The Morning After, I struggle to find the words to fully explain the significance of what happened yesterday at the March on Washington. The day belongs to the thousands of volunteers who joined together to organize this marvelous day. To those who worked so hard, and to every single American that marched: Thank You.

The crowd was HUGE. Any reporter that claims thousands, or even tens of thousands of attendees was either not there or was willfully misreporting the significance of the event.

Yesterday was a historic day for freedom. But if you watch television news, or read the newspapers, you wouldn’t know it. Only C-SPAN really captured the event, with their live broadcast from the West Front of the Capitol Building. The media coverage was absolutely pathetic, grossly underestimating the size of the crowds at Freedom Plaza and the Capitol.

But pictures don’t lie, and although I don’t know exactly how many people marched yesterday, it’s safe to say it was one of the largest protests in Washington, ever. Check out this time-lapse video from above Freedom Plaza, as the crowd gathered to march. Also, our friends at Free Republic put together this great photo collage of the crowd on Pennsylvania Avenue. Watch NBC’s coverage here.

For many years liberal radicals have advanced their agenda with great success through our courts. Knowing that their policies are not supported by the vast majority of Americans, they have turned to liberal judges who distort our laws and the Constitution to bring about what they view as “progress.”

That is why when President Obama was elected and liberals gained a majority in the Senate there was great rejoicing among the elite, because they believed (and still do) that they would get all their policies enacted and, above all, pack the courts with activists that can help them advance their agenda at an even faster pace. Confirming judges with “empathy” for their causes was, therefore, a top priority.

In reality, the President’s budget agenda would result in:

An additional $5 trillion in spending, $1 trillion in revenues, and $4 trillion in deficits over the next decade; Budget deficits adding $13 trillion to the national debt over the next decade; The national debt held by the public surpassing $20 trillion by 2019, reaching nearly 100 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) Annual budget deficits rising to nearly $2 trillion by 2019 Spending surpassing 28 percent of GDP by 2019, shattering the peacetime record set this year; and
Washington spending more than $37,000 per household in 2019, compared with $25,000 per household in 2008.

Congress is showing contempt for the American people by excluding them from the crafting of Obamacare. The president promised in his campaign he’d deliver transparency, saying, “I’m going to have all the negotiations around a big table” with everybody involved. Those that can’t make it would be able to see “the negotiations televised on C-SPAN.” Too bad this isn’t happening: yet another broken Obama promise.

We, the undersigned economists,* write in support of sensible limits on the growth of government at the state and local level. Although there has been much debate on such efforts in the political sphere, a large body of academic research clearly shows that lower tax rates and modest growth in government spending help to promote greater economic expansion and job creation. Any state seeking long-term prosperity for its citizens should enact laws that will prevent the public sector from growing at a rate faster than the private sector can afford. An excellent and proven limit would consist of annual increases in inflation plus population, with overrides upon consent of the voters.

During good times as well as bad, many states increased government spending with reckless abandon. To pay for the irresponsible legacy they created, elected officials in these states have recently resorted to one-time influxes from the federal government’s stimulus package and/or draconian tax increases. Even prior to the current economic slump, however, states have often trapped themselves in perpetually unstable budgetary patterns. Government consumes too much of the economy, in turn leading to less private-sector productivity, lower revenues, and bigger deficits – finally coming full circle to additional tax increases. Well-drafted tax and expenditure limitations restore predictability to fiscal policy, benefiting both public officials and citizens.

There is perhaps no better example of this pattern than the state of California. Between 2003 and 2007, the state’s budget increased by 31 percent. Meanwhile, inflation during that period was only 12 percent and population growth was just 5 percent.[1] The legislature has had to convene two frantic sessions in the last eight months alone to close first a $42 billion budget deficit and later a $26 billion hole created by this spending binge. The budget deals raised California’s already high income and sales taxes and resorted to several accounting gimmicks to bridge the gap. These moves are likely to worsen the economic climate in a state that already has the 6th-highest state and local tax burdens and the 3rd-worst business tax climate in the U.S., according to the Tax Foundation.[2]

Political considerations aside, rules still do matter in taxing and spending policy. Prudent limits, which allow governments to grow only by inflation and population unless voters say otherwise, are workable and flexible tools that prevent fiscal instability and promote economic health.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

According to the 2009 Edition of Rich States, Poor States: ALEC Laffer State Economic Competitiveness Index, Maine is ranked 47th of the states in its Economic Outlook Rank. Jonathan Williams and co-authors Steve Moore and Arthur Laffer used 15 policy variables when grading the states. One of those policy variables was spending limitations.

Our troops will be interested to know that the Senate is focused on bringing home a victory in one campaign: their own. When the chamber marked-up the Defense appropriations bill, some Senators started siphoning away billions of dollars in military equipment for their own pet projects. At last count, there were over 778 earmarks attached to the bill, most of which are completely unnecessary or irrelevant–or both! The Washington Times exposed a few of these “needs” last week

This weekend, after casting previous no-tax-increase promises on the part of the President and transparency promises by Speaker Pelosi aside, the House of Representatives narrowly passed the Democrats’ monstrosity of a health bill at a vote of 220 to 215. One in seven Democrats and all but one Republican opposed the bill.

WASHINGTON-In Russia the last czar, Nicholas II, died in 1918, shot by Bolshevik revolutionaries. But the title did not die with his assassination. It simply migrated to Washington.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi defied policy logic and public opinion late Saturday night, ramming through the House a nearly 2,000-page health-care leviathan that counts as the biggest expansion of the federal government since the New Deal. As President Obama likes to say, this was a “teachable moment” about our current government.
The vote was 220 to 215, with 39 House Democrats joining all but one Republican in opposition. Mrs. Pelosi had to cajole and bribe her way to the magic 218, and the list of her promises must be stacked to the ceiling.
The lone Republican, Joseph Cao, represents a Democratic-leaning Louisiana district and extracted a promise that Mr. Obama would increase Medicaid payments to his state, and even then he only voted after Democrats had already hit 218. Let no one suggest this was the “bipartisan” health reform that Mr. Obama has long promised.

BEIJING (Reuters) – China sent its clearest signal yet that it was ready to allow yuan appreciation after an 18-month hiatus, saying on Wednesday it would consider major currencies, not just the dollar, in guiding the exchange rate.

Anniversaries are opportunities to reflect on the past, and on what it might mean for the future. Monday saw the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, even if Barack Obama could not find time to travel once again to Berlin to attend the commemoration there. And Wednesday is the 91st anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I.

Just how soft is the support for President Obama’s health insurance reform plan? Yesterday’s Gallup poll of 1,000 American adults offers some clues.
The percentage of respondents who would advise their member of Congress to vote for the bill in Congress this year has reached a new low at 29 percent. Thirty-eight percent advise a “no” vote. The number who are unsure about the bill has risen over the last three Gallup surveys, from 22 percent to 33 percent. And importantly, independent voters oppose the bill, 44 to 33 percent.

Invited on Tuesday’s Today show to promote her new book, Carrie Prejean defended the latest scrutiny surrounding her as the latest example of “liberal bias in the media,” of “conservative women” being attacked. When confronted by Today co-anchor Meredith Vieira about her assertion she’s been “Palinized,” Prejean threw back “Do you think Sarah Palin has been attacked,” to which Vieira dodged the liberal bias charge simply stating: “I think Sarah Palin has certainly been criticized, absolutely, by a lot people, as have many politicians.” Prejean then slammed Vieira’s NBC colleague Keith Olbermann:

MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan anchored a segment on Tuesday’s Morning Meeting that worried about the “far right” and wondered whether “super conservatives” are alienating “GOP centrists.” The host hyperbolically spun, “But are the super conservatives of our country careening the GOP toward the edge of irrelevance, leaving centrists Republicans fighting for control of their own party?” Later, his colleague Contessa Brewer inadvertently referred to Florida conservative Marco Rubio as the “great white hope.” (Mr. Rubio is Hispanic.) [Audio available here.]

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission has set a one-month deadline to review Kraft Foods Inc’s (KFT.N) $16 billion hostile bid for British chocolate maker Cadbury (CBRY.L) after the U.S. food group notified EU regulators.

Rasmussen.

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