by Bob Barr | Oct 19, 2023 | Townhall Article |
Townhall Since taking office early in 2021, President Joe Biden frequently has used the term “inflection point” as a way to add gravitas to whatever issue he is speaking about. In fact, he has used it so often its meaning, or whatever it is supposed to mean, has been significantly diluted. His current visit to Israel, however, which neither Biden nor his media team has described as an “inflection point,” could accurately be seen as such a juncture for Biden and for the Middle East. In none of the instances in which Biden has employed such rhetoric has he explained exactly what he means by the use of the term. In such linguistic laxity, the president perhaps presumes the reader or listener knows that the term “inflection point” (when not used in its technical, differential geometry context) is defined by dictionary guru Merriam-Webster, as “a moment when significant change occurs or may occur.” In his October 15th “60 Minutes” interview with Scott Pelley, Biden declared that his principal motivation for seeking a second term despite his advanced age and the myriad domestic problems he continues to face, was because “[t]h world is at an inflection point.” Two days later, America’s commander-in-chief was en route to Tel Aviv – smack dab in the middle of a burgeoning and already extremely bloody war between our close ally Israel and Hamas, one of that country’s most militant adversaries. What takes place in that region over the coming days, weeks, and months, may very well turn out to be a point at which “significant change occurs.” By all public assessments, the Jewish State is...
by Bob Barr | Oct 5, 2023 | Townhall Article |
Townhall A four-page piece of legislation that protects federal funds for school archery and hunting programs from being cut by federal bureaucrats illustrates the many perverse effects of giving Uncle Sam control over America’s education system. The nearly 60-year-old Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) is the multi-headed hydra that provides virtually unlimited ways by which U.S. Department of Education bureaucrats can directly and indirectly control all manner of programs in schools across the country. The reach of these tentacles is lengthened whenever an unrelated piece of legislation applies – or can be interpreted to apply – to schools. This is exactly what Miguel Cardona, President Biden’s Education Secretary, did after his boss in 2022 signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), a knee-jerk legislative response to the tragic mass shooting at a school in Uvalde, Texas, that same year. The BSCA contained a number of gun control measures, such as funding incentives for so-called “Red Flag Laws,” but did not prohibit use of federal education funds for such school programs as archery and hunter safety courses. It did, however, include language intended to prevent federal funds from being used to provide any “dangerous weapon” (that is, a firearm) or “training in the use of a dangerous weapon” in schools. This provision was intended to stop moves by some schools to arm teachers, resource officers, and administrators as a way to protect against criminal shooters at schools. Cardona’s Department, however, saw an opportunity to expand the restrictive language in the BSCA, and ran with it. Last July, the Education Department issued one of its dreaded “guidance letters” declaring that...
by Bob Barr | Oct 3, 2023 | Townhall Article |
Daily Caller The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is supposed to protect the public from unfair and deceptive business practices, such as “collusion.” But, what happens if the collusion is being perpetrated by government regulators themselves? Unfortunately, this is precisely what the Biden Administration’s FTC appears to be doing, led by avowed anti-free market advocate Lina Kahn. The regulatory agency Ms. Kahn heads is working to actively break up companies and industries that are operating lawfully in the marketplace, for what clearly appear to be ideological considerations rather than legitimate, honest concerns for consumer welfare. The handwriting for this abuse actually was on the wall as early as 2021, when it became apparent that the FTC was rescinding the long-standing “consumer welfare” standard it had employed since the 1970s, according to which the Commission would not intervene in or seek to regulate businesses or sectors of the economy unless the American people’s interests were being harmed. Sadly, this is no longer the case. Having jettisoned that standard, Kahn is now using her power to attack industries disfavored by her boss, President Joe Biden. Their targets now include prescription drug prices, and consumers may soon feel the results of this new game of regulatory abuse in higher prices at the pharmacy counter. Specifically, Khan is going after “pharmacy benefit managers” or PBMs. These groups are hired by health plan sponsors, including the federal government, insurance companies and employers to go head-to-head with drug companies at the negotiating table to secure lower drug costs for consumers. PBMs have been demonstrably effective at lowering prescription drug costs, as noted in a July 2022 study by Casey B. Mulligan (President Trump’s...
by Bob Barr | Sep 21, 2023 | Townhall Article |
Townhall “We have met the enemy and he is us” –Pogo (by Walt Kelly, 1970) The 2024 election is well underway already, with control of the House, the Senate, and the White House all hanging in the balance. Advertisement So, what is the Republican Party doing? Presenting a clear set of priorities to the American electorate? Discussing issues of importance to the average voter? Showcasing leaders with a firm grasp of the issues and ready to take on a vulnerable, aging, and unpopular incumbent president? Nope. Republicans are busy fighting among themselves and squandering a razor-thin House majority pursuing matters having little if anything to do with issues that are uppermost on the minds of voters. This is hardly a recipe for success either in government or at the ballot box, but nowhere to be seen is the adult leadership necessary to right the congressional ship, such as then-Speaker Newt Gingrich brought to the House with the Republican sweep of 1994. In a sense, at least part of the blame for this predicament can be traced to the basic nature of the Republican Party, in which independence and diversity of views is encouraged — the greatest strength and the greatest weakness of the GOP. Unlike the Democrat Party, which as a general rule maintains a strict code in public of philosophical uniformity, Republicans to their credit welcome a wide variety of views on many key legislative issues, such as abortion, spending priorities, and even to a degree, immigration. Ideologic uniformity has never been a core GOP precept. However, to govern successfully in the Congress, a certain level of internal...
by Bob Barr | Aug 24, 2023 | Townhall Article |
Townhall Knee-jerk responses by government officials and legislators following incidents in which individuals have been killed by police can cause lasting harm to law-abiding citizens. One of these dangerous policies is something called the “Driving Equity Act,” which is now the law in Philadelphia. The Driving Equity Act, known also as the “Driving Equality Act,” is an overreaction to isolated incidents of alleged police misconduct, and reflects a troubling trend going back nearly a decade. For example, following the 2014 death of Michael Brown during a confrontation with police in Ferguson, Missouri, the U.S. Justice Department launched a drive against a number of local police departments that resulted in “consent decrees” – mandatory edicts that made it demonstrably more difficult for those departments to carry out their mission of protecting the public. Several years later, the 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers sparked a nationwide backlash against law enforcement generally which led to policies that reduced or defunded law enforcement agencies, causing problems that resonate still today. Early this year in Memphis, Tennessee, members of a “special” police unit beat Tyre Nichols to death, a tragedy that revived calls for state and local governments to defund and disband specialized anti-crime units. Often camouflaged as “restorative justice” or “reimagined policing,” legislative and executive actions to curtail police funding and powers usually are premised on the notion that traditional police powers, including traffic stops, are inherently racially biased and thus have been abused as tools to target members of racial minorities, especially Black men. It is not, however, as if there are not ways to deal...
by Bob Barr | Aug 3, 2023 | Townhall Article |
Townhall Somewhat lost in the public’s fixation on the scandals surrounding President Biden and his prodigal son Hunter, and the lengthening string of indictments against former President Trump, is a revealing and disturbing survey published last month by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. The poll released in July found that most Americans now favor government restrictions on their freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment – specifically, freedom of expression. Until recently, the freedoms enunciated in the First Amendment, which was ratified in 1791 to stop government from restricting expression and publication of ideas, has been considered part of the essential fabric of our culture. Apparently, this is no longer the case, at least for 55% of Americans who now consider government – not the individual – to be the best and final arbiter of what information is worthy of expression or publication; a full 65 percent would turn to “tech companies” to make such decisions for them. Regardless of the reasons behind this failure to grasp the fundamental principle that liberty is lost when ideas can be restricted by authorities, these findings are fundamentally far more troubling than past or current misdeeds by Joe Biden or Donald Trump. The scope of the restrictions many Americans now appear willing to surrender on their expressive freedom, as revealed by the Pew survey, are breathtaking – extending broadly to information deemed “false” or “violent.” The degree to which a majority of Americans appear content allowing government and tech companies to censor information has increased significantly in just the past five years. As the Pew survey discovered, the percentage of adults who are ready to have their right...
