by Bob Barr | Jan 13, 2020 | Uncategorized |
The Daily Caller Using traditional criteria to measure a candidate’s likelihood of success, it would be easy to dismiss former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s presidential candidacy. Doing so, however, would not be a smart decision by either Democrats or Republicans. Sure, Bloomberg’s was a late entry into the already crowded field of Democratic presidential wannabes. And yes, his polling places him in single digits among Democratic voters; behind Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, former Vice President Joe Biden, and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg. However, unlike the other billionaire still in the Democratic field, Tom Steyer, Bloomberg is a well-known figure to voters across the country. Bloomberg’s enviable name id is due primarily to his having served for a dozen years as mayor of the Big Apple. He also, of course, is well-known (and widely reviled) thanks to his long-standing and very public attacks against the National Rifle Association and his support of virtually every gun control measure on the Democratic Party’s agenda. It would, however, be a mistake to view him as a single-issue candidate. Bloomberg earned his position as one of the 10 richest people in the world based on demonstrable financial and technological acumen. Unlike many others on Forbes’ list of billionaires, Bloomberg’s wealth is “self-made.” Attacks by Sanders and Warren against Bloomberg for being a “billionaire” may resonate with some voters; but there are many more who either openly or quietly admire someone like him who earned his wealth by hard work and intelligence. Like Donald Trump, Bloomberg is a creature of the city he led for three terms. But here again,...
by Bob Barr | Jan 8, 2020 | Uncategorized |
Townhall.com By all accounts, the low-tax, light-touch regulatory environment produced by Congress and the Trump administration has done wonders for America as we enter election year 2020. In the latest jobs report, 321,000 new jobs were added to the economy. The unemployment rate currently sits at a healthy 3.5 percent; down two full points from when President Obama left office just three years ago. The American economy is without a doubt going strong. Still, some say that America’s best times may soon be in the rear-view mirror. While it would be understandable if in 2020 the U.S. is not able to match the astonishing gains of last year, there is no reason to expect a significant slowdown as some are predicting — not if Washington pushes to ensure its pro-jobs agenda comes to complete fruition this year. Part of the problem is that the existing economic data just is not accounting for all relevant factors. Take, for example, my home state of Georgia. According to the University of Georgia, the Peach State’s economy will grow at a significantly slower rate in the new year. It projects that largely due to global factors, the state will experience a net loss of agriculture and manufacturing jobs in 2020. However, just days after the release of the UGA analysis, President Trump reached agreement on a partial trade deal with China; a deal that will prevent some of China’s protectionist, anti-free market activities that allowed it to wipe away over 90,000 Georgian jobs between 2001 and 2013. That means at least some jobs coming back home in 2020 that were not previously expected. Washington’s free-trade celebration need not stop there, either. Days...
by Bob Barr | Jan 1, 2020 | Uncategorized |
Townhall.com As the economic boom that has defined the first four years of the Trump presidency continues, the likelihood increases that the Left will face four more years in what to them is the nether world of a Trump presidency. As this realization grows in the minds of the Left, so too does the already virulent anger that has characterized the movement since Noon on January 20, 2017. It has been obvious to even the most casual observer that Democrats still have not recovered from Hillary Clinton’s loss in 2016. The Left never has accepted the fact that Trump ran a better campaign than Hillary three years ago, or that his message was more in tune with voters than was that of his opponent. The arrogance and sanctimony that ever since has characterized the Democrat Party and its adherents, appears certain now to be the rules by which the Left will conduct itself in the months leading to the November election. In some instances, this worldview has given rise to child-like tantrums; like that of former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams who steadfastly has refused for more than a year to concede losing to Republican Brian Kemp. The conspiratorial-based movement she launched in the wake of her November 2018 defeat, has found continuing and fawning support from national Democrat leaders like Joe Biden, and significant financial benefits from benefactors like George Soros. Before Trump even took his oath of office, Democrats were plotting revenge. The use of dirty tricks by which Democrats have obstructed the Trump Administration has been unprecedented in both scale and aggressiveness. From using unelected, leftist...
by Bob Barr | Dec 30, 2019 | Uncategorized |
The Daily Caller An attack by a knife-wielding assailant Saturday night at the home of a rabbi in Monsey, New York — a normally quiet community just north of New York City – left five individuals injured, two critically. While Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio took to the media to condemn the attack, they failed to mention how difficult it is in the Empire State, especially in the New York City metropolitan area, for citizens to arm themselves in their own homes to defend against such vicious attacks. The attacker was arrested shortly after the late evening attack, but his motive remains unclear. However, the location and timing of the attack — during a Hanukkah celebration at the home of a well-known rabbi right next door to the orthodox congregation he leads — lends credence to early assessment that it was yet another in a recent spate of anti-Semitic attacks in and around the Big Apple. The county in which the rabbi’s home is located — Rockland County — is home to the largest per capita population of Jews in the entire country. During an appearance Sunday at the site of the attack, Cuomo labeled it “domestic terrorism” and vowed to “strengthen” New York’s state laws to prosecute such acts; notwithstanding such laws already being among the most robust in the nation. New York’s Attorney General, Letitia James, declared herself “deeply disturbed” by the attack. Democrat presidential candidate Julian Castro, a vocal gun control advocate who regularly blisters the NRA for expressing its “thoughts and prayers” for victims of mass shootings, declared on...
by Bob Barr | Dec 25, 2019 | Uncategorized |
Townhall.com Virginia is the birthplace of America’s independence and the state that gave us such towering patriots as Patrick Henry, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. Today, however, the Commonwealth is home to a governor and legislative majority that proposes to do what the British Crown never could: disarm the citizenry by force. When reporting on parts of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s proposals for gun control first broke over the summer, the barely believable extremism could easily have been mistaken as fake news. Now, after the November election which gave Democrat Northam majorities in both houses of the state legislature, it is clear the former practicing physician is deadly serious in targeting not only gun owners and retailers but even self-defense experts. His objectives are sweeping, and include among other measures, bans on so-called “assault weapons,” high capacity magazines, and suppressors; universal background checks; handgun purchasing limits; a “red flag” law; and a ban on any self-defense classes that conceivably could be construed as hostile to government interests. “Assault rifles” would be redefined to that of the discredited 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban; a cosmetically driven definition that makes illegal common sporting rifles enjoyed by millions of law-abiding Americans, simply because they “look mean.” Shotguns and pistols with similar accessory feature likewise would be banned under the proposed legislation. Furthermore, the bills would also ban sound suppressors, a crucial safety device for home defense, along with magazines that have a capacity greater than the arbitrary 10 rounds long favored by gun control advocates. The legislation filed in June, expanded this fall, and now being readied for the new...
by Bob Barr | Dec 23, 2019 | Uncategorized |
The Daily Caller For 23 years, gun control advocates have pressed to have the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dip its beak into the study of gun violence. Thanks to Democratic pressure and Republican acquiescence, they now will have their way. Tucked into the nearly $1.4 trillion spending bill signed by the president on Friday, is $25 million for the CDC and its sister agency, the National Institutes of Health, to study gun violence and safety. This is not the first foray by CDC into non-disease matters. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, the Center has become a master at the mission creep to which every federal agency aspires. Initially established in 1946 to combat the spread of malaria, the CDC has mushroomed into a sprawling bureaucracy that over the years has spent taxpayer dollars studying all manner of non-disease problems, including workplace hazards and school bullying. In fact, before 1996 CDC did spend time and money on matters relating to gun violence. That was the year the Congress, tired of the Clinton Administration using the CDC to further its aggressive anti-firearm agenda, restricted the Center’s ability to engage in such politically oriented “research.” Despite efforts by Democrats to rekindle the CDC’s work in this arena, including a major push by President Obama in 2013, Republicans in Congress have held firm and not funded such activity. Until now. For the past 23 years, gun control advocates have bemoaned that one of the reasons we have not solved the problem of gun violence in America is because the CDC is not a funded player. This perspective, of course, is not...
