What to do about jobs
October 2, 2009 | By Amanda Reinecker
Unemployment rose to 9.8 percent last month, the government reported today. This is the highest level since June 1983 and comes after President Obama and his Congressional allies enacted massive spending bills intended to prevent this very scenario.
"So what went wrong?" The Heritage Foundation's Conn Carroll asks. "Simply put, Obama's experts relied on some fundamentally unsound assumptions and now our nation is paying the price in lost jobs and record deficits." He cites a new Harvard study demonstrating that there is no "multiplier effect" for government spending. This was one of the main justifications for the "stimulus."
The right way to boost the economy, Carroll argues, is "by improving incentives and the general economic environment." As Heritage labor economist James Sherk argues, the government needs to step back and allow entrepreneurs and investors to flourish. For example, lawmakers could curb the capital gains tax, which would reduce the penalty on investment, and commit to spending restraint, which would alleviate the "threat of higher interest rates and higher inflation."
But President Obama and his Congressional allies seem set on expanding the size of government, raising taxes and increasing regulatory burdens. None of these policies is conducive to economic growth.
-- Nathaniel Ward
Why Defunding ACORN is right and legal
Both the House and Senate have passed legislation to strip federal funding from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. This sound decision followed reports by two young journalists exposing the organization's illegal, immoral and unethical behavior.
ACORN's defenders are trying to stall this legislation, Heritage's Brian Darling explains, by turning to a report by the Congressional Research Service. This report claims that legislation defunding ACORN is a bill of attainder -- a law punishing a specific individual or organization -- and therefore unconstitutional.
This, however, is "flawed legal analysis," Heritage legal scholar Hans von Spakovsky argues. In fact, the House and Senate ACORN bills are "necessary and proper, and certainly constitutional."
Von Spakovsky does not dispute the unconstitutionality of a bill of attainder. Article 1, Section 9, clause 3 of the Constitution clearly states that "no bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed." But the question is not whether a bill of attainder is constitutional -- it isn't. The question is whether the Defund ACORN Act is a bill of attainder. And, as Von Spakovsky argues, "it certainly is not."
The CRS report misconstrues the meaning of a bill of attainder in order to reach its faulty conclusion. "The bill of attainder clause has never been read to prevent Congress from defunding an organization or a corporation whose employees engage in criminal conduct," Von Spakovsky writes.
Conveniently, the CRS seems to ignore ACORN's criminal conduct and overlook substantial evidence that the organization has engaged in conspiracy, mortgage fraud, bank fraud, tax fraud, voter fraud and more. "It is completely rational -- and not legally punitive -- for the government to decide that it does not want to do business with an organization so fraught with potential malfeasance," argues von Spakovsky.
Other Heritage work of note
- "Never before has Congress forced Americans to buy a private good or service," writes Heritage health care expert Bob Moffit. This is primarily because the Constitution does not grant Congress the power to do so in Article 1, Section 8. Nonetheless, President Obama has proposed an individual mandate that would require all people to purchase "acceptable" health insurance. These mandates, which lack explicit sanction in the Constitution, would carry heavy penalties for noncompliance and would be "an unacceptable violation of personal liberty."
- President Obama's oft-repeated slogan of "change" is little more than "a way to make a very old philosophy sound new and failed policies of the past seem fresh and exciting," writes Heritage Vice President Kim Holmes. This became quite apparent during the President's address to the U.N. General Assembly, when he called for global disarmament, arms control agreements and "engagement" -- policies that have been tried and failed. This failure, Holmes writes, arises because we are dealing with countries -- such as Iran and North Korea -- whose governments are not "ripe for negotiations."
- CIA director Leon Panetta has announced that he will use agency funds to defend agents facing legal threats from the Justice Department for their interrogation techniques. "Panetta's decision is not only legal, it's correct from a moral, public policy and national security point of view," write Heritage legal experts Ed Meese, the former Attorney General, and Hans von Spakovsky. The law authorizing the CIA clearly grants the director this power, they write, "and there is no question it's in the public interest to do so."
- President Obama's recent decision to scrap plans for missile defense in Europe should concern all Americans, as it gravely affects their security, writes Heritage national security expert Mackenzie Eaglen. Writing for AmericanMaggie.com, a conservative women's website, Eaglen questions how so many women are apathetic towards missile defense. "The threat from ballistic missile attack is real," she writes. "So is the possibility that such missiles could be armed with chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons," placing all of our families and communities in danger. Learn more about missile defense and how it is vital to our national security.
In other news
- This week marks the 60th year of brutal rule by China's Communist Party. Although China has to a limited extent adopted Western economic practices, its government remains deeply authoritarian and repressive.
- President Obama visited Copenhagen to support Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Olympics. Chicago was eliminated from contention in the first round of voting by the International Olympic Committee.
- Filmmaker Michael Moore, who has made millions from his radical left-wing films, is inexplicably claiming that capitalism has done nothing for him. He argues that capitalism and socialism are outdated economic systems and we would be better off coming up with something new. What that something new is, he doesn't say.
- Congress is boosting spending on its own operations, even as ordinary Americans are tightening their belts during the recession and preparing for looming tax hikes. Spending for the legislative branch is set to rise 5.8 percent, bringing Congress' budget at $4.7 billion.
- The Dallas Morning News reports on judicial activism in Texas: "a judge ruled Thursday that two men married in another state can divorce here and that the state's ban on gay marriage violates the U.S. Constitution."
Coming up at Heritage
To attend these or any other events at Heritage please RSVP at Heritage's website. Or you can view these events live online. All times are Eastern.
- On Tuesday, October 6 at noon, Villanova Professor Colleen Sheehan discusses her new book on James Madison and the importance of self-government.
- On Thursday, October 8 at noon, a panel of experts discusses the threat of judicial activism.
Amanda Reinecker is a writer for MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation. Nathaniel Ward, the Editor of MyHeritage.org, contributed to this report.
