Free Republic

Soros neglects to point out that Obama’s “stimulus” didn’t fund either consumption or investment – it was a handout to public sector unions and foreign “green corporations” coupled with a one-year extension of salaries and benefits to public sector employees. It didn’t build dams, bridges or utilities – it created a mountain of new debt while perpetuating the same culture of entitlement that has Europe poised to plunge off of a fiscal cliff.

It’s no secret that elected officials are prone to viewing the world through the distorted prism of their own indispensability. In fact, an old Washington, D.C. proverb maintains that “every Congressman looks in the mirror and sees a Senator – and every Senator looks in the mirror and sees a President.” Appropriately dubbed the “mirror syndrome,” this tendency of politicians to regard themselves as transcendent figures doesn’t stop at the banks of the Potomac. Sadly, it extends to state capitals and seats of local government all across our nation. In last month’s New York Times, for example, a Nebraska State...

Howard Rich may live in New York, but he has waded deep into California politics. The multimillionaire developer, and president of U.S. Term Limits, has bankrolled California's eminent-domain measure to the tune of $1.5 million. But the money is only one front in Rich's national crusade against eminent domain, an effort that spans more than a half-dozen states and millions of dollars. "We have the ability to, in effect, bypass legislatures by going directly to the people through the initiative process," says Rich from his New York office. Through a web of organizations, Rich is backing eminent-domain initiatives in Arizona,...