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We had a great luncheon in Dallas today with a lot of IPI friends who gathered to hear FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell. If you missed it, well . . . .you missed it.

In conversation with IPI’s Bartlett Cleland, Commissioner McDowell talked about a wide range of policy issues running the gamut from broadcaster issues and decency regulation, wireless and spectrum issues, and even FCC regulation of children’s toys.

Commissioner McDowell stressed the importance of the attempt by some countries to leave the current multi-stakeholder model of Internet governance and move toward one dominated by governments. In particular he warned that those who want to use the United Nations specialty organization the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) were well organized and sophisticated, that they are patient incrementalists, and that the attempt would be subtle rather than brazen. And that their ultimate plan is a “global USF” fund to finance broadband in developing countries.

You get what you elect, whether you're New York City electing a nanny and a scold for a mayor, or whether you're France, electing a Socialist instead of making necessary reforms to an already bloated government sector that promises greater benefits than the productive sector can possibly subsidize.

So the Hollande disaster is beginning for France. Today, Hollande decreed that they would LOWER the retirement age, from 62 down to 60.

Tonight I'm going to be giving a talk about how it's actually easy to balance the federal budget. In fact, it's easy to balance it in 5 years.

Does that surprise you? You don't exactly hear that in the media, do you?

Did you know that if we simply cut federal spending by 1 percent a year, in the fifth year of doing so the federal budget would be balanced, and federal spending would be about 18% of GDP, which is a hair below the historical average since World War II?

Good stuff from Alan Reynolds at Cato:

In the real world of politics, however, Congress and the White House use borrowed money to placate constituencies with the most political clout. Federal spending on investment projects has essentially nothing to do with the huge 2009-2012 budget deficits (only 29 percent of which can be blamed on the legacy of recession, according to the CBO).

Friend of IPI John Feehery goes out on a limb and says Mitt Romney is headed for a big win in November.

NY's banning the sale of certain junk foods is a dangerous slippery slope.

According to an opinion piece in today's Politico, Mitt Romney has revealed that he is a Keynesian. Is Romney a Keynesian? Is that a problem? And is anyone surprised?

It's been announced that the next round of Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations will be held in San Diego July 2-10, 2012.

The free-market position has always been that minimum wage laws actually put people out of work by raising the marginal cost of employing a "marginal" employee. This helps deny to young, inexperienced, low-skilled workers those bottom couple of rungs on the employment ladder.