"one of the reasons America’s debt is fast approaching $15 billion." Not billion, Mr. Holler, TRILLION.

You cannot spread western democratic values to those whose cultures are diametrically opposed to them. Further, you cannot spread "liberty" with bloodshed. Liberty is an idea and imposing it using force is anathema to the very concept. Freedom is not a gift that can be given; it must be desired so much that the people in question will fight and die for it themselves. Analogous to giving a teenager a car versus making them work to buy their own, such gifts will not be treasured, defended and sustained if they cost nothing. We project our own values onto the world at our considerable cost and peril.

The proponents of this have seen how heavily-populated urban areas outvote rural areas. Washington State is a great example. The state is conservative, except the Seattle area, but the population in Seattle outvotes the rest of the state. With NPV, there is no need to pay any attention to small population centers; no need to advertise or campaign there. Just buy the votes of the urban areas and you win the WH. After all, when 50.1% rely on Big Daddy Gubmint for their subsistence, it is an easy matter to bribe them with more money from someone else's pocket. Our election systems was written to prevent exactly this type of tyranny of the majority. Look at the last election map--a sea of red with pockets of blue (urban areas).

Mr. Jacoby fails to mention how our ever-increasing dependence on foreign sources of energy is related to the ever-increasing regulations that prevent our own resources from being exploited. Most of our proven oil, natural gas and coal reserves have been made off-limits as a sop to the envirofascists, regardless of the fact that advanced extraction technology has made it safer and cleaner than ever for us to extract and refine them. Instead, the envirofascists prefer that we rely on countries such as Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and others for our energy needs, even though their protection of the environment is horrific in many cases. China is drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, and they certainly don't have a good environmental record.

If only.... Unfortunately, the corruptocrats in DC aren't interested in fixing anything; they are focused like a laser beam on buying votes. Everything they do is intended to provide someone with a favor that will generate campaign contributions that will help them get re-elected. Period, end of story.

I agree. It is unwise to analyze such disparate cultures as China or Islam based upon western values. For example, relying on MAD to deter Iran... As I said in another comment, China has 30 million young men unable to find wives due to the male:female imbalance, a result of their one-child policy and a long-time cultural affinity for boys. How does the CCP keep those young men from turning on them?

I see it leaving China with 30 million young men unable to find wives (already the case and getting worse). What do they do to keep those young men from igniting revolution?

China is buying up huge tracts of real estate and other US-based assets already. I do not view this a as a good thing, especially when they are setting up Special Economic Zones that are the equivalent of sovereign Chinese soil in the US. Who do you think will be living in, and employed in those zones? Not Americans. Perhaps even Chinese military. Trojan horse, anyone?

Every. Single. Dollar. Matters! The entire federal budget must be examined. Cut a few million here, a couple million there, trim a few hundred thousand from each of those thousand pet programs and pretty soon, you're talking real money. Before tackling major reform, maybe this is the tactic to try: cut all of the piddling "little" stuff first, then you have some credibility when you say to the people, "Look, we've eliminated XXX dollars from all of these programs, eliminated redundancy here and there, cut fraud and abuse, and our discretionary budget is cleaned up. Now, we have to talk about entitlements, because there is no more to cut from anything else while still providing truly essential services."

Obama is right from his perspective: tax cuts would kill GOVERNMENT jobs, thus eroding government control over the lives of citizens.