Free Republic

We're just beginning to see the impact of the Dodd-Frank financial reform act with over 500 new regulations entering the pipeline. Yet, the fresh-out-of-the-gate price control on debit cards has already sparked an uproar. Dodd-Frank, following a push by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), instructed the Federal Reserve to set a price control that capped the interchange fee paid by retailers to banks in order to accept debit cards. The fee traditionally covered the cost of checking accounts, consumer card rewards, and ensured secure transactions and fraud prevention. As predicted, banks have had to cover the cost of Durbin's price control,...

The days of unbiased reporting are well behind us. What we have now are news agencies who are bent on furthering a political agenda. Proof positive comes in the form of a Reuters story with a somewhat confusing title: “Alabama immigration law decried, applauded as some flee state.” (Click here for original story) The title is somewhat ambiguous as to who is “decrying” and who is “applauding” but the article leaves little doubt as to the ideological leanings of the author(s): (Reuters) – A climate of fear and panic has taken hold in Alabama’s immigrant community since a federal judge...

Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.) today released a report from his Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (Homeland Security Committee). It asserts that the 2005 repatriation round was a failure. In support of this, the report gives nine conclusions. Below, each are refuted: U.S. jobs were lost, not gained. The report claims that the top 15 repatriating companies shed 21,000 jobs after the repatriation round. This is a classic case of selective reporting. From January 2005 to January 2008, the U.S.. economy created 5.4 million jobs. Since that time, the economy has shed nearly 7 million jobs. If anything, the repatriation round...

What Is Repatriation? Under U.S. tax law, a company that earns a profit overseas must, in general, pay income tax to the overseas government AND to the IRS if they bring the remaining profit back to the U.S. The company gets a credit for the foreign income tax paid, but the difference between the foreign tax and the U.S. 35 percent rate must be paid to the IRS. In practice, deferrals and other tax rules allow companies to keep foreign after-tax earnings locked overseas, but that money generally remains unavailable to be used in the United States. This is known...

I think that I may have stumbled onto a very large problem. I am working with a guy that says that he was a Marine and I am 99% sure that he isn't. He has got a really great story going and he has fooled a lot of people. I need a place to go to so that I can prove that he isn't a marine. I can already proove several of his other stories are fabrications but this is the key. I have read online that is a rather big problem, especially for the Corps and the Seals. Can...

The Marcellus Shale field in Ohio, for anybody concerned about finding employment, is creating jobs every day. Lately, the natural gas industry has experienced a boom, and that’s easy to do when finally companies can, while still profiting, be environmentally friendly. For decades, hydraulic fracturing has proved to be one of the safest methods for extracting natural gas. It’s also one of the cleanest methods for extracting natural gas. Believe it or not, Ohio’s state EPA agrees that such a method hasn’t yet proved harmful to anybody within the drilling perimeter of these sites. There are 81,000 wells in total...

Some quick talking points on the Reid surtax, up for consideration this week in the Senate: Facing a revolt from within his own party over the tax hikes contained in President Obama’s “Stimulus 2.0” plan, Harry Reid has come up with an alternative tax increase that may actually do more economic damage and kill even more jobs. Beginning in 2013, a new 5.6 percent “surtax” would apply to modified adjusted gross income which exceeds $1 million ($500,000 in the case of married filing separately returns). After 2013, this figure would be adjusted for inflation Because the top marginal tax rate...

COMPLETE TITLE: Multiple Instances Of Historical Scholarship Conclusively Establish The Supreme Court’s Holding In Minor v. Happersett As Standing Precedent On Citizenship – Obama Not Eligible ### Recently, the New York State Board of Elections was caught trying to amend the US Constitution with an eraser by listing POTUS eligibility as available to any person “born a citizen”. (Please review Pixel Patriot’s excellent analysis on this issue, “New York State BOE Web Site Cover Up“.) The Constitution states that only a “natural born Citizen” may be president, a much more stringent requirement than simply being “born a citizen”. This effort...

...Just yesterday, a judicial panel chose the D.C. Court of Appeals in a random lottery to decide where the Net Neutrality case will be held. This bodes well for opponents of these job-killing rules; the D.C. Court decided in a previous case that the FCC has no legal authority to enact Net Neutrality. Other left-leaning groups, including Free Press and Media Access Project, purport that the rules do not go far enough and filed suits decrying that the law doesn’t apply as harsh rules for wireless ISPs. Yet, other traditionally left-leaning groups disagree. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, for example, has...

Here's what Republican Presidential candidate Governor Rick Perry said in his book, Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America from Washington,about what could be done by our States and by our Federal Congress about the problem of big government: Now, sometimes, I think people suppose that those of us who believe in a limited central government do not believe the federal government should do anything at all. ThatÂ’s not true. We simply want the federal governmentÂ’s involvement in our lives to be constitutional, paid for, effective, and as minimal as possible.(p.174) When the federal government oversteps its authority, states should...

Both the House and Senate are governed by parliamentary rules that allow for some semblance of egalitarian debate, regardless of party control. Over the past few years, we have seen these safeguards eroded, specifically under the Pelosi speakership when minority amendments were prohibited, bills were passed before being fully written and legislation was shunted through the process through "deeming" resolutions rather than with honest debate. On the other side of the hill, the Senate is normally seen to be above this kind of gerrymandered rulemaking, abiding by a more reverent parliamentary process. Usually, the majority and minority come to an...

This week, JD Foster and Curtis Dubay from the Heritage Foundation wrote an article arguing that repatriation was a bad idea right now. ATR disagrees with this (and this seems to be a departure from prior Heritage Foundation policy on this, as well). Below are our reasons why: What Is Repatriation? Under U.S. tax law, a company that earns a profit overseas must, in general, pay income tax to the overseas government AND to the IRS if they bring the remaining profit back to the U.S. The company gets a credit for the foreign income tax paid, but the difference...

The New York Times only publishes articles from conservatives when the latter is foolishly carrying water for the Left. This was true again this week, with the useful idiot role played this time by GMU professor Tyler Cowen, who we've publicly called out before for supporting a VAT.You will want to read his article first. My responses are below: Would a grand bargain with $10 in promised spending cuts for $1 in tax hikes be a good deal for conservatives? No. We have been through this before. In 1982, President Reagan was promised $3 in spending cuts for every $1...

The media has been consumed for the past week with speculation over whether New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will jump into the presidential race. The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson, apparently having trouble coming up with anything of value to write about, penned a laugable column in last Friday's Washington Post alleging that Christie's weight made him unfit for the Oval Office (Flashback: remember when calling Obama skinny was considered racist by folks at Slate.) As ATR's Patrick Gleason recently responded in the Daily Caller: If the best Obama supporters can come up with against Chris Christie is “bu bu but,...

...These agreements are vital to economic growth and job creation in the U.S. According to the U.S. International Trade Commission, together the agreements will increase exports by $13 billion, which by Obama’s own measurements could create more the 250,000 jobs. The U.S. International Trade Commission estimates passage of the US-Korea free trade agreement would increase U.S. exports by over $10 billion and create 70,000 American jobs.Once the Colombian deal is enacted, the U.S. will have access to $4 billion in new markets and the American agricultural industry will see an estimated $1.1 billion dollar overall increase in their exports alone.While...

...While the premium spike has many in the press and professional Left baffled, they can’t say they weren’t warned. In December 2009, during the height of the health care debate on the Hill, I and ATR’s Ryan Ellis made the case in an OC Register op-ed that the increase in insurance mandates sought by President Obama and congressional Democrats would have the opposite effect of bending the cost curve: Health insurance mandates are government-imposed requirements that insurers and health care plans either cover, or offer coverage, for a condition or treatment. As recently as the 1960s, mandates were few and...

I reasoned that if President Obama had been born in Kenya, his mother must have been there with him at the time, and travel to a foreign country requires a passport. No passport, no travel to Kenya. To answer the passport question, I filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the United States Department of State on January 27, 2009, asking for records of any passports issued to Stanley Ann Dunham (Obama or Soetoro). They returned one additional document, an issuance card associated with the 1967 passport renewal application previously released. The wording of the letter is consistent with...

The Joint Committee has been tasked with finding $1.5 trillion in savings over the next ten years. With government spending levels at 25 percent of GDP, this is not a difficult assignment. First, the Committee should enact a hard, nominal discretionary spending freeze at the FY2012 levels. Savings: $971 billion. Secondly, the following reforms offer multiple ways for the committee to find its way to $1.5 trillion in savings (calculated over ten years, unless otherwise noted): Revive federalism – Give states control over their Medicaid programs, remaining federal welfare programs and transportation spending. Devolving transportation to the states: Savings: $540...

On Monday, the FCC’s Net Neutrality rules were finally published in the Federal Register, starting a 60-day shot clock to kill the rules before they become law on November 20. Net Neutrality, which regulates how service providers manage network data, represents the government’s first major foray into micromanaging the Internet. And, as we’ve pointed out before, the FCC approved the rules without showing of consumer harm or legal justification. Already, the U.S. House has passed a joint resolution (H.J. Res. 37) that would nullify the regulations. The Senate now has 60 days to send the measure to President Obama’s desk....

The Fraser Institute , a free market think tank, has recently released its annual The Economic Freedom of the World Report. As the title suggests, this report measures the economic freedom of 141 countries using five categories: size of government, legal structure and security of property rights, access to sound money, freedom to trade internationally, and regulation of credit, labor and business. Hong Kong remained number one on the list, a position it has held for nearly 25 years, followed by Singapore and New Zealand. The report shows a worrying trend for the United States. America’s economic freedom rank has...