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Ken Boehm
11/13/2012 - 12:00

forest photo"One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions and not by their results."  — Dr. Milton Friedman

The free market has long been recognized as one of the best methods for consumers to get a wide variety of choices, while at the same time the competition for the consumer dollar incentivizes producers and sellers to offer the best possible value for the price.

Free market advocates have demonstrated that, all too often, interventions in the market such as tariffs, regulations, taxes, and so forth - imposed with the best of intentions - not only rob the consumer of choice but increase the ultimate cost of goods and services.

4,496 reads
11/13/2012 - 09:00

A123 logoPresident Obama’s penchant for flushing taxpayer money down the green energy toilet lives at least another four years, and his crony supporters continue to benefit.

The latest example is the pending sell-off of assets by bankrupt A123 Systems, which was awarded upward of $279 million in stimulus funds, plus other assorted government grants and contracts. The top executives who presided over its failure – and supported the president’s cap-and-tax initiatives early in his term – are likely to receive millions of dollars in bonuses, thanks to their scheming earlier this year and a bankruptcy court judge.

4,667 reads
11/12/2012 - 15:13

'Protect Our Jobs' placardLast Tuesday's elections on most fronts represented a major setback for advocates of limited government. Yet it did produce its successes, most significantly, in Michigan. Voters in that state, by an unofficial 58 to 42 percent margin, rejected an initiative to authorize public employee unions, with few exceptions, to override existing and future state and local laws that "abridge, impair or limit" union collective bargaining rights. The measure, called Proposal 2 or the ‘Protect Our Jobs Amendment' (POJA), would have amended the Michigan constitution to provide almost unlimited opportunities for union officials to file court challenges against what they see as unfavorable legislation.

2,460 reads
11/11/2012 - 14:11

Shelley BerkleyEric Lipton of the New York Times had a round up on Friday of the election-day fortunes of members of Congress in ethics trouble.  According to the article:

In races around the country, an unusually large number of lawmakers facing charges of wrongdoing were unceremoniously ousted from their jobs on Tuesday - which is quite rare, because more than 90 percent of the incumbents seeking re-election to Congress typically return for another term.

1,528 reads
11/08/2012 - 10:09

Obama and MarchionneIt is being suggested that President Obama's reelection was at least in part helped by the auto industry bailouts, or more accurately, the portrayal of the bailouts by the president and the media. It is therefore important to surmise that the precedent setting auto bankruptcy proceedings saw billions of taxpayer dollars used to not only help the industry, but to fund the reelection of the sitting president that orchestrated the process.

2,406 reads
11/06/2012 - 10:26

SuzukiNow that the election season is coming to an end, we may get a clearer picture in the near future as to just how "healthy" the auto industry really is. Another car company has just filed for bankruptcy as American Suzuki announced that it is filing for chapter 11 protection and will no longer be selling vehicles in America.

1,981 reads
11/02/2012 - 09:22

NLPC Associate Fellow Mark Modica was a guest Wednesday night on Fox Business Network's Willis Report. Here's a transcript:

3,682 reads
11/01/2012 - 11:20

General Motors is criticizing Mitt Romney for running an ad that says GM cut 15,000 jobs under the Obama Administration. The Detroit Free Press reported that GM spokesman Greg Martin (speaking about the Romney ad) stated, "No amount of campaign politics at its cynical worst will diminish our record of creating jobs in the U.S. and repatriating profits back to this country."

Leaving aside for a moment the bigger issue of a taxpayer-supported entity improperly inserting itself in an election, lets examine the facts. A look at GM's annual SEC filings gives a clear picture of how many people were employed by the company both before and after the Obama Administration guided the company through a bankruptcy process.

3,428 reads
11/01/2012 - 11:02

Fisker logoWe’ve already seen Fisker Karmas spontaneously ignite in a Texas garage and a supermarket parking lot in California, which were blamed on isolated incidents.

But now the taxpayer-subsidized ($193 million) electric automaker has seen several of its $102,000+ luxury hybrids go up in smoke all at once, thanks to Hurricane Sandy.

Jalopnik.com reported Tuesday night that approximately 16 of the Karmas that were parked in Port Newark, N.J. Monday night as Hurricane Sandy approached were submerged by the storm surge. According to the Web site’s unidentified source, the vehicles then “caught fire” and “exploded.” Jalopnik has exclusive photos of the Karmas in which they all were thoroughly destroyed by what must have been an intense inferno.

2,956 reads
10/31/2012 - 12:10

A123 logoIs it back to China for Obama-boosted battery maker A123 Systems?

In August the Massachusetts stimulus recipient (more than $279 million, plus a bundle of other government contracts) announced that Wanxiang Group would infuse the failing company with quick cash as part of a plan to assume as much as 80-percent ownership. A barrage of questions and concerns followed – most prominently from Republican Sens. Charles Grassley (Iowa) and John Thune (South Dakota) – about the logistics of the deal, the potential relocation of taxpayer-funded jobs overseas, and the protection of U.S.-financed technology. Required approval by both the Chinese and U.S. governments seemed to be a high hurdle.

2,017 reads
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