No on Prop 82

Please don't fall for the Rob Reiner scam to increase government bureaucracy and increase the influence of teacher unions:

No on Prop. 82 Lofty goals compromised by lousy planning

FEW people would dispute the merit of Proposition 82's goals: offering preschool to every 4-year-old in California, helping kids to learn to read by third grade, decreasing dropout rates.

The problem is that, if passed, Proposition 82 is unlikely to achieve these goals, and very likely to expand government bureaucracy.

Why? Because at its core, the Rob Reiner-backed Preschool for All measure is just an expansion of a already-troubled educational system.

The measure would raise approximately $2.4 billion a year by levying a 1.7 percent tax on wealthy Californians who earn upward of $400,000 a year. Much of that money would go toward building an entire new bureaucracy that could end up strangling many of the state's existing, successful pre-school programs with red tape.

For the sake of context, let's revisit the last Reiner-backed initiative, and see how well that worked for California.

Back in 1998, Reiner sponsored Proposition 10, which targeted another unpopular California minority smokers with a tax hike to pay for early childhood education programs. Some 20 percent of Proposition 10 revenues ended up falling under the control of the First 5 California Children and Families Commission, headed by none other than Reiner himself.

So what did Team Reiner do with all that cash?

Well, out of $800 million, some $230 million was blown on advertising and PR. The commission also spent $23 million touting the value

of preschool programs at the very time Reiner was trying to get Proposition 82 on the ballot which is grossly inappropriate, if not technically illegal.

With that track record, it takes some gall for Reiner to now come looking for yet more money for childhood education.

Because most California 4-year-olds are already in a pre-school program of some kind, Proposition 82 would have the effect of providing a subsidy for a great many families who don't need it. That would be fine if Sacramento had unlimited money and no other educational concerns, but it doesn't.

Before expanding California's deeply troubled public-school system, we ought to fix the problems already endemic in the existing K-12 program. Smaller class sizes, better teachers and parental empowerment as well as higher academic standards would all seem more pressing priorities than a massive, unnecessary subsidy and a new bureaucracy.

Good intentions aren't enough to save Proposition 82 from its overwhelming flaws.

Read the whole article here.

Iraq Revisionist History

From a great article by Peter Wehner:

"The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) is the intelligence community's authoritative written judgment on specific national-security issues. The 2002 NIE provided a key judgment: "Iraq has continued its [WMD] programs in defiance of U.N. resolutions and restrictions. Baghdad has chemical and biological weapons as well as missiles with ranges in excess of U.N. restrictions; if left unchecked, it probably will have a nuclear weapon during this decade."

WMDs:
Upon his return from Iraq, weapons inspector David Kay, head of the Iraq Survey Group (ISG), told the Senate: "I actually think this may be one of those cases where [Iraq under Saddam Hussein] was even more dangerous than we thought." His statement when issuing the ISG progress report said: "We have discovered dozens of WMD-related program activities" that were part of "deliberate concealment efforts" that should have been declared to the U.N. And, he concluded, "Saddam, at least as judged by those scientists and other insiders who worked in his military-industrial programs, had not given up his aspirations and intentions to continue to acquire weapons of mass destruction."

...In fact, President Bush argued for democracy taking root in Iraq before the war began. To take just one example, he said in a speech on Feb. 26, 2003: "A liberated Iraq can show the power of freedom to transform that vital region, by bringing hope and progress into the lives of millions. America's interests in security, and America's belief in liberty, both lead in the same direction: to a free and peaceful Iraq. . . . The world has a clear interest in the spread of democratic values, because stable and free nations do not breed the ideologies of murder. They encourage the peaceful pursuit of a better life. And there are hopeful signs of a desire for freedom in the Middle East. . . . A new regime in Iraq would serve as a dramatic and inspiring example of freedom for other nations in the region."

Read the whole article here.

Gore's Global Warming

From writer Holman Jenkins:

Mr. Gore's narrative isn't science, but science fiction. It also contains a large element of political fiction, relying on the hack theme of good guys versus bad guys. Hint to filmmakers: An honest policy argument usually takes the form of one of two questions: "Whose rights trump?" and "What's welfare maximizing?"

Mr. Gore did not discover global warming and hasn't been a voice in the wilderness. Our political system has looked at the question closely, in a way Mr. Gore's film doesn't, and repeatedly concluded that the cost of action is greater than the known or surmised risks. That's all it can do. Thus the Senate and Presidents Clinton and Bush all made clear that they wouldn't sign up for a Kyoto gesture that imposes real costs with no real benefits.

This argument will come back again and again, as it must. As for the auteur, where many politicians seem like overhungry adolescents, Mr. Gore seems like a stifled 9-year-old--by turns spoiled and bullied, unwilling fully to meet expectations but unwilling also to take his own path. So what about gas prices? He needs to decide: Does he want to be a presidential contender or does he want to be the deliverer of "inconvenient truths" about climate change?

Go here for the whole article.

Tax Rate Cuts Increases Tax Revenues

From todays Wall Street Journal:

The Treasury reported last week that tax receipts in April jumped 13.5% from a year earlier to $315.1 billion -- much of that increase coming from taxes on investments and other sources of income more important to the wealthy. Receipts from these so-called nonwithheld taxes in April, a month when many tax returns are filed, were up about 17% from a year earlier. (Most Americans have the bulk of their taxes withheld from wages paid through the year.)

Treasury Secretary John Snow, in a speech to the Bond Market Association Friday, said: "The results are in, and they are clear: Economic growth has led to a surge of tax revenues and shrinking deficits. Despite the cries from our critics, it cannot be denied that low taxes truly are consistent with rising federal revenues, which of course help bring the deficit down."

Read the whole article here.

Iraq Index Shows Progress Being Made

The Brookings Institution released its latest Iraq Index this week. I would encourage you to read it all, but here are some notable items:

1. Per Capita GDP (USD) for 2005 is forecast to increase from the previous year to $1,051. In 2002 it was $802.
2. Increases in GDP for the next five years: 16.8, 13.6, 12.5, 7.8, and 7.2.
3. Actionable tips from Iraqis have increased every month this year. In January, 4,025 tips were received; February, 4,235; and March, 4,578.
4. On an index of political freedom for countries in the Middle East, Iraq now ranks fourth, just below Israel, Lebanon, and Morocco.
5. Crude oil production reached 2.14 million barrels a day (MBD) in April of this year. It had dropped to 0.3 MBD in May of 2003.
6. Revenues from oil export have only slightly increased from pre-war levels of $0.2 billion, to $0.62 billion in April.
7. Electrical output is almost at the pre-war level of 3,958 megawatts. April's production was 3,600 megawatts. In May of 2003, production was only 500 megawatts. The goal is to reach 6,000 megawatts, and was originally expected to be met in 2004.
8. The unemployment rate in June of 2003 was 50-60%, and in April of this year it had dropped to 25-40%.
9. The number of U.S. military wounded has declined significantly from a high of 1,397 in November 2004 to 430 in April of this year.
10. Iraqi military casualties were 201 in April of 2006, after peaking at 304 in July of 2005.
11. As of December 2005, countries other than the U.S., plus the World Bank and IMF, have pledged almost $14 billion in reconstruction aid to Iraq.
12. Significant progress has also been made towards the rule of law. In May 2003 there were no trained judges, but as of October 2005 there were 351.
13. As of January 2006, 64% of Iraqis polled said that the country was headed in the right direction.
14. Also as of January 2006, 77% said that removing Saddam Hussein was the right thing to do.
15. In May of 2003, Iraqi Security Forces were estimated at between 7,000-9,000. They numbered 250,500 in March of this year.
16. The breakdown of foreign terrorists by country of origin is interesting. The largest number come from Algeria, at 20%. The next two countries are Syria and Yemen, at 18% and 17%, respectively.
17. The number of foreign terrorists fighting in Iraq was estimated at between 300 and 500 in January 2004. That number increased in April of this year, to between 700 and 2,000.
18. From May 2003 and April 2006, between 1,000 and 3,000 anti-Iraqi forces have been killed each month.

There is plenty to pleased about here, and much progress for the mainstream media and the left to ignore.

(this post was generously lifted from All Things Conservative)

Soak The Rich

According to Stephen Moore in the Wall Street Journal:

"Between 2001 and 2004 (the most recent data), the percentage of federal income taxes paid by those with $200,000 incomes and above has risen to 46.6% from 40.5%. In other words, out of every 100 Americans, the wealthiest three are now paying close to the same amount in taxes as the other 97 combined. The richest income group pays a larger share of the tax burden than at anytime in the last 30 years with the exception of the late 1990s -- right before the artificially inflated high tech bubble burst."

"We can already hear the left objecting that the rich are paying more taxes simply because they have hoarded all the income gains, while the middle class and poor wallow in economic quicksand. But, again, the IRS data tell a more upbeat story of widespread financial gains for American families. The slice of the total income pie captured by the richest 1%, 5% and 10% of Americans is lower today than in the last years of the Clinton administration."

"Of course, in the real world, financial incentives through tax policy changes matter a great deal in altering economic behavior. And we now have the evidence to confirm that the latest round of tax cuts worked -- five million new jobs, a 25% increase in business spending, 4% real economic growth for three years and a $4 trillion gain in net wealth. So now the very class-warfare groups who, three years ago, swore that the tax cuts would tank the economy rather than revive it, pretend that this robust expansion would have happened without the investment tax cuts. Many Democrats on Capitol Hill recite this fairy tale over and over."


Read the whole article here.