What a wonderful and placid world it could be without radical Muslims thugs like Putin and other haters!
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Food for thought. Yeah, Redskin Football is the great, evil threat to America! (See 1 below.)
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Obama tells us Turkey's Erdogan is his closest ally and friend.
If that is so then one must ask , at the very least, two things.
a) Why is Turkey, a NATO member, reluctant to support Obama's policies? (Turkey's Parliament just voted to throw their lot in as well as allow foreign forces to be on their turf - very good decision.)
and
b) Is Erdogan, anti-Semitic? (See 2 below.)
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As I noted in a previous memo. (See 3 below.)
Also you might want to read this recent (Sept.30.2014) New York Times article: "Are Liberals Fund-Raising Hypocrites? - Thomas Edsall, New York Times."
Then you might ask yourself does this apply to Michelle Nunn?
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The SIRC's Feb.2014 President's Day Dinner speaker writes about American Incompetence in a world spinning out of control. (See 4 below.)
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Texas witch hunt over for DeLay and I predict the same for the outlandish suit brought against it's Governor.
Granted, politics is a hard ball game and Democrats seem willing to stop at nothing to win. Intimidation is their choice de jour! (See 4 below.)
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Another Gaza assessment. (See 5 below.)
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I seldom, if ever, contribute to candidates beyond my district because I firmly believe it is wrong for me to intrude in other voter's territory except when it comes to a national election. In the case of Mia Love, I made an exception because she is exceptional and because Democrats detest her. Why? Simply because she is a black conservative and her career and accomplishments threaten their message of dependency as noted in a previous memo.
Democrats did the same thing to Col. Allen West and if there ever was a qualified and heroic candidate Allen set the model and bar not only for those of his race but for whites as well.
So Democrats say Republicans are at war with women. We know that is a bald lie but then what do you expect from desparate left wing radicals who have taken over the Democrat Party and which is led by Harry Reid.
Republicans may not have close relationships with the black community but the Republican Party is running and has run some fabulous black candidates,whose character is unassailable and whose accomplishments stand as a beacon of light for their people.
They beat her in 2012 and Democrats are at it again. I urge you to send her something to help her fend off the scurrilous attacks and lies Democrats are employing to defeat Mia!
If you don't believe Mia is accomplished Google her. You will be surprised. (See 6 below.)
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Money moves in a free society where it gets the best return, has less red tape and government bureaucrats restricting innovation.
Therefore, it is little wonder domestic employment has been slow to recover and why Obama's radical socialist economics are a threat to our nation.
Also, our outdated and restrictive tax policies are in need of severe overhaul but will they be? Probably not! Why? Doing so would result in goring a lot of pet political bulls who take their ill gotten gains and redeploy them by way of campaign contributions in order to maintain their tax advantages, and so it goes!(See 7 below.)
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Dick
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1) Black Mob Violence: So many Stories, not enough Room
My last article for American Thinker was too long. And too short.
Too long because the gurus tell us articles should be about 600 words. My story about the president talking to the black caucus about white people inflicting constant racial injustice on black people came in at 1500 words.
I was just getting warmed up.
I thought it strange that at the same time the president was trying to persuade us that black people are relentless victims, black people were committing acts of racial violence in places like Seattle, Miami, Indianapolis, Bronx, Ferguson, Kansas City, Providence, Minneapolis and 18 miles from where the president was speaking.
While the president was speaking.
Members of the black caucus say white racism drives black people to excessive crime and violence. Or is it that black people and white people commit the same amount of crime, only racist white cops arrest black people more often?
Whatever. I don’t have all day here.
The article was too short because of all the recent episodes of black mob violence I learned about only after the article was published. Each one a pushback against the president’s relentless narrative that black people are relentless victims.
Which is pretty much what he has been saying nonstop since high school when the racist white coach at his elite white school denied him his rightful spot in the starting lineup of the basketball team because of racism.
So let’s make up for what I left out:
In Memphis, a large group of black people rampaged through the streets, creating violence and mayhem: Throwing bricks at cars. Beating up senior citizens. One grandmother told WREG in Memphis that “teenagers” will burn Memphis to the Ground if someone does not stop them.
Locals in Memphis say….
There I go again. Starting to list all the recent racial violence in Memphis to show this latest example is part of a pattern. That’s how I made the last article too long.
So let’s just put it this way: Ditto Memphis. Lots more details in that scintillating best seller, White Girl Bleed a Lot.
In Rochester, a large group of black people rampaged through downtown, creating violence and mayhem. When police showed up, 50 to 100 black people attacked them too. At least it does not happen every weekend, police say. Ditto Rochester.
In Las Vegas, a black motorcycle club descended on the Suncoast Casino and black mob violence erupted. Only one person was stabbed. Ditto black motorcycle clubs.
In Madison, Wisconsin, 20 to 30 black people were creating violence and mayhem in and out of a chicken restaurant. One person was taken to the hospital after receiving a severe beating. At least he did not get stabbed. Ditto Madison.
In Orlando, a large group of black people were creating violence and mayhem at a large party called Chunky Sunday. Three people were shot. One died. Ditto other Chunky Sunday festivities.
In Tallahassee, near Martin Luther King Boulevard, a large group of black people were creating violence and mayhem near the campus of a local black college. Two people were shot. Ditto other parties at black colleges.
In Carbondale, Illinois, a large group of black people were creating mayhem and violence downtown, much of it on video. In contrast to the previously mentioned events, this one happened a week before the president’s speech to the black caucus. Ditto Carbondale.
At Horlick High in Racine, Wisconsin, a large group of black people created violence and mayhem in a grocery store parking lot. On video. This one might not count since there were a few white faces in the crowd. A gunshot ended that gathering before we could figure out if they were predators or victims. Ditto Wisconsin.
I have exceeded 600 words -- running out of space. But not running out of examples of recent black mob violence that seem to contradict the president’s narrative.
Wilmington, ditto. Des Moines, ditto. Chicago, ditto. Akron, ditto.
The rest of the country, ditto, ditto. ditto.
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2) Turkey? Antisemitic? Who, Me?
by Burak Bekdil
The Gatestone Institute
The Gatestone Institute
Last May an explosion at a mine in western Turkey killed 301 miners. Ankara declared national mourning. But President (then-Prime Minister) Recep Tayyip Erdogan's response to the town's grief was unusual for a head of a government.
After protestors scolded him, he, with his bodyguards, went into a supermarket and, as video footage revealed, Erdogan grabbed one protestor, a Muslim, by the nape of the neck and yelled: "Why are you running away, you sperm of Israel!" After the incident the man also told the press that he was slapped by Erdogan; then, thinking better of it, the man testified that he had been beaten by Erdogan's bodyguards, not by the prime minister; and he finally apologized to Erdogan for "forcing the prime minister to insult him."
The man had been one of the protesters demanding an explanation for the negligence that caused the tragedy. Three months before the accidental explosion occurred, members of the opposition in parliament had claimed that there could be an accident due to bad safety procedures at the mine. Members of the government benches had claimed everything was fine.
When Erdogan was in the US a few days ago, as Daniel Pipes of the Middle East Forum put it most realistically, the only content specifically designed for a New York audience was a protracted "I'm not an anti-Semite" defense: "I am very sad to see that my country, myself, and my colleagues, sometimes, are labeled as being antisemitic." Pipes wrote: "As he [Erdogan] spoke about being labeled an anti-Semite... I was glad to be in New York and not Istanbul."
What would an American expatriate think, for instance, if a terrorist organization kidnaps three American teenagers, brutally murders them, then a senior member of the same terrorist organization publicly confesses to the crime, but the local authorities do not even raise a finger to indict the man? This is exactly what happened in Turkey, except that the victims were not American, but Israeli.
Saleh al-Arouri, a veteran Hamas official and one of the founders of its military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was in 2010 forced to leave Israel after serving more than 15 years in prison. Since then he has lived in Istanbul – courtesy of the Turkish government.
On Aug. 21, at a meeting of the International Union of Islamic Scholars in Istanbul, al-Arouri said that Hamas was behind the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank, an incident that triggered a spiral of violence in Gaza and Israel this summer. It was the first time any senior Hamas figure linked the group to the abduction of Eyal Yifrach, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16 and Naftali Frenkel, 16: "The popular will was exercised throughout our occupied land, and culminated in the heroic operation by the Qassam Brigades in imprisoning the three settlers in Hebron," al-Arouri said.
A couple of weeks after al-Arouri confessed to Hamas's crimes, and a few days before Erdogan, in New York, expressed his disappointment that he is "very sad to see that my country, myself, and my colleagues, sometimes, are labeled as being anti-Semitic," a Turkish Jew wrote a powerful blog post in the newspaper Radikal, about what it really meant "to be a sperm of Israel in Turkey."
Vedat Haymi Behar is the digital marketing solutions coordinator at Turkey's biggest and most influential media outlet, Hurriyet group, which also owns Radikal.
"Allow me to tell you what being a sperm of Israel in Turkey means," he wrote.
It means, Behar said, to have first and family names in Hebrew or Spanish and to have a middle name in Turkish; and to learn at the age of three to be called by your first name only at home and by your middle name elsewhere.
Being a sperm of Israel in Turkey means, Behar wrote, to gain the ability, at the age of primary school, to sensibly answer questions such as, "Why is your family name different?"
It means, he wrote, to get used to living on hate speech, insults and curses every day.
Behar bravely wrote:
"It means to be held accountable for every act of the Israeli government although you may not even have stepped foot in Israel…
"It means to be treated as a 'foreigner' by the state of the country where you were born, where you did your military service and you pay taxes…
"It means to try to enjoy the sunny days when everyone from politicians to street vendors curse at your holy book and your faith…
"It means having to choose a profession knowing that you will never become a judge, a prosecutor, a military officer or a bureaucrat…"
Behar lives in a country where President Erdogan, when he speaks to a New York audience, complains sorrowfully that sometimes "he, his country and his colleagues are being labeled as being anti-Semitic". But he also lives in a country where the same Erdogan had only a few months ago "insulted" a Turkish Muslim by calling him "a sperm of Israel." One of the two Erdogans must be a terrible liar.
Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a Turkish columnist for the Istanbul dailyHürriyet and a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3)
The Insiders: Third-party candidates could be spoilers
By Ed Rogers
We are a little more than one month out from the 2014 midterm elections. There is an influx of new polling right now, and pundits are rampantly speculating about every possible path for Republicans to take back the Senate. But an underreported issue could be a sleeper hand grenade that ignites Election Night and blasts Republicans in several states: While almost nobody was looking, a group of third-party candidates have sprung up on the ballot like a bunch of poisonous mushrooms. Third-party Senate candidates in crucial states like Iowa, North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Montana, Virginia and Alaska aren’t going to win, but they could very well make the difference in these elections. And each of these candidates –- most of whom are self-described Libertarians — has the potential to help the Democrats more than the Republicans.
Of course, Kansas is another state where the third-party candidate poses a challenge for the Republicans. The difference in Kansas is that, now the Democratic candidate has dropped out of the race altogether, the so-called independent candidate may actually win. And a third-party Senate candidate in Louisiana could hand Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) a second chance, since there will be a runoff election if no candidate receives a majority of the votes on Election Day. Third-party candidates may also affect gubernatorial races in Maine, Hawaii and South Carolina – but that’s a topic for another day.
Anyway, it is worth watching these third-party candidates and the impact they will have on the 2014 elections. In the lead-up to November, keep an eye out for Democrats to try and hide their role in helping these candidates diminish the Republican margin. The records aren’t crystal-clear, but in the past, the Democrats have not been shy about giving to these marginal candidates in order to keep votes from the Republicans. We saw it happen in the last gubernatorial election in Virginia, where Libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis received a large contribution from a major Democratic donor and Obama campaign bundler – and took almost 7 percent of the vote in a race Terry McAuliffe (D) won by only 2.5 percent. This time, Sarvis is running as a Senate candidate, but his campaign could have a similar effect.
Republicans need to be prepared for these third-party candidates to get a boost in coming weeks, as Democrats try to diminish the votes for GOP candidates and retain control of the Senate for the final two years of President Obama’s term. The fact is, Republicans need to outperform in order to clear the extra hurdle these third-party candidates represent. The next 36 days won’t be easy.
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An intruder made his way across the White House lawn and through the building almost to the Obama living quarters before being stopped by a Secret Service officer who was off duty: This chilling news is more than just a kind of melodramatic movie scenario come true.
Next to the military, the Secret Service is probably the most highly regarded institution within the executive branch. Or it was.
Now we learn its agents can’t catch a guy running across the White House lawn; can’t stop the guy at the front door; can’t get to him before he gets to the stairs that lead to the rooms where the president’s daughters sleep.
Which raises a simple question: If not the Secret Service, who? Whom can we trust to do a decent job in DC?
This fiasco — and the news, long covered up, that the White House was hit by several bullets back in 2011 — isn’t just a problem for the Secret Service and its present management.
This seems to crystallize a more general feeling that stretches from Washington to the far reaches of the globe — the feeling that things are spinning wildly out of control and there’s no one even minimally competent enough at the highest reaches of American power to calm the gathering storm.
We’ve all gotten used to the idea that Washington isn’t working well because of partisan clashes that have brought relations between the White House and Congress to a standstill.
Congress deserves the scorn it receives from the public; its approval rating is somewhere around 15 percent.
But incompetence isn’t the cause of gridlock; rather, gridlock is the result of passionate and profound disagreements. Nor is gridlock caused by confusion; everybody knows perfectly well what is going on.
The same can’t be said of the administration, which is awash in incompetence and confusion, much of it deliberate. Consider:
In the past week, the question has arisen whether the president refused to acknowledge the rise of ISIS over the past year or whether the intelligence community underestimated the threat.
Either the president is right and the intelligence community has presided over its worst failure since the Iraq war, or he’s wrong (or lying) and simply closed his eyes to a situation he did not wish to see. No matter which is true, it’s a disaster.
Elsewhere in the Middle East, we’re attempting to fight the Syrian regime by arming some rebel groups even as we serve the regime’s interest by going after ISIS.
The Daily Beast’s Josh Rogin reported Tuesday that “an airstrike from the American-led coalition nearly hit a command-and-control facility affiliated with the Free Syrian Army, the moderate rebels the Obama administration says are America’s ‘boots on the ground.’ ”
“Boots on the ground” brings up another example of administration incompetence: its inability to provide a consistent message to those serving in the armed forces and the American people in general about what we’re doing.
The president said there will be no ground troops — and almost immediately, Gen. Martin Dempsey, who works for him, said ground troops were a possibility.
And lest we forget, the administration’s bizarre handling of the US border and immigration policy in general led directly to the ongoing crisis involving tens of thousands of Central American illegals (many of them children) trapped in a no-man’s-land of detention centers.
This was the ultimate unintended consequence of a supposedly compassionate piece of public policy, one that the Obama administration has no idea how to rectify.
Also in the past couple of weeks came news that the total pricetag for healthcare.gov — for just the website, mind you, the portal to help you shop — came to more than $2 billion.
There are more examples, but only so much space. With more than two years left to his presidency, agency by agency, policy by policy, President Obama and his administration are running off the rails.
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5) Texas Appeals Court Upholds DeLay Reversal
The highest criminal court in Texas refused Wednesday to reinstate two money-laundering convictions against former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, ending a nearly decade-long criminal case against the one-time GOP heavyweight.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld a ruling last year from the 3rd Court of Appeals that tossed the Republican's 2010 convictions for money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering.Travis County prosecutors had argued in June before the Austin-based Court of Criminal Appeals that the convictions be reinstated in what they called a scheme to influence Texas state elections.
"We agree with the court of appeals' ultimate conclusion that, as a matter of law, what the state has proven in this case does not constitute either of the alleged criminal offenses," the high court said in its 8-1 ruling.
DeLay, 67, who had long contended the charges were politically motivated, said he was not angry about his prosecution, which ultimately cost him the No. 2 job in the U.S. House.
"I understand what it's about and it's about ... the criminalization of politics and the misuse of power ... and prosecutorial misconduct," DeLay said Wednesday from his attorney's office in Houston.
Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, whose Austin-based office prosecuted the case, said she strongly disagreed with the appeals court's decision.
"This opinion effectively repeals the Texas statute prohibiting corporate contributions and places a burden on the state that is impossible to overcome," Lehmberg said in a statement. "This decision undermines the fairness and integrity of our elections."
Prosecutors claimed the money helped Republicans take control of the Texas House and ultimately send more Texas Republicans to Congress in 2004.
The lower appeals court, however, ruled there was insufficient evidence for a jury to have convicted DeLay, who had been sentenced to three years in prison, but that was put on hold while his case was appealed.
The Court of Criminal Appeals said Wednesday there was nothing in the case record to show DeLay knew he was "conducting, supervising or facilitating a transaction that involved the proceeds of criminal activity." Prosecutors failed to establish the "requisite culpable mental state" to prove the offenses, the high court said in its 38-page decision.
In a brief concurring opinion, Judges Cheryl Johnson and Cathy Cochran referred to the transactions as "wheeling and dealing (that) was a tad shady, but legal."
DeLay, whose heavy-handed style in the House earned him the nickname "The Hammer," said he doesn't know whether he would still be in Congress had he not been indicted, but added the experience has made him "a better man."
"The way I look at it is in a sort of joking way, that the Lord was ready for me to get out of politics. I just wish he had picked another way of doing it," said DeLay, who added he remains involved in politics, writing a weekly column for The Washington Times and hosting a show on the conservative newspaper's radio network.
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5) Threat Assessment
This is in addition to the new liberal hate website called "No Love for Mia" that just came online.
When Will the Next War Start?
After 50 days of violence, an uneasy cease-fire settled over the border between Israel and Gaza in August. The end of the conflict left Hamas weakened, its arsenal severely diminished, and its demands for ending the blockade of Gaza and releasing terrorist prisoners unmet. Despite these losses, the Islamists proclaimed victory. And it must be conceded that so long as Hamas governs Gaza and possesses thousands of rockets, it retains the ability to restart the fighting at any moment. Additionally, there is little to prevent the group from rebuilding its terror tunnels and resuming the smuggling of weapons.
In the wake of the cease-fire, many Israelis criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to spare further Israeli lives in an effort to retake all of Gaza. But blame for Hamas’s ability to persevere should rest squarely with the international community for excusing the Islamists’ rule and opposing Israel’s efforts to defend itself. Despite the widespread condemnation of its actions, Israel managed to deal a serious blow to Hamas while suffering minimal causalities in the process.
A Shaky Alliance
One of the most disappointing aspects of this summer’s conflict was the undermining of the Jewish state by Israel’s American ally. Israeli forces entered Gaza to destroy the vast network of tunnels whose purpose was to facilitate the murder and kidnapping of soldiers and civilians. At first, the U.S. Department of Defense acceded to the Israeli military’s requests for resupply of its ammunition stocks.
But once the White House and the State Department realized that the U.S. military was cooperating with Israel, the Obama administration placed a hold on the effort. This included a refusal to supply Israel with Hellfire missiles, which are particularly useful in targeting Hamas positions. Congress ignored the administration and sent a strong message by voting for increased funding of Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense program. But the message sent by the White House undermined the president’s reelection-campaign claim in 2012 that security cooperation between the two counties was so strong that it more than compensated for the arguments between the two governments. Combined with Washington’s efforts to bring Hamas allies Qatar and Turkey into cease-fire talks, the summer ended with the alliance at its lowest point in a generation.
Why Hamas Got More Popular
Polls of Palestinian opinion taken in the aftermath of the fighting reveal Hamas to be more popular than ever. Palestinians not only support Hamas’s decision to plunge the region into war, but they also believe the Islamists’ boasts about defeating Israel and they support continued violence against the Jewish state. The reason for this surge in popularity is no secret: Palestinian national identity has always been inextricably linked to the war against Zionism. That means any Palestinian group that sheds Jewish blood, as Hamas did this summer, will gain support even if it causes outsized Palestinian suffering. As long as this formula applies, those who expect even supposedly moderate Palestinian leaders to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and end the conflict are bound to be disappointed.
Another Palestinian Rejection
For the past 15 years, Palestinian leaders have refused all offers of independence that did not include the “right of return” for all descendants of the 1948 Arab refugees. Such an arrangement would simply replace the Jewish state with a Palestinian one. This refusal was highlighted once again, after the recent war, when Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas turned down an Egyptian bid to resettle refugees. Egypt offered the Palestinians a 618-square-mile plot in the Sinai adjacent to Gaza, but Abbas rejected this effort out of hand. In doing so, he demonstrated both his fear of offending the rejectionist creed of the refugees and his fear of Hamas, which might have used the issue to further weaken Abbas’s Fatah Party. The rejection of the proposal makes clear that the Palestinians will not accept any measure, even when offered by an Arab country, that does not conform to their demands for Israel’s destruction.
Will ISIS Help Iran Get Nukes?
The world was rightly outraged by the barbaric beheadings of foreign journalists by ISIS terrorists. But while any effort by the Obama administration to rethink its policy of retreat in the Middle East should be applauded, one aspect of Washington’s decision to re-engage in the war against Islamist terrorists is deeply troubling: Though ISIS’s summer victories left the Baghdad government and the U.S. in no position to choose its allies, Washington’s willingness to tolerate Iranian action against ISIS in Iraq may reveal the administration’s desire for détente with Iran more than anything else. With nuclear talks between Iran and the U.S. about to resume, shared concerns about ISIS may be used to justify more appeasement of Iran’s ambitions. There is no need for America to decide between defeating ISIS and stopping Iran from going nuclear, but there seems to be strong indication that it will choose the former at the expense of the latter.
Anti-Semitism Out of the Closet
The international reaction to Hamas’s decision to launch a terror war against Israel gave the lie to the claim that there is a meaningful distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. The demonstrations on behalf of a “free Gaza” throughout Europe and in some American cities not only ignored the reality of Islamist rule, but also embraced the language and imagery of classical anti-Semitism. Protestors chanted Jew-hating slogans and held up placards promoting the idea of blood libels. The truth is that most of those championing anti-Zionism are already deeply immersed in the paranoid fantasies and rhetoric of anti-Semitism.
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6)
Dear Dick,
We just learned that Mia Love's liberal opponent, Doug Owens, has launched a nearly $300,000barrage of negative ads attacking Mia.
This is in addition to the new liberal hate website called "No Love for Mia" that just came online.
Every liberal in America is gunning for Mia Love. And they intend to bombard her with attack ads every single day between now and Election Day.
This is a massive campaign. The Obama Democrats believe they can win this seat if they can simply ruin Mia Love's reputation.
And that's why the Black Conservatives Fund is committed to doing everything possible to help elect Mia Love.
The fact is Barack Obama and his leftist allies can't stand the idea of a black conservative woman being elected to Congress.
They are terrified that Mia Love will lead the charge against the Obama agenda in a way no other conservative can.
No liberal wants to have to debate Mia Love on the House floor or on Meet the Press.
The left understands that Mia Love's election will be a game-changer for the conservative movement and the Republican Party.
So they are pouring resources into Utah. They're willing to spend more than a quarter of a million dollars just on TV ads attacking her reputation!
We had hoped that Mia would be able to withstand the Democrats' attacks without our help.
We had hoped that the liberals would be more concerned about holding onto the Senate than fighting for a Congressional seat in Utah.
However, the liberal Democrats aren't backing down. In fact, they are DOUBLING DOWN on their attacks on Mia Love.
Barack Obama understands that he was able to defeat Mia in 2012 by dumping millions of dollars in attack ads into her district.
So he's trying that exact same strategy again.
The liberal onslaught has begun in earnest!
Mia Love really needs our help.
The Black Conservatives Fund is committed to paying for phone banks, ads, grassroots events, or whatever Mia Love needs in order to prevail this year.
Putting her in the House is one of our top priorities. As I just said, her election will be a political "game changer" for the conservative movement and the GOP.
Thank you in advance for all your help.
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7)
ObamaCare's Anti-Innovation Effect
Socked by new taxes, U.S. health-care technology companies are moving R&D centers and jobs overseas.
GETTY IMAGES
Of the many unintended consequences of the Affordable Care Act, perhaps the least noticed is its threat to innovation. Although most discussions center on the law's more immediate effects on hiring, insurance rates and access to doctors and care, attention should also be paid to its impact on U.S. research and development and health-care technology.
The overwhelming majority of the world's health-care innovation occurs in the U.S. This includes ground-breaking drug treatments, surgical procedures, medical devices, patents, diagnostics and much more. Most of the funding for that innovation—about 71% of U.S. R&D investment—comes from private industry. A recent R&D Magazine survey of industry leaders in 63 countries ranked the U.S. No. 1 in the world for health-care innovation.
But that environment is changing. According to R&D Magazine and the research firm Battelle, growth of R&D spending in the U.S. from 2012 to 2014 averaged just 2.1%, down from an average of 6% over the previous 15 years. In that same 15-year period, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, India and the European Union saw faster R&D spending growth than the U.S. China's grew on average 22% per year.
The recent slowdown in R&D spending in the U.S. is in part caused by weak economic growth since the 2008 financial crisis. But the economy's weakness itself has been exacerbated by the negative impact of new taxes and regulations under ObamaCare. According to Congressional Budget Office estimates, the new health-care law will levy more than $500 billion in new taxes over its first 10 years to help pay for insurance subsidies and Medicaid expansion. These new taxes include significant levies on key health-care industries, such as manufacturers of medical devices and drugs, and their investors.
As a result, small and large U.S. health-care technology companies are moving R&D centers and jobs overseas. The CEO of one of the largest health-care companies in America recently told me that the device tax his company paid last year exceeded his company's entire R&D budget. Already a long list of companies—including Boston Scientific , Stryker and Cook Medical—have announced job cuts and plans to open new centers for R&D, manufacturing and clinical trials overseas.
The bureaucrats at the Food and Drug Administration are also hindering medical-technology and drug development. According to a 2010 survey of more than 200 medical-device companies by medical professor and entrepreneur Josh Makower and his colleagues at Stanford University, delays of approvals for new medical devices are now far longer in the U.S. than in many other developed countries. In the European Union—not exactly known for cutting through red tape—it takes on average seven months to gain approval for low- to moderate-risk devices. In the U.S., FDA approval for similar devices takes on average 31 months.
The 2011 PricewaterhouseCoopers Medical Technology Innovation Scorecard found that "the gap between innovation leaders and emerging economies is rapidly narrowing." And that "although the United States will hold its lead, the country will continue to lose ground during the next decade." It goes on to say that "China, India, and Brazil will experience the strongest gains during the next 10 years."
Since the signing of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, private-equity investment in new U.S. health-care startups has also diminished. Annual capital investment has decreased to $41 billion in 2013 from $61 billion in 2011, according to quarterly reports by the accounting and audit firm McGladrey LLP. Similarly, the Silicon Valley-based law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati reported in its semiannual Life Sciences Reports decreases from the first half of 2010 through the second half of 2013 in deal closings and capital raised for startups in biopharmaceuticals, medical devices and equipment, and diagnostics, with only a slight uptick in health-information systems investment.
Meanwhile, many of the best and brightest who come to the U.S. to study science, technology, engineering and math—the STEM subjects that are so crucial to innovation—are choosing to return to their home countries upon graduation. In 2008, a survey conducted by Vivek Wadhwa and his team of researchers at Duke, Harvard and the University of California found that only 6% of Indian, 10% of Chinese and 15% of European students expected to make America their permanent home. Much of this is Congress's fault. Lawmakers have been slow to increase limits on H-1B visas for high-skill foreign workers. Pressure has been brought to bear on Congress to take action, but it may be too late for an increase in the visas to have much effect in health care, given the decline in R&D spending that would make use of their talents.
What can be done to reverse these damaging trends? First, strip back the heavy tax burdens that currently inhibit innovation, starting with repealing the Affordable Care Act's $29 billion medical-device excise tax and the $80 billion tax on brand-name drugs. Change the tax code to add incentives for investment in early-stage medical technology and life-science companies, as well as for philanthropic gifts to academic institutions that promote tech entrepreneurs.
And finally, simplify processes for new device and drug approvals, so that the FDA becomes a favorable rather than an obstructionist environment for these life-saving and cost-saving discoveries. It's a tall order, especially in today's Washington. But America's health—and wealth—depend on it.
Dr. Atlas, a physician, is a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
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