Trumpeting Capitalism

Under the headline, The Speech That Mitt Romney Should Give, Kyle Smith makes a great case for capitalism, profits, the private-equity business, and jobs:

A private-equity shop is a little like a trauma surgeon in the ER. You don’t want to meet us. Chances are, you’re having a near-death experience. You don’t go to the ER with a headache. A lot of the companies we dealt with were falling apart. Close to bankruptcy. We did our best to save them. Sometimes we didn’t succeed. But I’m happy to report that we had more success than not. Other companies we did business with were like newborn babies—weak, and desperately in need of support. We provided startup capital for them.

Surgeons, if they’re good at what they do, are handsomely rewarded. So are private-equity shops, if they know what they’re doing. But I think if you talked to the average surgeon, he or she’d say they’re not in it for the compensation. They’re in it for the challenge. They’re in it because they’re good at solving problems, and they’re willing to go to work in a high-stress environment every day because they think they’re up to some of the most hair-raising challenges imaginable. They do society a lot of good. Ultimately the people whose lives they save go on to have children of their own, and those children go on to have children of their own. Ultimately a lot of people are alive because of what ER doctors do.

The immediate challenge is to restore the patient to life. The patient may go out and get hit by a bus tomorrow, but the doctor’s focus is on the health of the patient today. They restore life and health. In private equity, that life and health we try to restore is called profitability. Profitability has to come first. Ultimately no business can survive if it’s not making a profit. Unless it’s the government, in which case it just raises your taxes or borrows money from China that your grandchildren will have to figure out a way to pay.

Profit is not a dirty word. Profit means the health of American business. And when American business is healthy, that’s when it can get on with growth. With creating jobs. ...

Using Apple (Steve Jobs), Facebook (Mark Zuckerberg) and Staples, Smith illustrates the free-market system's positive ripple effect on society, what he calls the "blessings of American capitalism."  Worth a full read.

Oops, Liberals' Class Warfare Isn't Working

A national poll by The Hill released February 27, 2012, reports that "likely voters prefer lower individual, business tax rates."

The big majority opted for a lower tax bill when asked to choose specific rates; precisely 75 percent said the right level for top earners was 30 percent or below.

The current rate for top earners is 35 percent. Only 4 percent thought it was appropriate to take 40 percent, which is approximately the level that President Obama is seeking from January 2013 onward.

The graphic below shows the breakdown of responses by likely voters (LV), males, females, and younger voters:

The Hill admits "the new data seem to run counter to several polls that have found support for raising taxes on high-income earners."

“If you ask people, ‘Should families with more than $250,000 pay a higher tax rate?’ you would get a lot of yeses on that,” said Clint Stretch, managing principal of tax policy at Deloitte Tax LLP. “And yet … you’ve got 75 percent of the answers are suggesting high-income people should have a lower tax rate, and that’s an astonishing result.”

One possible explanation is voters may not know how much the nation’s top earners are already being taxed. The poll did not ask voters to identify current tax rates before saying what rate they favored.

“It might be that people are underestimating how much the rich pay now,” said Bruce Bartlett, a former Reagan adviser and Treasury official under President George H.W. Bush.

Indeed.

About those Air Bags in Your Car

"There are now millions of older cars on the road with air bags," writes Eric Peters at the American Spectator, and they "are ticking time bombs, financially speaking..." in a couple of ways.

First, if the air bag deploys in a minor fender-bender, a $1500 to $2000 replacement bill to install new air bags will be factored in to repair estimates; and their huge cost could cause the older car to be totaled by the insurance company. "A 2002 NHTSA study," Peters reports, "found that '...nearly all vehicles more than seven years old are scrapped if they are involved in a crash in which their airbag deploys'."

Second, over time airbags can "degrade and develop problems" just like any other part in a car, and no one can know when they may become dysfunctional. With some 15 years of air bag experience behind them, several automakers have begun building in service schedules for airbags — at an undetermined cost to car owners. Writes Peters:

I like to read the owner's manuals of the new vehicles I test drive each week. That's how I discovered the warning that (to cite one example) "SRS system must be serviced" at 10 years. In one case, a major car maker specifically recommends replacing the bags (and related sensors, etc.) at 12 years — and you can imagine what that would cost.

It's something to think about when deciding whether to hold on to an older, payment-free car or buying a newer model.

Afternoon with Author Nonie Darwish

Former Egyptian journalist Nonie Darwish will discuss her new book, The Devil We Don't Know, at an Afternoon with an Author event from 3 to 5 pm tomorrow, February 28, at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington DC. Attendance is free, but registration is required.

HE: Obama's Budget Travesties

Human Events has put together the Top 10 Obama Budget Travesties — a good quick reference guide to have handy for arguments with liberals.

Middle Class Collateral Damage

It isn't bad enough that almost half of Americans are dependent on government already. In his 2013 budget proposal to triple the tax rate on dividents, President Obama takes aim at the 51 percent of adults in the nation who are savers trying to fend for themselves. From the Wall Street Journal:

One buried surprise is his proposal to triple the tax rate on corporate dividends, which believe it or not is higher than in his previous budgets. Mr. Obama is proposing to raise the dividend tax rate to the higher personal income tax rate of 39.6% that will kick in next year. Add in the planned phase-out of deductions and exemptions, and the rate hits 41%. Then add the 3.8% investment tax surcharge in ObamaCare, and the new dividend tax rate in 2013 would be 44.8%—nearly three times today's 15% rate.

Keep in mind that dividends are paid to shareholders only after the corporation pays taxes on its profits. So assuming a maximum 35% corporate tax rate and a 44.8% dividend tax, the total tax on corporate earnings passed through as dividends would be 64.1%.

The truth is that the plan gives new meaning to the term collateral damage, because shareholders of all incomes will share the pain.

According to the Investment Company Institute, about 51% of adults own stock directly or through mutual funds, which is more than 100 million shareholders. Tens of millions more own stocks through pension funds. Why would the White House endorse a policy that will make these households poorer?

Seldom has there been a clearer example of a policy that is supposed to soak the rich but will drench almost all American families.

Gov Sarah Palin Named Institute's 2012 Woman of the Year

Perhaps her award should have been called the Woman of this Generation, for she deserves such. Governor Palin has inspired a generation of young conservative women more than any woman since Margaret Thatcher, despite (or perhaps because of) the avalanche of assaults from the Left.

In a private luncheon in her honor, Governor Palin told the audience of about 300 female college leaders from across the nation that the Left's onslaught only makes us stronger. Governor Palin encouraged these young "constitutional conservatives" and the next generation of "Mama Grizzlies" to focus on enduring priorities of faith, family, freedom and personal responsibility.

"Pay no mind to what the rest of the world says about conservatives," she advised; and "don't look externally for your encouragement, your empowerment or your internal fortification."

"If you are mocked and belittled and ridiculed for having conservative beliefs," she told the audience, "please make sure your spine is stiffened. ... Your good positive efforts to affect the change this country needs will be worth it. At the end of the day, you're going to be able to say that that ridicule, that mocking, is for naught if you know internally what you're right priorities are and where God is leading you. All the other stuff out there on the periphery will just fade away."

She noted that Clare Boothe Luce is an example to the modern conservative woman. "Any one of her careers would have made her remarkable, but taken together, she was really outstanding and astounding."

Clare's work ethic, her drive, her commitment to make things better "is a reminder of what our role as American women must be in this world that needs women like you. She was a defender of her faith ... a stalwart cold warrior and promoter of freedom ... a fiscal conservative ... a wife and mother who once said, 'Women know what man has long forgotten, that the ultimate economic and spiritual unit of any civilization is still the family'. ... She stood on principle, and history has proven her right. She was, in short, an all-American woman—strong, proud, free, courageous."

Governor Palin closed by urging the audience to take an equally strong stand for conservative principles. "If not us," she asked, "then who?"

No Compromise with Progressives

Who are progressives? What is their vision, and how have they changed our American democratic republic? In a three-part series of articles, Thomas Sowell offers insight into the Progressive Legacy, while Senator Jim DeMint explains why there can be conservative compromise with them.

Sowell highlights the following:

• Progressives can be found in both political parties.
• Progressives hold a "vision of an expanded role of the federal government in the economu and a reduced roles for the Constitution of the United States."
• Progressives are determined critics and foes of big business and often demonize business people with labels such as "robber barons" (early 20th century) and "1 percenters" (today).
• The Progressive movement rose and flourished a hundred years ago in the U.S.
• Progressives were subsequently so discredited by the problems the policies of their vision created "that they started calling themselves 'liberals'" during the mid 20th century, "and after they discredited themselves again, they went back to calling themselves 'progressives', now that people no longer remembered how progressives had discredited themselves before."

Then ... and now:

• "'Often wrong but never in doubt' is a phrase that summarizes much of what was done by Presidents Theodore Roosevelt [Republican] and Woodrow Wilson [Democrat], the two giants of the Progressive Era, a century ago."
• Theodore Roosevelt "stood the 10th Amendment on its head," interpreting "the Constitution to mean that the President of the United States could exercise powers not explicitly forbidden to him."
• "Wilson attacked the Constitution in his writings as an academic," and "once in power, his administration so restricted freedom on speech that this lead to landmark Supreme Court decisions restoring that fundamental right."
• "Theodore Roosevelt was also morally offended by the fact that Standard Oil created 'enormous fortunes' for its owners 'at the expense of business rivals'. How a business can offer consumers lower prices without taking custormers away from businesses that charge higher prices is a mystery still unsolved [by progressives] to the present day, when the very same arguments are used against Wal-Mart."
• Woodrow Wilson's Progressivism was very much in the same mindset. Government intervention in the economy was justified on grounds that 'society is the senior partner in all business'."
• "Barack Obama's rhetoric of 'change' is in fact a restoration of discredited ideas that originated a hundred years ago."

Senator Jim DeMint believes America is at a tipping point—the same tipping point Sowell writes of in the early 20th century Progressive Era.

Against the backdrop of American public opinion calling on Congress to just "get along," Senator Jim DeMint argues in his new book, Now or Never: Saving America from Economic Collapse, that there can be no compromise between two such polar opposite visions for the nation.  Progressive/liberals seek dominance of the federal government in all economic and social aspects of citizens' lives, while conservatives seek individual freedom and limited federal power over citizens' social and economic pursuits.

How can I compromise and work with someone whose vision is so different from mine? It would be like a football coach telling his team, 'I want you to go out on the field and work with the opposing team. Try to help them out. Cooperate with them. Compromise with them.' He can't. The other team has a goal that is the opposite direction from ours, and they are there to beat you. As bad as it sounds, that's where we are in America.

The clash in Washington DC today is once again between progressive/liberals and conservatives over the vision and future course of this nation. It's a battle that conservative must fight to win.

Sources:
Sowell: Progressive Legacy Part I
Sowell: Progressive Legacy Part II
Sowell: Progressive Legacy Part III
DeMint: Speech to Conservative Women's Network (pdf)
DeMint: book review

Saddle-broken and Snake Bitten

The contraception mandate must have come as a shock to the many Catholics who chose to view the Obamacare promises through the church's rosy-colored 'social justice' lens. As conservative columnist George Will succinctly explains in a 54-second clip of ABC's This Week (video here), the Catholic Bishops should have known better:

Three points. As Paul Ryan said to you, this is an accounting gimmick that they've done that in no way ends the complicity of Catholic institutions and individuals in delivering services they consider morally abhorrent.

Second. You asked the question, 'How did this come about?' George, this is what liberalism looks like. This is what the progressive state does. It tries to break all the institutions of civil society, all the institutions that mediate between the individual and the state. They have to break them to the saddle of the state.

Third. The Catholic Bishops, it serves them right. They're the ones who were really hot for Obamacare, with a few exceptions. But they were all in favor of this. And this is what it looks like when the government decides it's going to make your healthcare choices for you.

Cue Al Wilson's "The Snake."

Dressing for Success ... or Not

"Women will be future leaders, too," writes Dr. Melissa Clouthier, "and I was dismayed to see how many of them either looked frumpish or like two-bit whores" at the recent CPAC conference in DC. In a blog post entitled CPAC: The Jersey Shore-ification of Our Young People, she continues:

Women, if you’re at a conference where you’re learning to be a future politician or wish to succeed in the business of politics, dress the part. No, you don’t have to be in a business suit with pearls. However, modesty is a minimum. So:
1. No cleavage. That’s right. Cover that up. I say “no” in absolutist terms because women will show a tiny bit and that’s okay, but really, in a business environment where ideas are the priority, a dude thinking about your ta-tas is counter-productive.
2. Skirts no more than three finger-widths above the knee. Why do I even have to write this? Well, because someone is allowing these girls out of the house with mini-skirts that reveal too much.
3. Save the stilettos for Saturday night on a date with your boyfriend.
4. Bend at the knee. No, I don’t want to see your butt.

It is disheartening that these ideas even need to be written about, but clearly they do. If, at the number one conservative conference of the year, young men and women are looking and acting like the cast of Jersey Shore, it’s time to reset the compass.

UPDATE: Laura Donovan defends female CPACers here.

We're All Tea Partiers Now

The Tarrance Group released a poll today of 800 "likely registered voters throughout the country." Key findings:

• 8 in 10 (84%) of voters find it extremely or very concerning that the U.S.Senate has not passed a budget in nearly 3 years, including 93% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 74% of Democrats.
• 75% want to see President Obama's budget cut spending, but only 31% expect it to actually cut spending.
• 62% want to see the president's budget reduce taxes, but only 24% expect his budget to do that.
• 55% believe the best way to grow the economy and create jobs is by cutting government spending and keeping taxes low for all taxpayers, while 36% believe the best way is to increase government spending and make the rick pay more in taxes.

F & F Lied; our Economy Almost Died

So much for the president's oft-stated line that Wall Street is to blame. "New evidence Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac hid their subprime exposure from Wall Street," writes Paul Sperry, and the evidence "delegitimizes both the diagnosis of the crisis and its prescription—the Dodd-Frank Act."

The Obama Administration claims Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (F&F) played only a 'marginal' role in the nation's financial meltdown and blames Wall Street "greed" and "predatory" Wall Street bankers instead. To fix the problem, the Democrat-controlled House and Senate passed—and the president signed—the Dodd-Frank Act with harsh new regulations on the banking industry.

New evidence in recently filed SEC lawsuits against F&F for massive fraud reveals a very different story:

• F&F held/guaranteed $1.6 Trillion in subprime risky mortgages, but only reported $600 Billion of it, hiding $1 Trillion of their liabilities from Wall Street investors, rating agencies, risk managers and analysts.
• F&F caused Wall Street to underestimate the risks of continuing to acquire, hold and distribute mortgages and mortgage-backed securities
• According to the SEC's court filing, Fannie officials "created the false perception that Fannie Mae's participation in high credit risk loans ... was small and contained, and reinforced this false and misleading impression, telling investors that Fannie Mae was in the prime—not subprime—market with a different, higher set of standards and underwriting."

"If the crisis diagnosis is wrong, then the prescription--Obama's regulatory government takeover of the financial industry--must also be wrong," concludes Sperry.  "And if in fact government-controlled agencies caused the crisis, the answer is less government; and freer markets."

Lawless Disregard for Federal Budget Requirement

"Two top Democrats in Congress say the legislature doesn't really need to pass a budget," reports Investor's Business Daily.

"The fact is, you don't need a budget," [House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer] said last Tuesday. We can adopt authorization policies without a budget."
On Friday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said: "We do not need to bring a budget to the floor this year. It's done, we don't need to do it."

Au contraire, says IBD.

Actually, "the fact is," Congress is required under the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1973 to pass a spending plan and then have it scored by the Congressional Budget Office and signed by the president. That none of this happens suggests a level of disrespect for the law and the people found only among criminals.

Note: The Democratic-controlled Senate hasn't passed a budget in nearly 3 years.

NRO: What Would Reagan Do?

The Catholic backlash over government's new "mandate to force Catholics to offer and purchase health-insurance plans that violate their consciences" is the focus of NRO online editor-at-large Kathryn Jean Lopez's insightful interview with Paul Kengor, professor of political science at Grove City College and author of two books on President Reagan. The two explore what Reagan would do (and did do) with this controversial matter, and how his wisdom might inform modern-day conservatives engaged in the battle.

Victory, Not Compromise

Speaking at the CPAC conference, Senator Jim DeMint gave a "rousing speech about the importance of victory over compromise" in Washington DC, "point out that the victorious New York Giants didn't take the field to 'work with' the other guys or 'cooperate' with the opposing quarterback."

"Conservatism is not a political 'theory'," said DeMint. "It is a proven set of principles to make life better, and people freer, and the country stronger." He added that liberal social planning and the central control of economics isn't a political theory either—"it's a proven failure."

Senator DeMint is "working hard to build a Congress that can pass top-quality legislation to restore American liberty," as he explained to a recent Conservative Women's Network gathering. His remarks, entitled "It's Now or Never," can be viewed on the Institute's YouTube channel.

The Post-Recession Job Search

How does a job seeker emerge successful in this post-recession job market? Careerguidetips.com tackles 6 ways the job search has changed and suggests adapted strategies to get hired. Tips to polish interview skills and resumes are also available at the website.

Putting Sex into Perspective

World magazine reviews 2 new books about sex that conservatives may enjoy: Bringing Sex into Focus: the Quest for Sexual Integrity by Caroline J. Simon, and The Good Girl's Guide to Great Sex: (and You Thought Bad Girls Have All the Fun) by Sheila Wray Gregoire.

The first "uses a helpful metaphor, optics, as a way to talk about six different lenses through which people view sex: covenantal, procreative, romantic, plain sex, power, and expressive," writes World's Susan Olasky, and "will be particularly useful for young adults searching for a way to think through sexual issues and discern perspectives that shape media and culture."

the second "answers questions about the nuts and bolts ... Like a funny big sister, [the author] takes on intimate topics in a frank and reassuring way ... for those who are engaged, for newlyweds, and for those who are sexually experienced and want to gain a biblical understanding."

Yale: Sex Week vs. True Love Week

"Last fall, after coming under federal investigation for alleged Title IX violations related to creating a hostile sexual environment for women," writes Nathan Harden, "Yale administrators announced that the biennial pornification of Yale, aka "Sex Week," would no longer be allowed to take place on campus." The decision came after accusations surfaced that Sex Week organizers were "receiving kickbacks from porn companies."

Sex Week is back this year, toned down and with competition from True Love Week, sponsored by Students with Undergraduates for a Better Yale College. The group will offer educational seminars that focus more on relationships and less on casual sex.

AEI on the Phony 8.3 Percent Unemployment Rate

If you're worried about jobs, don't miss American Enterprise Institute's Why the Official 8.3 Percent Unemployment Rate is a Phony Number. Author James Pethokoukis points out:

• If the US labor force was equal in percentage to when Obama took office, the real unemployment rate would be 11 percent.
• If all unemployment—including the discouraged (i.e., those who've quit looking) as well as the part-time employed who want full-time work—the unemployment rate would be "a sky-high 15.1 percent."
• "Bottom line: The unemployment rate is dropping because economic growth continues to be so anemic that 4 million Americans have quit looking for work and have been disappeared by the Labor Department."

Pethokoukis explains (with graphics) why a further decline in the "official" unemployment rate over the next few months is not likely to be good news for Americans or Mr. Obama.

The Komen Foundation Debacle

"The media headlines today are that the Komen Foundation has reversed itself," writes Erick Erickson in Making Sense of the Komen Foundation's Actions at Redstate.com. "If you gave a donation in the past few days and want it back, you should call (800) 996-3329. But I hope I can provide for you some rational explanation for a mishandled PR exercise..." Worth the read if you're a Komen Foundation supporter.

Human Events: Top 10 Washington Sins

If Washington DC were the American Heartland's lover, he would be on his way out the door. "Anger against congress, federal bureaucrats, lobbyists and all that is Washington has been boiling over in America's Heartland," writes Human Events, "with good reason. ... Here's the proof: The Top Ten Ways Washington Annoys the Heartland."

22-Year-Old 'Flip-Flop Cop'

"It's incredible how much stuff is out there," says 22-year-old Andrew Kaczynski, a student at St. John's University who is making a name for himself as this year's "flip-flop cop for the digital age," according to the Washington Times. His research—from "John McCain's entire 200-page 2008 opposition research file on Mr. Romney" to Ron Paul's video bragging "about putting out political newsletters, the same newsletters he recently disavowed because they contain controversial statements about race, AIDS and international conspiracy theories"—feeds his "political nerd" passion, launched his career, and keeps people honest.

No Limit to Government Power?

Mitt Romney faces a real problem explaining why "Obamacare is a curse, while Romneycare is a blessing," writes John Hayward in Human Events, particularly since both are rooted in the misguided notion that there should be no "limits on the power of government." RomneyCare and the Limits of Government Power is worth a full read.

Private Family Matters

President Obama's statement that "government should not intrude on private family matters," delivered on the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, is a "brazen bit of Obama BS," writes John Hinderaker in Obama's Government Vs. Your Family at Powerlineblog.com. "If that doesn't provoke hollow laughter, you haven't been paying attention." Hinderaker counts the ways this president and his party have injected government into the most ordinary private family matters, from food choices to electrical use to garbage collection.