Must-Reads for July 27

Washington Times: On course to collide with fiscal cliff

The drumbeat for 3-1 or 5-1 spending cuts to tax increases already has started. Those who resist higher taxes are being cast as extremists and protectors of moneyed interests. In reality, we must resist tax increases because more revenue for the federal government just makes it easier to spend more, not less. It takes the pressure off lawmakers to make much-needed spending cuts — ones that are always promised in the grand bargain but never seem to materialize in yearly budgets.

It’s not just an opportunity for states to resist the law’s federally designed strictures. It’s a rare opportunity to run a nationwide health policy experiment, testing the health and budgetary outcomes in states that choose to implement the law against those that don’t.

Real Clear Policy: The growing dangers of cronyism

So what’s wrong with this cozy relationship between business and government? It’s not just that cronyism takes wealth from the less politically organized to give to the more politically organized, but also that this taking and giving destroys wealth. For example, when the government bails out its cronies (think former Treasury Secretary Paulson and AIG), it destroys wealth in several ways.

Wall Street Journal: If the election is about capitalism, what does that mean?

"The American public sees business and capitalism as inextricably linked" and has "definitely" become more critical of both, says Mark Bertolini, the CEO of Aetna. He blames today's "political rhetoric" but also the "flagrant abuses by some sectors." His prescription: "American business needs to reestablish in the public's mind that we are a significant force to provide jobs and careers to millions of Americans through capitalism."  

Must-Reads for July 26

Reason: Government Did Not Build Your Business

Adding up all of the natural and produced capital and dividing it by our population, the World Bank calculated in 2005 that our natural capital amounted to about $14,000 per person, and produced capital was about $100,000 per capita. Intangible capital was a whopping $627,000 per person. In other words, about 85 percent of American wealth consists of institutional and social capital, such as strong property rights, the rule of law, an honest bureaucracy, and an educated populace, that enable the process of entrepreneurial innovation and job creation in free markets.

Washington Post: Europe must face up to ongoing euro crisis

All along, it has been a mistake to describe the euro zone’s difficulties as a “currency crisis.” In fact, it’s a political crisis, caused by an addiction to debt, and it requires a political solution. Electorates have learned the truth: They are bankrupt. Whatever decisions the European Union now makes, future recovery depends on how much of the plain facts ordinary people can bear to absorb.  

From the 1960s onward, the professional Democratic Party began to lose its relationship with the private economy. Democratic politicians drew closer to a rising public-sector union movement and its campaign financing, while the private unions declined. This meant the party itself was slowly disconnecting from the machinery of the private economy and becoming part of a rising parallel economy, the public economy of government.

Must-Reads for July 25

SmartMoney:Businessmen Versus Bureaucrats

Reason is the businessperson's approach. Regardless if he is a trader, a CEO or lemonade-stand operator, the capitalist understands that if he wants something from you, he's got to offer you a value in return.

Lame-duck sessions have been used in the past to ram through gas tax hikes, congressional pay raises, debt limit increases, thousands of wasteful earmarks and trillions of dollars in new spending.

Chicago Tribune: Putting the brakes on food trucks

The measure the City Council is likely to approve Wednesday seems designed to contain the food truck trend, not to nurture it.

Must-Reads for July 24

Reason: Generational warfare

It is hard to know which is more depressing: the punishing and sure-to-rise price that younger Americans are forced to pay for a system that steals from the relatively poor to give to the relatively rich, or the smugness with which champions of this patently unfair system insist on its righteousness.

Forbes: How do blue states expand Medicaid? By paying doctors less

If you want to see the future of Medicaid, all you have to do is look at the blue states where progressives hold sway, where governments have expanded Medicaid by paying doctors less.

Reason: Public safety officials evade salary and pension reforms

Unlike most public sector unions, which are largely seen as aligned with Democrats, police and fire unions behave in a more bi-partisan manner by occasionally endorsing Republicans, says Vincent Vernuccio, a labor policy expert at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. This dynamic leaves neither party acting as a watchdog.

Must-Reads for July 23

The Hill: Poll - Majority of voters blame president for bad economy

66 percent believe paltry job growth and slow economic recovery is the result of bad policy.

Human Events: 5 ways to get America working again

Step one? Please, stop.

Reason: Where are the jobs? The parallels between today and the Great Depression

If only the administration had watched our 2010 ReasonTV video explaining how their policies would fail to cure our employment woes.

Quad-Cities Online: When buy American means buy union

American workers are among the best in the world and can compete with anyone -- as long as government and unions aren't holding them back.

Townhall: America without the 1%

he reason this country and the world has prospered and been given opportunities is due in large part to the 1%.