Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey stopped by our offices Monday, and along the way he had a question: Why won't President Obama go for a quick and relatively easy bipartisan victory by moving the trade deals with Colombia, Panama and South Korea through Congress? We'll get to our answer in a moment, but Mr. Toomey isn't the only one asking. Late last week an extraordinary collection of 19… Read more

In case you missed it, please see the article from The Hill detailing evidence from the Administration that it has granted more than 1,000 waivers from various portions of the Democrats’ health care law.  Of particular interest is that the title on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) website that describes those who have received the waivers -- “Helping Americans Keep the… Read more

For all the partisan fighting about the House Republican proposal to pay for repealing 1099, the GOP proposal is very similar to the one Democrats supported and approved last year. In last year's healthcare law, Democrats themselves proposed a system that offers subsidies to people for buying healthcare, and then allows overpaid subsidies to be recaptured based on how much a family's… Read more

Summary Some senior Democrats are claiming that Social Security does not contribute "one penny" to the federal deficit. That’s not true. The fact is, the federal government had to borrow $37 billion last year to finance Social Security, and will need to borrow more this year. The red ink is projected to total well over half a trillion dollars in the coming decade. President Barack Obama… Read more

WASHINGTON – Two of the central promises of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law are unlikely to be fulfilled, Medicare's independent economic expert told Congress on Wednesday. The landmark legislation probably won't hold costs down, and it won't let everybody keep their current health insurance if they like it, Chief Actuary Richard Foster told the House Budget… Read more

Much has been written about Bill Daley's selection as White House chief of staff, a position sometimes called "Chief Javelin Catcher" (a title whose accuracy one of us strongly affirms). Most agree that Mr. Daley is the perfect choice to help President Obama set a new tone for his presidency. He is a moderate, strongly rooted in Democratic principles and politics. Though he comes from the… Read more

Many parents have heard FICA Screams. Indignant children, holding in trembling hands their first paychecks, demand to know what FICA is and why it is feasting on their pay. FICA (the Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax) is government compassion, expressed numerically: It is the welfare state; it funds Social Security and Medicare. Sometimes it makes young people into… Read more

At last, the Obama administration has cut a deal with South Korea, paving the way for congressional approval of a long-stalled free-trade agreement with that crucial Asian ally. Now, what about Colombia and Panama? Alas, the administration's answer still appears to be "not yet." White House spokesman Robert Gibbs announced Friday that the president would not be submitting the Colombia or… Read more

WASHINGTON (AP) - The new health care law wasn't supposed to undercut employer plans that have provided most people in the U.S. with coverage for generations. But last week a leading manufacturer told workers their costs will jump partly because of the law. Also, a Democratic governor laid out a scheme for employers to get out of health care by shifting workers into taxpayer-subsidized… Read more

 Well, well. In the clearest evidence so far that ObamaCare is harmful in practice and an election-year liability, the Obama Administration has decided not to enforce some of the law's "consumer protections." At least when the results are politically embarrassing. Over the last several weeks the Health and Human Services Department has granted dozens of temporary waivers to certain… Read more