Phaedrus: Cato Live comments

Here we have the live comments of the Cato Institute. They link a lot of things, which should be interesting to counter Obama's outragious claims.

8:50

Cato Institute:

Welcome everyone, thank you for joining us. We'll begin in just a few moments.

8:57

Cato Institute:

As a reminder, Cato Executive Vice President David Boaz will join a special live broadcast of the John Stossel show on FOX Business Network at 11pm ET.

8:59

Cato Institute:

Our expert panel tonight will be Trade Policy Analyst Sallie James, Director of Health Policy Studies Michael Cannon, Director of Information Policy Studies Jim Harper, Director of Cato's Center for Educational Freedom Andrew J. Coulson, Senior Fellow Dan Mitchell, and Research Fellow in Defense and Homeland Security Studies Ben Friedman.

9:00

Cato Institute:

Feel free to submit comments and questions--we can't promise that we'll get to all of you, but we will do our best.

9:03	Ben Friedman: Here's the speech: http://nationaljournal.com/whitehouse/exclusive-obama-to-declare-the-rules-have-changed--20110125

9:06	Andrew Coulson: And I think folks will be put in mind of the movie Groundhog Day as they listen to it. The president repeats a number of discredited education ideas, alas.

9:08

[Comment From jayb ]

Didn't he promise to balance the budget as a senator?

9:09	Sallie James: @jayb: I think he's promised a lot of things over the years...

9:09

[Comment From SGT JC ]

Obama said "this year, ... we finish the job of bringing our troops out of Iraq. America’s commitment has been kept; the Iraq War is coming to an end." Mr. Friedman, does this even pass the laugh-test? And at what point will the left hold Obama accountable for unnecessarily keeping troops in danger.

9:10	Ben Friedman: Well plenty of people of people in the left are quite mad that we are still fighting two wars.

9:10	Ben Friedman: But they have nowhere else to go politically.

9:12	Sallie James: First standing o of the night.

9:13	Ben Friedman: Over under is 23.

9:13

[Comment From DanW ]

I remember hearing he will go through the budget "page by page, line by line" to cut out unnecessary programs several times

9:13	Cato Institute: @DanW We remember the exact same thing:http://www.cato.org/files/downsizing_alternate.html

9:14	Ben Friedman: It's a long budget. Could still be reading.

9:14

Jim Harper:

Of course, the president should address the Tucson shooting, and he’s done so appropriately. It was off-putting in the extreme to see people look for political repercussions in its immediate aftermath of that tragedy. For me, part of loving freedom is knowing that politics is not the only lens through which to look at life.

9:14	Michael F. Cannon: America is the only nation that thinks a little girl's dreams should be fulfilled? That's what sets us apart?

9:16	Sallie James: "new jobs and industries take root in this country, or somewhere else". Discredited, zero-sum thinking at its worst.

9:17

[Comment From Steve S ]

I suggest our Cato experts as the new Cabinet!

9:17

[Comment From Fabian ]

I don't understand why the Democrats applaud him. He's followed in the same footsteps as George Bush. Why don't they call him out on it?

9:17	Dan Mitchell: If jobs are the yardstick, Obama doesn't get a passing grade. Look at these two charts: http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2010/12/29/obamanomics-vs-reaganomics/ and http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2010/12/03/hows-that-stimulus-working-mr-president/.

9:18	Andrew Coulson: To win the future, we'll need to unleash in the field of education the same market freedoms and incentives that have driven progress in every other field for centuries.

9:18	Jim Harper: "Decades in the making" is the new "I inherited this problem from my predecessor."

9:18	Jim Harper: @Steve S - Thanks, but I would just shrink the Cabinet!

9:19	Sallie James: Good for Obama for pointing out that technology is transforming the way we live, work and do business. Shuttered factories are far more likely to be from a change in technology, or consumers' changing tastes, than from "jobs being shipped overseas."

9:19	Jim Harper: “Revolutions in technology” may have transformed the way we live, work, and do business---but not how we do governing. The transparency promises President Obama made at the outset of his administration have not borne fruit as genuine change.

9:20	Andrew Coulson: So why not encourage innovation in education, Mr. president, by encouraging states to adopt free market education policies?

9:20	Sallie James: More zero sum thinking regarding what China and India are doing. Their prosperity is not necessarily at the United States expense; more likely to be the opposite, in fact. Prosperity lifts all boats.

9:21	Sallie James: "the competition for jobs is real". Yet again with the zero-sum.

9:21	Michael F. Cannon: Health care tidbit: The first version of ObamaCare was introduced in Congress in June 2009. In July 2009, public opinion shifted against the plan. A majority or plurality of the American people has consistently opposed ObamaCare for the 19 months since.

9:21	Andrew Coulson: Right. So let's admit that a state-run school monopoly is an antiquated idea that lacked merit from the very beginning.

9:22

[Comment From Jeffersonian ]

Andrew, wouldn't America be better served by the elimination of the Dept. of Education?

9:22	Dan Mitchell: Why does he think making government bigger will turn America into a better place to do business?

9:22	Sallie James: "...to compete for the jobs and industries of our time. we need to out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the rest of the world". This competitiveness theme is misguided, and dangerous. Even Paul Krugman understood that (see: "Pop Internationalism", 1997, not his op-ed today!)

9:22	Andrew Coulson: That would be a good but modest start, Jeffersonian.

9:23	Jim Harper: Mr. President, the FCC recently decided that it knows how the Internet should run. If it gets its way, you won’t find your “next big industry” there…

9:23	Sallie James: Great plug for the free enterprise system, and innovation.

9:24

Andrew Coulson:

One problem, Mr. President: after Congress pushed through the National Defense Education Act in the wake of Sputnik… MATH SCORES WENT DOWN. I blogged about this embarrassing reality most recently here: http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/president-touts-historic-education-failure-again/ . Someone on the President’s staff needs to Google “NDEA failure.” He’s been getting this wrong for years.

9:24	Sallie James: And think of all those good jobs -- from manufacturing to retail -- that have been prevented from government regulations and interventions gumming up the works

9:24	Jim Harper: No Sputnik moment, please. No Manhattan Project. How 'bout a "bigger paycheck" moment via lower taxes?

9:24	Sallie James: The Lexington column in The Economist this week has a good analysis of why this "Sputnik" analogy is deeply flawed.

9:24	Ben Friedman: Who are the Russian ICBMs in this analogy? Sputnik moment apparently = difficulty? By the way our reaction to Sputnik was based on false fears that we were behind in space race, leading to phony missile gap concerns that helped elect JFK.

9:26	Sallie James: When he says "we" will fund, by the way, he really means "you"

9:26	Andrew Coulson: We're also telling them what kinds of light bulbs to sell. I don't remember seeing light bulbs mentioned as a federal power in the Constitution.

9:26	Jim Harper: A couple of years ago, I attended a conference in Silicon Valley on "green tech." Watching former innovators salivate over government subsidies inspired me to write, "Does Going Green Mean Going Red?" http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11452

9:26	Michael F. Cannon: The feds gave a loan to somebody to develop solar shingles. But that didn't create jobs or economic activity. If the government hadn't loaned that money, then someone else would have -- and probably to a more valuable enterprise.

9:27	Dan Mitchell: Why not eliminate subsidies rather than transfer them to another interest group?

9:27	Jim Harper: Yesterday's waste is subsidy, but tomorrow's waste is "investment"?

9:28	Dan Mitchell: How about those of us who don't want higher electricity bills because of government intervention?

9:28

Michael F. Cannon:

Is he talking about taxpayer dollars that the government gives to oil companies? Or is he talking about the money that the government doesn't collect from oil companies due to tax breaks? There ain't no such thing as a 'tax expenditure,' Mr. President. http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/there-aint-no-such-thing-as-a-tax-expenditure/

9:28

Andrew Coulson:

Mr. President, why don’t you start by doing what YOU can, and reverse your decision to kill the DC private school choice program that your own government’s research has shown to significantly raise graduation rates? If you really care about this issue, you could also encourage states to pass their own private school choice laws, since there’s ample research that parent-chosen, independent schools produce higher graduation rates: http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/on-dropouts-listen-to-obamas-favorite-economist/

9:29	Michael F. Cannon: We need a president who doesn't tell us how to teach our kids.

9:29	Sallie James: So why don't you let parents choose the best school for their kids, Mr President?

9:30	Andrew Coulson: So the message is parents are important, but we shouldn't make it easy for them to choose their own children's schools?

9:30

[Comment From Vivek R ]

Is the State of the Union even worth watching? Like Gene Healy said in his column this week, it's just a giant presidential pep rally.

9:30	Andrew Coulson: RttTop extorted states into toeing the administration’s ed policy line—such as getting them to sign on to homogenized national curriculum standards. And we all know that every 10-year-old is ready to tackle every subject at the same difficulty level, right? Right??? Oy.

9:30	Michael F. Cannon: When a taxpayer walks into Washington, DC, it should be a place of high expectations and high performance.

9:30	Cato Institute: @Vivek R--Make sure you join us on Facebook after Paul Ryan's response to watch live reaction from Gene Healy and Julian Sanchez.

9:31	Michael F. Cannon: Vivek: I'm looking forward to the day when people organize a boycott of SOTU.

9:31	Andrew Coulson: SOTU Barada Nikto, Mike?

9:31

Michael F. Cannon:

ObamaCare tidbit: President Obama signed ObamaCare into law on March 23, 2010. Within 9 months, a federal court struck down the law’s centerpiece – an individual mandate – as unconstitutional.http://www.vaag.com/PRESS_RELEASES/Cuccinelli/Health%20Care%20Memorandum%20Opinion.pdf. Within 10 months, a large bipartisan majority of the House of Representatives voted to repeal the entire law. http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2011/roll014.xml

9:31	Andrew Coulson: Aside from the special case of Washington, DC, our Constitution delegates no control over education to the U.S. Congress or the administration. Having sworn to uphold that Constitution, the President should not appropriate powers he does not legally possess.

9:32	Jim Harper: Right on, Andrew. I count 993 words on education in this segment of the speech. That's nearly 1,000 words on something for which the federal government has no responsibility.

9:32

Michael F. Cannon:

ObamaCare tidbit: Some 28 states – more than half of the states in the Union – are suing the federal government to strike down ObamaCare as unconstitutional. A favorable ruling is expected this week in the largest of those cases, where 26 states, the National Federation of Independent Business, and two private citizens are challenging the law.

9:32	Ben Friedman: So we should send teachers to Afghanistan!

9:33	Dan Mitchell: Let's treat parents with respect by letting them choose the schools that are best for their kids.

9:33	Andrew Coulson: Aaaargggg! We have way too many teachers already

9:33	Andrew Coulson: Public school employment has grown 10 times faster than enrollment for decades!

9:33	Sallie James: I thought kids were supposed to aspire to work in a homeless shelter? (see Obama's "commencement address" to the nation of 2010)

9:34	Andrew Coulson: Google some of those terms for the gory chart I put together.

9:34

Andrew Coulson:

Meaningless. According to the new book “Academically Adrift” nearly half of all college students gain _nothing_ in their first two years in terms of critical thinking, complex reasoning, or writing ability. Not surprisingly, economist Richard Vedder has also shown that states that throw more money at college students do not see an economic gain. This goal of packing colleges with more warm bodies is badly misguided.

9:35

[Comment From Elle ]

Where in the Constitution is the Federal Government given the authority to dictate anything about education?

9:35	Andrew Coulson: Neither the word education nor the word school appear anywhere in the Constitution

9:37

Jim Harper:

President Obama appears quite prepared to go along with the national ID program lying dormant in "E-Verify." When he says "enforce our laws" on immigration, he's talking about giving the federal government the last word on every new hire in the country. Republicans are with the program, too. Can we have more options, please?

9:37	Sallie James: I'm really pleased Obama is at least mentioning the importance of comprehensive immigration reform, after (sadly) largely ignoring it for his first two years in office. See Cato's work on immigration reform here: www.cato.org/immigration

9:37	Jim Harper: The only way out of the immigration problem is to align the law with our demand for labor and the desire of new entrants to work. (And, by golly, there is nothing wrong with that.) Dan Griswold is a great advocate on those issues.

9:37	Jim Harper: In case I was being obscure, legal immigration rates should rise.

9:38	Michael F. Cannon: When you heard that President Obama signed ObamaCare, did you think that within a year a federal court would strike it down, or that the House would vote overwhelmingly to repeal it? Neither did President Obama.

9:38

[Comment From Jeff ]

Why does Washington never talk about changing bad immigration laws, as if enforcing bad laws is somehow just?

9:39	Dan Mitchell: Great, more "stimulus"

9:39	Andrew Coulson: Did he say "pick projects" or "pick pockets"? I wasn't sure...

9:39	Ben Friedman: Instead joking about pat-downs at airports, how about telling TSA to stop?

9:40	Dan Mitchell: Big Government "stimulus" didn't work for Hoover and Roosevelt in the 1930s. It didn't work for Japan in the 1990s. It didn't work for Bush in 2008, and it didn't work for Obama in 2009. Why would anyone think it will work this year?

9:40	Jim Harper: I'm waiting for something on transparency. For me, it's the dog that isn't barking.

9:40	Sallie James: "We will ...pick projects based on what's best for the economy, not politicians." Given the "we" he refers to are, in fact, politicians, I'm not sure how that would work.

9:40	Michael F. Cannon: As my colleague Tim Lee has noted, I don't recall the anti-amnesty crowd complaining about speeders getting amnesty when the feds lifted the speed limit from 55mph.

9:40	Andrew Coulson: Uh... the market has been disseminating wifi faster than almost any other technology in history all by itself. We need government to get involved why?

9:41	Sallie James: When was the last time you were subject to a pat-down, Mr President? Until you've been "felt up for freedom", keep your jokes to yourself.

9:41

[Comment From Darren ]

Wouldn't it be great to hear some privatization policy proposals for transportation?

9:41	Jim Harper: Recent departures from the White House signal that the transparency/change thing has run its course. Apparently, the tried and true spend/buy votes thing is coming back.

9:41	Michael F. Cannon: Hear, hear! Repeal the tax code!

9:41	Cato Institute: @Darren--Check out our infrastructure privatization guide at our Downsizing the Federal Government project:http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/privatization#infrastructure

9:42	Dan Mitchell: This sounds good. Look at this chart showing how European corporate tax rates have dropped: http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2010/07/01/corporate-tax-rates-continue-to-fall-in-europe/.

9:42	Michael F. Cannon: Because so long as there's a federal income tax, there will be lobbyists looking for exemptions.

9:42	Dan Mitchell: But I'll believe it when I see it.

9:42	Michael F. Cannon: Today, the Kaiser Family Foundation released a poll showing opposition to ObamaCare is at its highest point ever recorded in a KFF poll.http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/opposition-to-obamacare-hits-new-high-in-kaiser-family-foundation-poll/

9:42	Sallie James: Using jobs as the justification for trade liberalization sets free trade up for failure when the jobs are slow to materialize. Trade is about freedom of exchange, and better jobs, not aggregate numbers.

9:43	Andrew Coulson: I suggest financing tax cuts by abolishing every federal education program that lacks a research base proving its effectiveness. That's all but one of them, I believe.

9:43	Sallie James: Yes, pass KORUS, but be aware that when he says he "finalized" the KORUS, he means he made it less free.

9:43

Michael F. Cannon:

Other results from the KFF poll…76 percent of the public oppose the individual mandate…69 percent support cutting spending on ObamaCare’s coverage expansions…60 percent believe ObamaCare will increase the deficit, while only 11 percent believe it will reduce the deficit…52 percent support cutting Medicaid…51 percent oppose ObamaCare’s employer mandate…51 percent oppose ObamaCare’s new taxes on over-the-counter medications for HSA, FSA, and HRA holders…

9:44	Jim Harper: Here's Walter Olsen on the regulation executive order: "measured praise" http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/barack-obama-mr-deregulation/ Here's me: "no effect . . . I can discern" http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/and-then-youve-got-your-pro-regulatory-republicans/

9:44	Jim Harper: I'm not as nice as Wally. It's almost impossible.

9:44	Dan Mitchell: Takes a lot of chutzpah to denounce excessive regulation after the White House issued this monstrosity January 7:http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/the-irs-run-amok/.

9:44	Michael F. Cannon: False. ObamaCare GUARANTEES that insurers will deny care to the sick.

9:44	Ben Friedman: We are already supposed to review regulations to see if burdens outweigh costs. http://www.cato.org/dailypodcast/podcast-archive.php?podcast_id=1320&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CatoDailyPodcast+%28Cato+Daily+Podcast%29

9:45	Michael F. Cannon: ObamaCare cannot be improved. There is quite literally nothing that Congress can do to improve the quality, cost, or security of medical care for the non-elderly so long as ObamaCare remains on the books. The only way to “improve” ObamaCare is to eliminate it.

9:45	Ben Friedman: Benefits outweigh costs, I meant.

9:45	Michael F. Cannon: Even POTUS wants to repeal (part of) ObamaCare.

9:46	Michael F. Cannon: President Obama claims the law will prevent discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions. NOPE. All ObamaCare does is impose government price controls on health insurance.

9:46	Michael F. Cannon: Those government price controls have caused insurers to flee the one market where they have been fully applied: the child-only insurance market. The very “pre-existing condition” provisions that were supposed to help kids have BLOCKED access to coverage for many kids.

9:46	Michael F. Cannon: Similarly, the ObamaCare provisions that were supposed to expand coverage to dependents up to age 26 caused an SEIU local in NYC to eliminate coverage for 6,000 dependents. Those kids now have no health insurance.

9:46

Michael F. Cannon:

Those same price controls tell insurers, “We don’t care if an actuarially fair premium for this patient is $50k. You can only charge her $10k.” That won’t end discrimination against sick people. It merely gives private insurers a $40k incentive to avoid, mistreat, and dump the sick.

9:46

Michael F. Cannon:

Insurers will drop benefits that sick people value. They will make it hard to find the specialist your child needs. This already happens where ObamaCare-like price controls exist: New York, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, etc. It is what ObamaCare’s price controls REWARD.

9:47	Jim Harper: "Fix what needs fixing" - did the president just call on the Senate to pass the repeal bill?!

9:47	Michael F. Cannon: ObamaCare throws temporary tax credits at small businesses. But if this law is good for small business, why is the NFIB is still suing to overturn the entire law?

9:47	Dan Mitchell: So why did he push through Obamacare and the faux stimulus?

9:48	Michael F. Cannon: ObamaCare has thrown money at seniors -- literally, it has sent them $250 checks in the mail. Yet seniors still oppose ObamaCare.

9:48	Dan Mitchell: Freeze? What about cuts?

9:48	Andrew Coulson: Now that we've already run up spending to astronomical levels, let's freeze it??? That's supposed to sound like fiscal sanity?

9:48	Dan Mitchell: Thanks to Bush and Obama, we've had a 10-year spending binge.

9:48	Ben Friedman: By "domestic spending" he means the 35% of discretionary spending that is not for secuirty.

9:49	Jim Harper: Freeze/shrink defense spending, too. Here are Ed Crane and Chris Preble: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703843804575534194027224132.html

9:49	Ben Friedman: That defense cut he refers to in defense is not a cut. He is only slowing the rate of increase.

9:49

Sallie James:

Oh dear. Poor choice of words there from POTUS. "Cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine. It may feel like you're flying high at first, but it won't be long before you'll feel the impact." You mean the impact of a...crash, Mr President?

9:49	Andrew Coulson: We've spent close to $2 TRILLION on k-12 education at the federal level since 1965, and outcomes at the end of high school are flat. Cut that.

9:49	Michael F. Cannon: Crickets.

9:49	Dan Mitchell: Don't freeze bureaucrat pay. Slash it, as well as reduce the number of bureaucrats. They get total compensation twice as high as people in the productive sector of the economy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xzd3puYmiM

9:50	Ben Friedman: So why not endorse defense spending cuts? Defense spending has grown by almost 50% adjusting for inflation since 2001, not including the wars.

9:50	Michael F. Cannon: The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care suggests that one-third of Medicare's budget does absolutely nothing to make seniors healthier or happier. Cut there. Give seniors vouchers and they'll get rid of the waste.

9:50	Dan Mitchell: The President is sticking his head in the sand on Social Security, ignoring the recommendations of his own commission. The real answer is personal accounts.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRh5zKleh0I.

9:51	Dan Mitchell: Obamacare will reduce long-run deficits??? Yeah, and I play outfield for the New York Yankees.

9:51	Michael F. Cannon: Once again, according to today's KFF poll...60 percent believe ObamaCare will increase the deficit, while only 11 percent believe it will reduce the deficit. Sell that ObamaCare-reduces-the-deficit nonsense somewhere else.

9:52	Dan Mitchell: The whims of politicians are so much more reliable.

9:52	Andrew Coulson: HE IS TAKING SCHOLARSHIPS AWAY FROM STUDENTS, in the DC voucher program!

9:52	Dan Mitchell: Class warfare tax policy has never worked:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeXPibDuy6M.

9:53	Andrew Coulson: That program outperforms DC public schools at a quarter the cost, by giving private school tuition scholarships to low income kids. How can he claim to be against taking away scholarships?

9:53	Sallie James: Hmm. Depends what he means by "simplifying the tax code". If he means "just send it all in" then it's not a good idea.

9:54	Jim Harper: Yes, we "live and do business in the information age," but Whitehouse.govposted just half of the bills the president promised to when he campaigned for the presidency. http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/sunlight-before-signing-at-mid-term-above-50/

9:54	Jim Harper: You could get rid of Commerce...

9:54	Sallie James: Obama has created councils that deal with exports.

9:54	Ben Friedman: Boehner now wants a cigarette.

9:54	Michael F. Cannon: ...and Interior.

9:55	Dan Mitchell: Government reorganization is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Smaller government is the only way to get better government.

9:55	Jim Harper: Was that a druggie laugh-line while thousands of casualties in the drug war sit in prison?

9:55	Andrew Coulson: But really the deck chairs are only reupholstered. They stay where they are...

9:56	Michael F. Cannon: The goal of a more-competitive America would be best served if POTUS reorganized federal agencies -- buildings, personnel, etc. -- by returning them to the private sector.

9:56	Jim Harper: I'll believe it when I see it. These were campaign promises that have not been fulfilled in two years.

9:56	Michael F. Cannon: No earmarks! Give me unfettered discretion to spend all that money!

9:56	Dan Mitchell: How about telling Americans that we will be Greece in 25 years because of growing government? And that's according to CBO data.http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/my-big-fat-greek-budget/

9:57	Andrew Coulson: A government that lives within its means... but wants to raise the debt ceiling?

9:57	Jim Harper: Credit that promise --- to veto bills with earmarks --- and then make sure he doesn't get slippery with definitions.

9:57	Ben Friedman: No rival superpower used to good news.

9:57	Ben Friedman: Used to be good news.

9:57

[Comment From Barry ]

Wouldn't stimulus spending replace earmarks?

9:58	Sallie James: @Barry: surely if spending is stimulus, then so are earmarks, right??

9:58	Dan Mitchell: Government spending harms the economy by diverting resources from the productive sector of the economy. Excessive government is the problem, deficits are merely the symptom. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9kEmZB5luM.

9:58	How would you grade the speech so far? A ( 1% ) B ( 5% ) C ( 26% ) D ( 46% ) F ( 22% )

9:58	Ben Friedman: They not combat patrols until someone shoots at them.

9:59	Jim Harper: The rule of law seems not to exist at airports.