At Issue this week... Obama Presidency by Betsy McCaughey August 12, 2015 Book Review President Obama’s climate hubris Jeffrey (22) Limbaugh (18) Clinton, Hillary his week, President Obama is lawsuit challenging the plan. They’ve got of the aisle are against the plan, and for Morris (10) hailing his Clean Power Plan as a strong case. Although the EPA bases its good reasons. Napolitano (8) “the single most important step authority on the Clean Air Act of 1970, Obama’s EPA has tried several end Confederate Purge AmericaT has ever taken in the fight against nothing in that law authorizes the agency runs around Congress, creatively inter- Saunders (21) global climate change.” Obama is posing to do more than require plants to use the preting the 45-year-old Clean Air Act to Dear Mark Levy (19) as the environment’s savior, just as he did best available technology — like scrub- suit its agenda. But it hasn’t always gotten Debates in 2008, when he promised his presidency bers — to reduce emissions. Congress away with it. In a stinging U.S. Supreme Thomas (14) would mark “the moment when ... the rise never authorized the EPA to force states Court rebuke against the administration’s Disparate Impact of the oceans began to slow and our planet to close coal plants and move on to nu- restrictions on mercury emissions, Justice Williams (4) began to heal.” Seven years later, that mes- clear, or wind and solar. “The brute fact is Antonin Scalia wrote that “it is not ratio- Double Standard Elder (9) sianic legacy is in doubt. Obama’s Clean that the Obama administration nal, never mind ‘appropriate’ to impose Farah (3) Power Plan has never had legislative sup- billions of dollars in economic costs” Economy port, even when his own party controlled when the benefits are so uncertain. Lambro (2, 23) both houses of Congress. Now he’s trying Betsy The same could be said for the plan Hawkins, Hannah to impose it without Congress, an auda- McCaughey announced on Monday. Defenders of the Olasky (27) cious ploy his old Harvard law professor new regulation predict falling energy costs Immigration (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate Coulter (7) Laurence Tribe condemns as “burning the from renewable sources, but so far that is Thomas (6) Constitution.” pie in the sky speculation. Like the presi- Iran Deal failed to get climate legislation through dent’s prediction that the average family Barone (30) AS HIS presidency wanes, Obama is Congress. Yet the EPA is acting as though would save $2,500 because of Obamacare. Greenberg (5) desperately burnishing his eco-creden- it has the legislative authority anyway to Harsanyi (4) tials with environmental zealots like Pope re-engineer the nation’s electric generat- BUT LONG before the Supreme Court Limbaugh (29) Will (31) Francis and the leftists at the U.N. and in ing system,” says Tribe. “It does not.” weighs in on this new plan, presidential Jewish Americans the European Union. But here at home, politics is likely to determine its fate. An- Charen (6) his plan would be a disaster economically, DEFENDERS OF the president’s other example of how high the stakes are Killing Cecil which explains its failure in Congress. environmental agenda say he has to act in 2016. Lowry (18) Hillary Clinton is pledging to support the alone because the Congress is gridlocked. Prager (15) August 5, 2015 Saunders (15) plan, while Republicans vying for their That’s untrue. Lawmakers on both sides Media Bias party’s presidential nomination are vow- Bozell (24) ing to oppose it. The Clean Power Plan NEA will be a fiercely debated issue in coal- Schlafly (26) consuming swing states like Ohio, Ill. and Obama Presidency Pa. — where the race for the White House McCaughey (1) Tyrrell (27) is usually decided. Planned Parenthood Obama’s Environmental Protection Greenberg (25) Agency is imposing the Clean Power Plan Lowry (17) on all 50 states, requiring each state to Malkin (16) close down coal-burning electric plants, Will (17) and shift to other sources of electricity — Plot Against Nixon Buchanan (28) natural gas burning plants, nuclear plants, Political Parties solar and wind-power generators — in Barone (11) order to reduce carbon emissions by one Massie (24) third. Nationwide, about 40 percent of Politics electric power is produced by coal plants. Murchison (9) Forcing these utilities to close will burn Republicans Erickson (3) consumers with higher electric bills. It Trivia Bits will also send hundreds of thousands of Paquet (14) jobs a year up in smoke, as employers pay Trump, Donald more to operate their businesses, accord- Morris (13) ing to Heritage Foundation economists. Sowell (12) Towery (10) And for what? The purported benefit Turkey is to avoid an imperceptible 0.02 degree Bay (21) Celsius increase in global temperatures by Buchanan (20) the year 2100. That’s the official EPA esti- U.S. Presidency mate of the benefits of this Clean Air Plan. Shapiro (30) You must be kidding. Weidenfeld, George Krauthammer (12) That’s what as many as 25 governors are saying, and they are expected to file a 2 Conservative Chronicle ECONOMY: July 30, 2015 America’s faltering economy won’t grow under Clinton merica’s sluggish economy Gallup said 32 percent of the Ameri- still looms over our land like cans they surveyed told them that eco- a stationary dark cloud, show- nomic conditions were “poor,” while ingA no sign of moving away under the 57 percent said the economy is “getting Obama administration. worse.” Our nation’s second-quarter growth Meantime, in recent months there has rate, as measured by its gross domestic been in- creasing evidence of product, came in Americans cutting at a mediocre 2.3 Donald back on spending percent — bet- at stores and restau- ter than the first Lambro rants. three months of (c) 2015, United Media Services Spending cut- Former Florida governor Jeb Bush ing the wealthy “pay their fair share” in this year, when the backs in June, for has said that under his proposed poli- taxes. economy barely grew at a sickly 0.6 per- example, were broad-based and far more cies, the economy will be growing by But the IRS says they are doing that cent, but nothing to write home about. severe than projected. Building materi- four percent a year. already, because wealthy taxpayers pay als fell 1.3 percent, while online retail the lion’s share of all tax revenue. MANY ECONOMISTS were fore- businesses experienced a 0.4 percent HILLARY CLINTON hasn’t given Clinton talks of more investment in casting a stronger economic revival near- decline. us a clue about the level of economic research and rules to encourage share- er to three percent or more. But the econ- “It certainly is a case of ‘two steps growth she hopes to achieve. In fact, she holder activism, paid leave, paid sick omy was still being pulled down by the forward, one step back’ for the U.S. goes to great lengths to dodge the ques- days, paid child care, but paid by whom? economic undertow of anti-investment, economy,” economist Dan Greenhaus tion entirely. The government, taxpayers, employers? anti-growth, anti-job-creation policies. of BTIG said of last month’s weak retail Instead, she says the economy should She doesn’t offer much detail for her They include higher taxes on the sales. be measured by “how much incomes rise platonic agenda. economy, particularly investors, and the America’s economy grew only 2.4 for middle-class households, not an arbi- The U.S. economy, business expan- threat of more to come if Hillary Clin- percent last year, a growth rate that trary growth figure.” sion, new startups and job creation at ton is elected president. Plus increasing many economists would define as weak Voters may be surprised to learn that all income levels depend upon capital business regulation, from Wall Street to and underperforming. the frontrunner for the Democratic presi- investment. Tax it at higher rates, as she Main Street — from job-killing mini- It’s certainly performing significant- dential nomination thinks that the GDP proposes, and you get less of it. mum wage hikes to growing taxation on ly below the growth rate achieved in rate — the government’s broadest mea- The late Jack Kemp used to say that capital investment. the Reagan years of the 1980s and the surement of the U.S. economy’s growth you cannot have more employees with- None of this should come as a sur- post-capital gains tax cuts of the Clinton — is just an “arbitrary” number. out more employers. prise to most Americans in their daily years in the late 1990s. It is a disturbing sign that she doesn’t Clinton says she will raise taxes on in- lives. Consumer confidence fell in July Reagan had to deal with a severe re- know much about economics in general, vestment capital, impose sweeping new to its lowest level since September, said cession where the jobless rate rose to 10 and even less about what produces stron- regulations on the economy and vastly the U.S. Conference Board, a business percent. But in just the third and fourth ger economic growth and lifts wages. expand the size of government. research organization for our country’s years of his presidency, the economy If you listen closely to her speeches global companies. turned in fat quarterly growth rates of about this subject — about which it is THAT MEANS fewer businesses, The Gallup Poll this week announced 3.2 percent, 5.6 percent, 7.7 percent, 8.5 clear she knows nothing — you quickly fewer job opportunities, fewer work similar declines in its economic con- percent, 7.9 percent, 6.9 percent and 5.8 learn that she hasn’t a clue about how benefits, lower incomes and weaker eco- fidence surveys, saying that its index percent.