Policy Papers
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Obama Undermines Clinton Welfare Reform
Where does the road end with President Obama's operating above the law? Recently, he even went so far as to attack the signature legislative achievement of another Democrat President, the bipartisan 1996 reform law that President Clinton said would end "welfare as we know it." On July 12, the Obama Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued guidance saying that it will issue waivers for the welfare law's mandatory work requirements -- even though the Department has no authority to do... Continue Reading
August 3, 2012
July 2012 Unemployment Report
July 2012 Unemployment Rate: 8.3 percent Unemployed Americans: 12.8 million Employment The Department of Labor reported an unemployment rate of 8.3 percent for July 2012, which is an increase of 0.1 percent from June, and an increase of 163,000 nonfarm jobs. Most of the new jobs were in professional and business services, manufacturing, health care, and wholesale trade. This makes 42 straight months under President Obama with unemployment over 8 percent. The economy lost 316,000 net jobs since... Continue Reading
August 2, 2012
Obama WARN Act Guidance Bypasses Federal Law
Only a small number of legislative days remain for this Congress. The most pressing issue for it to address is the impending fiscal cliff in January — a combination of automatic cuts in federal spending, known as a "sequester," and tax increases. Yet, in a move that is becoming all too common for this President, instead of working with Congress to deal with that issue, the Obama Administration issued guidance that will bypass Congress and existing federal labor law for the... Continue Reading
August 1, 2012
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Unparalleled Unaccountability
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) exercises unprecedented investigative and rulemaking authority. Unlike other federal agencies, the CFPB is free to meddle with whole sectors of the nation’s economy without accountability. The mission statement of the CFPB is to “make markets for consumer financial products and services work for Americans by promoting transparency and consumer choice and preventing abusive and deceptive financial practices.” The agency’s... Continue Reading
August 1, 2012
Ending Obama’s Fiscal Policies Is Better than the Fed’s Monetary Policy Fixes
Today the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee announced that it will continue its current monetary policy of “Operation Twist” and keep the federal funds rate at an exceptionally low level through late 2014. Since 2008, there have been four major Fed policies that have attempted to spur the economy with little success: QE1 – $600 billion of quantitative easing announced in November 2008. QE2 – Another $600 billion of easing announced in September... Continue Reading
August 1, 2012
Obama’s “Bankrupt” Policy on Coal
In May, the Senate Republican Policy Committee published Obama’s War on Coal, an analysis of President Obama’s campaign to ban the use of coal as an energy source. Turns out, ensuring coal-fired power plants go “bankrupt” is one promise the President is trying to keep. His Energy Information Administration reports that 8.5 percent of total 2011 coal-fired power capacity will retire by 2016. In context, that is four times greater than the capacity retired during the... Continue Reading
July 31, 2012
Fix Fiscal Cliff, Then Solve Spending
America's fiscal policy is currently focused on the impending “fiscal cliff” that will cause taxes to increase and spending to be arbitrarily cut at the beginning of 2013. The spending cuts will happen through a sequester that is part of the Budget Control Act (BCA). The BCA took an important step toward fiscal sanity by cutting spending by $2.1 trillion over 10 years. Further spending restraint is needed, as shown by Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the U.S. credit rating... Continue Reading
July 27, 2012
Worst Recovery In History
Today the Bureau of Economic Analysis announced that second quarter GDP grew at an annualized rate of 1.5 percent. This news confirms again that this is the worst economic recovery in history. The chart below shows the history of U.S. economic recoveries in simple terms -- how much inflation-adjusted GDP grew in the 12 quarters following recessions since World War II. President Obama has led the worst U.S. economic recovery since we began calculating quarterly economic data. Overall Real GDP... Continue Reading
July 24, 2012
Democrats Bring Back Death Tax: Small Businesses and Family Farms Crushed
Senate Democrats have put forward a reckless tax bill that fails to address the crushing death tax that would hit small businesses and family farms across America. The Senate is considering competing tax policies -- the Republican and Democratic bills differ slightly on revenue but greatly on policy. Republicans are seeking to keep tax rates stable, while Democrats are looking to raise taxes. But the position of Senate Democrats on the death tax goes too far. It means the death tax would return... Continue Reading
July 24, 2012
Reid Doubles Down on Senate Dysfunction
Last week, Majority Leader Reid vowed to abolish filibusters – what he once heralded as “part of the fabric of this institution” – in the 113th Congress if he is still Majority Leader. Not only is this drastic change to an integral part of Senate procedure “misguided,” as Vice President Biden once said, it is also completely unnecessary. Rather than casting aside Senate history, the Majority Leader should abandon election-year political gimmickry and instead... Continue Reading
July 19, 2012
Dodd-Frank: Too Big to Succeed
Two years ago -- on July 21, 2010 -- President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act into law, calling it "common-sense reforms." The 2,300 page bill more accurately has been called the "biggest wave of new federal financial rule-making in three generations." The law and its corresponding regulations are too big to succeed. Complex Web of Red Tape The complexity of Dodd-Frank's regulations is staggering. Administration bureaucrats responsible for issuing the rules have been... Continue Reading
July 17, 2012
Another Democrat Campaign Tax Bill
President Obama has decided to make a campaign issue out of “outsourcing.” The Democrats’ latest attempt to use the Senate floor to campaign for the President’s reelection is a bill on the subject sponsored by Senator Stabenow. Her bill, if it became law, would have less monetary impact this year than the amount the President is likely to spend on campaign commercials about outsourcing. The Obama-Biden campaign made outsourcing an issue in 2008 as well, with independent... Continue Reading
July 10, 2012
Democrats’ Tax Policies: Bad for Jobs
On May 16, President Obama pushed for a tax proposal that would provide a credit equal to 10 percent of the increase in an employer’s payroll, not necessarily due to additional employees. This is identical to S. 2237, introduced by Majority Leader Reid in March. On July 9, President Obama called for tax increases on small businesses. Senate Democrats have already embraced this tax policy for “party unity” despite voting against it in 2010. None of these policies reforms or... Continue Reading
July 10, 2012
Obama Outsources Jobs Agenda
“It just seems that at a time where we have over 23 million Americans who are underemployed or unemployed, the president's policies not only are not working, but he has actually made things worse.” --U.S. Senator John Barrasso, July 10, 2012 President Obama has repeatedly spoken about the importance of creating good jobs for American workers. In practice, his policies have sent jobs overseas. "It’s an agenda that begins with jobs," President Obama proclaimed in his first State... Continue Reading
July 6, 2012
June 2012 Unemployment Report
June 2012 Unemployment Rate: 8.2 percent Unemployed Americans: 12.7 million Employment The Department of Labor reported an unemployment rate of 8.2 percent for June 2012, which is virtually the same as May, and an increase of 80,000 nonfarm jobs. Most of the new jobs were in professional and business services, manufacturing, health care, and wholesale trade. This makes 41 straight months under President Obama with unemployment over 8 percent. The economy lost 473,000 net jobs since February... Continue Reading
June 28, 2012
Student Loan Interest Rate Extension
Senate Republicans and Democrats have reached an agreement, attached to the Highway Bill (H.R. 4348), to extend current student loan interest rates. The extension applies to students who are still in school, and ultimately, graduate from college during these difficult financial times. Last year 1.5 million or 53.6 percent of recent college graduates were jobless or underemployed. Federal Student Loan Types and Interest Rates There are two types of federal Stafford Loans for college... Continue Reading
June 26, 2012
Economic Costs of the Health Care Law
For the first two years of this administration, President Obama and Democrats lost focus on the economy. Instead they forced through a health care law they claimed would be good for jobs. The law never achieved the popularity Democrats promised, and Americans suffered through a bad economy and a recovery that has been the weakest ever. In selling the law, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi declared: “So this bill is not only about the health security of America, it’s about... Continue Reading
June 19, 2012
The Obama Economy: Debt and Downgrade
On August 5, 2011, after the President played a game of political brinkmanship over the nation’s debt limit, Standard and Poor’s downgraded the credit rating of the United States for the first time in our history. S&P cited Washington’s out-of-control debt and the lack of a serious plan to address it as primary reasons for the Obama Downgrade. A year later, with the debt limit in sight once again, nothing has changed. Obama Spends Too Much Last year, President Obama... Continue Reading
June 13, 2012
5 Questions: Obama’s “Economic Framing Speech”
Tomorrow, President Obama will deliver what has been previewed as an “economic framing speech.” Five questions that need to be answered in the President’s speech. 1. 3 ½ Years In, When Will America See Robust GDP Growth? The Commerce Department revised down GDP growth for the first quarter of 2012 to 1.9 percent. GDP growth for all of 2011 was 1.7 percent. The Congressional Budget Office projects growth of just 2 percent in 2012 and 1.1 percent in 2013. The post-World... Continue Reading
June 12, 2012
A “Fine” Mess
President Obama’s comment that “the private sector is doing fine” must have shocked most Americans who don’t work for the government. In the Obama economy, workers in private sector industries like manufacturing, telecommunications, and retail have lost their jobs. 1. Manufacturing of Durable Goods: 227,000 Private Jobs Lost: Durable goods jobs lost include manufacturing of wood products, metal products, machinery, computer and electronic products, appliances, and... Continue Reading