by Bob Barr | Mar 14, 2018 | Uncategorized |
Townhall.com What’s in a name? In Washington, not much. Here, Republicans who run campaigns on fiscal discipline regularly jack up the national debt. And, Democrats who constantly preach “tolerance” push the narrative that “free speech is violence” and disagreement is itself cause for punishment. So, to the inhabitants of this strange place, it actually makes sense that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) should be involved in researching, funding, and advocating for regulations about non-disease related issues, such as gun violence. After all, to Beltway insiders, a federal agency established in the 1940s to combat malaria (which at the time was rampant in parts of the United States), should be free to spend federal tax dollars studying everything from the Ebola virus to school bullying, workplace hazards, domestic violence and, yes, gun control. Last month’s tragic mass murder in Parkland, Florida has – predictably – again raised the notion advocated for years by the gun control movement that gun violence is a “public health” issue with which the CDC should deal. The fact that gun violence has nothing to do with diseases or the public’s health, matters nothing to individuals bent on dismantling the protections guaranteed by the Second Amendment however they can. As a term of art, gun violence can be, and often is described metaphorically as a “disease,” a “cancer,” or a “blight” on our society. But speaking in a nation ruled by laws not opinions or personal views — a world in which words have assigned, accepted and understandable meanings — there is absolutely no connection between mass shootings and the flu, Ebola, malaria,...
by Bob Barr | Mar 8, 2018 | Uncategorized |
The Hill BY BOB BARR, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 03/07/18 04:00 PM EST Generations of American inventors and entrepreneurs have touted the value of competition. Walt Disney — the pioneering creator of Disneyland and shrewd businessman — once remarked, “I have been up against tough competition all my life [and] wouldn’t know how to get along without it.” Today, there are those who push themselves to the head of the class and claim they should be the sole provider of a service simply because they performed a successful assignment and are more adept at claiming government support. Enter Elon Musk and SpaceX — and the game of crony capitalism. Broadly speaking, the advent of modern crony capitalism can be traced directly to the 20th century explosion of federal government involvement in virtually every economic activity in which society is engaged, and using taxpayer dollars to mold the marketplace to its agenda. This has produced a class of business people adept at manipulating government, and reducing competition in favor of projects in which they are involved, thereby reaping substantial pecuniary gains. Musk clearly is an extremely savvy technology expert and businessman. And he is among the most successful at convincing government officials and agencies to “invest” in products he builds and markets (or tries to market). While the most visible of Musk’s ventures are his solar-powered products — including the Tesla automobile — for several years he has been actively developing rocket boosters with which to deliver payloads into earth orbit. Just last month, Musk’s SpaceX venture captured front-page coverage around the world with the successful launch of his...
by Bob Barr | Mar 7, 2018 | Uncategorized |
The Washington Times By Bob Barr – – Tuesday, March 6, 2018 ANALYSIS/OPINION: Whether one labels it a “crisis” or an “epidemic,” or understates it simply as a “problem,” no reasonable observer can consider the human and monetary cost of opioid abuse anything other than a matter of the utmost national importance. In 2016 alone, more than 64,000 people died from drug overdoses in America; the highest number ever recorded. The opioid crisis has cost the United States more than $1 trillion since 2001. President Trump appropriately has declared it a “public health emergency.” To try and end the epidemic and obtain for addicts the help they need, the demand for opiate-treatment drugs has skyrocketed; unfortunately, a result not without its own set of problems. It is well-known that the drug buprenorphine, properly administered, can manage opioid dependency. The drug reduces craving for opioids, and in a properly managed regimen, truly can reverse the tide of addiction and death. However, one drug company — Indivior, which produces buprenorphine under the patent Suboxone — has viewed the opioid crisis as nothing more than a profit-making opportunity. Rather than increasing the quantity of opiate treatment drugs available, Indivior has done everything possible to keep its own prices high and lock competitors out of the market. This profit-driven effort has been called a “shocking scheme to profit off of heroin addicts,” with the drug maker’s actions leading to “nearly a billion dollars in undeserved profits.” This scheme appears not only to violate state and federal antitrust laws, but every notion of common decency and ethics in coming together to solve our country’s current drug epidemic....
by Bob Barr | Mar 7, 2018 | Uncategorized |
Townhall.com Cherry Blossom season approaches our nation’s capital, the Congress remains gridlocked, and Robert Mueller, the latest “special counsel,” continues his free-wheeling search to unearth “Russian collusion” armed with a limit-free credit card. All the while, the most recent mass murder involving a firearm fans the flames of gun-control ire from the state legislature in Tallahassee, Florida to Clarksburg, West Virginia (home of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS). Amidst all these goings on, President Trump continues to display his unique understanding of our Bill of Rights. Last week, during a televised meeting with Republican congressional leaders about the February mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, the President declared that the notion of “due process” is little more than a footnote to the United States Constitution. The President’s view notwithstanding, the principle of due process – that a citizen is absolutely entitled to his or her “day in court” before the government may take action against them – is a bedrock of our representative democracy. This is the case whether one considers a special counsel attempting to gather evidence against a person believed to have broken the law; or a federal agent seeking to deny someone their constitutionally-guaranteed right to possess a firearm. Imagine for a moment, how large would be the crowd of defendants facing charges initiated by Mueller, in addition to Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, if the Special Counsel could — to paraphrase Trump – “arrest now, give due process later.” Manafort would have plenty of company. And yet the President states publicly — in a room full of lawmakers, each of who has taken...
by Bob Barr | Feb 21, 2018 | Uncategorized |
Townhall.com This is the first in a two-part series on issues relating to and arising out of the mass murders at the high school in Parkland, Florida last week. The second piece by Congressman Barr will appear next Wednesday. The Los Angeles Times, a newspaper with the fourth-largest circulation in the country, published an editorial on last week’s mass murder in Florida. The newspaper’s long-time columnist George Skelton opined that “[m]ass shootings will continue in this country until we finally ban mass-shooting weapons.” Skelton’s missive was as philosophically deep and intellectually cogent as an attempt by a middle school student to analyze the intricacies of national defense strategies in a multi-polar world order. While I do not doubt that this writer takes his work and his analysis seriously, the views he expresses add absolutely nothing of true substance to the ongoing debates about either what motivates and facilitates mass murderers, or understanding the tools with which these evil acts are committed. In this regard, Skelton reflects nothing but the emerging world view that simplistic solutions will solve complex problems. Skelton’s approach mimics that of gun-control advocates such as “Everytown USA,” an entity supported by well-known gun control hypocrite Michael Bloomberg. This approach rests on the belief that outlawing this, that, or some other gun will stop evildoers such as the individual who visited such horrors on innocent boys, girls, men and women in Parkland, Florida last week. The Los Angeles-based writer resides also in the company of countless Democrat office holders who trip over themselves to be the first to propose the same failed gun control initiatives in the...
by Bob Barr | Feb 21, 2018 | Uncategorized |
Investor’s Business Daily America’s wireless spectrum — that long-neglected part of our vital national infrastructure – finally is receiving much needed attention by the Congress and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). XChanges that are important for broadband modernization, however, could be short-circuited by Washington’s continuing budgetary mess. The changes also could become an unintended victim to debates surrounding the creation of a new, “5G” network. Citizens everywhere, especially those in rural parts of the country, have a stake in ensuring that neither contingency occurs. Most of the attention paid to “infrastructure,” including by President Trump in his recent state of the union address, focuses on our physical infrastructure — bridges, highways, water systems, and rail. Just as important, but far less noticed, is a vital but largely invisible component of America’s infrastructure — the wireless spectrum. Just like a concrete interstate highway, the wireless spectrum has a finite capacity. Sooner or later, only so many users can “ride” its frequencies before it becomes overcrowded, clogged, and eventually, unusable. Unfortunately, while a highway can be widened and more lanes added, the wireless spectrum used by broadcasters cannot. There are only so many megahertz “lanes” or frequencies available for use. Because demand for space has skyrocketed in this digital age — with cell phones, social media, television, radio, law enforcement, 911 emergency systems, and more competing for signal strength — something had to be done to modernize the spectrum so it did not “collapse” under the weight of massively increased demand. These problems demanded the attention of the federal government, which controls the wireless spectrum in the “public interest,” and in 2012 the Congress responded appropriately,...
