Paul Ryan Making Sense, As Usual

Just in case you missed this, it's from March. Probably the smartest congressman alive.

SEC Exempt From Freedom of Information Act

Just why did Congress exempt the Securities and Exchange Commission from the Freedom of Information Act?

Daily Kos' Solution to Social Security

The "problem" of Social Security is easy to fix, writes Jew Lewison at Daily Kos. Just raise taxes!

CBO analysis shows that if all income were subject to the Social Security tax (as opposed to just the first $106,800), Social Security's trust fund would last through 2083. Given the imprecision of 75-year economic forecasts, that should be good enough for now.

Lewison adds that about two thirds of Americans supposedly support lifting the cap. "Problem solved," he notes.

Not really, of course, but it's typical of the statist mind to think that if you manage to delay the inevitable and win popular support for it, you've got yourself a "solution".

New at the Atlantic Sentinel

Here's a little update for you on what's been going on at the Atlantic Sentinel lately.

1) We've engaged in a partnership with The Diplomat, quite probably the finest resources on everything Asia-Pacific. Their coverage of the region is superb. Regular readers of the Sentinel will have noticed me referring to some of their articles in recent weeks. Expect more of that in the time ahead! Be sure to add them to your reader, if you haven't already.

2) Dan DePetris had joined our team! Dan is a grad student with the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. He currently blogs at Political Docket and his posts at the Sentinel are likely to focus on terrorism, counterinsurgency and the Middle East. His first contribution is up today, "GOP Resolution on Iran May Just Be Political."

Obama Going to Call Republicans' "Bluff"

In an interview that was taped with CBS on Friday and will air on the network's Sunday Morning and The Early Show, President Barack Obama had a warning for Republicans who fret about the deficit but have no proposals to cut it. "I'm going to call them on their bluff," he announced.

The president said the same thing last month after the G20 summit in Toronto, Canada.

Asked at the time how he can boost confidence in his administration's ability to cut the deficit in half within three years, considering that Democrats haven't even managed to introduce a proper budget this year, Obama cited a three year discretionary spending freeze, "a whole host of measures to cut programs that aren't working," and PAYGO, which has existed since 1990 and was modified last year in order to allow multibillion dollar stimulus spending.

Last Friday, Obama again promised "a bunch of ideas" for deficit reduction. Wonderful. Again, though, he didn't volunteer any specifics.

Here's some ideas: repeal ObamaCare and while you're at it, abolish Medicare and Medicaid to privatize health care altogether; abolish the Department of Education and get government out of schools; abolish Social Security for anyone, say, everyone under 50 years old and free them from the unchosen responsibility of caring for the elderly; abolish the Department of Energy and the EPA and all the preposterous red tape and regulation that comes with them. And restore sanity to public spending but putting in place a deficit cap at, why, 3 percent perhaps, and save not only the nation from bankruptcy but future generations from financial hardship.

There's a "bunch of ideas" I doubt this or any future administration for that matter will ever contemplate.