Is Caroline Kennedy the Best Choice for U.S. Ambassador to Japan?

President Obama recently announced the appointment of a completely unqualified Caroline Kennedy as U.S. ambassador to Japan. This is a mistake. If there ever was a time to have an experienced ambassador with solid credentials, it is now. The increasingly important Japanese market, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which is the largest free-trade agreement in history, challenges posed by China, and a dangerous North Korea are a few of the issues Ms. Kennedy would face. Just as the U.S.-led effort to create the multilateral TPP is gaining traction, which would open Asia for U.S. exports and create millions of jobs, U.S. union autoworkers have started delivering to Washington petitions demanding trade concessions. This on the very day that Japan formally announced it will join the... Read More

We Ignore Japan at Our Peril

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the deepening rift between the United States and Japan, and the folly of appointing a completely unqualified Caroline Kennedy as the U.S. ambassador to Japan. If there ever was a time to have an experienced ambassador with solid credentials, it is now. Just as the U.S.-led effort to create the multi-lateral Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) — the largest free-trade agreement in history — is gaining traction, which would open Asia for U.S. exports and create millions of jobs, U.S. union autoworkers have started delivering to Washington petitions demanding trade concessions. This on the very day that Japan formally announced it will join the TPP initiative, which would cover 40 percent of the global economy. Writing for The Wall Street Journal, William... Read More

Time to Disable Social Security Disability Insurance

The Academy Awards are presented to the best acting performances of the year. A very select group has claimed this award. But millions of people receive acting awards each day pretending that they are disabled and can no longer work. These people don’t get a little statuette, but they can earn $1,111 per month and $300,000 over the course of a lifetime from Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). In addition, after a 24-month waiting period, SSDI beneficiaries qualify for Medicare benefits. The Heritage Foundation’s Foundry newsletter reported that the Social Security Administration (SSA) distributed $175 billion in disability benefits to about 15 million recipients in 2011. The report noted that about 15 percent, or $21 billion, of those benefits are improperly awarded... Read More

Disability Insurance Fraud Skyrocketing

The Academy Awards are presented to the best acting performances of the year. A very select group has claimed this award. But millions of people receive acting awards each day pretending that they are disabled and can no longer work. These people don’t get a little statuette, but they can earn $1,111 per month and $300,000 over the course of a lifetime from Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). In addition, after a 24-month waiting period, SSDI beneficiaries qualify for Medicare benefits. The Heritage Foundation’s Foundry newsletter reported that the Social Security Administration (SSA) distributed $175 billion in disability benefits to about 15 million recipients in 2011. The report noted that about 15 percent, or $21 billion, of those benefits are improperly awarded... Read More

Detroit Really Needs Another Henry Ford

Every American should be sickened by the news that Detroit is bankrupt. What was once the envy of the world for its pioneering automobile industry has become a showcase of empty buildings, abandoned neighborhoods, and high crime. What went wrong? In one word: unions. At the start of the 20th century, Henry Ford recognized that innovation and a productive work force was a winning combination. According to Ford Motor Co.’s own overview: “Early on, Ford had shocked his business and industrial contemporaries by creating the $5 workday, and then he instituted programs to teach his employees how to spend their new high wages responsibly, cut an hour off the standard workday and provided on-the-job educational facilities. He also insisted on stringently high standards of cleanliness... Read More

Could Henry Ford Have Saved Detroit?

Every American should be sickened by the news that Detroit is bankrupt. What was once the envy of the world for its pioneering automobile industry has become an also-ran on the world stage. What went wrong? In one word: unions. At the start of the 20th century, Henry Ford recognized that innovation and a productive work force was a winning combination. According to Ford Motor Co.’s own overview: “Early on, Ford had shocked his business and industrial contemporaries by creating the $5 workday, and then he instituted programs to teach his employees how to spend their new high wages responsibly, cut an hour off the standard workday and provided on-the-job educational facilities. He also insisted on stringently high standards of cleanliness and safety, especially for the time,... Read More

Economic Fiction

Suppose you sat down at a blackjack table and were dealt the ace and jack of spades. You turn over the cards and proclaim that you’ve got blackjack. But the dealer announces that from now on, the winning hand is 30, and you’ve lost. You’d be mighty confused. So imagine how confusing it is that the gross domestic product (GDP) — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States — is running at an annual growth rate of 1.8 percent, but suddenly rises to 3 percent at the end of July, with no improvement in the economy. How does that slight of hand occur? The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) simply recalculates the GDP and announces that it officially grew 3 percent due to a few additions to the statistics, ignoring the standard that... Read More

Increase Jobs by Reducing Regulations

When companies must spend money to comply with an ever-increasing flood of federal regulations, they need to make cuts in other areas. This usually means holding off on job creation or even cutting their existing work force and employee hours. What does it cost American businesses to comply with federal regulations? The Competitive Enterprise Institute puts the figure at $1.8 trillion a year — more than half what it costs to run the federal government. Government agencies spend $61 billion per year just to administer and enforce federal regulations — a 50 percent increase in the last decade. Our government has added more than 80,000 regulations in the last 20 years — 3,708 in the last year alone. This equates to a new rule being enacted every 2½ hours. In a press conference on June 29,... Read More

The Cost of Permanent Patients

The United States currently has an estimated 11 million immigrants who entered this country illegally. According to the National Research Council, the migration of these individuals into the United States costs American taxpayers $346 billion annually. Now we are starting to get a feel for the costs being absorbed by one sector — the U.S. healthcare system — to treat this population. And the cost is staggering. The Center for Immigration Studies estimates that the current cost of treating uninsured immigrants who entered this country illegally at all levels of government to be $4.3 billion a year, primarily at emergency rooms and free clinics. This doesn’t take into account the billions being absorbed by in-patient care delivered by hospitals. Who is picking up these costs? Every... Read More

Congress Is Full of Hot Air

There are 26 million unemployed and underemployed Americans, and we’ve just suffered the worst terrorist strike in this country since 9/11. So our Congress has snapped into action by concentrating on critical initiatives to push our nation forward. Let’s begin with the House moving to reauthorize the Federal Helium Program. That’s right. America needs to marshal its forces to keep blimps in the sky with the production of helium. Without blimps, how do we get those great overhead shots of football games? At least all the people sitting at home without jobs will have something to keep them occupied. So as we tackle flawed technology of the 19th century, we also are spending $5 billion on all-electric vehicles, the flawed technology of the 21st century. They don’t work... Read More