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...
by Bob Barr | Dec 17, 2019 | Uncategorized |
Townhall.com Now that the House is set to impeach President Trump for what its Nadler-led Judiciary Committee decided were “impeachable offenses,” it is time to consider what will or, more important, should happen in a Senate trial. In my view, no matter the utter lack of substance in the articles of impeachment certain to be approved by the House this week, the president should prepare to mount a vigorous defense and Senate Republican leaders should assist, not impede him. As an Impeachment Manager in the 1999 trial of former President Clinton, I learned very early that an impeachment trial in the Senate has little in common with “normal” trials that take place daily in federal and state courtrooms according to well-established rules of procedure. Each and every impeachment that crosses the Capitol Rotunda from the House to the Senate, comes without any pre-existing rules of procedure for the trial, whether for a federal judge or a president of the United States. The Senate must adopt by simple majority vote unique rules for the conduct of each and every impeachment trial, including whether to allow live witnesses to testify and the scope of evidence to be admitted. These are extremely important tactical decisions and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell must not allow Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to massage them into pablum. It is important the president keep these procedural nuances in mind as he decides who will represent him in the upcoming trial, and what strategy to pursue. The situation will be very different from the one Clinton faced two decades ago. In January 1999, the Democrat president confronted a Republican-led Senate....
by Bob Barr | Dec 16, 2019 | Uncategorized |
The Daily Caller As a former member of Congress who served eight years on the Financial Services Committee, I have long been concerned with the lack of transparency and unchecked authority enjoyed by the Federal Reserve System, when it comes to the manner by which it “manages” our nation’s financial system. The “Fed” was created by statute more than a century ago and has become the de facto “Central Bank of the United States,” largely immune from the checks and balances that to a large degree keep Congress and presidents accountable to voters. This never has been a healthy state of affairs, and if anything, may be worsening. In what is an admission both startling and frightening in its implications, in recent congressional testimony the Fed as much as admitted its decisions have in fact damaged our economy. Earlier this month, the Fed testified before Congress that its poor oversight and supervisory practices over the banking industry were a likely reason the Fed found it necessary to provide market liquidity for the first time since the financial crisis a decade ago. Fed Vice Chair Randal Quarles, appearing before the House Financial Services Committee said, “We have identified some areas where our existing supervision of the regulatory framework … may have created some incentives that were contributors.” He admitted to lawmakers that decisions by the Fed, “were probably not the decisive contributors, but they were contributors, and I think we need to examine them.” If history is any guide, the rest of us should best not hold our breath waiting for the Fed to actually do something. The concern here is not...
by Bob Barr | Dec 11, 2019 | Uncategorized |
Townhall.com In the 36-years since Bob Clark’s A Christmas Story first appeared on the big screen, the movie has become as much a part of the Christmas season as Santa himself. More than just a charming holiday movie, A Christmas Story captures a time in America where kids could be kids; free to roam, daydream, tussle, and yes, even nearly lose an eye, without them (or their parents) being thrown into handcuffs or hauled in front of a family court magistrate. But no longer. Today’s child-rearing environment, dominated by a combination of helicopter parents and overzealous nanny staters, allows no such freedom or independence for kids. From the earliest ages, today’s children are thrust into government-run schools where they’re put through horrific “school shooting drills.” They are told global warming will render the planet unhabitable by the time they reach adulthood. And, as for burning off this nervous energy? Not a chance. Recess, if not already eliminated, has dwindled in many school districts to just 15 minutes of rigidly structured time, with traditional games like tag and dodgeball banned for being “too mean.” Of course, today’s snowflake culture does not get any easier for kids outside the school walls. Killjoy government officials have literally made trick-or-treating a crime for kids over a certain age, and similarly have outlawed throwing snowballs. Even make believe is potentially a criminal act in public. Recently, one Minnesota child was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct for his fantasy adventures in a park, when busybody citizens caused a stir online with irrational panic about a “masked predator.” The adult idiocy prompted police to investigate; and instead of dismissing...
by Bob Barr | Dec 9, 2019 | Uncategorized |
The Daily Caller The Trump administration has performed admirably in reducing the regulatory red tape that has strangled American businesses and limited our country’s competitiveness. But for reasons not entirely clear, the Department of Labor has lagged behind other agencies in this regard. One clear example is the way the department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) has continued unnecessary and counterproductive Obama-era litigation against tech companies for alleged discriminatory wage and hiring practices. To some extent, the Labor Department’s hesitancy to retreat from a series of lawsuits against Google, Oracle, and other tech giants initiated by the prior administration can be explained by President Trump’s first Labor Secretary Alex Acosta’s cozy relationship with the Washington establishment. Thankfully, Acosta’s replacement, Eugene Scalia, son of former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who took over the reins at the sprawling bureaucracy at the end of September, is no friend of the nanny state. OFCCP is the Great Society-era agency established to ensure private companies that contract with Uncle Sam do so without discriminatory hiring, employment or wage practices. Over the decades, this agency has taken steps to reform federal contracting policies in this regard. But its overall record has been mixed, especially in recent years. In a 2017 study, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce agreed that the OFCCP’s mission to ensure discriminatory-free practices by corporate partners was “worthy.” At the same time, however, the report set forth in extensive detail that the OFCCP in recent years had become enamored of faulty, statistics-based challenges to companies engaged in federal contracts and had repeatedly abused its powerful remedy of threatening to debar...
