Friday, January 28, 2011

Quips, Quotes & Tweets - 1/28/11

From the WSJ: Obama bid us "join" him in a "new goal: by 2035, 80% of America's electricity will come from clean energy sources." This is no more than a thinly disguised Cap and Trade replacement! And it’s sure going to fool a bunch of well-meaning GOPers. In the end it may not make much difference because he is going to accomplish this with regulations!


How much is the world order that the US defense budget produced worth?

Historian Robert Kagan writing in the Jan. 24 Weekly Standard:

The looming battle over the defense budget could produce a useful national discussion about American foreign and defense policy. But we would need to begin by dispensing with the most commonly repeated fallacy: that cutting defense is essential to restoring the nation's fiscal health. . . . Typical is a recent Foreign Affairs article claiming that the United States faces "a watershed moment" and "must decide whether to increase its already massive debt in order to continue being the world's sheriff or restrain its military missions and focus on economic recovery." . . .

Of course it is precisely the success of that strategy that is taken for granted. The enormous benefits that this strategy has provided . . . somehow never appear on the ledger. They should. We might begin by asking about the global security order that the United States has sustained since Word War II—the prevention of major war, the support of an open trading system, and promotion of the liberal principles of free markets and free government. How much is that order worth? What would be the cost of its collapse or transformation into another type of order? Whatever the nature of the current economic difficulties, the past six decades have seen a greater increase in global prosperity than any time in human history.


MUST READ! Congress Has Time and Options on Debt Limit: If Congress chooses not to raise the debt ceiling, then it could act swiftly to indicate that net interest is the highest priority to allay any remaining concerns about the possibility of defaulting on the debt. Congress could also declare exactly where spending should be cut to align total spending with receipts, not leaving this to a President acting without statutory guidance. If Congress inclines toward raising the debt limit, then it should also impose immediate, substantial spending reductions along with strong new rules such as hard spending caps to require continued, sharp spending reduction in future years. The outcome should reflect a clear, quick path to a sound fiscal policy. The responsibility for driving down spending and borrowing rests—under our Constitution—squarely with the Congress and the President of the United States.


"A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both, and deserve neither." ~Thomas Jefferson

A heathen philosopher once asked: "Where is God?"  The Christian answered: "Let me first ask you, where is He not?" John Arrowsmith

“You are a Christian today because somebody cared.  Now it’s your turn.” Warren W. Wiersbe

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