Test

p o w e r f u l c o n s e r v a t i v e v o i c e s

®

T h e NaT i o N a l C o N s e rvaT i v e W e e k ly | e s Ta b l i s h e d 1 9 4 4 • Wa s h i N g T o N , d . C . | W e e k o f a P r i l 3 0, 2 0 1 2

®

Who’s Hot, Who’s Not p. 29West Virginians are so fired up about the president’s anti-coal policies, they vote for a prisoner in their May 8 primary; Francois Hollande beats Sarkozy, and pledges taxes on the rich; and more...

Lacey Act criminalizes some actions of importers, requires them to follow foreign laws.

ECONOM Y & BU DGET

Hoopla Over Student Loans Misses the Point p. 8The real issues are high debt, lackluster prospects for new grads.

EN ERGY & EN V I RON M EN T

Congress May Redo Act that Led to Gibson Guitar Raid p. 10

T ECH NOLOGY & FREEDOM

Illinois Judge Rules ‘Amazon Tax’ Unconstitutional p. 12States’ drive to collect taxes hurts Amazon affiliates. Some decide to move elsewhere.

A normally level-headed Panetta caved to a far-left agenda when he proposed to spend billions of dollars on climate change and green initiatives.

Sen. James Inhofe won’t let that happen without a fight. p. 16

The Green Monster

key Topic

84% of Democratic, 83% of Republican and 81% of Independent voters regularly read newspapers in print or online. Impressive online response! 51% of voters rate newspaper websites as reliable, accurate and in-depth for local political/civic issues. That’s more than all other websites. Now, as mobile usage emerges, 58% of voters who use mobile devices for political information use newspaper sources for that news. Seniority counts! The most reliable voting bloc, seniors, are frequent and regular newspaper readers - a whopping 84%. Surprise! 79% of young voters, 18-34, read a newspaper in print or online at least once a week. Even on mobile devices, young voters turn to newspaper sources first for campaign and election news. When it comes to reliable, accurate and in-depth information about local politics, newspapers - print and online - rank #1.

If you’re looking to connect with voters...

Source: Moore Information (January 2012), American Voter Media Use

ReadersVoteVotersRead

... no other medium outperforms newspaper media.

Newspaper Association of America 4401 Wilson Blvd., Suite 900, Arlington, VA 22203 571.366.1000

www.naa.org/political

Page Three

▲ xxx. credit

byline

3Week of May 14, 2012 | HumanEvents.com

▲ Bob Abbey, director of The Bureau of Land Management, and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar sign the Greater Natural Buttes Record of Decision at The Kern River Pipeline Compression Station in Salt Lake City, May 8. NeWSCoM

By Audrey Hudson

The Obama administration’s celebratory announcement of a significant natural gas project in Utah may have been a premature pat-on-the-back as more bureau-

cratic hurdles remain before the project can actually proceed, Republicans say.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced with great fan-fare last week that Utah’s Uinta Basin could begin to develop more than 3,600 new wells over the next decade.

However, each individual well requires a separate permit from the federal government and the average time to process that paperwork is 280 days, according to the House Natural Resources Committee.

“If the Obama administration had simply done its job instead of playing politics, this project would already be well on its way to creating nearly 3,000 jobs and generating $5 billion in rev-enue,” said Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), committee chairman. “Unfortunately, this administration is not taking seriously America’s energy security or the livelihoods of those who have been counting on employment from these natural gas wells.”

Four years of delayRepublicans say the project was nearly ready for approval in the final days of the Bush administration, but that Obama officials managed to delay the process for more than four more years.

“This project has been held up for years by the Environ-mental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Interior Depart-ment while unemployment and a weak economy continue to hurt American families,” Hastings said. “It is sad that what should be a minor Record of Decision for one project in Utah instead becomes a signature achievement of this administra-tion—especially given their long record of blocking energy development.”

Adding insult to injury, Republicans point to a decision early in the Obama administration to cancel nearly 100 oil

and natural gas leases in Utah.“There seems to be no end for this administration’s abil-

ity to play games with America’s energy production and job creation,” Hastings said.

The project will encompass 163,000 acres but will only affect five percent of the surface area, and Salazar assured environmentalists that air quality and critical wildlife habitat will be safeguarded.

“This agreement is a great example of how collaboration can allow us to uphold America’s conservation values, while bringing growth to Utah’s economy and further reducing our dependence on foreign oil by developing our resources here at home,” Salazar said.

“The world today should stand back and just say, ‘Wow! How did they do this?’” Salazar said during the signing cer-emony, according to the Deseret News in Salt Lake City.

Bill Ryan, an energy industry consultant, told the Salt Lake City paper he knows exactly how the agreement was reached: “It was blackmail by the extreme environmental movement. It was politics,” Ryan said. “This was all being handled as a resolution to litigation. It’s another indicator that the system is broken.”

Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), chairman of the House Natu-ral Resources subcommittee on national parks, forests, and public lands, said it would have been “nonsensical” for the Obama administration to ignore the abundant energy re-sources available in his home state.

“This is good news for Utah and undoubtedly provides a glimmer of hope that all is not lost with this administration’s policies on public land use,” Bishop said. “However, more can and should be done. Utah is still working to regain lost ground from the cancellation of 77 leases, and these new leases will be an important part of those recovery efforts with regards to jobs and revenue upon which the state and many com-munities rely.”

Audrey Hudson is a senior reporter for Human Events covering Energy and Environment. She can be reached at [email protected]

obama Administration Gives itself Round of Applause for clerical WorkApproving natural gas wells in Utah took officials four years longer than necessary, but more bureaucratic hurdles remain until the wells are operational.

n In Congress this week: Spending to dominateBy Audrey Hudson

The so-called “war on women” will take center stage this week when the House is expected to consider renewing the Violence Against Women Act, a bill that Democrats and Republicans have agree to fund at $650 million a year for five years.

The money goes to organizations and programs that help prevent domestic violence and other violent crimes against women, however human rights activists are already complaining that it doesn’t do enough to help immigrants.

The House is also expected to vote on legislation to authorize defense spending for the next year, and will take up other spending bills that are ready for floor action.

Meanwhile, the Senate has several issues on its plate that could come up for a vote this week including a bill to renew the lending authority of the export-Import Bank, legislation to keep student loan rates at 3.4 percent and reauthorization of FDA user fees that regulates drug approvals.

The Senate Special Committee on Aging will hold a hearing Tuesday on how to solve the long-term unemployment crisis for older workers, and the Joint economic Committee on Wednesday will examine how the taxation of labor and transfer payments affect growth and employment.

In the House, the Natural Resources Committee will host a field hearing Monday to discuss the elimination of federal red tape and excessive litigation to create healthy forests, jobs and abundant water and power supplies.

The House Ways and Means Committee will hold an oversight hearing on tax-exempt organizations on Wednesday, and the House Financial Services Committee will also conduct oversight work on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s Structured Transaction Program.

4 HumanEvents.com | Week of May 14, 2012

CaPITaL BrIeFS

placing long-serving incumbent Sena-tor Dick Lugar, 80, who was first elect-ed in 1976 and sought a seventh term. He is the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

DeFeNSepoSThuMouS VieTNAM WAR heRo To ReceiVe MeDAl oF hoNoRAfter a month of football spiking and grandstanding, here’s some news about a real American hero.

Army Specialist Leslie H. Sabo Jr. will posthumously be awarded the Medal of Honor at a special White House ceremony May 16 with his wid-ow and brother in attendance. Sabo, who was 22 when he died, was from Ellwood City, Pa.

Sabo, who served as an infantry soldier in the 101st Airborne Division, became worthy of the nation’s highest military honor May 10, 1970 in Se San, Cambodia.

According to portions of Sabo’s cita-tion released by the White House, the soldier reacted with speed and brav-ery when an enemy force ambushed his unit, charging their position and trying to draw fire away from other friendly soldiers. When a grenade landed near a wounded comrade, Sabo threw it away and then shielded the soldier with his own body, taking most of the grenade blast himself. Wound-ed, Sabo crawled toward the enemy’s bunker and tossed one last grenade inside, creating a blast that silenced the enemy, but also ended his own life.

According to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, Sabo will be the 3,459th recipient of the award and the 249th from the Vietnam War. Only 81 Medal of Honor recipients are still living.

cAMpAiGN TRAilScoTT WAlkeR’S VoTeS Top hiS oppoNeNTS; RoMNey WiNS ThRee STATeS; luGAR DeFeATeDOne noteworthy outcome of the Wis-consin primary is that embattled Re-publican Scott Walker, facing a June 5 recall, received more votes than Tom Barrett, the Milwaukee mayor who won the Democratic nod, and Kath-leen Falk combined, the two leading Democrats fighting to challenge him. Walker won the votes of 626,538 Wis-consinites, despite the fact that he had only token opposition. The two lead-ing Democrats together had 619,049 votes. As the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Craig Gilbert writes: “It’s just not normal in politics for a major incumbent with token opposition to generate turnout on a par with a heav-ily contested race in the other party. It was an unexpected turnout bomb, a demonstration of Walker’s greatest political asset, even greater than his considerable money advantage—the ability to mobilize his base.”

What makes the Walker vote total even more remarkable is that neither his campaign nor Wisconsin Repub-licans did much to get voters to the polls, NPR reports. All in all, the ac-tivism could bode well for him in June. For more information and wasy to par-ticipate in the Walker campaign, go to Scott Walker.org.

Mitt Romney won in Indiana, West Virginia, North Carolina. He needs 1144 delegates to secure the nomina-tion; Tuesday pushed him towards 950.

State Treasurer Richard Mourdock won the hotly contested Indiana GOP Senate primary on Tuesday night, dis-

stealing internal documents from the Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based non-profit that promotes free markets, to identify its financial supporters and then lobbied those companies to with-draw support.

Some observers questioned whether a petition drive that ultimately drove General Motors to pull its Heartland funding was a phony effort that used questionable signatures. Interestingly, the online petition for the Discovery Channel did not require signers to au-thenticate they were actual individuals.

In a statement to Human Events, Vanessa Berlowitz, producer for the Frozen Planet series, appeared to have bowed to pressure and said their intention was to “show people these magnificent parts of the world they couldn’t otherwise get to—and show it to them before they changed forever.”

“Our hope was that by bringing these dramatic images of change to large, global audiences, even those not willing to accept the scientific consensus that humans are responsible for the unprec-edented rate of climate change could no longer ignore it,” Berlowitz said.

eNViRoNMeNTGRoup TARGeTS DiScoVeRy FoR NoT blAMiNG huMANS

A fledgling environmental group is bullying the Discovery Channel for airing the documentary series “Fro-zen Planet” because the program did not blame humans for climate change.

Forecast the Facts submitted a peti-tion to Discovery with 10,000 signa-tures demanding they “immediately acknowledge this error and to conduct a review of all Discovery programming to ensure no such self-censorship hap-pens again.”

“As the world’s leader in environ-mental programming, your decision sends a dangerous message to media companies around the world that it is better to censor yourself than risk criticism by global warming deniers,” Forecast the Facts said in a statement.

The environmental group first gained attention earlier this year after

▲ From Discovery Channel’s “Frozen Planet.” NeWSCoM

eAGLe PuBLISHING, INC.Chairman Thomas L. PhillipsPresident Jeffrey J. CarnealCFo/VP operations Jon A. HeimermanRegnery Publishing Marjory G. Rosseagle Financial Publications Roger Michalski eagle Wellness Chris Broussard

All mail correspondence for Human events or eagle Publishing should be addressed to one Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. 20001. Human events cannot be responsible for the return of unsolicited manuscripts, either by email or postal mail. opinions expressed in signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of Human events.

Postmaster: Send address changes to Human events, 1 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., 6th Floor, Washington, D.C.

HuMAN eVeNTS GRouPVP, Group Publisher Joseph Guerriero

CoNTeNT editor-in-Chief emeritus Thomas S. Wintereditor Cathy TaylorManaging editor Adam TragoneSenior Reporter, economy & Budget David HarsanyiSenior Reporter, energy & environment Audrey HudsonSenior Reporter, Political editor John GizziReporter, Defense & National Security Hope HodgeReporter, Technology & Freedom John HaywardLegal Affairs Correspondent Ann CoulterWeb editor Karl Selzer editor-at-Large Allan RyskindRegular Contributors Jim Edwards, Steven Greenhut, Ken Hanner, Mark LaRochelle, John Seiler

HuMAN eVeNTS DIGITAL oPeRATIoNSwww.Humanevents.comSteve Miller, Todd Herman, Todd Van Etten, Jayson Manship, Patrick Klinetobe, Chris Pascuzzo, Tony Cane

DeSIGNArt Director Amanda LarsenGraphic Designers Amber Colleran, Stephanie Patience, Henry Pereira, Lisa Pulaski, Jason Sunde

ADVeRTISINGSenior Account Advertising ManagersMelinda Beatty, Scott Fowler, Chris McIntyre, Cheri DeLandAdvertising operations Manager Patrick KlinetobeMarketing Director Elizabeth SetterlinMarketing Manager Jenna GeigerAdvertising Marketing Manager Jake BerubeAdvertising Traffic Manager Linda JenkinsSales Administrator Holly BerggrenDistribution Jim ZerrProduction Sean Munns

To Subscribe: 1 [email protected]

To Advertise: 202 677-4462

To Contact Editorial202 677-4518202 216-0600

To Send a Letter, [email protected]@eaglePub.com

Human events (ISSN 0018-7194) is published weekly, except 2/27/12, 4/9/12, 6/4/12, 7/19/12, 8/6/12, 9/10/12, 11/26/12, 12/31/12 by Human events, 1 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington D.C. 20001. Periodicals postage paid at Washington, D.C. and additional mailing offices. Single issue price $9.95. one year subscription, $129. Copyright 2012 Human events.

Established 1944May 14, 2012 | Vol 68, No. 17©2012 by Human Events Publishing LLC

Frank C. Hanighen (1899-1964)James L. Wick (1897-1964)

Human Eventsthe national conservative weekly

The Declaration of Independence begins: “When in the course of Human Events …” In reporting the news, Human Events is objective; it aims for accurate presentation of all the facts. But it is not impartial. It looks at events through eyes that favor limited constitutional government, local self-government, private enterprise and individual freedom. These were the principles that inspired the founders. We believe that today the same principles will preserve freedom in America.

Because the Audit Bureau of Circulations audits the circulation

of Human Events, advertisers know that our

audited information is accurate.


of [name of publication], advertisers know that our

















We’Re PRouD To Be A MeMBeR oF AuDIT BuReAu oF CIRCuLATIoNS


NeWS, VieWS, opiNioNS FRoM WAShiNGToN

20

14 196

Gizzi oN poliTicSRaces in Iowa’s 3rd House District, ohio’s 9th House District, and Pennsylvania’s 12th House District.By John Gizzi

DeFeNSeBipartisan act seeks to reaffirm ‘America’s unshakable commitment to Israel’s security.’By Robert Maginnis

AcRoSS AMeRicAoccupy protesters appear more open to ideas than our state legislators.By Steven Greenhut

cApiTAl bRieFSHouse passes Rep. Paul Ryan’s sequester replacement plan, sparing deep defense cuts.By Hope Hodge

This Week’s Must ReadsWELCOmE to Human Events. The House and Senate were busy last week, and this edition is full of reporting about their actions and how they relate to the appropriate—and inappropriate—role of government. You will read about a new plan to blunt defense cuts (p. 6), and how the debate over student loans misses a larger point (p. 8). And, all the regular, popular features, too.

—Cathy Taylor

pAGe

opiNioNVoters are punishing incumbent politicians—see defeat of Sarkozy—and what does it mean for u.S.?By Newt Gingrich

26DebuNkeRPresident obama tells us u.S. has only 2 percent of world’s oil reserve, but truth is proved reserves are growing.By Mark LaRochelle

30

advanced another tenet of a far-left military agenda Wednesday when he appeared at a forum to push for rati-fication of the United Nations Law of the Sea Treaty.

The treaty would create an interna-tional regime of law to dictate actions and activities on and in the oceans. In addition to creating new environ-mental regulations, it would tax U.S. mining of the ocean floor, and could compromise the nation’s maritime security.

The treaty has been lingering as an unapproved proposal for years, soundly rejected by President Ronald Reagan in 1982 as a threat to Ameri-can sovereignty, but entertained by the George W. Bush administration.

Now, Panetta has thrown his weight behind the proposal. “The time has come for the United States to have a seat at the table, to fully assert its role as a global leader, and accede to this important treaty,” he said at the fo-rum, hosted by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Atlantic Council. “It is the bedrock legal instrument un-derpinning public order across the maritime domain.” Panetta argued that the U.S. was the only industri-alized country in the world that has not approved the treaty, and that it would be a boon for American indus-tries who dealt with offshore Ameri-can resources. To date, 161 countries have approved the treaty.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mc-Connell (R-Ky.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) have said that they oppose the treaty, while Mitt Romney has said he has concerns with the policy.

against tea party conservatives who wanted to let the bank’s statutory lend-ing authority expire.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor supported reauthorization, striking a deal to extend the bank’s funding from $100 billion to $140 billion, through 2014.

Republican Study Committee Chair-man Jim Jordan opposed the legisla-tion, citing an unlikely source: “In 2008, Barack Obama called the Export-Import Bank ‘little more than a fund for corporate welfare.’ Now that he’s in charge, President Obama wants to increase it by 40 percent. We need to end corporate welfare, not expand it.”

Some changes might be in the future of the bank: The bill, for instance, will require the bank solicit public comment on any transaction of more than $100 million and the Treasury Secretary is to begin phasing out aircraft subsidies.

“Some supporters of this bill actu-ally argue that we must expand Ex-Im now so we can eliminate it later,” Jor-dan went on to say. “Only in Washing-ton is a 40 percent increase character-ized as a phase-out.”

NATioNAl SecuRiTy pANeTTA FAVoRS u.N. oVeRSiGhT oF WoRlD oceANSAfter regaling a group of environmen-talists last week on military initia-tives to pursue biofuels and prepare for climate change [see story page 14], Defense Secretary Leon Panetta

DeFeNSecouRAGe lAckiNG iN u.S. FoReiGN policy leADeRShipAt a reception Tuesday night celebrat-ing the release of a book written by a fellow Vietnam prisoner of war, Sen. John McCain didn’t miss an oppor-tunity to compare the bold actions of American heroes with a lack of cour-age in American leadership today.

Retired Marine Col. Lee Ellis used his experiences in captivity as lead-ership object lessons in his new book Leading with Honor: Leadership Les-sons from the Hanoi Hilton. Seven prisoners of war, including McCain, attended the reception.

McCain was captured in Vietnam 11 days before Ellis in 1967, and the two were released on the same day five-and-a-half years later, in 1963. For 18 months of their imprisonment, they occupied adjacent cells.

Leading with Honor contains several laudatory references to McCain’s re-fusal to comply with North Vietnam-ese propaganda, even when faced with

torture or tempted with the prospect of an early return home.

McCain praised Ellis’s book, but also directed harsh rhetoric at President Obama, criticizing his lack of action in Syria and his timeframe for with-drawal from Afghanistan.

In the presence of an old military buddy, McCain, a retired Navy captain, made sure to send some jabs his way too. “You know, the funny thing about Marines, they’re not very smart. But they can be pretty stubborn, and the Vietnamese found that out,” he said.

ecoNoMyex-iM bANk pASSAGe DiViDeS houSe GopThis week, the House extended the charter of the Export-Import Bank—an institution that helps American com-panies do business in foreign countries. The fight over the extension, however, exposed some of the tensions within the GOP coalition, pitting traditional Republicans and allied business groups

▲ Rep. Jim Jordan AP IMAGeS

For updates on obama’s plan to zone the ocean, the fate of the cows in the Colorado mountains, and the conscience protection of military chaplains, please visit Humanevents.com.

▲ Sen. John McCain AP IMAGeS


eVeNTS, heARiNGS, MeeTiNGSDaTeBook

WaShIngton

ObAmA POStHumOuSly AwArdS tHE mEdAl HOnOr tO A ViEtnAm wAr SOldiEr, SOutH KOrEAn trAdE min-iStEr dEliVErS A tAlK On ECOnOm-iCS in EASt ASiA And AEi HOldS A PAnEl diSCuSSiOn On tHE PlACE Of mEmOriAlS in CiViC lifE.

WedneSday: President Barack Obama posthumously awards Specialist Leslie Sabo, Jr. with the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry, after his heroic actions in combat in Cambodia in 1970. White House.

WedneSday: The Peterson Institute hosts a luncheon meeting in honor of visiting South Korea Trade Minister Taeho Bark, who discusses “The KORUS FTA, Korea’s FTA Policy and the Dynamics of East Asian Econom-ic Integration.” Peterson Institute, 1750 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, 12:30 p.m.

FrIday: “Monumental Fights: The Role of Memorials in Civic Life” panel discussion, co-sponsored by American Enterprise Institute, Program on American Citizenship and National Civic Art Society, with Bruce Cole (Hudson Institute), Michael Lewis (Williams College), Diana Schaub (Loyola University Maryland), and Roger Scruton (AEI). AEI, 17th St NW, 10 a.m.

CongreSS

bOtH HOuSE And SEnAtE ArE in SESSiOn. HOuSE COmmittEE mEEt-ingS ArE nOtEd. COngrESS brEAKS On fridAy fOr tHE mEmOriAl dAy rECESS.

WedneSday: House Commerce subcommittee hearing on “Where the Jobs Are: Promoting Tourism to America.” 2322 Rayburn House Of-fice Building, 10:15 a.m.

thurSday: House Homeland Secu-rity subcommittee hearing on “De-partment of Homeland Security: An Examination of Ethical Standards,” with testimony from Transportation Security Administration, Customs and Border Protection, and Immigra-tion and Customs Enforcement. 311 Cannon House Office Building, 9:30 a.m.

FrIday: House Financial Services subcommittee hearing on the Dodd-Frank Act’s Collins amend-ment regarding bank capital re-quirements. 2128 Rayburn House Office Building, 9:30 a.m.

oF IntereSt

irAn rEturnS tO tAlKS witH tHE iAEA On itS nuClEAr AmbitiOnS, tHE g8 Summit OPEnS At CAmP dAVid in mArylAnd And fACEbOOK SHArES ExPECtEd tO COmmEnCE trAding On nASdAQ.

Monday: Media walk-through at the Tampa Bay Times Forum and the Tampa Convention Center ahead of the 2012 Republican National Con-vention (Aug. 27-30).

FrIday: G8 Summit opens at Camp David, hosted by President Barack Obama. The gathering of lead-ers from the U.S., Canada, Russia, Germany, U.K., Italy, France, Japan and the E.U. meet to discuss current global issues such as the economy.

FrIday: Facebook shares expected to commence trading on NASDAQ as part of its Initial Public Of-fering, after its IPO shares were priced between $23 and $35 per share, putting the total value of the company at up to $96 billion.

CaMpaIgn traIl

nEbrASKA And OrEgOn HOld gOP PrimAriES, rOmnEy CAm-PAignS And HOldS fundrAiSErS in flOridA And SEn. mArCO rubiO HEAdlinES A rEPubliCAn bAnQuEt in SOutH CArOlinA.

tueSday: Nebraska and Oregon hold Republican presidential primaries – Nebraska’s, however, is non-binding. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is expected to win both votes as he approaches the 1,144 del-egate count needed to take the GOP nomination.

WedneSday-thurSday: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney attends fundraisers in Florida, with events in Tampa, Miami, Jackson-ville and Boca Raton over the next two days

Saturday: Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R) headlines the South Carolina GOP Sliver Elephant Ban-quet. Columbia, S.C.

CongreSS

Rep. Ryan’s Sequester Replacement plan passes house, Sparing Deep Defense cutsThe bill would reduce entitlement programs, redundancies and loopholes within mandatory spending items in the federal budget by more $240 billion over the next decade. The measure is expected to fail in the Senate.

By Hope Hodge

A proposal by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to replace sequester budget cuts slid through the

House last week after a partisan debate which for Democrats focused on leaving food stamp programs intact and for Republicans centered on choosing national security over slush fund waste. The measure passed 218 to 199 after five hours of debate.

The bill would reduce entitlement programs, redundancies, and loop-holes within mandatory spending items in the Federal budget by over $240 billion over the next decade in order to prevent most of a tranche of cuts to the Defense Department that

would take effect at the start of 2013 under last year’s Budget Control Act. If the cuts are not avoided, they will cut Defense spending by 10 percent across the board over the next de-cade, with additional eight-percent cuts to domestic programs over the same period.

Replacement savings in the bill in-cluded food stamp aid to qualifying households, preventing illegal immi-grants from taking advantage of child tax credits by requiring a social secu-rity number, and implementing moder-ate limitations in growth on programs like Medicaid.

Ryan emphasized that the bill was targeting “slush funds” and programs that rarely saw Congressional oversight.

The 1.8 million recipients of food stamps who would lose that benefit, according to the Congressional Budget Office, were the ones, he said, who never mer-ited it in the first place

“If you’re eligible for food stamps to-day, you’ll be eligible for food stamps tomorrow under this bill,” he said.

Democrats had been expected to introduce an amendment, authored by Budget Committee minority leader Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) that would find savings and revenue by raising taxes on the wealthy and a slate of other programs, but they were not al-lowed to introduce the amendment, on the grounds that it violated the rules of the House by adding net tax revenue.

Ryan said the ratio of revenue in-crease to spending cuts was three-to-one under the Democratic proposal, and, would result in a net increase of government spending as well as taxes.

“For the first time in over a decade, we’re trying to get a handle on that out of control portion of spending,” said Rep. Bob Woodall (R-Ga.) “My idea of deficit reduction is we reduce spending. My colleague’s idea of defi-cit reduction is that we spend $40 bil-lion above and beyond over the next ten years.”

The sequester replacement bill will now receive a vote in the Democratic-controlled Senate, where it is widely expected to fail.

HumanEvents.com | WEEK OF MAY 14, 20128

Answer: During a presidential election year, when clamoring for lower rates from both Republicans and Democrats is simply posturing and ignores the real problem of high debt among the young.

By David Harsanyi

If Congress doesn’t act by July 1, millions of students will see the interest rates on their loans dou-

ble. And even though there is consen-sus among the parties that these interest rates should be capped, an election year ensures is that issue is not going away.

Republicans favor an extension of 2007 Democratic legislation that re-duced interest rates for some under-graduates who receive subsidized Stafford loans to 3.4 percent from 6.8 percent. As do Senate Democrats.

But Republicans blocked consider-ation of a Democratic bill last week that would have prevented the doubling of interest rates because it proposes paying for the one-year extension by sticking small business owners and other “mil-lionaires” who earn at least $200,000 in taxable income with the tab.

As intended, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)—who never had the votes—could claim that Republi-cans were “more interested still in obstructionism rather than progress.” But when setting aside the hyperbole, is the interest-rate issue as consequen-tial as parties are making it out to be? Is capping the rate the best thing for students?

After all, rates would only be kept at 3.4 percent for money borrowed for the 2011-12 school year—whatever you’re paying on previous loans will carry the higher rates and nothing the Senate or House is considering would cap rates on those existing loans.

What happens if the rates go up? Well, a 6.8 percent interest rate is not

as outlandish as politicians keep telling us. As reported in USAToday, even if a borrower were to max out his loan, the difference would likely amount to less than $10 per monthly payment.

Moreover, a 6.8 percent rate is al-ready low, considering the high risk associated with student loans. Young adults often have little or no credit history and no collateral, and, judging from the shape of the economy, terri-ble prospects. Many of these loans will never be paid back.

Young Americans certainly have every right to be concerned: Consider a recent Gallup report that finds that 32 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds in the workforce were underemployed in April, a number that is up from 30.1 percent in March and higher than the 30.7 percent of a year ago. The Asso-ciated Press recently reported that of graduates ages 25 and younger around 50 percent find themselves unem-ployed or working jobs that don’t re-quire a degree.

If those clamoring for lower rates were not as political expedient, some-one may have time to ask if artificially lowering interest rates on student loans might be one reason we’re driving a col-lege overconsumption, putting millions of young people into debt they can’t handle and often don’t need.

Higher rates might help incentivize students to make more practical and serious decisions about their future in-stead of waiting for Congress to do it for them.

Quiz: When is Doubling of Student loan interest Rates a politically expedient issue?

▲ House Speaker John Boehner, John Kline (R-Minn.) and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) address the student loans bill, April 25. AP IMAGeS

president obama’s ‘To Do’ list is a ‘Don’t Do This’ to the economy

The White House has compiled a handy “to do” list for Congress that, “if acted upon quickly, will

create jobs and help restore middle class security.” According to White House spokesman Jay Carney, the func-tion of the “to do” list is that it ensures come re-election time Republicans will have to explain to their constituents “what they did while they were in Washington these last two years. Did they just say no?”

They certainly should say “no,” con-sidering the economic impact of the suggestions. Some examples:l “Reward American Jobs, Not Out-sourcing:” Need it really be repeated that outsourcing, by generating more

productivity, creates more wealth and more jobs? On this point, most econo-mists actually agree. But even if you be-lieve outsourcing is a job killer, the no-tion that “passing legislation that gives companies a 20 percent tax credit for the cost of moving their operations” will make a dent on in employment is absurd. Liberals frequently argue that high corporate taxes aren’t chasing companies abroad, yet a one-time tax break on moving expenses is now a cor-nerstone of “an economy built to last?l “Create Jobs By Investing In Af-fordable Clean Energy:” It is difficult to calculate just how many subsidies, mandates and breaks are “invested” in clean-energy projects. But whether

it’s morally fulfilling or good for the environment, an expansion of “the 30 percent tax credit to investments in clean energy manufacturing,” could cost jobs, not create them. As one study found, 2.2 conventional jobs are destroyed for every job created in the alternative energy industry. “Invest-ing” in inefficient energy is no path to economic growth.l “Invest in a New Hire Tax Credit For Small Business:” Wherein Washing-ton jumpstarts new hiring by giving “a 10 percent income tax credit for firms that create new jobs or increase wages in 2012.” Losing money and costum-ers? Would you give a raise to get a tax break?

l “Cut Red Tape So Responsible Home-owners Can Refinance:” Wherein Con-gress passes legislation to cut red tape in the mortgage market allowing “re-sponsible” homeowners to refinance at today’s lower rates. Guess what? Banks already allow responsible homeowners to refinance and there are many gov-ernment programs already designed to help homeowners. Is it good for the economy? That’s another story.

But, then again, if you believe gov-ernment is going to cut red tape rather than create it, you’re likely to believe anything.david Harsanyi is a senior reporter covering the Economy and budget for Human Events. He can be reached at [email protected]

Economy & BudgEt


▲ Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) talks to reporters, May 8. He was a leading critic of the act last week. AP images

Lacey Act of 1900, later recast with criminal penalties, put U.S. business owners in jail for receiving lobsters from international vendors in boxes, not plastic bags.

By Audrey Hudson

Lawmakers are reviewing legisla-tion to amend a century-old law that led to a raid by armed fed-

eral agents at the Gibson Guitar Com-pany in August 2011 at its Nashville and Memphis factories and, in a separate case, to the imprisonment of two Amer-icans for importing improperly pack-aged lobsters.

Critics of the Lacey Act say it is be-ing used to enforce laws of foreign governments that most Americans are not aware of, and that it is too broad and too vague to carry harsh criminal penalties.

“That really smacks at our sover-eignty,” Sen. Rand Paul (R –Ky.) told the House Resources subcommittee on fisheries, wildlife, oceans and in-sular affairs. “How can this possibly be constitutional?” asked Paul, who is sponsoring the Senate version of the

Freedom from Over-Criminalization and Unjust Seizures Act (FOCUS) with Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.). The measure would strip language requiring Ameri-cans to comply with foreign laws and repeal criminal penalties.

relief act also under scrutinyA second bill under examination is the Retailers and Entertainers Lacey Implementation and Enforcement Fairness Act (RELIEF) authored by Rep. Jim Cooper (R-Tenn.). The full committee has not set a date to mark up either piece of legislation, which re-ceived mixed reviews during it’s first Capitol Hill hearing last week.

Jeffrey “Skunk” Baxter, a guitarist for Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers, among other bands, testified in favor of Cooper’s bill and said the Lacey Act carries “unintended consequences” that will have a negative impact on the music industry and “could harm our

cultural heritage.”However, Adam Gardner, Frontman

of the musical group Guster, opposed both bills and said supporters are using “misleading claims.”

“The rationale that RELIEF ad-vocates put forth for these sweeping changes is that Lacey poses a threat to musicians. This is simply not the truth,” Gardner said. “No individual has ever been investigated or had their instru-ment taken under the Lacey Act.”

Republicans on the panel told Gard-ner that under the current law, the seller as well as the buyer are liable and that federal agents do have the au-thority to seize a musicians’ personal instrument.

“All I know is that I’m not concerned about it,” Gardner said. “There is a clear history of this not happening. It’s not the practice to go after (musicians) with the limited resources (the govern-ment) has.”

Federal agents confiscated a half-million dollars worth of property from Gibson Guitar in the August raid, including guitars and computers. The company did not import banned wood products, but is accused of vio-lating a law in India that requires the wood product be finished by workers in that country before it can be ex-ported. The Department of Justice has yet to file any charges. In a civil case, Gibson is attempting to get its wood back.

Six years in federal prisonAdditionally, Abner Schoenwetter and David McNab spent six years in federal prison, accused of violating Honduran fishing regulations. The lobsters they received should have been shipped in plastic, rather than cardboard, boxes.

Republicans said that as currently written, the Lacey Act is a frighten-ing example of over-criminalization. “I’m very disturbed by the whole idea that citizens or companies must know the laws of another country and must also comply with those laws,” said Rep. John Fleming (R-La.), subcom-mittee chairman. “I find that amaz-ing and question whether it is even constitutional.”

The Lacey Act was signed into law in 1900 to make poaching a federal law, and carried a fine rather than imprison-ment if violated. The act was amended by Congress in 1981 and again in 2008, and has since become the “poster child for how the federal government abuses its power and has developed a system of sweeping criminalization,” Broun said.

Today, the Lacey Act makes it a crime to import or take any wildlife, fish or plant in violation of a foreign law. “The Lacey Act is no longer about conserva-tion. American citizens now face pros-ecution based upon foreign laws and regulations that are concerned only with labor-management relations, with minimum wage rules, or with tax laws, and that can be ambiguous in nature. U.S. importers have been turned into policemen, who are responsible for knowing a myriad of foreign laws that are simply impossible to keep track of,” Broun said.

Democrats said they opposed amending the law for fear that it would also lift a ban on importing wood that was illegally cut. A spokeswoman for big furniture retailer IKEA, Laurie Everill, told the panel that the only way the proposed bills will carry any cred-ibility is with the endorsement of envi-ronmental groups, which is unlikely at this point.Audrey Hudson is a senior reporter for Human Events covering Energy and Environment. She can be reached at [email protected]

congress looks to Rewrite Act That led to Gibson Guitar Raid

energy & envIronmenT

FWS.GoV

Featured Species: puritan tiger BeetleThe endangered Puritan Tiger Beetle lives in crumbling cliffs over maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, putting nearby homes in peril because owners are blocked from repairing the creeping erosion believed to be necessary for the bug’s survival.

By John Hayward

On April 25, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Robert Lopez Cep-ero ruled the Illinois “Amazon

tax” unconstitutional. The tax was an attempt by the state of Illinois to force online retailers, such as Web giant Amazon.com, to collect sales tax on purchases made by Illinois customers.

Illinois believes it is losing over $160 million in sales taxes to online retail-ers each year. This is, unsurprisingly, a matter of great concern to “brick and mortar” retail outlets trying to compete with Internet merchants, particularly in high-tax states. Why should a cus-tomer pay 6.25 percent more to pur-chase goods from a local retail outlet, instead of ordering it tax-free from on-line retailers, particularly since they advertise fast, and often free, shipping?

Local retailers perceive sales taxes as one of many handicaps they face when competing with web-based companies.

There is also the matter of paying the costs associated with running, stock-ing, and staffing local outlets, which customers will often browse before returning home and ordering desired items at lower prices from online merchants. More than one brick-and-mortar store manager has complained about serving as an unpaid “showroom for Amazon.”

It is no small irony that such com-plaints emanate, not just from the mom-and-pop stores evoked by the title of the Illinois legislation—the “Main Street Fairness Bill”—but from super-stores such as Best Buy and Wal Mart.

Not very long ago, the same argu-ments were leveled against them, by small “Main Street USA” operations that could not survive in an era of big-box retail. Now the evolution of retail has moved into cyberspace, and those big boxes have become heavy burdens. It’s a lot easier to respond by demand-ing taxes on Internet sales than by cam-

paigning against high local sales taxes.The campaign to tax Internet sales

ran into a constitutional impasse in Il-linois, where Judge Cepero ruled the state government could not constitu-tionally assert the necessary taxing authority. The Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that a retailer must have a “nex-us”—an actual store or headquarters of some kind—within a state, before the state can require them to collect sales tax.

Technically, every state with sales tax requires consumers to self-report and pay “use tax” on tax-free online pur-chases—which means, in short, that no one does it, and there aren’t enough compliance resources available to au-dit millions of online transactions. Five states do not have sales tax: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon. New York and California recently added lines to their tax forms trying to pressure people into making the calculation.

In order to assert the taxing author-ity it needed, Illinois attempted to classify the local affiliates of big online companies like Amazon as a “nexus.” These affiliates were themselves In-ternet businesses, but unlike their corporate partners, they were physi-cally headquartered in Illinois. The two biggest affiliates commonly dis-cussed in the Illinois tax controversy were coupon-and-deals companies CouponCabin and Fat Wallet. Amazon responded by declaring that it would terminate every single one of its affili-ates in Illinois.

affiliates moving outSome of the affiliates began moving out of the state, in order to preserve their lucrative relationship with Ama-zon. Fat Wallet literally packed up and drove its business to Wisconsin in a convoy that included a trailer lugging a pair of purple and black Fiberglas cows. A company exodus is the last thing Illinois, a tax-and-spend liberal wasteland teetering on the edge of col-lapsing into the worst fiscal black hole east of California, needed to see.

In fact, a very similar drama is cur-rently playing out in California, but at least for the moment, the judge’s deci-sion that affiliates cannot be used to establish a sales tax nexus has released some of the pressure in Illinois.

One of the companies that fled in order to keep its Amazon partnership, CouponCabin, has not yet decided whether or not it will bring jobs back to Illinois from Indiana, but the CEO says he “strongly supports a federal solution to the taxation of all online transactions.”

Current “Amazon tax states,” besides Illinois and California, are New York, Kansas, Kentucky, and North Dako-ta. Amazon is headquartered in Wash-ington state; so, Washington residents have to pay sales tax on Amazon.com.

It now appears likely that only a fed-eral solution will pass constitutional muster, which means the fate of the tax-free Internet will be decided in the halls of Congress.John Hayward is a reporter for Human Events cov-ering technology & freedom. He can be reached at [email protected].


illinois Judge Rules ‘Amazon Tax’ on online purchases unconstitutional

States have tried to charge taxes for residents’ online purchases, but judges say the states lack taxing authority. The battle may now move to Congress.

▲ Fat Wallet, with its iconic cows, moved out of Illinois after an “Amazon tax” passed, hurting affiliates like Fat Wallet. PHoTo CouRTeSy FAT WALLeT

TeChnoLogy & FreeDom

The landmark 1992 Supreme Court case that established the requirements for a sales tax “nexus” in each state was called Quill Corporation v. north dakota. Quill invoked the Commerce Clause, which specifies that only Congress has power to regulate interstate commerce, in its defense. The Quill

Corporation was a Delaware-based office supply company, which offered mail-order customers a unique option for that era: they could use a software program to check product availability and current pricing online. The program was distributed on floppy disks, an obsolete medium that

has effectively ceased to exist. opponents of Internet taxation, considering the arguments made in Quill, fear that local governments would use such taxes to raid out-of-state companies for revenue, while federal Internet taxes would be an affront to state sovereignty.

1992 Supreme Court case determined sales tax nexus

xxxxx

Regnery PublishingGreat Conservative Books • Great Conservative authors

Targeted for Death by Islamic Terrorists,

Geert Wilders is a Marked Man.“I have been surrounded by police guards

and stripped of nearly all personal privacy.

I wear a bulletproof jacket when I speak in public…

Why do I need protection? Because I’ve become

part of a rapidly growing group of individuals

who have been marked for death

for criticizing Islam.”

—Geert Wilders

202-216-0600 | One Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001 | www.Regnery.com

AvA i l Ab le MAy 1st, 2 0 12i n b o o k sto r e s e v e ry w h e r e , o n A m A z o n , A n d At r e g n e ry.c o m .

Features a foreword by Mark Steyn.

13WEEK OF MAY 14, 2012 | HumanEvents.com

14

▲ Caption goes here Ed qui w es venem fugite dolor sed ullorehenda qui ad. GEtty imaGEs


in Rare Show of bipartisanship, house passes Act Affirming commitment to israel’s Security

▲ House Majority Leader eric Cantor (R-Va.) speaks to reporters following a weekly strategy session, May 8. AP IMAGeS

The U.S.-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act, introduced by Reps. Cantor and Hoyer, seeks to help confront Israel’s most dangerous set of security challenges.By Robert Maginnis

Last week Israel activated thou-sands of reservists to help con-front the most dangerous set of

security challenges in the nation’s 64-year history. That is why on May 9th U.S. House of Representatives reaffirmed America’s commitment to Israel’s security by passing the U.S.-Israel Enhanced Security Coopera-tion Act (H.R. 4133). The U.S. Senate may now consider similar legislation.

The act, which was introduced by Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), recognizes an unprecedented set of se-curity challenges facing the Jewish na-tion: Arab political instability, the rap-idly growing arsenals of Hamas and Hezbollah, and Iran’s nuclear drive.

In March, Rep. Cantor accused President Barack Obama of sending “mixed messages” to Israel’s enemies about where America stands on nu-merous conflicts in the Middle East. “Let us not send mixed messages when it comes to Israel,” Cantor said.

House passage of the act reiterates U.S. policy guaranteeing Israel’s right to defend itself and “America’s unshak-able commitment to Israel’s security,” Cantor said.

Consider the confluence of three se-curity crises facing Israel, a nation of 7.6 million that is the size of New Jersey at the heart of the tumultuous Middle East.

First, Israel activated six army bat-talions under emergency orders in light of new dangers created by Arab politi-cal instability along its Egyptian and Syrian borders. The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, has given the Israeli De-fense Forces (IDF) permission to sum-mon a further 16 reserve battalions if necessary.

“This signifies that the IDF regards the Egyptian and Syrian borders as the potential source of a greater threat than in the past,” said retired General Dan Harel, the former IDF deputy chief of staff.

Egypt’s leading presidential candi-date Amr Moussa said the 33-year-old Camp David Peace Accords with Israel are “dead and buried.” But he prom-ised to honor the treaty if elected even though majorities in Egypt’s parlia-ment belong to Islamist parties which favor scuttling the treaty.

Israeli intelligence indicate terror groups are planning cross-border attacks from the Sinai and recently 400 armed Bedouins besieged the base of the United Nation’s Interna-

tional Peacekeeping Force in the Si-nai. Now, Egyptian battalions are in the Sinai ostensibly to keep the peace but some Israelis fear they are really there to prepare for a future war with Israel.

Syrian civil war could spill overJerusalem also fears the revolution rocking its northern neighbor Syria could spill over into Israel’s Golan Heights. Syria’s President Bashir al-Assad is doing whatever necessary to defeat his armed opposition and is expected to survive because no out-side power to include the U.S. will in-tervene. For now, the worst outcome from the Syrian debacle for Israel is the emergence of an Islamist-driv-en counterinsurgency that spreads throughout the region.

Jordan, Israel’s eastern neighbor, is especially concerned about Syrian Sunni militancy spilling over into Jor-dan if Assad’s regime collapses. Those Sunni militants who are supported by Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood would inevitably influence their politically active Jordanian counterparts who are already challenging King Abdul-lah’s reign.

Last week, the Jordanian Mus-lim Brotherhood sponsored protests

across the Hashemite Kingdom call-ing for economic and political reform as well as condemning Israel. The protests were marked by calls to end the 1994 Israeli-Jordanian Peace Treaty and chants of “death, death to Israel.”

Second, Israel is sandwiched by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hez-bollah in southern Lebanon, both Ira-nian terror proxies that share the goal of annihilating Israel. The leaders of the two terror organizations recently met and agreed to cooperate in any future terror attacks against Israel, the Lebanese daily As-Safir reported.

War with the terror proxies may be just around the corner. Last week Iranian vice president Mohammad Reza Rehimi toured Lebanon’s bor-der visiting Hezbollah fortifications emphasizing the need to oppose “the Zionist regime.” At the same time on the other side of the border IDF troops were preparing for possible attack while building a 20 foot high wall to protect residents of the border town of Metula.

Third, Israel faces an existential threat from the Islamic Republic of Iran whose leaders have threatened to “wipe Israel off the map.” There is international consensus that Iran is working on the capability to build nuclear weapons, which earned the rogue nation four sets of international sanctions.

Those sanctions appear to be hav-ing some effect but not enough to convince Israel that Iran no longer seeks nuclear weapons. Besides, the direct nuclear threat to Israel posed by Iran’s future atomic-tipped mis-siles is not the only concern. Jerusa-lem is also concerned Tehran would share the bomb with terror groups like Hezbollah and/or Hamas for use against Israel and it is concerned a nuclear-armed Iran would spark an irreversible regional arms race.

Last month Iran met with inter-national representatives to allevi-ate fears it intends to weaponize its nuclear program. As a result of that meeting international representatives agreed to re-launch talks later this month but almost immediately Ira-nian officials created new barriers to resolution.

Last week, the Iranians told Re-uters they will never suspend urani-um enrichment or close the Fordow underground facility which is pro-tected from air strikes deep inside a mountain. Now that the House dem-onstrated strong support for Israel that the U.S. Senate must be coaxed to do the same by passing a similar bill, S.2165. Then President Obama must decide whether to continue sending “mixed messages” about Israel or sign the bill sending an unambiguous mes-sage that America is committed to Is-rael’s security.

robert maginnis is a retired Army lieutenant colo-nel, and a national security and foreign affairs analyst for radio and television.

DeFenSe & naTIonaL SeCurITy


How to Movethe Moversand Shakethe Shakers.

Take The Hill and Beyond. Human Events, America’s first conservative weekly, is the voice that’s heard in every corridor of power. And now, we’re adding even more muscle to this powerful voice. A new editor, a dynamic redesign, new content, and more distribution on the Hill than any other conservative publication.

Class + Mass = Conservative Clout

Combine these powerful audiences—that’s Conservative Clout. Contact us about advertising with The Human Events Group.

Class. We deliver.

Reach influential Human Events readers like Steve Forbes, Grover Norquist, Nikki Haley and Bobby Jindal. With their resources and connections, they make things happen, from policy direction to brand preferences.

Mass. We deliver.

Reach hundreds of thousands of passionate, engaged conserva-tives through our breakout digital offerings—HumanEvents.com, RedState.com, and six targeted e-letters, including RedState Morning Briefing and Daily Events.

>> >>

Joseph Guerriero | Vice President & Group Publisher | 202-677-4462 | [email protected] | www.thehumaneventsgroup.com


xx

By Hope Hodge

Their agenda: spend millions on expensive alternative biofuels. Invest even more in undevel-

oped “green” technology. Prepare for the melting of the polar ice caps brought on by climate change.

Some aggressive and well-funded environmentalist group? Nope.

It’s the U.S. military.A few days ago, Defense Secretary

Leon Panetta added fuel to the fire of an emerging controversy—just now capturing the attention of some mem-bers of Congress—by sharing his plans for the future of the military with a group of rapt environmentalists at an Environmental Defense Fund gala in his honor in Washington, D.C.

“Our mission at the Department is to secure this nation against threats to our homeland and to our people,” he said. “In the 21st century, the reality is that there are environmental threats which constitute threats to our national secu-rity. For example, the area of climate

change has a dramatic impact on national security: rising sea levels, to severe droughts, to the melting of the polar caps, to more frequent and devastating natural disasters all raise demand for humanitar-ian assistance and disaster relief.”

Despite pending defense cuts that have had a dismayed Panetta pounding lecterns across the country, the Defense Secretary said DoD would be commit-ting $2 billion in the next fiscal year alone to energy-efficient equipment and efficiency programs, and research and development for green technology.

Not so fast, Secretary Panetta.Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), a

staunchly pro-military member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, takes the opposite view. He argues that’s money that could be used to manufac-ture or update a new fleet of aircraft. He now has defense leaders squarely in his crosshairs, determined to hold them to account for espousing debunked phi-losophies on climate change and pro-moting costly green initiatives while procurement needs go unmet.

Following Panetta’s speech, Inhofe fired out a statement promising to pro-vide congressional oversight and build awareness about the Defense Depart-ment’s “radical agenda.”

Inhofe deconstructs panettaInhofe sat down with Human Events in his office last week and countered one by one each of Panetta’s climate change claims, reading from a ring-bound folder of research drawn from academic journals: there has been no statistically significant acceleration in sea level rise over the past century. The oft-cited severity of the 2011 drought, which covered 25 percent of the coun-try, was nothing compared to one in 1984, which affected 80 percent of the land mass. Hurricanes, a common nat-ural disaster, have been on the decline since the U.S. started keeping records of them in the 19th century.

Everything Panetta said, Inhofe con-cluded, was a talking point cribbed from Al Gore’s 2006 global warming opus “An Inconvenient Truth,” and

each, he said, has been refuted.Inhofe had a head start on the research.

The minority leader of the Senate Envi-ronment and Public Works Committee, he is also the author of The Greatest Hoax, a refutation of climate change theory published earlier this year.

The senator doesn’t expect Panetta to be as well-versed on climate change as he is, saying Panetta’s role is to lead the troops, not create environmental policy. Nor does Inhofe attribute all the far-left language and green initiatives to the defense secretary, who Inhofe said knows better than to spearhead such programs.

“I’ve always liked Panetta; I served with him in the House and he’s always been one who has been very straight-forward, very honest,” Inhofe said. “However, he has a commander in chief named Obama, so he has to say what Obama tells him to say.”

Panetta has publicly and strongly defended the climate change and green energy talking points to critics, however, such as when he responded in March to criticism from Rep. Mike Conaway

▲ The uSS Dewey, seen in this 2011 photo, is just one type of Navy destroyer being considered for costly bio-fuel technology. u.S. NAVy PHoTo By MASS CoMMuNICATIoN SPeCIALIST 3RD CLASS BeNJAMIN CRoSSLey

16 Cover Story: Defense & National Security

The Green MonsterA normally level-headed panetta caved to a far-left agenda when he

proposed to spend billions of dollars on climate change and green initiatives. Sen. James inhofe won’t let that happen without a fight.


(R-Texas) at a House Armed Services Committee that Conaway’s premise for disagreement was “absolutely wrong” and that embracing the green agenda would make for a better military.

the “green Fleet” ready to launchWhile having America’s fighting forces plan for hypothetical climate change might be regarded as silly, DoD’s aggressive pursuit of biofuels as an alternative to traditional fossil fuels is a more immediate and potentially more damaging proposition.

At the same gala featuring Panetta, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus told guests about plans to launch “Great Green Fleet” featuring ships and aircraft oper-ating on a blend of traditional and bio-fuels. At up to $26 per gallon, biofuels can cost more than six times as much as traditional fuel sources at $3 or $4 per gallon, putting them out of the price range of many private industry mari-time consumers with similar needs.

Last December, in what was the larg-est government biofuel purchase in his-tory, the Defense Logistics Agency pro-cured 450,000 gallons of an advanced variety of the alternative fuel, made from both non-food waste and algae, for the relative bargain price of $12 million. Other test fuels have used the oil of the camelina mustard seed. According to a plan first made public by Mabus in 2009, the Navy expects to launch the fleet this summer for its exercises on the Pacific Rim—powered by the $12 million bio-fuels purchase—and to deploy it by 2016.

Mabus listed his reasons for promot-ing the infant biofuel technology for his audience: the U.S. was too dependent on volatile areas of the world for fossil fuels, and unexpected fuel price fluc-tuation, as during the Libya conflict, could and did cost the DoD billions of dollars. Troops were endangered trans-porting traditional fuel to the battlefield. And like American steel in the 1880s, biofuel was a new technology waiting for an investor to come and purchase it at above-market prices, so eventually it could reduce its costs and become com-petitive.

“That’s what we can do with energy,” Mabus said. “We can break the market.”

The environmentalists applauded.

Military inappropriate for green testingWhile keeping troops safe and lowering long-run costs are valuable goals for the Defense Department, biofuels won’t accomplish either, said Dr. David Kreutzer, a Research Fellow in Energy Economics and Climate Change for the Heritage Foundation.

In the first case, he said, convoys would still have to transport fuel, whether “green” or petroleum, over ground to reach deployed forward operating bases. And since biofuels have a lower energy density, transport convoys would actually have to be larger to carry the supply, creating a broader target for the enemy.

Second, Kreutzer said, if the tech-nology behind alternative fuel sources was truly propitious, endorsement by the military should not be necessary to ensure its survival. “The fact that

you have to get the Department of Defense to fund this to me is a sign that (biofuels are) not all that promis-ing,” he said.

Moreover, Kreutzer said, there were plenty of cheaper alternatives closer at hand. “We could drill a couple of wells in the Gulf of Mexico and get way more than we could for their biofuel initia-tives,” he said.

Kenneth P. Green, an energy and environment expert with the Ameri-can Enterprise Institute, said the idea of energy security and independence was equally suspect. “The price shock issue is real,” he said. “But trying to decouple from the world energy econ-omy isn’t going to fix that.” Biofuels, subject to the laws of supply and demand, would increase in cost during a fuel price spike—and if kept off the world market, the cost of keeping them off would be high.

“It’s more a matter of energies-pho-bia,” Green said. “The idea of survival as sort of independence in everything is the sort of reflexive mindset. We don’t think about this with regard to smartphones, knapsacks... with almost everything, we understand that it’s bet-ter with world trade.”

And, Green said, the military had no business choosing the winners in fuel technology, especially with untapped options such as shale gas close at hand.

“You don’t economize on keeping your soldiers alive, but where possible, don’t they have an obligation to con-serve costs with the public’s dollar?” Green said. “Find the cheapest fuel, not the most politically correct fuel.”

Biofuels could hurt combat readinessA study released in late March by the Bipartisan Policy Center on energy innovation within the Department of Defense found that while the military had some success in piloting new effi-cient technologies that would keep troops safer, its size and capacity meant it was ill-equipped to become a pioneer for green energy.

“DoD’s ability to house supply and demand under one roof, and to produce lasting improvements in complex sys-tems over time, driven in part by large, sustained procurement programs, is nearly unique—and unlikely to be widely reproduced in the energy and climate context,” a summary read. “There are significant constraints upon what DoD is likely to do directly in this area; the department is unlikely to become an all-purpose engine of energy innovation.”

The study concluded the military would do best if pragmatism, not pol-

itics, drives energy and environmental decisions.

“We believe that DoD’s scope in this area will be significantly constrained to issues and opportunities... that will also reliably assist DoD’s ability to fulfill its core mission,” one of the study’s authors, Samuel Thernstrom of the Clean Air Task Force, told Human Events. “Where those activities do not fall squarely within DoD’s core mission, it seems less likely that those efforts will be successful.”

Sen. Inhofe’s game plan On Capitol Hill, Inhofe said he was the loudest voice protesting wasteful defense energy policies, but he said there were others who agreed, including Democrats who worried that the issue would affect their re-election races.

While Inhofe’s options in terms of direct political action are limited, he said, because the Republicans lack a majority in the Senate, he plans to maintain a watchdog role to keep pub-lic attention on the issue.

Later this month, he will deliver an extended address on the Senate floor denouncing the military’s far-left energy policies. And Inhofe looks for-ward to seeing how this year’s presi-dential election may provide a way to walk back the liberal Defense energy policies of the last term. Panetta is a great Secretary of Defense, Inhofe said; he would just be a better one serving under someone else.

Hope Hodge is a reporter covering defense and national Security for Human Events. She can be reached at [email protected]

Alternative biofuels fuels could be a costly mistake

‘It ain’t easy being green’

Number of gallons of biofuel procured last year by the Defense Logistics Agency in what was the largest government biofuel purchase in history

Number of brand new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets that could be purchased for $2 billion

Amount President Barack obama has proposed the Defense Department spend on energy efficiency programs, equipment, and development in Fiscal 2013

$2 billion 17 450,000

▲ The uSS Dewey, seen in this 2011 photo, is just one type of Navy destroyer being considered for costly bio-fuel technology. u.S. NAVy PHoTo By MASS CoMMuNICATIoN SPeCIALIST 3RD CLASS BeNJAMIN CRoSSLey

▲ Sen. James Inhofe. NeWSCoM

Cover Story: Defense & National Security 17

The Green MonsterA normally level-headed panetta caved to a far-left agenda when he

proposed to spend billions of dollars on climate change and green initiatives. Sen. James inhofe won’t let that happen without a fight.

18 HumanEvents.com | Week of May 14, 2012News • iNdustry • defeNse • debate • h istory • white house • daily eveNts ®•

allegiaNce jobs • capitol hill • b ill of rights • commeNtary • goverNor

• coNservative • media • polls • state of the uNioN • freedom • seNate •

breakiNg News • r ights • caucus • fouNdiNg fathers • washiNgtoN • ageNda

• guNs & patriots • aNN coulter letter • debt ceil iNg • eNdorsemeNt • wall

st. • gop • taxes • commeNtary • NatioNal security • maiN st. • values •

goverNmeNt • ecoNomy • family eveNts ® • uNioNs • documeNts • justice •

healthcare • techNology • beNefits • results • • educatioN • primaries

• redstate morNiNg briefiNg • scieNce • coNstitutioN • foreigN policy •

public opiNioN • couNtry • small busiNess • l ife • the americaN people

• Newt giNgrich letter • house of represeNtatives • uNemploymeNt •

electioN • mil itary • immigratioN • coNgress • supreme court • l iberty •

News • iNdustry • defeNse • debate • h istory • white house • daily eveNts ®•




• guNs & patriots • aNN coulter letter • debt ceil iNg • eNdorsemeNt •

wall st. • gop • taxes • commeNtary • NatioNal security • maiN st. • values

• goverNmeNt • ecoNomy • family eveNts ® • uNioNs • documeNts • justice

• healthcare • techNology • beNefits • results • educatioN • primaries




electioN • mil itary • immigratioN • coNgress • supreme court • l iberty





• guNs & patriots • aNN coulter letter • debt ceil iNg • eNdorsemeNt •

wall st. • gop • taxes • commeNtary • NatioNal security • maiN st. • values

• goverNmeNt • ecoNomy • family eveNts ® • uNioNs • documeNts • justice

• healthcare • techNology • beNefits • results • educatioN • primaries




electioN • mil itary • immigratioN • coNgress • supreme court • l iberty •





www.HumanEvents.com/eletters

News? Analysis? We’ve got you covered.

For Free.

Joseph Guerriero | Vice President & Group Publisher | 202-677-4462 | [email protected] | www.thehumaneventsgroup.com

To sign up for our FREE e-letters, visit:

For advertising inquiries:

Daily Events® • RedState Morning Briefing

Guns & Patriots • Newt Gingrich Letter

Ann Coulter Letter • Family Events®

Test

Documents

Transcript of Test