The Arena

No presidential administration is immune to scandal, and no president can know everything that goes on in the vast and growing federal bureaucracy. Yet, to an astounding degree the current administration has been plagued by scandal and with each new scandalous revelation the president consistently and predictably pleads ignorance.

For example, let’s review a short and not comprehensive list of major recent scandals of which the president has either claimed ignorance until they blew up in the media or pretended they did not exist. In some cases the president claims to have found out about the scandals at the same time and from the same sources as the rest of us.

• Botched Obamacare Rollout
• “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.”
• NSA’s Domestic Surveillance
• IRS Targeting Of President Obama’s Political Opponents
• The Terrorist Attack on the U.S. Embassy at Benghazi, Libya
• Spying on the Associated Press
• Spying on James Rosen of Fox News
• The Politicization of the Department of Justice...

This should tell you all you need to know about the free market prospects for solar energy. President Obama initiated an auction to sell rights to develop solar power on federal lands. So far there have been no bids. Anyone think Americans have the appetite for another big energy subsidy boondogle? That’s what it will take to get this solar energy pig off the ground….

In testimony before the House Energy & Commerce Committee this morning, contractors responsible for the Obamacare website buildout were defensive, evasive, and generally passed the buck rather than take responsibility for the abysmal website they created. In fairness there probably is plenty of blame to go around, most of which should be placed squarely in the lap of the folks who set the parameters of the project. After all, the contractors just build what they’re told to build.

One enlightening quote from a Fox News article on the hearing came from Andy Slavitt whose firm handled some of the design:

[Slavitt] also blamed in part a “late decision” to require customers to register before browsing for insurance, which could have helped overwhelm the registration system. 

“This may have driven higher simultaneous usage of the registration system that wouldn’t have otherwise occurred if consumers could window-shop anonymously,” he said. 

His point is well taken and he is probably correct. But for the Department of Health and Human Services (the federal agency responsible for Obamacare implementation) that’s a feature not a bug. The cost of premiums, deductibles, and ...

It is well known and nearly universally acknowledged that the Obamacare implementation has thus far been an unequivocal disaster. I say nearly universally acknowledged because to date it seems there are some holdouts, notably President Obama and Secretary Sibelius. (Come on guys, even CNN has figured it out.)

Unfortunately for everyone, the disaster is compounding like a snowball rolling downhill, getting bigger and gaining speed as it goes. National Review Online has taken the liberty of outlining the Top Ten Obamacare Disasters To Come. Before you click the link I’ll just warn you, it’s bad news all around.

Maybe someone ought to think about repealing this albatross of a law and replacing it with something that allows free markets to address the cost and availability of healthcare and health insurance. Novel idea, no?

Submit your resume to our resume bank.

This month’s rollout of Obamacare implementation has been an epic disaster by any metric. This is not only the judgment of the law’s opponents, but also of a growing number of its supporters and cheerleaders. Sadly, this disaster was not only foreseeable, but widely foreseen and loudly warned about.

Now that we are all agreed that Obamacare is a disaster (and I leave the reader to peruse the provided links to get a sense of the juicy details) the question is one of scale. To what do we compare this monumental failure of central planning and government intervention? What other federal boondoggle does this compare to? The War on Poverty? The War on Drugs? While those failures cost many billions of dollars over the course of decades before being revealed as failures, Obamacare has been revealed as such within its first couple weeks and is on pace to compete well with the other programs on price.

I will leave the question open because I am still searching for an answer. When was the last time a federal program failed so ...

It’s a silly question, but not too silly to be debated in the public school system in Portland, Oregon. Believe it or not, there are public school officials (let’s not sully the teaching profession by calling them educators) who argue that it is racist to use PB&J sandwiches as examples in school lessons. This is more evidence that the political correctness run amok in public schools necessitates a move toward school choice. No parent should be forced by virtue of their zip code, economic bracket, or other circumstances to send their children to a school that teaches such hogwash. Just because this incident originates from Oregon let’s not pretend this sort of thing doesn’t, can’t, or won’t happen in Texas.

School choice is, among other good things, the cure for the plague of political correctness in public education.

In political and policy debates, both sides often claim the mantle of the Founders. We often hear or read statements that begin with the words “The Founders thought….” or “The Founding fathers believed….” or “It was the Founders intent…” etcetera. These statements are sometimes provable but often not. Usually they are a form of rhetoric designed to gain the moral high ground and appeal to the patriotic instincts most Americans hold dear.

So what would the Founding Fathers have thought of the prospect of a government shutdown? Could they have even foreseen such a possibility?

Thanks to the writings of James Madison, affectionately known as the Father of The Constitution we know the definitive answer to both of these questions.

Hint: He was a pretty ardent supporter of separation of powers and a big fan of the House of Representatives…

Through the long lens of hindsight most Americans view the Union victory in the Civil War a foregone conclusion due to the Union’s substantial advantages in manpower, manufacturing, and trade. Few realize that on a number of occasions during the war Washington came under direct assault by Confederate forces. On one such occasion in July, 1864 (less than a year before Lee’s surrender and Lincoln’s assassination) Union artillery at Fort Stevens in Washington was forced to shell nearby homes that had been taken over by invading Confederate forces. Incredibly, President Lincoln was present at Fort Stevens at the time.

On this date in 1864, President Lincoln submitted the following written testimony to Congress concerning these events: “I was present at Fort Stevens (I think) on the afternoon of July 12th. 1864, when some houses in front were shelled by our guns, and understanding that the Military officers in command thought the shelling of the houses proper and necessary, I certainly gave my approbation to its being done.”

Think about that next time someone tells you the outcome was assured before the war ever started!

Contrary to the loud wailing emanating from inside The Beltway, the federal government has not shut down. The scary sounding shutdown is simply a scaling back of government operations while Congress decides what they will and won’t fund. Let’s not forget that holding the purse strings is one of the main constitutional responsibilities that Congress holds. So while they hash it out the essential functions of government will continue to be carried out by essential civil servants. The nonessential functions of government will be put on a temporary hold.

Exit question: Why are taxpayers being forced into debt over nonessential functions of the federal government?