Townhall Daily - May 21 - Thomas Sowell, Byron York, Chuck Norris, John Ransom, John Hawkins and More



Thomas Sowell: Wimps Versus Barbarians Byron York: Immigration Fight Moves To the House With Deep Divide Chuck Norris: The Ultimate Clutch Player John Ransom: On IRS, Ezra Klein is Still an Idiot, and so is the White House John Hawkins: 7 Liberal Fascists Who Are Fine With Using the IRS to Target Political Enemies Mona Charen: Obama's Personal Diplomats? How to legally extract silver from the U.S. banking system Lots of folks thought it was too good to be true when S&A told them you could walk into practically any bank in the U.S. and collect real physical silver… But many of our readers are writing in to tell us how they are taking advantage of this little-known loophole to make quick, easy money. Click here to learn more. Cal Thomas: Tyranny is no Longer 'Lurking' Dennis Prager: On Using Parents of Murdered Children Andrew Marcus: Andrew Breitbart, The Tea Party And Race Pat Buchanan: The Spectator President Rachel Alexander: Triplegate: It's Like Saul Alinsky is Running the Country Mike Shedlock: Another Obamacare Lie Daniel J. Mitchell: Strangled By Red Tape Debra J. Saunders: Obama Is Stingy With His Pardons Humberto Fontova: State Department Does Great Job Protecting Terror-Sponsor Kathryn Lopez: A Look Behind the Veil Phyllis Schlafly: Gang of Eight Betrays Americans Tony Katz: Why Won't Conservatives Allow Themselves A Win? A Lesson For The Tea Party Charles Payne: Mickey D on Strike Bill Murchison: Gosnell and the Abortion Universe Crista Huff: Stocks in the News: Yahoo, Campbell's Soup, General Electric Fred Lucas: Tea and Talk: Conservative Radio a Rallying Point for the Besieged Conservative Groups Bill Tatro: You Call This a Recovery? Rick Santorum: Obama vs. The Free Press Roger Schlesinger: Time to Figure it All Out Susan Combs: A Breach of Trust Armstrong Williams: The IRS Fiasco Shows the Incompetence of Liberalism

BostonGlobe.com Political Headlines - May 21, 2013

• Gabriel Gomez blasts Edward Markey on safety: Political reporter Joshua Miller explains GOP US Senate candidate Gomez's frontal attack on his opponent's homeland security credentials; Gomez says nothing Markey has done has made our nation safer.

• Raytheon is in the hunt for a $3b space project: Even as spending is cut across the military, Mass.-based Raytheon and Maryland's Lockheed Martin are competing to build a first-of-its-kind "Space Fence" to track orbital junk. National security reporter Bryan Bender details.

• Youth jobs program facing deep cuts in Mass.: Massachusetts lawmakers are considering deep cuts in funding for a youth summer jobs program even as teen unemployment remains near record levels. Economic reporter Megan Woolhouse has more.

CEI - WSJ on CEI report: regulations up 21% over past decade

Did you know: federal regulations have increased more than 21% in the past decade as measured by pages in the Code of Federal Regulations? That's one of the take-aways from today's Wall Street Journal editorial, which opines on a forthcoming report by CEI's Wayne Crews.  In fact, this is the 20th anniversary of the report, Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State.

The report is scheduled for release tomorrow.

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The Wall Street Journal

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323582904578485241326184204.html

REVIEW & OUTLOOK

May 19, 2013, 6:31 p.m. ET

Red Tape Record Breakers

A new study puts the cost of regulation at $14,768 per household.

President Obama is opposing a bill passed by the House last week that would require the Securities and Exchange Commission to better measure the costs and benefits of new regulations. That's no surprise considering that the latest annual index of federal rules shows that Team Obama is now the red tape record holder.

For two decades, Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute has tracked the growth of new federal regulations. In his 20th anniversary edition this week, he'll report that pages in the Code of Federal Regulations hit an all-time high of 174,545 in 2012, an increase of more than 21% during the last decade.

Relying largely on government data, Mr. Crews estimates that in 2012 the cost of federal rules exceeded $1.8 trillion, roughly equal to the GDP of Canada. These costs are embedded in nearly everything Americans buy. Mr. Crews calculates these costs at $14,768 per household, meaning that red tape is now the second largest item in the typical family budget after housing.

Last year 4,062 regulations were at various stages of implementation inside the Beltway. The government completed work on 1,172, an increase of 16% over the 1,010 that the feds imposed in 2011, which was a 40% increase over 722 in 2010.

Another way to measure the regulatory burden is by pages in the Federal Register, which includes new rules as well as proposed rules and supporting documents. By that measure the Obama Administration did not break the all-time record of 81,405 pages it set in 2010. But the 78,961 pages it churned out in 2012 mean that the President has posted three of the four greatest paperwork years on record.

And to be fair, if Mr. Obama were ever to acknowledge that this is a problem, he could reasonably blame George W. Bush for setting a lousy example. Despite the Obama myth that the Bush years were an era of deregulation, the Bush Administration routinely generated more than 70,000 pages a year in the Federal Register.

When it comes to "economically significant" rules, which are those estimated by the feds to cost at least $100 million each, Mr. Crews notes that the current Administration is "in a class by itself." The bureaucracy finished up 57 such rules in 2012 and another 167 are in the pipeline.

These are largely the progeny of the Affordable Care Act, Dodd-Frank and the EPA's effort to use regulation to impose an anti-carbon-fuels agenda that even a Democratic Senate won't pass. Since Mr. Obama doesn't want to accurately assess the costs of these rules, we'll rely on Mr. Crews.

ALG's Daily Grind - Arrogance is Obama's worst enemy

May 20, 2013

Arrogance is Obama's worst enemy

Obama's breached relationship with the media is the greatest threat to his presidency and his legacy, but does he even realize it?

Greens oppose drilling, fracking, Keystone… and exports

Drilling opponents claim to be protecting the environment. In reality, they simply detest hydrocarbons, modern living standards, free enterprise and personal liberty.

IRS rules already clear on 501(c)(4) political activity

ALG's Mehrens: "Targeting organizations for special scrutiny on the belief that they might exercise their First Amendment protected rights to engage in political activity in is an egregious violation of the freedom of speech. If it had been done consistently for groups of all stripes would not have made it better."

Wall Street Journal: The Doubly Illegal NLRB

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals rules that another one of Obama's "recess" NLRB appointments violated the Constitution.

Franklin Center - Live from New York

TONIGHT at 6 PM ET: Lamar Alexander, Haley Barbour & Michael McCaul ... Live from New York!

Scandal in the administration at home. Evolving threats abroad. Party turmoil and infighting. A new brand of compassionate conservatism.

Watch LIVE tonight at 6PM ET

Join us online tonight 6 PM ET for The New York Meeting, a policy discussion with heavyweight politicos, lawmakers, journalists, and more!

We’ll hear from Senator Lamar Alexander, Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, and Congressman Michael McCaul, as well as Arthur Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute and former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour!

They’ll unpack some of the most pressing issues facing us today. Learn what’s behind the scandals with the IRS, Associated Press, and Benghazi. See the evolving threats facing America and discover how to move a pro-poor, free-market agenda beyond “compassionate conservatism.”

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