Phil Kerpen

It is always foolish for a country to order the burning of its food supply, but it takes a special kind of depravity to do it in the midst of a severe drought. Yet that is precisely what the misguided federal ethanol mandate is doing, requiring the burning of 40 percent of the corn supply at a time of shortages and sky-high prices. If no action is taken, the impact will be another spike in grocery prices next year, as well as devastation for farmers and ranchers attempting to cope with higher feed prices.

Read the rest at American Commitment.

Published: 12:55 PM 08/29/2012
By Phil Kerpen

Obama’s astonishing takeover of the automobile industry, unlike his health care takeover, occurred without even a vote of Congress. Yesterday, to much fanfare, the administration announced its astonishing ratcheting up of vehicle fuel economy standards to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. These regulations — I call them “ObamaCar” — were accomplished not through open debate in Congress, but through corrupt backroom deals in which our elected officials had no voice.

Read the rest at the Daily Caller.

In 1999, the American Association of Retired Persons officially changed its name to "AARP," which has since officially stood for nothing. So it’s fitting that in the orgy of corrupt backroom deals that resulted in the president’s deeply unpopular health care law, the worst of all was cut by AARP, an insurance purveyor that used to be a seniors group. With Obama taking to the airwaves touting AARP support, it’s important to remember how the dirty deal was done.

Read the rest at Fox News Opinion.

When Congress returns to Washington in September, it needs to do more than hold a few political posturing votes before going home to campaign. Even if a continuing resolution to fund government is passed as expected, there are still serious unresolved issues that should not be left for an unaccountable lame-duck session. Not only should Congress act to avert the toxic brew of tax hikes coming at the end of the year, but it should also act to check lame-duck regulatory abuses by the Obama administration.

Read the rest at American Commitment.

The Senate shouldn’t let the IRS trample states on health care.

By Phil Kerpen

In an affront to openness and representative government, the IRS is attempting to rewrite the president’s health-care law to overrule states that lawfully opted out of vast new taxpayer-funded subsidies to insurance companies. Fortunately, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin has stepped forward with a resolution, S.J. Res. 48, that would overturn the IRS power grab. If enough of his Senate colleagues sign on, he can force a Senate floor vote, giving the American people an opportunity to see where every senator stands. It might be the only health-care vote in the Senate before the November elections.

Read the rest at National Review Online and fight back at IRSPowerGrab.com.

Without reform Medicare will go bankrupt. So, it is not a question of “if” Medicare will be cut but “how.” President Barack Obama’s approach is to simply gut Medicare’s funding and let the bureaucrats decide who does or doesn’t receive care. Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s approach is to inject individual choice and competition into the program to provide more with less and to let patients, not bureaucrats, decide how to spend scarce resources. Ryan’s approach puts seniors first; Obama’s puts Washington bureaucrats first.

Read the rest at Amerian Commitment.