating access to, and use of, lifetime income or other arrangements designed to provide a lifetime stream of income after retirement. The purpose of this request for information is to solicit views, suggestions and comments from plan participants, employers and other plan sponsors, plan service providers, and members of the financial community, as well as the general public, on this important issue.”

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Pay particular to the language in item 13:

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“Should some form of lifetime income distribution option be required for defined contribution plans (in addition to money purchase pension plans)? If so, should that option be the default distribution option, and should it apply to the entire account balance? To what extent would such a requirement encourage or discourage plan sponsorship?”

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If you haven’t gotten the joke so far, what’s being suggested is that 401K and IRA accounts be converted to fixed-income instruments, and that some portion (or even the entire balance) be allocated to (wait for it) Treasuries.

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Let’s be clear, I have no problem with a requirement that Treasuries be presented as an investment option in 401K or IRA accounts, but when you toss around language like “default distribution option” that starts to sound a lot like a mandate.  What curious timing for this request for comment to be floated.  Foreign demand for our debt is evaporating, and the Treasury sees the writing on the wall.  They’ve run out of ways to manipulate the yields, including cooking the CPI numbers.  The only way to prop up the Treasury market at this point is through mandated participation dressed up as 401K/IRA to annuity conversion (administered by the same wonderful people who run Social Security!), which is precisely what Argentina did in 2008 when no one in the world would buy their debt.  If you think this can’t happen, you should read this.

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Of course, the people who end up getting screwed the hardest by something like this are the seniors, simply because they’re been around longer and saved more.  All their class warfare rhetoric about the “rich” hits them the hardest.  This should come as no surprise, because you only have to look at the ObamaCare proposal to see their hostility towards seniors on display.  Remember all the throw-away lines about “if you like your health insurance, you can keep it?”  Yeah, unless you’re one of those poor elderly suckers who chose a Medicare Advantage plan.

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Maybe death panels weren’t such a bad idea after all, considering the path this administration appears to be headed down.  Indeed, it starts to look like a pretty good deal as opposed to being penniless and without health insurance at 75.

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Guest post by Cato the Elder

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Feb 21st by Guest Poster

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The Democrats have been on a PR blitz, trying to reinforce the myth of Republican obstructionism.  The President attacked Senate Republicans in his State of the Union saying “…if the Republican leadership is going to insist that sixty votes in the Senate are required to do any business at all in this town, then the responsibility to govern is now yours as well.”  If that wasn’t enough, you have well known author and confirmed plagiarist Doris Kearns Goodwin arguing on the Daily Show that Democrats should force Republicans to filibuster in the old-fashioned Mr. Smith Goes to Washington style (which isn’t necessary anymore).  Liberal blogs have complained about the “explosion” of Republican led filibusters since the Democrats took control of Congress in 2006.  Unfortunately for the Democrats, their lovely storyline of Republican obstructionism has been built on an illusion – and knowingly misleading the public and the media.

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Jan 31st by Brian S

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Even a stopped clock is right twice a day, and apparently even the President can make a good decision once in a while.

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Breaking news from Politico – “President Barack Obama plans to announce a three-year freeze on discretionary, “non-security” spending in the lead-up to Wednesday’s State of the Union address, Hill Democratic sources familiar with the plan tell POLITICO.”

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This is a great first step in finally reducing the deficit and the national debt.  I’m firmly behind a discretionary spending freeze and hope this actually survives.  Now, all we need to do is convince him to make some cuts as well, and perhaps we can start undoing the damage the recent spending sprees in Congress have wreaked.

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Jan 25th by Brian S

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Here’s a great post by Waldo Jaquith on the 5th District Committee’s decision to hold a primary and it’s cost to the taxpayers. This blog hasn’t posted much on that race or this decision, though obviously I favor a primary in just about any situation. As the debate between a primary and convention continues, particularly with the 11th District Committee meeting again a week, I agree with Jaquith that this should not be an issue.