KeithHennessey.com

In today’s Wall Street Journal, Kim Strassel brilliantly identifies four key mistakes made by the President and his team in their health care legislative effort. Here are six additional health care stumbles by Team Obama, rounding out Kim’s list to an even ten.

Politico is running my op-ed today explaining the linkage how the wrong health reform bill will hurt the economy.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Rep. George Miller write in today’s Wall Street Journal in favor of their pay-as-you-go, aka “paygo” rule. I have a different perspective and offer it here in response.

I began this blog at the end of March after the stimulus bill had become law.  I had been struck by how much the stimulus debate had focused on whether the bill was efficient.  (It clearly was not.)  There was much less discussion of whether the stimulus would be effective, and of the timing of [...]

Suppose I bought an iPhone yesterday for $500.
Suppose I argue that I will save $2000 this week, because I intend to refraining from buying an additional iPhone today, nor will I buy one this Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.
Suppose I plan to buy a new flat screen TV tomorrow for $1500.
Can I claim I that have [...]

Yesterday on his blog the President’s Budget Director, Peter Orszag, asks himself and then answers the question, “How much does the federal government owe?”
This sounds like a technical question of concern only to “those of us wearing the green eyeshades,” but the Director’s suggested answer has dangerous ramifications, and could mislead or at [...]

Almost two months ago, President Obama set a specific employment goal for his Administration:
I think my initial measure of success is creating or saving 4 million jobs.

It is clear that this “create or save” phrase is now a standard and important part of the Administration’s economic message.
Greg Mankiw quickly identified both the quantitative ambiguity and [...]

Heidi Collins of CNN interviewed former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich and me this morning around 10:30 AM on CNN Newsroom.
To my surprise, Secretary Reich and I agreed on a lot.  We both came out strong against protectionism, and complimented the G-20 leaders for making a strong statement about this.  We’ll see if the leaders [...]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the March employment report at 8:30 am.  Here is the least you need to know:

Net payroll employment declined in March by 663,000 jobs.
That’s a terrible number, and in line with expectations.
The unemployment rate increased from 8.1% to 8.5%.

Much of the press coverage talks about “5.1 million jobs lost since [...]

The President has arrived in London for the G-20 economic summit.  I have different policy views than the President on some of these issues, but I will not criticize him while he is overseas.  I will attempt to gently highlight a couple of substantive issues that concern me, but at the same time I want [...]