Pete DuPont - Articles - RealClearPolitics

"We Darn Well Better Cut Spending"

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0600

"If we're going to raise revenue and if we're going to raise it in any form, then we darn well better cut spending, because spending is the biggest part of this problem," said Erskine Bowles, Bill Clinton's onetime chief of staff, earlier this month. The most important words in American public policy today should be "we darn well better cut spending."

Unfortunately, most of the conversations about the fiscal cliff miss this point. They center not on how much spending should decrease but how much taxes should increase. That bodes ill for America's economic growth and global competitiveness.

Will America Abandon "Hope"?

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0500

The presidential campaign remains very close, but some of the polling information must continue to cause alarm in the Obama campaign. Sixty-five percent of respondents in a recent Rasmussen Reports poll felt our nation was on the "wrong track," and surveys by National Public Radio and ABC News/Washington Post showed similar results. Sixty-four percent of respondents in a recent CBS News poll thought President Obama's policies have contributed "some" or "a lot" to the economic turndown. And as the election gets closer, the president's approval rating continues to lag below the all-important 50% mark in almost every survey.

Americans are frustrated over today's economy and worried...

Is Obama Eyeing Clinton for VP?

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0600

The coming political year, with presidential, House and Senate elections, will be one of the most interesting (and important) ones we have seen in a long while. The main challenge President Obama faces is persuading voters to re-elect him in spite of the disastrous results of his economic policies.

The declining economy has hit people on both ends of the economic spectrum, with the number of taxpayers with more than $1 million of income declining from from 400,000 back in 2007 to just 235,000 in 2009, and the number of people 16 older who have been unemployed over a year going from an average of 1.3 million in the last three recessions to 4.3 million in 2010. The Obama economy is...

As Promised, Obama Changed America - For the Worse

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Just before his election as president, Barack Obama declared that "we are five days from fundamentally transforming America." He has made good on that promise. Huge increases in federal spending—up 28% in just three years—were the beginning. Putting health care—17% of the American economy—under Washington's control was next. Government control of business is expanding too: 379 new government business rules were added in July alone, according to Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming. Federal government debt held by the public rose from $6 trillion (40% of GDP) in 2008 to $9 trillion (62%) in 2010, The Congressional Budget Office says it could reach 200% by 2037, if the...

Can This Economy Be Saved?

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0500

America's economy is in the doldrums again. Economic growth is weak - just 1.8% a year in the last quarter. Government spending is increasing - to a projected 25.3% of gross domestic product this year from 20.7% in 2008—while revenues are down to 14.4% of GDP from 17.5% in 2008.

Our nation obviously needs much stronger economic growth, and we need it now. To create new jobs and get America growing again, we have to unleash the economic engine of the business community, and that requires lower tax rates, less regulation and uncertainty, free trade rather than protectionism, and lower energy costs.

1 Year In, ObamaCare Must Be Repealed

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0500

A year ago today President Obama signed into law the broadest, most expensive, most intrusive health-care bill in our history.

So we the people are subject to a 2,700-page law that will cost us nearly $1 trillion over 10 years and will put the federal government, in charge of everyone's medical care. The bill appropriates in advance some $100 billion from now until 2020, making it more difficult for future Congresses or Presidents to defund it. The bill creates some 159 new government agencies to administer health care. As of Jan. 1, 2014, unless it is repealed, health care will be run, controlled, and totally supervised by Washington.

Turning America Around

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0600

Barack Obama promised to change America, and he did. Federal spending has increased in two years to $3.72 trillion from $2.98 trillion, a 25% increase. The national debt has swelled to almost $14 trillion from $10 trillion in the same period, and the Office of Management and Budget estimates that it will reach $26 trillion by 2020. ObamaCare is moving 17% of the U.S economy from individual choice to government management and direction. Protectionist policies have stopped trade agreements with several countries.

Congress Should Consider Costs of 'Cap and Trade'

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500

"Global" and "warming" are perhaps the two most important words used to justify the approaching governmental control of our economy. In reality, global warming is barely occurring: In the 30 years starting in 1977, warming amounted to 0.32 degree Fahrenheit per decade, and in the next hundred years it is estimated to be about half a degree per decade.

So global warming looks like neither the alarmists' serious threat, nor an immediate crisis that requires governmental control of America's economy to reduce it. Nevertheless the government solution to these increases--the Waxman-Markey bill, which passed the House earlier this year--is estimated to lower global temperatures only...