Taxpayer Breaking News, October 2005

October 28, 2005. Tim Kane analyzes Wal-Mart's Perverse Strategy on the Minimum Wage in a Heritage Foundation Webmemo. "When Wal-Mart recently came under fire (wrongly) over its health benefits, it unwisely responded by suggesting a number of so-called socially conscious policies, including calling for a government role regulating the compensation of its competitors."

October 26, 2005. White House announcement: President signs into law S. 397, the "Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act." This measure "prohibits liability actions against firearms or ammunition manufacturers and sellers for unlawful misuse of their products..."

October 26. Brian M. Riedl describes "An innovative and bold budget proposal in the Senate," in a Heritage Foundation Webmemo. "Against this backdrop, seven Senators known as the 'Fiscal Watch Team' have called on Congress to offset hurricane-related costs and bring back fiscal responsibility. Senators John Ensign (R-NV), Sam Brownback (R-KS), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Jim DeMint (R-SC), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John McCain (R-AZ), and John Sununu (R-NH) deserve commendation for offering a specific, realistic agenda to restore fiscal sanity and save American taxpayers at least $115 billion over the next two years, and even more thereafter."

October 25, 2005. Tabor Time: A taxpayer’s revolt is up for a vote in Colorado report Michael J. New & Stephen Slivinski in the National Review. "Colorado's November election will likely have implications that extend far beyond the Rocky Mountain State. Since the late 1990s, many fiscal conservatives have attempted to enact legislation similar to TABOR in other states, but progress has lately been stalled. TABOR's political opponents have been on the offensive not just in Colorado but in other states, misrepresenting what is going on in Colorado."

October 24, 2004. State Gains Not Echoed In Federal Testing--Results Fuel Criticism Of Md., Va. Education, writes Daniel de Vise in the Washington Post. "As we look at those numbers, we wonder whether or not the progress being reported at the state level is for real," said Michael Petrilli, vice president of the Fordham Foundation. "Are states subtly making their tests easier in order to make their scores look better?" See Fordham Foundation study.

October 23, 2005. Md. Community Sizes Up Its Future Neighbor: Wal-Mart; Landover Hills Weighs Pros and Qualms, writes Ovetta Wiggins in the Washington Post. "This month, the Prince George's County Council amended zoning laws to allow Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer and grocer, to open its first store inside the Capital Beltway late next year. The site is the abandoned Capital Plaza Mall, about a mile from Chandler's."

Oct 22, 2005. Mr. Smith Has Returned to Washington and His Name is Tom Coburn, reports Mark Tapscott in townhall.com."He stood on the Senate floor Thursday and committed the unpardonable sin of not going along to get along. He offered amendments requiring that previously approved earmarks favored by colleagues be cancelled and the tax dollars instead spent on hurricane recovery. There wasn't much money at stake in the particular projects targeted by Coburn, but it was the principle that mattered."

October 22, 2005. Larry Kudlow sees "Economic policy gone adrift," in townhall.com. "For instance, Josh Bolton, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, has said nothing publicly about the necessary renewal of spending restraint. Only a month ago, he promised to deliver, in a few weeks time, a new list of White House-sponsored budget cuts and perhaps even a rescission package. But the period elapsed without any new ideas coming out of the administration. This silence from the top is deafening."

October 21, 2005. Parents flee to church-run schools; Confidence wanes in Prince George’s system, reports Guy Leonard in the Gazette. " Prince George’s County now has 118 such schools. At least 34 of them were opened in the past five years. The county reported last week that public school enrollment has declined for two straight years, even in the face of continuing population growth. The public school population this year came in about 5,000 students lower than expected.... ‘Some parents go to public schools and they just don’t like what they see,' said Pinkard, whose school has 292 students. ' ‘Some kids are afraid to go to school ... there’s a fear factor there. A lot of them are also just not satisfied with the academics.'”

October 21, 2005. Despite surplus, tax cut could be tough sell, writes Douglas Tallman in the Gazette. ‘‘'The governor wants to provide property tax relief but he has not yet determined the extent of that relief,' Ehrlich spokesman Henry P. Fawell said."

October 19, 2005. Ehrlich backing stem cell research; Effort could attract biotech companies and scientists to Md., report Tricia Bishop and David Nitkin in the Baltimore Sun. "'We need more than just state support for buildings. We need state operating dollars for research so there aren't more Donovans who go west, or to other states or other countries," said Del. Samuel I. Rosenberg, a Baltimore Democrat who was a sponsor of the House of Delegates funding bill. 'We are not going to keep scientists here by saying we have a building to do the research.' Lawrence C. Mahan, director of the bioscience business strategy for Maryland's Department of Business and Economic Development, played down efforts made by other states. 'If somebody is relying on stem cell research incentives to make or break their program, then they're not capable of doing the program in the first place,' he said."

October 12, 2005. John Stossel on protecting Internet car and home sales. "In a truly free market, businesses can't kill competition, because they can't use force. Unfortunately, in our 'mixed economy,' they can get their friends in politics to use force to stifle competition."

October 12, 2005.The Heritage Foundation's Edwin J. Feulner and Alison Acosta Fraser call it a line in the sand for fiscally responsible lawmakers. "Congress must delay implementation of the Medicare prescription drug benefit for one year, at the very least, in order to determine how to pay for it without raising taxes or if it should be substantially revised. A year’s delay would save nearly $33 billion. If lawmakers are sincere about bringing spending under control, they must restrain themselves from adding another $8 trillion to the nation’s already unaffordable long-term debt. There can be no free pass on expanding the size and scope of government." See Rep. Jeff Flake's implementation delay proposal, H.R. 3870.

October 11, 2005. Bush Panel May Curb Tax Breaks for Homeowners, Health, reports Ryan Donmoyer of Bloomberg.com. "President George W. Bush's tax advisory panel, rejecting a fundamental overhaul, agreed to recommend limiting tax breaks for homeowners and employer- provided health-care benefits to help pay for repealing the alternative minimum tax. The panel, meeting in Washington today, agreed the current $1 million cap on deductible mortgage interest should be reduced, possibly to about $350,000, and that the deduction should yield no more than a 25 percent tax savings, down from a top savings now of about 35 percent. The panel also said it would probably recommend capping tax deductions for employer-provided health-care plans."

October 11, 2005. Farm selected for horse park; Stadium Authority decides on land owned by Naval Academy, reports Jamie Stiehm in the Baltimore Sun. "Owens said yesterday that she found the Stadium Authority's decision 'ironic,' since it is a project she did not seek. She told Asti last week she was willing to wait to see the feasibility study results before she formed a final judgment -- despite Stadium Authority predictions that the project will reap a huge economic harvest. 'I can't say I'm surprised,'Owens said. 'But it's a good thing to be in this study phase, looking precisely at what the dairy farm can accommodate, what the Navy is willing to do and get to some hard numbers.'"

October 10, 2005. New rule may settle fate of state surplus; Retiree benefit accounting change could force Md. to set aside millions, reports Andrew A. Green in the Baltimore Sun. "Steven Kreisberg, the collective bargaining director for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents state workers in Maryland, said the union is worried that politicians, like CEOs 15 years ago, will see the large price tag associated with these benefits and cut them. 'It will be distorted by some folks who are just hostile to public employees and public employment benefits,' Kreisberg said."

October 9, 2005. Keep your U.N. off my Internet write Adam Thierer and Wayne Crews in the Wall Street Journal. "The Internet helps overcome artificial restrictions on trade and communications formerly imposed by oppressive or meddlesome governments. Allowing these governments to reassert control through a U.N. backdoor would be a disaster."

October 8, 2005. In a Washington Times editorial, Peter Fererra still sees hopes amid the stumbling on Social Security. "The president campaigned in and won two national elections on the still highly popular personal account option for Social Security. He did not talk then about cutting future promised benefits sharply through price indexing of the benefit formula, or delaying the retirement age, or raising taxes by increasing the maximum cap on Social Security taxable income. Instead, he rightly talked about the new opportunity and prosperity personal accounts would bring to working people. And in 2000, 2002 and 2004, dozens of Republicans won congressional elections following him in this position. But once he got to Washington, his staff was intellectually dominated by the old-line policy establishment desperate to get Mr. Bush away from the truly revolutionary accounts and back into the old box of tax increases and cuts in future promised benefits. Despite the president's better instincts, his staff misled him back into this swamp of failure."

October 7, 2005. Ehrlich may help bar centers' aid to illegals, reports S.A. Miller in the Washington Times. "The legislation, which will be introduced by Delegate Patrick L. McDonough in next year's General Assembly, would require the centers to screen for illegal immigrants, deny them services and prevent employers from unlawfully hiring them. 'Taxpayers are being forced to subsidize lawbreakers,' said Mr. McDonough, Baltimore County Republican."

October 5, 2005. Ehrlich prods for status of gas cost probe, reports S.A. Miller in the Washington Times. But recall what happened to gasoline competition in Maryland in 2001, as MPPI's Tom Firey explained last May. According to the 2001 90-day report, "Senate Bill 687/House Bill 736 (both passed) establishes a floor for motor fuel prices in Maryland. The bills prohibit retail service stations from selling motor fuel below a specified cost subject to certain exceptions. Under the bills motor fuel is sold below cost if the price is less than the price for the appropriate grade and quality as published by the Oil Price Information Service or the actual invoice cost from the supplier of the product whichever is lower, plus applicable freight charges and taxes." This law was bad economics in 2001. With today's gas prices, such legislation is inexcusable. Ask those current incumbents who voted in 2001 against selling gas at cut-rate prices to fix their mistake, and open the sale of gasoline in Maryland to real competition. And ask the governor to get behind the repeal of this consumer-hostile law!

October 3, 2005. Pence on Fire: Revolt of the Small Government Republicans, reports Fred Barnes in the Weekly Standard. "A series of expensive measures championed by Bush and passed by Congress -- the farm, highway, and energy bills, for instance -- has caused the anger of small government conservatives to simmer. In the House, 25 Republicans voted against the Medicare drug benefit in 2003, nearly prompting its defeat and alienating the White House and party leaders in Congress. Nonetheless, most of the 25 remain proud of their 'no' vote. Sununu voted against the Medicare, energy, highway, and farm bills. Yet he's been skillful in maintaining his ties to the White House and Senate leaders. The RSC's Pence hasn't been. Indeed, he is loathed by Bush aides and House Republican leaders. They blame him for going to the press with proposed spending cuts before coming to them, cuts they insist can't get more than a few dozen votes. They claim he has set the bar so high for cuts that anything short of $100 billion, which Congress might actually approve, will appear puny. Perhaps, but the real effect of the RSC's hype of spending restraint is that serious cuts (or 'offsets') are now far more likely."