Nathaniel Ward » Free Speech

Tuesday Links: Paul Ryan’s Budget

Nathaniel Ward — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 03:38:22 +0000

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). Photo: Wikimedia/Gage Skidmore

Rep. Paul Ryan makes the case for his 2012 budget. My colleagues at Heritage give it two cheers, and Ross Douthat calls it the “triumph of policy” over politics.
E.J. Dionne warns that Ryan’s budget would mark the end of progressive government, which is actually a good thing.
A new report released by the New Organizing Institute both offers insights into e-mail advocacy and explains why careful testing is important.
Megan McArdle explains that the complexity of accounting practices means it’s perhaps futile to try to design a corporate tax without “loopholes” of any sort. “A corporate income tax,” she writes, “needs to start by calculating income, and as anyone who has ever looked at a corporate financial statement knows, that’s really complicated.”
Mark Hemingway points out the facts about who has received campaign donations post–Citizens United. We shouldn’t forget, though, that principle is a better way to make policy than a cui bono analysis.
Last but not least, Trent Hamm makes the case that your leisure time should not be spent idly. Leisure time, he writes, “can provide all the space you need to take on personal goals and get involved in things you might not otherwise enjoy.”

Friday Links: Paul Ryan on Health Care, Making Matthew 26:11 a Reality and Federalism

Nathaniel Ward — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 13:36:43 +0000

Rep. Paul Ryan has an important article in the New York Times making the case not only for repealing Obamacare but for replacing it. “It is not sufficient,” he argues, “for those of us in the opposition to await a reversal of political fortune months or years from now before we advance action on health care reform.” To build a system that puts patients first, not bureaucrats, he favors “attaching tax benefits to the individual rather than the job” and enabling state-based reforms like risk pools to manage pre-existing conditions.

The government seems determined to enforce Matthew 26:11. A new poverty metric would count as poor not those living in real destitution but those living in relative destitution.

In the Washington Post, Brian Frosh and Jamie Raskin argue that if progressives want to undo the effects of Citizens United—a bad idea, to be sure—they ought to turn to the states, which retain broad regulatory powers. (Full disclosure: Brian is a cousin.)

And last but not least, an amusing video of President George W. Bush wiping his hand on his predecessor:

Was Citizens United Really That Bad?

Nathaniel Ward — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:41:12 +0000

Reason’s Nick Gillespie makes the case that much of the Left’s reaction to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United is overstated.

Tuesday Links

Nathaniel Ward — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:16:18 +0000

President Obama has proposed a freeze on discretionary, non-entitlement, non-military, non-emergency federal spending. Yuval Levin says this is “a welcome tiny first step.” Dan Mitchell is more skeptical.

Newsweek says neoconservatism is alive and kicking.

CAP responds to Citizens United: “Indeed, with hundreds of billions of dollars of corporate profits at stake every time Congress begins a session, wealthy corporations would be foolish not to spend tens of billions of dollars every election cycle to make sure that their interests are protected.” Of course, it’s the fact that billions are at stake whenever Congress meets that’s the real problem. Ilya Somin, meanwhile, defends free speech rights.

And finally, Conan O’Brien stays classy in his final Tonight Show.