Civil Candor

Social Change for Obama Means Keeping America Divided and Angry

April 13, 2014 by Bob

When you don’t have a clue what you are doing you fall back on what you know. For Barack Obama, that means coercing social change by keeping America divided and angry. Our ex-activist, rabble-rousing president knows the money isn’t there to buy the illusion of prosperity. The votes don’t exist in Congress to overhaul the economy from the ground up, either. How much anger does our president think he should stir up in the name of social change? More important, in lieu of changing the tax code how much of the tab can be forced on employers?

Two Political Issues Republicans Should Avoid

April 10, 2014 by Bob

The only political issues Republicans should be concerned about this year have to do with bad government in all its guises (see: Bad Government, Bad Deals, and Failed Bills). Why are conservative politicians making headlines this week with two losing issues they should have the good sense to leave alone?

Raising Taxes in Illinois to Pay for Our Taxpayer Prison

April 6, 2014 by Bob

As punishing as it feels to write a check at tax time it is especially painful in Illinois, where raising taxes, fees, and penalties has constructed an elaborate taxpayer prison giving individuals and businesses little choice but to leave (see: Live in Illinois? Get Out Now.).

Hard Work Deserves Low Pay, Not a Minimum Wage Increase

April 3, 2014 by Bob

Why would anyone want to work in an economy where hard work has great value and a minimum wage increase is the reward? The kind of hard work politicians and activists are using to try to force a minimum wage increase is not effort directed at something the economy values.

Border Control Policy Stalled by Legalization Campaign

March 30, 2014 by Bob

With hopes for amnesty fading there is no good reason for the Obama administration to continue pandering to conservatives with promises of a border control policy that will finally, once and for all, secure our southwest boundary with Mexico. Instead, we are going to go back to what the president’s party has wanted all along, legalization with the most feeble of nods to border control.

Universal Preschool: Civil Rights and Race, or Bad Kids?

March 27, 2014 by Bob

Do Arne Duncan and Eric Holder understand what they are suggesting when they talk up civil rights and race as part of the push for universal preschool?

The newest release of the Department of Education’s Civil Rights Data Collection is turning the argument for universal preschool into a dialogue about civil rights, race, and opportunity. Duncan and Holder are raising an unspoken question, though, and they don’t seem to realize it. If kids are being disciplined because of their race, does that mean they are suffering racism at the hands of their teachers, or are children of color, especially African Americans, more likely to be bad kids?

Will the DACA Scam for Deferred Action Include Obamacare?

March 23, 2014 by Bob

The DACA scam began with a memo announcing Homeland Security’s surprise hands-off prosecutorial discretion policy. The blow to immigration enforcement was followed up by the White House’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals order (see: Visa Overstays and DACA Applicants Get Lucky). One of the selling points the Obama administration used for DACA was that illegal immigrants would only receive provisional legal status. Federal benefits and the Affordable Care Act were off the table. Members of the president’s party want to change that.