Get Ready For An ObamaCare Tax Onslaught

by Grace-Marie Turner. The third wave of ObamaCare taxes began on January 1, the latest blitz before the tsunami of changes from the health overhaul law hit in 2014.  These new and higher taxes are being levied to partially pay for ObamaCare’s massive new subsidies for private health insurance and expansion of Medicaid. The most controversial of    ... MORE

Thomas DiLorenzo: The Rationally Misinformed Voter

A populace designed to serve.    In the sub-discipline of economics known as public choice, an important concept is the theory of "rational ignorance." First articulated by political scientist Anthony Downs in the 1950s, and expanded upon by economist Gordon Tullock and others, the theory of rational ignorance holds that it is perfectly rational for   ... MORE

VIDEO: Thomas Sowell - The Future Of Social Security

David Keene: The AR-15: The Gun Liberals Love To Hate

See: Eye-opening Feinstein wants to ban guns video. Politician after politician have joined the television talking heads in calling for a new “assault weapons ban” patterned after the ten-year Clinton ban that was allowed to lapse in 2004 after Justice Department and private studies concluded it had no impact whatsoever on murder and violent     ... MORE

Wall Street Journal: Crony Capitalist Blowout

A tax increase for everyone but the favored few.     In praising Congress's huge new tax increase, President Obama said Tuesday that "millionaires and billionaires" will finally "pay their fair share." That is, unless you are a Nascar track owner, a wind-energy company or the owners of StarKist Tuna, among many others who managed to   ... MORE

VIDEO: What Do Prices "Know" That You Don't?

Ed Krayewski: What You Need To Know About John Kerry

Don't let his reputation as a peacenik fool you.    On Dec. 21, President Obama nominated Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. The move was widely expected after Susan Rice, the only other prominent candidate, dropped out of consideration when the Obama administration’s response to a terror attack on   ... MORE

FBI: More People Killed With Hammers, Clubs Than Rifles

by Awr Hawkins.       According to the FBI annual crime statistics, the number of murders committed annually with hammers and clubs far outnumbers the number of murders committed with a rifle. This is an interesting fact, particularly amid the Democrats' feverish push to ban many different rifles, ostensibly to keep us safe of course.      ... MORE

Jackee Coe: Arizona Police State Is A Danger To Drivers

4,371 arrested in a month; more than 30,000 citations.  Nearly 4,400 people statewide were arrested on suspicion of DUI between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve by officers participating in regional saturation enforcements, according to the Arizona Governor’s Office of Highway Safety. Officers arrested 4,371 people between Nov. 24  ... MORE

Washington Times: Fracking Flick Channels Science Fiction

An attempt to explode the natural gas revolution.  If you don’t have the facts on your side, make some up. That’s Hollywood’s typical scheme for pushing its left-wing views on American audiences. Tinseltown’s “Promised Land” puts a heavy thumb on the scale in favor of Big Green in its battle to vanquish the natural-gas industry in the  ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Innovations In Fund Raising

John Stossel: No Regulation? No Problem

Laissez-faire, anyone?   In the short time since President Obama was re-elected, government has issued hundreds of new regulations. The bureaucrats never stop. There are now more than 170,000 pages of federal regulations. President Obama wants still more rules. Cheering on increased financial regulation, he said, "We've got to keep moving forward." ... MORE

Big Brother? License Plate Reader Device Sparks Debate

by Lee Davidson.    Like the fictional "Big Brother" who was always watching, new machines now give police a growing ability to record license plate numbers of vehicles almost anywhere — at crime scenes, on freeways or in parking lots. So a legislative debate has begun about controlling how such data may be used, and how long it may be.   ... MORE

VIDEO: Nullification Movie Trailer:


 "The States Can Nullify Obamacare!"

Jon N. Hall: A Currency As Good As Gold

The custodians of our currency are abusing it.    The nifty thing about a gold-backed currency is: they aren't making any more gold. The alchemists have tried to make the stuff, but have failed. Of course, a currency can be backed by other precious metals, like silver. But the supply of those other metals isn't getting any bigger either.     ... MORE

Jacob Sullum: Plead Guilty Or Go To Prison For Life

The injustice of mandatory minimums. Chris Williams, a Montana medical marijuana grower, faces at least five years in federal prison when he is sentenced on February 1. The penalty seems unduly severe, especially because his business openly supplied marijuana to patients who were allowed to use it under state law. Yet five years is a     ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: Happy New Year?

Not so fast.     The beginning of a new year is often a time to look forward and look back. The way the future looks, I prefer to look back — and depend on my advanced age to spare me from having to deal with too much of the future. If there are any awards to be given to anyone for what they did in 2012, one of those rewards should be for prophecy,   ... MORE

Walter E. Williams: Why the 2nd Amendment

Tyrants insist on a defenseless public.   Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., shootings, said: "The British are not coming. ... We don't need all these guns to kill people." Lewis' vision, shared by many, represents a gross ignorance of why the framers of the Constitution gave us the Second Amendment. How about a few  ... MORE

VIDEO: Milton Friedman - Pinochet And Chile

Ira Stoll: A Tax Cuts Mystery

Evidence of out-of-control government spending. The chief of detectives shoved his hands into the pockets of his trenchcoat and tugged at the brim of his fedora. “We’ve got a murder on our hands, gentlemen.” Aw man, on New Year’s Eve? Who’s the stiff?” asked the sidekick character. (One thing about detective stories, starting  ... MORE

Jacob Sullum: The 5 Best Drug Scares Of 2012

Nutrients for irrational fears.       Drug control policies, like gun control policies, tend to be driven by irrational fears rather than a calm assessment of the facts. When Congress banned marijuana back in 1937, the few legislators who had heard of the plant knew it as the "killer weed" supposedly responsible for horrifying homicides. Several years   ... MORE

VIDEO: Diane Feinstein Wants To Ban All Guns


On a crusade since 1995, California senator uses Sandy Hook as opportunity.

$1 In Spending Cuts For Every $41 In Tax Increases

Obama pushes GOP off fiscal cliff. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the last-minute fiscal cliff deal reached by congressional leaders and President Barack Obama cuts only $15 billion in spending while increasing tax revenues by $620 billion—a 41:1 ratio of tax increases to spending cuts. When Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W.  ... MORE

Judicial Watch Names Ten Most Corrupt Politicians Of 2012

Obama wins another election.     Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released its 2012 list of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians.” The list includes: Attorney General Eric Holder,  Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL), President Barack Obama, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) ... MORE

Katie Kieffer: 12 Liberal Pledges For The New Year

Conquering one form of mental illness. Here are twelve comical but true resolutions that every liberal should make for 2013: 1.) Resolve to spend time with gun-owners. I have a liberal friend who says she would rather be in the same room as a cobra snake than a gun, even an unloaded gun. Guns really, really scare her. But guns don’t kill.   ... MORE

Tom Knighton: Welcome To The Police State

No probable cause necessary. Police state might be a tad bit strong.  Police city might be more appropriate.  However, it’s still a pretty scary thing to watch. Paragould, Arkansas Mayor Mike Gaskill and Police Chief Todd Stovall offered up a “solution” for the towns crime problem.  That solution?  Well, it looks like something out of a dystopian novel:  ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - God Or No God?

William Dunkelberg: Why Raising Minimum Wage Kills Jobs

The minimum wage is a major anti-jobs policy.  Ten states have announced an increase in their minimum wage effective January 1, mostly because their legislation requires an adjustment to the Consumer Price Index inflation measure.  Some political jurisdictions take it further, San Francisco has a minimum over $10 per hour and the state of     ... MORE

John Fund: Let's Be Gone With The Wind

Efficient only as a bird killer.    President Obama likes to talk about making sure “the biggest corporations pay their fair share.” Treasury secretary Tim Geithner calls for tax reform to close loopholes and subsidies. Budget hawks say federal spending must be curbed. Congress and federal environmental regulators claim they are doing      ... MORE

VIDEO: Nanny of the Year For 2012


Busting Bikinis and the Cop Who Wants to Fine Cursing!

Stranded Sandy Victims Tangled In FEMA Red Tape

by Joe Schoffstall.  Nearly two months after homes in Staten Island, NY were devastated by Hurricane Sandy, residents say they’re still struggling with red tape as they try to get the government to help. FEMA “really hasn’t done much, if anything, and they’re making people go through a whole bunch of bureaucratic tape,” one resident told MRCTV.   ... MORE

What's Wrong With The Surveillance State?

by Michael S. Rozeff.   Do you know what the NSA is? It’s the National Security Agency. The NSA has collected an estimated 15 to 20 trillion communications involving Americans. Government spying on Americans and surveillance of Americans are rapidly increasing. The government has forced telecommunications companies to participate. This is    ... MORE

Washington Times: Light Bulb Ban On The Horizon

Future dims for survival of cheap, reliable illumination.    The free market operates by offering incentives to consumers to change their behavior. Cutting prices, advertising and developing new products redirect the public’s impulses in a natural, painless way. The government, on the other hand, has no passion or patience for this sort of thing.      ... MORE

Ron Paul: "We Have Passed The Point Of No Return"

Skip to 5:45 of the video.      In a little under three minutes, Ron Paul explains to a somewhat nonplussed CNBC anchor just how ridiculous the charade that is occurring in D.C. actually is. This succinct spin-free clip should be required viewing for each and every asset-manager, talking-head, propagandist, and mom-and-pop who are viewing the last-minute    ... MORE

VIDEO: Murray Rothbard - Free Speech

Critics Slam Feinstein's "Assault Weapons" Ban & Registry

by Alex Newman.    Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California has stirred up a hornets' nest with her latest proposal to ban so-called “assault weapons” and standard capacity magazines while creating a federal registry of gun owners, complete with pictures and fingerprints. Analysts say supporting the measure would be “political suicide” for    ... MORE

Obama Orders Pay Raises For Congress And Fed Employees

Daniel Halper on Obama's latest executive order.    President Barack Obama issued an executive order to end the pay freeze on federal employees, in effect giving some federal workers a raise. One federal worker now to receive a pay increase is Vice President Joe Biden. According to disclosure forms, Biden made a cool $225,521 last year.      ... MORE

VIDEO: The Truth Behind the 2013 NDAA- Part 1


The Feinstein/Lee Amendment

Bad Forecast For California Taxpayers & Wealth Producers

by Steven Greenhut.  California’s Democratic leaders are giddy about the future now that they have gained everything they wanted in the last election—voter-approved tax increases and a two-thirds supermajority in both houses of the Legislature, thus rendering Republicans little more than an annoying irrelevancy that can no longer block tax hikes. ... MORE

Assault Rifles, Ammo Flying Off Shelves After Newtown

Citizens race to beat the ban.   Gun enthusiasts have been stocking up in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., elementary school massacre – flocking to gun shows to get their hands on parts and weapons out of fear that lawmakers will take a harder stance on gun control in the coming year. The phones at gun shops across the country have been ringing off     ... MORE