DONATELLI: Obama, Reagan, and the economy
By Frank Donatelli
Published in Politico
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
It's easy to understand why President Barack Obama's friends don't want to acknowledge that July represents 17 months since Congress passed the $787 billion economic stimulus bill — the president's signature measure to jump-start the economy and fight unemployment.
Obama says the economy is headed in the right direction; jobs are being created, not lost, and he is doing everything possible to revive the "worst economy since the Great Depression." Most of the national press has been remarkably accepting of this narrative - even if the president has been vague, at best, about when we might finally see an uptick in economic growth and job creation.
But in another economic time, President Ronald Reagan's economic recovery program took 17 months to take hold. It took from the time Congress passed his tax cuts, in August 1981, until the recession he inherited finally ended in January 1983.
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DONATELLI: We're looking more like France
By Frank J. Donatelli
Published in POLITICO
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Republicans can barely contain their glee at their electoral prospects for this year.
There is reason for this optimism. The Obama administration's poll numbers continue to sink, and history tells us that things could get worse before they get better.
Republicans are poised to have one of our best elections ever in November.
But what the GOP will find if and when it wins one or two houses of Congress is not pretty.
President Barack Obama's Democrats have set out to alter fundamentally the nature of the U.S. political system. The changes they've wrought will not be easily undone.
Obama has sought to remake America into a social democracy - like Germany or France — with a larger public sector, expanded entitlements, stronger labor unions and a changed political structure. He's doing quite well so far.
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DONATELLI: GOPAC-WI Releases Statewide Political Survey
Wisconsin is Ready for New Leadership
Washington, DC (May 21, 2010) – Today GOPAC-WI and The Tarrance Group, a national survey research firm, released the findings of their Wisconsin statewide survey about public leaders and political issues. The survey reports that only 35 percent of participants feel that Wisconsin is moving in the right direction, while 56 percent reported they feel the state is on the wrong track.
"We are excited about the prospect of returning Republican control to the Wisconsin Legislature. The generic ballot shows Republicans are already on a level playing field with Democrats and the message testing suggests a clear path to GOP victory in November. Democrats will have a very difficult time defending their record of higher taxes and spending, record job losses and out of control spending,"said Frank Donatelli, GOPAC Chairman. Click here to read full press release.
Chairman Donatelli on the Lars Larson Show
Chairman Donatelli on the Rusty Humphries Show
DONATELLI: Is freedom for individuals or the government?
By Frank Donatelli
Published in The Washington Times
Friday, April 16, 2010
The retirement of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens gives President Obama an opportunity to fill a second Supreme Court vacancy. The choice could be pivotal because the court soon will be asked to rule on the constitutionality of intrusive health legislation enacted under Congress' power to regulate commerce, i.e., the Commerce Clause. With this president seeking a larger and larger federal establishment, health care will not be the only such case the court will decide in the coming years.
This upcoming debate fits well with the public's concern about huge deficits, high taxes and an ever-larger federal establishment that tries to do everything but does nothing very well. A seminal reason for the existence of such an ineffective federal government is that we have ignored traditional constitutional prohibitions against the federal government usurping functions that should be left to the individual states. Debate over the Stevens vacancy is another opportunity to rediscover the constitutional virtues of federalism and limited government. Republican members should question the president's nominee closely to ascertain what restraints, if any, he thinks the Constitution places on federal power.
Click here to read the full article
We Will Fight Them In the States...
By Frank Donatelli
Published on FOXNews.com
Tuesday, March 22, 2010
The federal takeover of the American health care system is nearly complete but make no mistake, we will pursue the fight at the state level.
On the narrowest of partisan margins, House Democrats rammed through perhaps the most irresponsible piece of legislation ever enacted by any Congress. Despite losing 34 Democrats, the House leadership used questionable parliamentary tactics, backroom deals and raw political power to enact Obamacare, which nearly completes the federal takeover of the American health care system.
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Donatelli: Runaway Deficits Will Enable GOP to Retake Majority
By Frank Donatelli
Published in Roll Call
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
If everyone in America, other than President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats, is glum over the passage of "Obamacare," there is a silver lining: The bill's passage will finally force the country to face our dire fiscal circumstances and bring the kind of clarifying election that could lead to America's fiscal salvation. Or not.
Even before passage of Obamacare, here are the fiscal facts that America faces in 2010: Our deficit will be more than $1 trillion for the second year in a row. Our cumulative national debt is careening toward the $13 trillion mark, and it will reach at least $16 trillion by the end of a second Obama administration.
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DONATELLI: States experimenting with creating new jobs
By Frank Donatelli
Published in The Washington Times
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
If we are to believe government experts and liberal academics, Americans must accept high unemployment and slow economic growth "for the foreseeable future." Fortunately, many states are experimenting with economic policies and strategies designed to create jobs and raise economic activity by strengthening the private sector and targeting investment and resources to make labor markets function more smoothly.
What are some of these policy initiatives that conservative governors across the country are supporting?
First, and most obvious, states must restore fiscal discipline to their budgeting and tax policies. Numbers don't lie. States with high rates of taxation and large public sectors (New York, New Jersey, California) tend to have lower growth rates than the national average.
States that are addressing high taxation rates and bloated public sectors seem poised for a brighter future. Govs. Mitch Daniels of Indiana, Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Haley Barbour of Mississippi have been particularly focused on creating business-friendly environments that stress holding the line on state taxes and spending, reducing state regulatory burdens on firms and scaling back "junk lawsuits" by enacting tort reform.
Click here to read the full article
Health Care Summit: The Brown Effect
By
Frank Donatelli
Published in
Politico
Friday, February 12, 2010
The biggest dividend of Scott Brown’s Massachusetts Senate victory is the recent invitation by President Barack Obama to Republicans to participate in a health care "summit."
One would have thought this would have been done last year when the president decided to make health care his main priority, but no matter. As my former boss, President Ronald Reagan, used to say, "If you can’t make them see the light, perhaps you can make them feel the heat." Smart Democrats know that "Obamacare" is massively unpopular and that the party would be wise to work with Republicans to have something to show on its signature issue.
So the question arises, what should Republicans propose at this summit and hopefully in legislation that will be developed by the House and the Senate?
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The GOP after Massachusetts
By
GOPAC Chairman Frank Donatelli
Friday, January 22, 2010
Scott Brown’s historic win in Massachusetts scrambles the political picture for both parties. For Democrats, it means they will have far more difficulty turning their momentary supermajority into a permanently larger federal establishment. For the GOP, it gives them a toehold on power in Washington, a seat at the policy table and an even greater opportunity to make real gains in the 2010 midterm elections.
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On Fox: "If The Bill Is So Good, Why Does Everyone Need An Exemption In Order To Vote For It?"
Friday, January 15, 2010
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Top 10 Economic Fallacies of the Obama Administration
By
Frank Donatelli
Published in
The Hill
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
10. Adding demand for a service can also reduce costs. This is the crux of President Barack Obama’s healthcare promise. He proposes to add millions of users of healthcare, keep supply constant and reduce costs. It cannot happen. It will not happen. If healthcare costs will not decrease, what is the rationale for healthcare reform besides raw politics?
9. The “cost curve” of healthcare can be “bent” by transferring liabilities from individuals to the government. President Obama’s healthcare bill stresses this, but increased third-party payments by the government encourage increased use of the healthcare system, thus raising costs, not lowering them. Again, President Obama’s bill doesn’t deliver on its central promise of lower costs.
Click here to read the full article.
Far-left ideology triumphs
Even over practical politics, Chicago-style
By
Frank Donatelli
Published in
Washington Times
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
It is now clear that the far left ideological side of President Obama has triumphed over his Chicago machine persona. Saul Alinsky has won out over Mayor Richard Daley.
Political machines are all about winning, which means being responsive to the desires of their electorate. It means paying attention to the views and attitudes of the people.
Ideologues, by contrast, pay lip service to popular opinion, but are far more interested in satisfying a preordained agenda, which may or may not be supported by the people. Ideologues rationalize this disconnect by arguing that their opposition to constituents' views underline the sheer selflessness of their actions. Liberals believe in nothing if not the moral superiority of their motives.
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GOP Must Be Ready When the Spotlight Returns
By
Frank Donatelli
Published in
Roll Call
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
There has been much commentary about the results of the latest Wall Street Journal survey, which revealed that the Republican Party has not been able to gain traction even as President Barack Obama’s numbers continue to fall. Indeed, the survey showed that the party is now slightly less popular than it was on Election Day last year. This is not really as surprising as it sounds, and it fits with well-worn historical patterns of how parties rebuild after devastating defeats.
Click here to read the full article.
The Comeback Continues
By
Frank Donatelli
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Winning campaigns are primarily about the candidates and the issues that they emphasize. So kudos to Bob McDonnell and Chris Christie for winning the two biggest elections this year. They campaigned long and hard, reached out to Independent voters, and ran strong election day operations. McDonnell broke the Democrats' long winning streak in Virginia. Christie overcame Jon Corzine's personal fortune. But they also did something else. They won because they focused on the issues that were of real concern to their electorates
Click here to read the full article.
The reform-minded conservative
By
Frank Donatelli
Published in
The Washington Times
Monday, October 26, 2009
Imagine a two-term Republican governor from a state carried by Barack Obama who turned an $800 million deficit into a $1.2 billion surplus by cutting overhead and bringing sound business principles to his state's government even as he provided new health benefits for poor citizens. Imagine no longer. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels accomplished this and more, and he did it all while enacting the biggest tax cut in state history.
Click here to read the full article.
Northern Virginia House races 'most winnable,' major GOP fundraiser says
By
William C. Cook
Published in
The Examiner
Thursday, October 08, 2009
Northern Virginia, a region that fueled the state's nearly decadelong Democratic takeover, now offers some of the "most winnable" House races for Republicans, the head of a powerful GOP political action committee said Wednesday.
GOPAC, a group that helped bankroll the national "Republican Revolution" of 1994, announced an at least $100,000 commitment to Virginia races on Wednesday, most of it for a handful of Republican House incumbents and challengers. Five of the campaigns are in the Washington suburbs, an area that voted overwhelmingly for President Obama in the 2008 presidential race.
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Permanent PR campaign
By
Frank Donatelli
Published in
The Washington Times
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Coming soon to a TV near you - President Obama. He is addressing a joint session of Congress, speaking to the United Nations, and he's on five Sunday political talk shows (all except for Fox).
And yes, that is Mr. Obama on the "Late Show With David Letterman." The president even finds time to go to Copenhagen to beg the International Olympic Committee to bring the Olympics to Chicago in 2016, where he presumably will suit up for the U.S. basketball team.
Click here to read the full article.
Just Like the Rest
By
Frank Donatelli
Thursday, October 01, 2009
"Health Care According to Max Baucus" has finally arrived. It’s the most ballyhooed event since the debut of the Jay Leno show at 10:00pm. The Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee has toiled for months in search of a “bipartisan” vehicle to move health care reform forward. As of now, this is the Chairman’s bill and no one else’s. Not one Republican has signed on. While the intentions of the Chairman should be applauded, his final product contains most of the same fatal flaws that are part of all of the other efforts produced so far.
Click here to read the full article.
Chairman Donatelli Supports Virginia Statewide Candidate
Friday, September 25, 2009
 Chairman Frank Donatelli at Wednesday's reception for the 3 Virginia statewide candidates: gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell, Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling and Attorney General candidate, State Senator Ken Cuccinelli, pictured here with former Governor George Allen and his wife Susan.
Click here to read the full article.
An Old Whine In New Bottles
By
By Frank Donatelli
Published in
FOXNews.com
Monday, September 14, 2009
 The president was eloquent as usual on behalf of his ideas. The problem is that the American public has already spoken: we do not want what the president is proposing.
President Obama gave his 28th speech on health care reform to a joint session of Congress this past week. Too bad the presidency doesn't consist solely of such "big occasion" speeches. The president excels in this area. Unfortunately, the basic principles he enunciated in this 28th rendition suffered from the same defects as the first 27 and explains why the public is resisting this latest version.
There are no cost containment measures in the health care bill. If the president's latest plan is enacted, costs will go UP, not down. By adding millions of new consumers of health care to a static pool of health care providers, the simple law of supply and demand can provide no other outcome than to increase the cost. Costs will either rise or a
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Could win the GOP as many as 14 congressional districts
By
Frank Donatelli
Published in
The Washington Times
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Faced with open rebellion in its own ranks, the Obama administration is considering enacting Obamacare through an arcane backroom procedure that would require a simple majority vote, bypassing a Senate filibuster threat and any necessity for support from minority Republicans.
Essentially, President Obama could pass his health care reform bill on a straight party line vote. While the national interest is far better served by the outright defeat of the president's plan and that's where Republican efforts should be directed, such a move by the administration would guarantee a Republican House no later than 2012. Consider that the program to be enacted would include all taxes to pay for the plan, big cuts in Medicare, the government-run health insurance plan (the "public option"), employer mandates and fines and almost certainly hundreds of billions of dollars added to the national debt.
There's a reason the administration would try and pass this program with a bare partisan majority
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DONATELLI: Keep hallmarks of health care
By
Frank Donatelli
Published in
The Washington Times
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Conservatism's principles suggest that states, not the federal government, take the lead on reforming health care to preserve its three hallmarks: access, affordability and innovation.
To do that, conservatives from more than 30 states came up with these ideas at a meeting this month in Chicago:
Medical malpractice reform. A major cause of more expensive health care is the rash of "junk lawsuits," i.e. suits with little legal merit, filed in hopes of securing a settlement against health care providers. A number of states, including Texas, Virginia and Oklahoma, have enacted sensible restraints on who can bring such suits and how much can be collected in damages beyond actual economic injury. Congressional Democrats have even refused to consider this sensible reform because of the handsome campaign contributions they receive from trial lawyers.
Click here to read the full article.
GOP gains steam as health bill sputters
By
Andy Barr
Published in
Politico.com
Sunday, August 16, 2009
After two terrible elections when independent voters turned away from the GOP and the party lost control of the White House and the Senate, Republicans finally have a little spring back in their step thanks to a health care debate that has done more to cool off Obama-mania and reignite the conservative base than even most of its leaders had hoped.
"Republicans have quickly recovered their voice," Rep. Mark Kirk, whose Senate campaign in Illinois has many Republicans eyeing a pick up, told POLITICO.
Kirk joined party leaders here this week at the second annual GOPAC conference, where they worked with state legislators to develop a unified GOP strategy and message on heath care. The timing of the conference could hardly have proven better for the group, as the backlash to Democrats' health care plans has enthusiasm in Republican ranks at its high water mark of President Barack Obama's six-and-a-half months in office.
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Chairman Frank Donatelli on Fox News Channel's "Happening Now"
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
GOPAC Chairman Frank Donatelli appeared on Fox News Channel's "Happening Now" Wednesday, July 29th to discuss a new poll released Wednesday morning that finds at least half of all Americans, 49%, believe the country's debt best days are behind us.
Jane Skinner:
You look at those numbers and I want you to be specific in terms of strategy, how you would advise the White House to do with this electorate? How about these congressional members that are going to go home and hear about it?... I want to put up a quotation from a conservative writer. Has the white house miscalculated how we feel?
Frank Donatelli:
I think so. President Obama was elected to fix the economy, not to turn us into France. The fact of the matter is, h
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Chairman Donatelli on Good Morning America:
Monday, July 27, 2009
GOPAC Chairman Frank Donatelli appeared on Good Morning America Monday, July 27th to discuss the ramifications of Governor Sarah Palin’s resignation and her ongoing role in Republican politics.
 An Excerpt:
Neil Karlinsky:
She leaves office a year and a half early, with a growing pile of cash in her political action committee, more than $1 million strong, and growing rapidly, since her decision to resign.
She will get out there and she will start something for candidates.
Frank Donatelli:
She runs second in most of the public polls, as far as Republican preferences for 2012 so she'll still very much be a factor, as we go fo
Click here to read the full article.
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