<![CDATA[Matt Kibbe - Articles - RealClearPolitics]]>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/authors/rss/archive/17530.xmlAuthor <![CDATA[GOP Needs More Than Just a Slick New Sales Pitch]]> Sun, 07 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500 n private enterprise, a business fails when it ceases to meet the demands of the consumer. Senior management, out-of-touch and complacent, loses the vision that made the start-up a success in the first place. The sales pitch and cash flow replace innovation and product quality. And when the stale product ceases to create value for its customers, buyers look elsewhere or simply stay home.

This story should sound familiar to the "senior management" of the Grand Old Party, who asked a group of their peers to produce a report --"The Growth and Opportunity Project" -- to explain the underperformance of the GOP product line in 2012.

]]> <![CDATA[The Fiscal Cliff: How to Call the Big Spenders' Bluff]]> Fri, 30 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0600 The fiscal cliff – and the hullabaloo surrounding it — is a curious phenomenon. It has been over 3 years since Harry Reid’s Senate passed a budget. The U.S. federal government is over $16 trillion in debt. And Uncle Sam is borrowing 1 out of every 3 dollars he spends.

If there is a “fiscal cliff,” our federal government drove off the edge of it about ten trillion dollars ago.

]]> <![CDATA[Ted Cruz Wins for "We the People"]]> Fri, 03 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0500 Ted Cruz’s victory Tuesday over David Dewhurst in the Texas Republican Senate runoff is being hailed as proof of the tea party’s staying power. It is. But it’s more than that. The underdog Cruz, along with tens of thousands of motivated and informed tea party activists, proved that money and centralized power no longer guarantee victory — a significant shift in the way campaigns are won.

Cruz was a long-shot candidate in every regard. Dewhurst is a multimillionaire with an impressive personal war chest and the financial backing of national Republican bigwigs. He’s the state’s lieutenant governor and received insider endorsements from Gov. Rick...]]> <![CDATA[Occupy Wall Street Certainly No Tea Party Movement]]> Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0500 The ”Occupy Wall Street” movement desperately wants to be compared to the Tea Party, because such a comparison would give the fledgling, misguided movement unearned legitimacy. But there are three key characteristics that separate OWS from the Tea Party: First, the Occupy protesters pride themselves on provocative resistance to law enforcement and in some cases violence. Second, they disrespect public and private property. Third, and most important, the Occupy movement lacks a coherent guiding philosophy.

The Sept. 12, 2009 Tea Party demonstration in Washington, D.C., is a perfect example of the way Tea Partiers do business. Organizers planned for 100,000 Tea...]]> <![CDATA[Memo to Mitt: Tea Partiers Care About Policies]]> Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0500 After shunning fiscally conservative principles for much of his political career, Mitt Romney has realized it might benefit his presidential campaign to embrace the tea party. In New Hampshire this weekend, Romney held a photo op with the Tea Party Express in an attempt to court this powerful voter bloc, a group he’s spent the last 18 months distancing himself from. Memo to Mitt: We are not props for another stump speech. We care about substantive policies that lift the burden of big government from our struggling economy.

Romney’s appearance at the...]]> <![CDATA[Ethanol Experiment Has Been a Costly Disaster]]> Thu, 09 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0600 In November voters across America made clear their frustrations with runaway spending, bailouts, and special-interest dollars sloshing through Washington. Yet the lame duck session threatens a return to business as usual as corporate interests scramble for federal favors.

One particularly bold example is the ethanol lobby, which is mounting a full-court press to renew expiring tariffs and tax protections that raise consumer prices while doing little to improve energy independence or the environment. Lawmakers should do nothing and allow the ethanol program to expire.

]]> <![CDATA[Obama Should Channel Harding, Not FDR]]> Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0600 In the first half of last century two presidents inherited recessionary economies from their predecessors. Both campaigned on smaller government, and both blamed the profligate ways of the previous president for their economic problems. One ended the recession in less than three years; the other lengthened it by seven. One responded with laissez-faire capitalism; the other with unprecedented government expansion. Scholars rank one among the worst presidents ever; the other they rank as one of the best. These two men are Warren Harding and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Warren Harding was elected president in 1920 at the end of World War I, directly following the popular Woodrow...]]>