CEI Today: Fiscal cliff meets Costberg, avoiding Italy’s fate, and the EPA email scandal & investigation

FISCAL CLIFF & REGULATIONS – WAYNE CREWS

Forbes: Happy New Year? Fiscal Cliff, Meet The Costberg

Note the gravity of our post-cliff predicament: (1) the stock market reels at the mere prospect of sequestration of a tiny fraction of the across-the-board spending cuts needed to keep America governable; and (2) the economy, all sides seem to think, will tumble into recession if people actually pay for the colossal government they’ve already voted for, let alone the entitlements-in-waiting.

I’m talking about … about nearly everybody riding in the wagon in some respect, and our facing economic turmoil whether or not they get out and pull.

AMERICA HEADED FOR ITALY’S FATE? – MATTHEW MELCHIORRE

Forbes: Italy’s Zombie Politicians Have Crossed The Atlantic

Yesterday’s tax-raising deal to supposedly avoid the “fiscal cliff”and punt on cutting spending is just the latest episode of Washington’s lifeless routine. Italy’s broken political culture represents the political zombie apocalypse that America must avoid.

For nearly 50 years before the early 1990s, one-party rule in Italy meant huge concessions to special interests, especially unions and professional guilds, to keep the peace in Parliament and thus keep Italy’s sizeable Communist Party from exploiting partisan disagreement to gain support. The unions and the guilds said “jump” and politicians asked “how high?”

EPA EMAIL SCANDAL

Washington Examiner: Transparency advocates see tough year, growing EPA ‘Windsorgate’ scandal ahead

The Environmental Protection Agency Inspector General opened an investigation last month into departing EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s recent admission that she used the alias “Richard Windsor” on a government email account to conduct official business.

Using such aliases violates federal law. Jackson claimed she only did so on internal communications at EPA.

According to Christopher Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), there is substantial evidence that Jackson was not the only EPA official using illegal aliases. Horner detailed that evidence in a recently published book.

The scandal could explode later this month because a federal court has ordered the Justice Department to make public an estimated 12,000 “Richard Windsor” emails.