Phil Kerpen

By Phil Kerpen | Published: 12:00 AM 07/15/2010

Credit or debit? It’s become a familiar part of the check-out ritual for retail transactions. Many of us, even though we are using bank debit cards, choose the “credit” option, which is actually a debit transaction that runs over the same Visa or MasterCard network that processes credit card transactions. There are lots of valid reasons for choosing “credit” but many big merchants want to take the “credit or debit” choice away from customers.

Regulations would mean lower fees for merchants but less choice for their customers. And while such regulations have no conceivable connection to the housing bubble or the financial meltdown, they are hitching a ride on the so-called Wall Street Reform bill that will soon be voted on in the U.S. Senate.

Read the rest at Daily Caller.

By Phil Kerpen | Published: 04/21/10 at 11:38 AM

Apparently the EPA’s current regulatory rampage is inadequate for the astonishingly big government taste of Jim Oberstar of Minnesota. The EPA is already limiting airplane de-icing fluid, launching a public propaganda campaign on the benefits of regulation, and readying a dizzying onslaught of global warming regulations. But the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee envisions something even more extreme: dramatically expand the Clean Water Act to give the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers control over all the water—and all the land—in the United States.

Read more the rest at Daily Caller.

Listen to a related 2-minute KerpenCast here.

President Obama's Nobel prize is not a recognition of a person who has done the most or best work for peace but a nakedly political move from adoring Europeans to boost Obama’s political fortunes.

Phil Kerpen - FOXNews.com - October 09, 2009

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, appointed by the parliament of Norway, shocked the world today by awarding its Peace Prize—already devalued in the eyes of many for honoring former president Jimmy Carter and former vice president Al Gore, as well as Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yassir Arafat—to President Barack Obama. The prize was officially awarded to Obama “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” When I saw the news alert in my e-mail this morning, I thought it was a joke.

Read the rest on FOX Forum.

Let's hope the Senate's main Republican negotiators don't follow Harry and Louise's lead on health care or the losers will be small businesses and regular hard-working Americans.

Phil Kerpen
- FOXNews.com
- July 30, 2009

Harry and Louise are back on TV, but the most famous critics of HillaryCare are now supporters of ObamaCare. It's a sign of the times. The big insurance companies that Harry and Louise are best known for representing have been cut in for a slice of the action. They sold out. Now the key question is: will GOP senators follow their lead?

Read the rest at Fox Forum.

Listen to my related 2-minutes Podcast on this issue.

By: Tim Phillips and Phil Kerpen
OpEd Contributor
July 30, 2009

Much has been made of Sonia Sotomayor's rejection of the idea of empathy during her confirmation hearings, when she said: "I wouldn't approach the issue of judging in the way the president does." We would take comfort if it didn't represent such a big shift from her earlier statements. Instead it simply underscores our concerns that she will continue to make unpredictable decisions from the bench.

June 10, 2009 4:00 AM
The Supreme Court nominee’s track record reveals an antagonism toward private industry.

By Phil Kerpen

Supreme Court nomination battles tend to focus on the more emotional, hot-button constitutional issues of the day. But the most sweeping — and frightening — implications of a Sotomayor tenure on the Supreme Court may be in the realm of business.

Business cases make up a large and growing portion of the Roberts Court’s docket. They represent a third of the total cases and a majority of the civil cases the Court hears. In short, business is big business for the Supreme Court, a fact that makes Sonia Sotomayor’s anti-business track record extremely troubling.