Deroy Murdock

“Free Enterprise in the Obama Era”Free Enterprise in the Obama Era

The Rio Grande FoundationJune 18 2010June 18, 2010

White House “Pay Czar” Kenneth FeinbergFox Business Channel – February 4, 2010

CAVUTO: “Do you ever have a figure in your mind of what connotes excessive compensation? Is it a million dollars?connotes excessive compensation? Is it a million dollars? Is it two million dollars?”

FEINBERG “N b d h ld i th b hFEINBERG: “Nobody should receive more than a base cash salary of $500,000 maximum. Now, there may be exceptions in certain cases. But that is sort of the figure that is the benchmark.”

H.R. 3692 Section 1111 (page 381)

“PAYMENTS TO SKILLED NURSING FACILITIES”

“(2) ADJUSTMENT IN RECALIBRATION FACTOR. –Based on the initial analysis under paragraph (1), the Secretary shall adjust the case mix indexes under section 1888(e)(4)(G)(i) of j ( )( )( )( )the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 139yy(e)(4)(G)(i) for fiscal year 2010 by the appropriate recalibration factor as proposed in the proposed rule for Medicare skilled nursing facilities by such Secretary on May 12, 2009 (74 Federal Register 22214 et seq.).”

Publicly declared corporate losses due to ObamaCare (so far…)

Company Charge

AT&T 1,000,000,000 Verizon 970 000 000Verizon 970,000,000 Deere & Co. 150,000,000 Boeing 150,000,000 Caterpillar 100,000,000 Prudential Financial, Inc. 100,000,000 Lockheed Martin 96,000,000 Exelon 65,000,000 3M Company 85 000 0003M Company 85,000,000 Ingersoll-Rand 41,000,000 AK Steel 31,000,000 Eaton 25,000,000

Total $2,813,000,000

As of April 2, 2010 - ObamaCare signed on March 23, 2010 p , g ,

Sources: Bloomberg, Fox Business News, The Hill, Reuters, WSJ

GWB: Biggest Spender Since LBJTotal Federal Spending, Real Annual Average Change

-0.3%

-1% 0% 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6%

Eisenhower

4.6%

5.7%

JFK

LBJ

3.0%

2.9%

Nixon

Ford

4.1%

2.6%

Carter

Reagan

1.9%

1.5%

Bush I

Clinton

4.9%Bush II

Source: Chris Edwards, Cato Institute.

“Blessed are the young,y g,for they shall inherit thenational debt.”

-Herbert Hoover

Index of Economic Freedom

U S E i F d W ’ N 8!U.S. Economic Freedom: We’re No. 8!

America has slid from “Free” to “Mostly Free.”

Index of Economic Freedom

U.S. Economic Freedom – Losing Ground 2009 Index to 2010 Index

2009 Index

2009 Index

2010 Index

90

2009 Index2010

Index

2010

2009 Index 2010

Index

Index70

Index

50Government Spending Monetary Freedom Financial Freedom Property Rights p g y p y g

Index of Economic Freedom

Greater Economic Freedom = Higher Standard of Living

$30 000

GDP per Capita (in constant 2000 US$)

$28,091

$23,253$25,000

$30,000

$15,000

$20,000

$6,819

$5,000

$10,000

$1,478 $1,796

$-

$ ,

Free Mostly Free Moderately Free Mostly Unfree Repressed

Economic Freedom

Sources: Terry Miller and Kim R. Holmes, 2010 Index of Economic Freedom (Washington, D.C.: The Heritage Foundation and Dow Jones & Company, Inc., 2010), at www.heritage.org/index; World Bank, World Development Indicator Online, www.worldbank.org/data

Economic Freedom

E i F d P t Cl E i tEconomic Freedom Promotes a Clean Environment

Correlation: 0.56Average Score of the Environmental Performance Index

86.783.4

77.3

64.963.8

FreeMostly FreeModerately FreeMostly UnfreeRepressedEconomic Freedom

Sources: Terry Miller and Kim R. Holmes, 2010 Index of Economic Freedom (Washington, D.C.: The Heritage Foundation and Dow Jones & Company, Inc., 2010), at www.heritage.org/index; Daniel C. Esty, M. A. Levy, C. H. Kim, A. de Sherbinin, T. Srebotnjak, and V. Mara, 2008 Environmental Performance Index (New Haven: Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, 2008), at http://epi.yale.edu/Framework.

U.S. Oil and Natural Gas Reserves

Annual Onshore Years' Offshore Years'

Use Reserves Supply Reserves Supply

Oil (billion bbl) 7.30 21.0 2.88 86.0 11.78

Gas (trillion cubic ft.) 25.0 187.0 7.48 420.0 16.80

Gas (trillion cubic ft.)

(+ Marcellus Shale) 25.0 687.0 27.48 420.0 16.80 ( )

Source: American PetroleumInstitute - May 2010