by Bob Barr | Nov 2, 2023 | Townhall Article |
Townhall The recent hubbub surrounding pro-Palestinian and anti-Jewish demonstrations at major universities and colleges in the U.S. has again drawn attention to the massive, and unaccounted donations made to those institutions, including by foreign governments and other sources; contributions that have become an increasingly important part of the schools’ budgets. However, if critics are looking for either Congress or the administration to do anything to improve the almost total lack of transparency regarding such money flow, they are in for a long wait. Uncle Sam has been asleep at that switch for decades, and the Biden Administration has made clear it has no interest whatsoever in continuing its predecessor’s modest effort to enforce long-standing requirements that institutions of higher learning simply report major foreign monetary donations, especially where Communist China is concerned. Congress has not done much better. A measure that would have strengthened the federal government’s power to examine large foreign gifts to, and contracts with American universities, was stripped out of a bipartisan bill two years ago that was designed to strengthen American innovation. The reasons for the measure’s demise included opposition by the very same universities and colleges that receive significant money from foreign donors, including China, which reportedly had donated more than $400 million in the two years before the measure was deep-sixed in 2021. Adding to the demise of the extremely modest reporting requirement in the “innovation” legislation, was a jurisdictional turf dispute between two Senate committees with concurrent jurisdiction over the measure. The reality is that since 1986, when Section 117 was added to the 1965 Higher Education Act, colleges and universities have been required to report foreign gifts...
by Bob Barr | Nov 1, 2023 | Daily Caller Article |
Daily Caller In August 2022 Congress passed President Biden’s signature “Inflation Reduction Act” without a single Republican vote in either the House or the Senate. There were several reasons for this purely partisan vote, one of which was that the legislation included a mechanism for a major tax increase on many prescription drugs used mainly by Medicare enrollees for treatment of certain cancers, heart conditions and diabetes. Already flush with the 87,000 new employees authorized by the very same Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS is drafting regulations to start collecting the prescription drug “excise tax,” which can virtually double the market price for the medications. To win the Senate votes — including hold-out Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who switched his vote in favor of the bill at the last-minute following secret parleys with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — Biden presented the proposed excise tax as a way to reduce the cost of many common, Medicare-covered prescription drugs, rather than what it really is — a measure that will lead to shortages and increased prices. What Biden and the Democrats actually did was impose price controls on Medicare-covered prescription drugs, disguising them as “negotiated prices” between Uncle Sam and the drug manufacturers. This sleight-of-hand might sound reasonable, even perhaps positive, except for the fact that refusal by any of the manufacturers to “accept” Washington’s proposed prices, would result in a mandated tax on the final, consumer cost of the drugs that would in short order reach 95% — effectively doubling its price. Moreover, while disguising an “excise tax” as a “price negotiation” may sound great, it does so only until you realize...
by Bob Barr | Oct 24, 2023 | Daily Caller Article |
Daily Caller A recent, nonpartisan poll of 2,008 registered voters, conducted by the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, concludes what many Americans already know, which is that our two-party political system is a chaotic mess. Far more disturbing, however, are the survey’s findings that a significant percentage of voters consider that violence, suspension of democratic norms and states seceding from our union, all are acceptable alternatives to our current troubles. These troubling findings certainly can, at least in part, be attributed to pronounced ignorance that has for at least a decade, characterized many Americans’ understanding of the structure of our national government. For example, a 2014 survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania found that more than one-third of adults surveyed could not name a single one of the three branches of our government. Coupled with historic lows in the public’s trust in government, such a disturbing level of civic cluelessness makes the most recent finding by the University of Virginia even more troubling. Having so many voters remaining fundamentally ignorant about how our government operates, while at the same time having little or no trust in that government, and with some forty percent considering it “acceptable to use violence to stop” those in the opposing political party “from achieving their goals,” is a recipe for disaster. If voters engaged directly with political leaders and parties, there might be at least some check on these disturbing trends, but, as the Pew Research Center has discovered, the vast majority of Americans get their news the easy way, from “digital devices,” which are by definition more subjective, less transparent and more easily...
