Can States Force a Federal Balanced Budget Amendment?

From Ilya Shapiro @ CATO: Arizona Moves to Limit Federal Spending. 

Earlier this month, I wrote about the Compact for America, an elegant mechanism for limiting out-of-control federal spending through a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution that would be advanced via an interstate compact.

Well, already there’s progress on that front.  This past Monday, the CFA passed the Arizona House Committee on Federalism and Fiscal Responsibility.  The full state house will now be taking up this important legislation.

I should note that the prime sponsor of the bill is former Cato intern who’s now a state representative (and my friend), Adam Kwasman.  Glad to see that our internship program is paying dividends with the future leaders of constitutional liberty.

Let’s hope the momentum continues and that the CFA gains traction in other states, putting on Congress to call a constitutional convention or pass its own Balanced Budget Amendment.

Marco Rubio's Illegal Immigration Reform Plan

Amnesty, warns Michelle Malkin, "throws law-abiders under the bus." She's right. It's hard to see any substantive difference between (a) government giving citizenship (amnesty) to foreigners illegally taking citizenship benefits (welfare, education) from your country, and (b) government giving the TV to a guy illegally taking it from your living room.  Amnesty is a bitter pill to swallow for most conservatives since it seems to reward thieves rather than stop them. Been there, done that in the 1980s, and all we got for it was 4 times more thieves 4 decades later.

Senator Marco Rubio argues for a somewhat different plan in his article, Applying Conservative Principles to Immigration. First he proposes changes to "legal" immigration that are long overdue, among them decreasing the percentage of family-based legal immigrants (low-skill, poorly educated) and greatly increasing the percentage of skills-based legal immigrants (high-skill, well-educated); using readily-available technology to modernize and ensure effective enforcement mechanisms (visa monitoring, interception and tracking); and implementing a legal, functional guest worker program that works on a seasonal basis for both American farmers and foreign agricultural workers. All are obviously sensible and reasonable measures.

Sen. Rubio then addresses the "illegal" problem:

First, those who have violated our immigration laws must come forward and undergo a background check. If they have committed a serious crime, they will be deported. If they have not, they will have two choices. They can avail themselves of the current law which requires them to return to their native country, wait ten years and then apply for a green card. Or if they decide to remain in the United States, they will do so under the equivalent of a non-immigrant work permit by paying a substantial fine and back taxes. If they choose the non-immigrant work visa, they will not qualify for any federal benefits, including ObamaCare.

Those who choose the non-immigrant work permit will not be allowed to apply for a green card for a substantial period of time. And they will not be allowed to apply until the enforcement mechanisms outlined above are in place...

Rubio goes on to address specific concerns raised by conservatives. No doubt there will be a lot of discussion in the coming months. Rubio's article is a good place to start.

When Everything is a Crime

"..the proliferation of federal criminal statutes and regulations has reached the point that virtually every citizen, knowingly or not (usually not) is potentially at risk for prosecution," even for "crimes that involve no actual harm or ill intent," warns law professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds. Prosecutors wield enormous power in which crimes - and whom - they choose to charge, and there are few restraints. "The consequences are drastic and troubling," particularly if a prosecutor "is anxious to go after a political enemy." Take 2 recent high profile cases:

"FrackNation" Premiers Tonight

"FrackNation: a journalist's search for the Fracking Truth," a documentary directed by Phelim McAleer, Ann McElhinney and Magdalena Sagieda, will premier Tuesday, January 22 at 9 pm Eastern on AXS TV channel (check website to see if it's available on your cable provider). For more information, visit the Fracknation website.

Here's a preview:

Guns

The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut was a heart-wrenching tragedy. Yet that tragedy will only be compounded if headline-addicted politicians use it to malign millions of law abiding gun owners and/or limit citizen's Second Amendment rights. Consider the data.

"More people died via automobiles in 2009 alone [34,485 deaths] than died in gun-related deaths for the years 2005 [10,158], 2006 [10,225], and 2007 [10,129] combined," writes Awr Hawkins at Breitbart, citing government data. And "more people died from falls in 2009 alone [24,792 deaths] than died from gun-related deaths for the years 2009, 2010, and most of 2011 combined. Driving down the interstate and climbing rocks and ladders is exceedingly dangerous when compared with owning and using handguns, shotguns, and rifles."

There are "around 300 million guns in the United States and at least one gun in about 45% of all households," write Nick Gillespie and Amanda Winkler. "Yet the rate of gun-related crime continues to drop."

Gillespie and Winkler put together this 5 Facts About Guns, Schools, and Violence that everyone — especially federal and state legislators — should know:

From "Limousine Liberal" to "Liberal Aristocracy"

A new-monied 'Liberal Aristocracy' has risen to replace the old-monied 'Limousine Liberal', writes Victor Davis Hanson in an insightful piece.

But the new liberal aristocracy is far less discreet than the old. Most are self-made multimillionaires who acquired their money through government service, finance, law, investment, or marriage. If the old-money liberals lived it up tastefully within their walled family compounds, the new liberal aristocrats are unashamed about living openly in a manner quite at odds with their professed populist ideology.

Hanson makes a damning case of arrogant hypocrisy against Al Gore, Barack Obama, Warren Buffett, GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt, John Kerry, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, George Soros, the Hollywood crowd, and the Fannie Mae operators, Franklin Raines, James Johnson, and Jamie Gorelick:

The problem is not just that none of the three did anything to ensure Fannie Mae’s viability, or at least to justify the millions that they took out, but also that none of them had a reputable record of banking expertise to justify their being hired in the first place. In short, there is just too much big money — and temptation — for even the most liberal class warrior not to cash in on his ample government contacts and influence.

All these paradoxes pose existential questions: Are the elite architects of high taxes and big government the self-interested and conniving who found the path to the good life through cynically embracing such ideas (ask Franklin Raines or Al Gore), or were they so rich to begin with as to be unaffected by the ramifications of their ideology — or both?

Read his full article, "The New Liberal Aristocracy."

Malkin: Moochers Party, Makers Pay

EBT—the ATM-like federal welfare Electronic Benefits Transfer cash card—was "intended to provide poor peope with food stamps and cash assistance for basic necessities," reports Michelle Malkin. "If the idea was to eliminate the embarrassment of life on the dole, the social justice crowd succeeded phenomenally." EBTs are welcome everywhere. She documents a few of the abuses:

• NY - EBTs routinely used at bars, porn shops and liquor stores;
• Colorado - $40,000 worth of taxpayer dollars taken out at liquor stores; and more used in amusement parks, Disneyland, Universal Studios, and Las Vegas;
• California - $70 million in EBT funds were withdrawn outside the state, including $12 million in Las Vegas; and
• Government workers in Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin nabbed in EBT fraud rings and schemes.

Illegal food stamp use costs taxpayers about $750 million a year, according to the Department of Agriculture. "With food stamp rolls exploding...EBT has taken on a whole new meaning: Exploitation of Broke Taxpayers."

Read her full article, EBT Abuse: The Cash-for-Drunkards Program

Are Liberal Women Selling Out Too Cheaply?

Not a woman in sight in this recent White House photo of Obama’s inner circle! Now comes a report that Obama paid his female White House staffers 18% less than his male staffers in 2011, and his 2012 reelection campaign paid female employees an “average of $6872 … compared with the average of $7235 for male employees.”

It appears the "old patriarchy" is new again in the Liberal establishment. Instead of paying women equitably for their work, Obama offered them “free” birth control which, "should have insulted liberated ladies who for years have tried to separate sex from significance.”

Are liberal women setting their worth too low?

Liberals' Pay for their Own Messes

File these 3 stories — tax hike pain, Obamacare repeal and repent, and eco-activists forced to pay damages — under "serves them right."

1. Tax Hikes: Liberals love tax increases, right? Wrong. They're squealing like little piggies about the 2% FICA payroll tax hike that hit their weekly pay checks. Here is an example from DemocraticUnderground.com:

Malkin: Obama's Biggest Tax Evaders

"President Obama will kick off the new year the same way that he kicked off the old year: by demanding that the wealthy pay their "fair share" in taxes," writes Michelle Malkin. "But while millions of small-business owners, struggling entrepreneurs, inventors and investors brace for a double whammy of fiscal cliff tax hikes and new Obamacare taxes, the class-warrior in chief's richest pals are getting a pass. It's a Golden Pass for liberal millionaires and billionaires who support higher Obama taxes for everyone but themselves. Meet the Democratic tax evaders of the year..."

Fiscal Cliff Deal - What's in It, Who's Mad

In a nutshell, everyone is mad, including the Left, but some conservatives see a small silver lining in the deal that went down last night.

Laughing at 2012

Dave Barry's year in review takes a fun look at the people and events—from Honey Boo Boo to political conventions—of a "year that kept raising our hopes, only to squash them flatter than a dead possum on the interstate."  Some examples:

It was that kind of year. Remember back in 2011, when the big sex scandal involved Anthony Weiner, the ferret-like congressperson who committed political suicide by Tweet? We all thought, “Oh well, another Washington politician who wants to regulate everything except his own personal dingdong. At least there are SOME institutions, such as the Secret Service, the CIA and the Army, where males in positions of responsibility can control their …

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, having dealt with all of the city's other concerns — disaster preparation, for example — turns his attention to the lone remaining problem facing New Yorkers: soft drinks ...

Read his full article and start the New Year with a good laugh.