Jacob Sullum's Townhall.com Column

Contraceptive Failure

2012-02-22T00:01:00-05:00

Jacob Sullum Column
A month ago, the Obama administration said religious organizations will have to pay for health insurance policies that cover contraception and sterilization, even if they consider those practices immoral.

Obama's Fiscal Fakery: How Can You Pay Down the National Debt by Building It Up

2012-02-15T00:01:00-05:00

Jacob Sullum Column
Decrying "a decade of deficits" on Monday, President Obama declared that "my budget lays out a path for how we can pay down these debts." It is hard to see how that can be true, since his plan would add $6.7 trillion to the national debt during the next decade.

Bogus Busts: New York City Continues Its Illegal Crackdown on Pot Smokers

2012-02-08T00:01:00-05:00

Jacob Sullum Column
Thirty-five years ago, New York's legislature decriminalized marijuana possession. Numbers released last week show the New York Police Department continues to flagrantly flout that policy, wasting resources on a pointless, unjust and illegal crusade against pot smokers.

Complexity Compounded

2012-02-01T00:01:00-05:00

Jacob Sullum Column
In his State of the Union address last week, President Obama used billionaire investor Warren Buffett's secretary, Debbie Bosanek, as a prop to illustrate the unfairness of our tax system. "Right now," he said as Bosanek sat near first lady Michelle Obama, "Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate than his secretary."

GPS Tracking and Other New Surveillance Technologies Threaten Privacy

2012-01-25T00:01:00-05:00

Jacob Sullum Column
"If you win this case," Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer told Deputy Solicitor General Michael Dreeben during oral argument in U.S. v. Jones last fall, "there is nothing to prevent the police or the government from monitoring 24 hours a day the public movement of every citizen of the United States." That prospect, Breyer said, "sounds like '1984.'"

Misguided Efforts Gave Us the Pretense of Independent Campaign Spending

2012-01-18T00:01:00-05:00

Jacob Sullum Column
Winning Our Future, a "super PAC" that supports Newt Gingrich's bid for the Republican presidential nomination, is spending more than $1.2 million on ads in South Carolina, which holds its primary on Saturday. That fact requires some explanation.

The Freakin' FCC: The Increasingly Incomprehensible Ban on Broadcast Indecency

2012-01-11T00:01:00-05:00

Jacob Sullum Column
My daughters, who range in age from 5 to 18, watch TV programs and movies on DVDs, on smart phones, streaming from Netflix through our Wii, on video websites, on our DVR and on demand from AT&T U-verse. They do not know or care what "broadcast television" is, and they certainly do not perceive a categorical distinction between "over-the-air" channels and the rest.

The Loneliness of the Non-mainstream Swimmer

2012-01-04T00:01:00-05:00

Jacob Sullum Column
"I don't think Ron Paul represents the mainstream," says Mitt Romney. Newt Gingrich, another of the Texas congressman's opponents in the contest for the Republican presidential nomination, uses stronger terms, declaring, "Ron Paul's views are totally outside the mainstream of virtually every decent American."

'Things Happened': The Year's Highlights in Shifting Responsibility

2011-12-28T00:01:00-05:00

Jacob Sullum Column
In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network last March, shortly before he announced that he was running for the Republican presidential nomination, Newt Gingrich reflected on his sins, which include cheating on his first two wives with women he would later marry.

One-Man Intervention: Ron Paul Challenges His Party's Mindless Militarism

2011-12-21T00:01:00-05:00

Jacob Sullum Column
Reporters routinely describe Ron Paul's foreign policy views as "isolationist" because he opposes the promiscuous use of military force. This is like calling him a recluse because he tries to avoid fistfights.

If You're Looking for a Profligate Authoritarian, Gingrich Is Your Man

2011-12-14T00:01:00-05:00

Jacob Sullum Column
The first time Newt Gingrich disgusted me was in 1995, when the freshly installed speaker of the House proposed the death penalty for drug smugglers. Fifteen years later, I had a similar response when Gingrich demanded government action to stop Muslims from building a mosque near the site of the World Trade Center.

Detention Pretension

2011-12-07T00:01:00-05:00

Jacob Sullum Column
Do you see a problem with a law that authorizes indefinite military detention of anyone the president identifies as an enemy of the state? For President Obama, the problem is clear: The law does not give him enough discretion.

Romney's Immigration Dodge Precludes Possibility of Reconciling Policy With Reality

2011-11-30T00:01:00-05:00

Jacob Sullum Column
"I don't believe in amnesty," Mitt Romney said in 2006, but "I don't believe in rounding up 11 million people and forcing them at gunpoint from our country." Although Romney is loath to admit it, the underlying reality remains the same.

Passing the Purse

2011-11-23T00:01:00-05:00

Jacob Sullum Column
Clearly what we need is a super-duper committee.

Upholding the Insurance Mandate Would Encourage Endless Meddling

2011-11-16T00:01:00-05:00

Jacob Sullum Column
A couple of months ago, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Beth Brinkmann was standing before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, defending the federal law requiring Americans to buy government-approved health insurance, when Judge Laurence Silberman asked her about broccoli. Specifically, he wanted to know whether a law requiring Americans to buy broccoli would exceed the federal government's authority to regulate interstate commerce.

Absolutely Profligate: Mitt Romney's Spending 'Cuts' Would Expand the Federal Budget

2011-11-09T00:01:00-05:00

Jacob Sullum Column
Presenting his fiscal plan in USA Today last week, Mitt Romney said he wants to "eliminate every government program that is not absolutely essential." That sounds good until you realize that Romney's goal of cutting $500 billion from projected federal outlays in 2016 would, at best, leave the budget about 8 percent higher than it is now and only 11 percent lower than it would be without any attempt to restrain spending.

File Not Found

2011-11-02T00:01:00-04:00

Jacob Sullum Column
When he took office, Barack Obama promised "an unprecedented level of openness in government." As a major part of that commitment, he pledged fidelity to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which he called "the most prominent expression of a profound national commitment to ensuring an open government."

Perry and Gingrich Recklessly Disregard the Importance of Judicial Review

2011-10-26T00:01:00-04:00

Jacob Sullum Column
Why is Newt Gingrich running for president? Two words: "under God." I exaggerate only slightly.

Borrowing From Paul

2011-10-19T00:01:00-04:00

Jacob Sullum Column
Next month, the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, a 12-member subset of Congress that Congress created to make the hard fiscal choices Congress itself has failed to make, is expected to propose $1.2 trillion in cuts from projected spending during the next decade.

Read My Tea Leaves

2011-10-12T00:01:00-04:00

Jacob Sullum Column
In their Oct. 7 press release announcing "coordinated enforcement actions" against medical marijuana dispensaries, California's four U.S. attorneys use the adjective "commercial" to describe their targets eight times and refer to "profit" nine times, not counting two mentions of "money" and one of "moneymaking."