THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Articles by THE WASHINGTON TIMES
EDITORIAL: The piano police
Bureaucrats at the Federal Trade Commission must have a lot of spare time. The agency recently swooped to rescue the American people from the threat posed by a collaborative organization of 22,000 professionals who sit down with youngsters and teach them how to play a piano. Published December 5, 2013
EDITORIAL: Obama’s veiled threat
With his trademark grin and natural charm, President Obama knows how to connect with an audience. So it was when he gave the commencement address to Arizona State University's class of 2009, thrilling a crowd of 60,000 assembled in Sun Devil Stadium. Looking back on his remarks today, his words are much less amusing. Published December 5, 2013
EDITORIAL: The trouble with trolls
With time running out on this year's congressional session, leaders are anxious to find something, anything, that they can tout as an accomplishment back home. With little good news on the budget and taxes, the House will try its hand at getting something done on legal reform. Published December 4, 2013
EDITORIAL: Free-lunch economics
After five years of stimulus schemes ranging from federal bailouts and a trillion-dollar stimulus package to the Cash for Clunkers program, Americans have yet to enjoy the "Recovery Summer" that they were once promised. Now, President Obama is promoting food stamps as the next great form of economic stimulus. Published December 4, 2013
EDITORIAL: Don’t hike the gas tax
The first thought that pops into the mind of Rep. Earl Blumenauer when he sees prices at the gasoline pump is: They ought to be higher. The Oregon Democrat introduced legislation Tuesday to nearly double the federal gas tax from 18.4 cents per gallon to 33.4 cents over the next three years. By indexing the amount to inflation, the tax would hike itself automatically each year. Published December 4, 2013
EDITORIAL: The HHS blood feud
Every once in a while a case arises and gives Americans a glimpse at what a government-run health care system is really going to be like. Think of an uncaring bureaucracy, making decisions with a "government knows best" attitude that threatens the lives and health of thousands. Doreen Gummoe doesn't have to imagine it; she lives the fight every day. Published December 3, 2013
EDITORIAL: The Obamacare rematch
Obamacare is headed for a do-over in the Supreme Court, and perhaps this time the court will be more amenable to doing its duty by putting this badly implemented scheme out of the nation's misery. The high court on Monday declined to hear Liberty University's expansive challenge to the employer mandate, but it did agree last week to consider a more focused challenge to the requirement that private firms pay for contraceptive devices and abortions, regardless of any moral objections they might have. Published December 3, 2013
EDITORIAL: Motor City meltdown
Another day and another of President Obama's campaign boasts bites the dust. While out on the hustings last year, Mr. Obama pummeled Mitt Romney for writing a 2008 op-ed column in The New York Times titled "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." Published December 3, 2013
EDITORIAL: Black Friday’s union blues
The Grinch wants to dampen the holiday spirit, and he's wearing the union label. On the day after Thanksgiving, when many decide to pick up presents for loved ones at a discount, this spoilsport arranged for activists to frighten shoppers away from non-union stores with picket lines. Americans weren't deterred. Published December 2, 2013
EDITORIAL: Equality and envy
London's outspoken mayor stepped into controversy last week by daring to acknowledge that some people are more gifted than others. Labor Party leaders and even a few weak-kneed Conservatives rushed to distance themselves from Boris Johnson over this not-particularly revealing admission. Published December 2, 2013
EDITORIAL: Colorado’s lesson for Virginia
Sometimes the worst possible gift for a liberal is to give him everything he wants. President Obama no doubt feels this after getting his way on Obamacare, which is easily the biggest disaster of his presidency. Colorado Democrats are likewise stinging after they rammed a gun-control scheme through the legislature in March that has the public screaming for their heads. These Democratic lawmakers ought to warn their newly elected colleagues in Virginia against repeating the same mistake. Published December 2, 2013
EDITORIAL: Cookie criminals
The American dream of owning a small business often crumbles because of half-baked government rules and regulations. In Minnesota, the state's leaders have decreed that goods cooked at home can be sold at county fairs and farmer's markets, but they can't be offered in grocery stores or over the Internet. Published December 1, 2013
EDITORIAL: Obama’s Hollywood values
President Obama dropped in on the DreamWorks movie studio last week while on a West Coast scavenger hunt for Democratic campaign cash. Lavishing praise on an industry that has lavished millions of dollars on him, the president told the assembled cast, crew and executives that "entertainment is part of our American diplomacy" and that Hollywood exports "our values" globally. To paraphrase a previous Democratic president, that all depends on what the definition of "our values" is. Published December 1, 2013
EDITORIAL: A holiday wish for the Fed
Retail shops have been doing whatever it takes, including working on Thanksgiving, to entice a few more customers into stores and online outlets. Even after the final "cyber Monday" sales are tallied, the Christmas-buying season may not have gotten off to a big enough start to revive an economy that's been dragging for the past five years. Published December 1, 2013
EDITORIAL: The NSA’s voyeurs
Millions of Americans will take advantage of Black Friday sales to snap up bargains on the latest smart television sets, tablets and mobile phones. As they plug in these electronic gadgets, many consumers may be wondering whether they'll be reporting back on their viewing habits to the government. Published November 28, 2013
EDITORIAL: Will the Supreme Court rescue Hobby Lobby?
Novelist Robert Heinlein once observed that the worst form of tyranny was forcing someone to pay for what he doesn't want "merely because you think it would be good for him." This is why so many are up in arms over the punishments Obamacare doles out to anyone who fails to purchase what President Obama says is good for them. Relief could be on the horizon, as the Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to review the health care law's most offensive dictates, the contraceptive and abortion mandates. Published November 28, 2013
EDITORIAL: Falsifying government reports to get re-elected?
When government pays for something, it gets more of it. For the past five years, Congress has been pushing "emergency" subsidies for long-term unemployment, and, not surprisingly, we've been getting more joblessness — a fact some have been working overtime to conceal. Published November 28, 2013
EDITORIAL: Grand’ther Baldwin’s Thanksgiving
Underneath protected branches, from the highway just aloof; Stands the house of Grand'ther Baldwin, with its gently sloping roof. Published November 27, 2013
EDITORIAL: A very Obama Thanksgiving
November 1621: Governor Obama of Plymouth Colony prepares for the first Thanksgiving with his scribe, the boy Robert. Published November 27, 2013
EDITORIAL: China’s inevitable slowdown
We've been told so many times that China is about to overtake the U.S. economy that a lot of people are beginning to believe it. Economists of the left-wing persuasion are especially infatuated with this notion, because it implies the superiority of state-directed "semi-capitalism" over the free market. Published November 27, 2013
