Daily Digest

Aug. 4, 2015

THE FOUNDATION

“The instrument by which [the government] must act are either the AUTHORITY of the laws or FORCE. If the first be destroyed, the last must be substituted; and where this becomes the ordinary instrument of government there is an end to liberty!” —Alexander Hamilton, Tully, No. 3, 1794

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Bill to Defund Planned Parenthood Dies in Senate

The Senate’s vote to defund Planned Parenthood seemed to be more about political optics than actually casting votes for the right thing. A bill that would have halted $500 million in annual federal funds from going to Planned Parenthood died when a procedural vote that required 60 votes fell short by seven. This raises questions: How serious are the Senate Republicans in protecting the lives of the unborn? Some GOP senators see this vote as testing the waters, possibly for a political cage fight come fall if the GOP gets enough backbone to attach a PP defunding measure to a spending bill and risk another government shutdown. Commentators like Leon H. Wolf see this vote as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell cowing to the slightest political pressure. By allowing the bill cosponsored by 45 Republicans to die on a procedure vote, McConnell allowed the status quo to remain and a handful of lawmakers were able to vote in a way that would please their constituencies. Meanwhile, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal canceled the contract between Planned Parenthood and Louisiana. Yes, changing the nation’s policy takes time — and the Center for Medical Progress has many more videos to prompt debate — but when the time comes for political courage, will McConnell’s Senate rise to the occasion?

CORRECTION: In Monday’s Digest we inadvertently posted unedited notes in a Hook, rather than the finished analysis. The corrected content is here: Allen West: Navy to Prosecute White.

Bad Leadership Sours DHS Immigration Program

At the beginning of July, the Obama administration started its Priority Enforcement Program, a new approach to how the administration enforces the immigration laws, but it’s soured by DHS’s past immigration enforcement track record. It’s a failure in leadership: Local law enforcement and even groups that would have supported Obama’s immigration policies don’t trust his new enforcement effort. The supervising attorney for the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Angie Junck, told The Washington Post, “We see this as DHS kind of rebranding to rebuild the trust they lost with a lot of local law enforcement agencies. We are very concerned that it will repeat the mistakes of the past.” Does anybody gladly work with Obama on anything any more? He’s lost so much trust. No wonder so many cities decided to go it alone and declare themselves sanctuary cities. Home rule is better than rule from a capricious federal government that is rewriting immigration law on the fly by “prioritizing” certain types of deportations. The Obama administration has exacerbated the problems with immigration by destroying the cooperation and trust between levels of government.

Seattle CEO Experiences Fallout of $70K Minimum Wage

A Seattle CEO is learning firsthand the predictable outcomes that accompany minimum wage hikes. Dan Price, who heads Gravity Payments, a credit card processing firm, became an instant celebrity when he announced earlier this year that none of his 120 employees would earn less than $70,000 a year. In fact, he slashed his own salary of $1 million down to $70,000 to level the playing field. It was a kindhearted move, to be sure, but the ensuing months demonstrated the reality that such a minimum wage has far-reaching repercussions. According to former Gravity Financial Manager Maisey McMaster, Price “gave raises to people who have the least skills and are the least equipped to do the job, and the ones who were taking on the most didn’t get much of a bump.” The result? Two prominent-turned-disgruntled employees, including McMaster, called it quits. The other one, Grant Moran, intoned a similar frustration: “Now the people who were just clocking in and out were making the same as me. It shackles high performers to less motivated team members.” On top of that, The New York Times reports, “[A] few customers, dismayed by what they viewed as a political statement, withdrew their business. Others, anticipating a fee increase — despite repeated assurances to the contrary — also left.” And while Gravity Payments won the hearts of other business owners, “those accounts will not start paying off for at least another year,” the Times added. “To handle the flood, [Price] has already had to hire a dozen additional employees — now at a significantly higher cost — and is struggling to figure out whether more are needed without knowing for certain how long the bonanza will last.”

But the drama doesn’t end there. Gravity Payments co-founder Lucas Price, the brother of Dan, is suing the company, which is adding substantial legal costs. Hot Air’s Jazz Shaw put it best: “I’m sure Mr. Price is a very nice man and he clearly cares about people in general. But his move to push his generous nature into his business model is returning precisely the sort of results which the free market predicts.” The lesson here? Good intentions don’t always make for good policy.

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FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS

Obama’s Clean Power Plan Is Costly Political Theater

By Paul Albaugh

On Monday, Barack Obama announced new rules for his long-dreaded Clean Power Plan. This past spring, we warned that Obama’s agenda to combat global warming would be finalized during the hottest days of summer. As with almost every other agenda under Obama, it’s even worse than expected — and all to prevent warming of 0.01 degrees Celsius.

Winston Churchill once said, “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy. Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” And make no mistake: Obama’s plan has little or nothing to do with climate and everything to do with his social justice worldview, in which he wants to handicap the U.S. ostensibly to the benefit of the rest of the world.

Obama was originally set to unveil his new rules outside of the White House. However, due to the sweltering heat, he chose to move the announcement inside. Naturally, Leftmedia talkingheads couldn’t pass on the opportunity to blubber that “Mother Nature … was making his point for him.” But newsflash: It’s always hot in August. Clearly, the central planners were aiming for a bit of theatrics.

As for the details, according to The Wall Street Journal, the new rule “would require a 32% cut in power-plant carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 from 2005 levels, an increase from the 30% target proposed last year.” According to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, the estimated annual cost by 2030 will be $8.4 billion. But keep in mind that government estimates are always low.

The new regulations will require states to create a plan to reduce power-plant emissions in order to reach the nationwide carbon reduction target. The state compliance plans are supposed to be completed by 2018, and states should reach their first targets for reduction by 2022. If a state doesn’t comply, then it will be forced by the EPA to adopt a federal plan.

The Journal further notes, “The final rule calls for the nation to get 28% of its electricity from renewable resources by 2030, versus roughly 13% last year. Industry experts say cutting carbon emissions 32% by 2030 will require billions of dollars in investments for new transmission lines that accommodate more solar and wind power and new pipelines to feed natural-gas-fired power plants, as coal becomes less important as a fuel.”

However, new pipelines for natural gas won’t be necessary. Obama has called natural gas a “bridge fuel” and has hailed its use as a way for the nation to move away from coal in the quest toward renewable energy. But the final version of Obama’s plan does not increase the use of natural gas; it maintains current levels. So he’s slamming the door shut on coal, and, while he’s at it, stopping the expansion of the use of natural gas. Obama’s leaving no room for more jobs to be created in the private sector.

But hey, since there will be new regulations to enforce, the EPA will need more manpower. Indeed, Obama’s EPA announced that it will hire an additional 800 new regulators. Obviously, 15,000 EPA workers aren’t enough to enforce the proposed regulations. It just shows how much Obama cares about creating jobs, right? Washington jobs, that is, which by the way will assist in putting private sector companies out of business for not complying with EPA demands. This is not quite what we would call the American Dream.

Neither is the cost of complying with the EPA’s proposal. Obama once admitted that, under his plan, energy prices would necessarily skyrocket. A study by the Energy Information Administration confirms that’s exactly what’s happening. If Obama’s plan is implemented, electricity prices will rise on average 4%, though some higher estimates predict increases of 12%-17%. Regardless, Americans will pay more, which doesn’t bode well for those struggling to make ends meet.

Yet the issue of climate change is more important to Obama than those struggling today. He wants it to be part of his legacy of fundamentally transforming America. Ahead of the climate change summit in Paris later this year, he wants to be seen as leading the way on combating emissions. He wants to be seen as the leader who saved the planet from capitalism. In addition, as with all issues, he wants environmental stewardship to be a divisive political game.

Why is it that liberal elites in the Democratic Party are portrayed as the authorities on all things environment? Why is it that conservatives and members of the Republican Party are portrayed as anti-science deniers, as haters of the environment, as if we delight in destroying the planet?

The short answer is that it gives an additional platform for Democrats. It provides an agenda for more control over how we live our lives. It becomes a wedge issue to drive votes in elections. And it pits state sovereignty against federal authority.

Fortunately, at least for now, many state governments have resisted the EPA power plan and Obama’s climate change agenda. Many state governments have insisted they will not comply, as it will ruin their economies. The issue will likely make it to the courts, and we hope the Supreme Court will rebuke the EPA once again, as it did in Michigan v. EPA. Liberty depends on reigning in the EPA, not emissions.

TODAY AT PATRIOTPOST.US

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Joe Bastardi: All This for .01 Degrees Celsius?
Thomas Sowell: The Trump Card
Arnold Ahlert: Arrogant, Incompetent, Criminal Government
Dennis Prager: It’s a Lion
Michael Barone: Obama Bets Nuclear Deal Will Change Iran’s Regime; Few Agree
Stephen Moore: Five Myths About Capital Gains Taxes

For more, visit Right Opinion.

TOP HEADLINES

OPINION IN BRIEF

Thomas Sowell: “Many Republican voters are so disgusted with their party, especially over its repeated betrayals of them, and of the country, especially when it comes to immigration, that they are immediately attracted to anyone who voices the outrage they feel. Donald Trump has turned this opening phase of the 2016 primaries into The Donald Trump Show. All of this might be very entertaining, if this were not a crucial juncture in the history of the country and of the world. But, while all this political theater is going on, the world’s leading promoter of international terrorism — Iran — has gotten a ‘deal’ that all but guarantees that they will have nuclear bombs and, not just incidentally, intercontinental missiles to deliver them. … We can only hope that, somewhere among the many Republican candidates, there is someone who can, as president, make the hard decisions and take the hard steps required to undo the utter disaster that looms ahead, as a result of Barack Obama’s feckless foreign policies. If ever there was a time to carefully sift through all the aspiring Republican candidates, in hopes of finding just one who might be up to the superhuman task ahead, in order to head off a nuclear catastrophe, this is surely the time to look for a solid, wise and steadfast leader. A shoot-from-the-hip, bombastic show-off is the last thing we need or can afford.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “Our practical choice is not between a tax-cut deficit and a budgetary surplus. It is between two kinds of deficits: a chronic deficit of inertia, as the unwanted result of inadequate revenues and a restricted economy; or a temporary deficit of transition, resulting from a tax cut designed to boost the economy, increase tax revenues, and achieve … a budget surplus.” —John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)

Upright: “[A] deep-rooted culture of incompetence and corruption has made it virtually impossible for government to function fairly and efficiently. And because most government employees are shielded by layers of protection, they couldn’t care less. Never before in the history of this nation has there been a greater divide between a self-serving federal leviathan and millions of Americans… ‘Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem,’ Ronald Reagan reminded us during his inaugural address in 1981. Nothing’s changed since then, with one exception: It’s gotten far worse.” —Arnold Ahlert

Demo-gogues: “We only get one home. We only get one planet. There is no plan B. I don’t want my grandkids to not be able to swim in Hawaii, or not to be able to climb a mountain and see a glacier, because we didn’t do something about it.” —Barack Obama

Non Compos Mentis: “The Koran teaches persecution is worse than slaughter. Then it says, retaliation is prescribed in matters of the slain. Retaliation is a prescription from God to calm the breaths of those whose children have been slain. So if the federal government will not intercede in [the] affairs [of black Americans], then we must rise up and kill those who kill us. Stalk them and kill them and let them feel the pain of death that we are feeling.” —Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan

The BIG lie: “This was a three-year effort by this fake group [Center for Medical Progress] to try to entrap doctors, and then splice and edit videos to make it look like they were doing something wrong, which they were not. … I think it’s really important to understand that [Congress' effort to defund Planned Parenthood] is about denying women access to health care in this country.” —Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards (Leave it to Ms. Richards to accuse CMP of splicing…)

And last… “Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer provoked world outrage for luring the popular Cecil the Lion off his African game preserve with a dead animal and then shooting him dead and beheading him. The entire world was horrified. It’s got ISIS seriously re-thinking their decision to take on white people.” —Argus Hamilton

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis!
Managing Editor Nate Jackson

Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm’s way in defense of Liberty, and for their families.

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