Author: Norman Leahy

In case you missed it, the Nov. 8 elections are a few days away. While you should vote for your preferred candidates (if you haven’t already), there’s something that needs to be said – very clearly – about the election results. Some states may not have final tallies for days – or even longer – after the polls have closed. This is not some nefarious plot to ste*l an el*ction – never was, never will be. Instead, it’s the reality of how some states count ballots: With the Senate race between Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz and Democrat Lt. Gov. John…

Back in 2021, the Biden administration issued an order requiring the federal government to reach carbon-neutral emissions by 2050 and to get there, jump-start the fed’s purchase and use of electric cars. Team Biden’s goal: 100 percent of new federal car purchases/leases would be of electric by 2027, leading to an all-electric fleet by 2035. A year later, the Government Accountability Office reviewed what this all means and how Uncle Sam might reach these goals.  Among the conclusions: While electric vehicle models are expected to become increasingly available, agencies may need to increase their acquisition of zero-emission vehicles by about…

Once upon a time, there was a group of Americans who said they supported limited government. That group may always have been skittish about actually making government smaller. But the sentiment that government should live within its means, and mind its own business, was once a staple of the political landscape. It was an idea worth supporting, regardless of which political party held a majority at any given time. Those days are gone, and that sentiment is fading fast. What’s replacing it? As Reason’s J.D. Tuccille writes, more myopic partisanship as demonstrated in a recent Gallup poll. Or more specifically,…

There’s a trend among European climate catastrophists and doom-mongers to stage media events in which earnest protesters toss food at classical artworks, after which the bold activists glue their hands to the floor/wall and spout off about how humanity is heading for extinction. Unless the state takes firm, immediate and generally authoritarian means to bring a halt to our current lifestyles. A recent clip (like this one from Twitter) shows how carefully staged such events are, and how perfectly canned – and utterly self-defeating – the speeches are. https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1584219828914569217 Setting aside the fact these stage activists are tossing food at…

Slavery was abolished in the United States following the adoption of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. But the fine print of that amendment allowed a form of slavery, and its cousin, indentured servitude, to exist at the state level as a criminal punishment. Several states still have those punishments on the books. But proposals on the November ballot in Alabama, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont would bring an end to this type of criminal punishment. (RELATED: Should-Be Hero Cop Faces Prison in Wake of Anti-Police Attorney General) The question is, how did it survive so long? Part of the…

China has officially embraced Xi Jinping as the new Mao – a president for life who prizes loyalty above merit and security above markets. That makes the world a little less secure and a lot more uncertain. But it also makes clear China isn’t the market-friendly place many in the west long assumed. If anything, it’s taking a great leap backward toward personalized, authoritarian rule. (RELATED: Foreign Leader Facing Imminent Disaster Thanks to Remarkable Ineptitude) And there’s no greater tell of how big the move is than the gushing note Russian strongman Vladimir Putin sent Xi: The outcome from the…

One of the biggest national issues driving the congressional midterm elections is inflation. The polls show it and it’s entirely possible rising prices could swing partisan control of the House and Senate. But as is almost always the case, inflation isn’t an issue that fits nicely inside a Team Red or Team Blue box. It’s a sprawling, insidious problem that neither political party has the plan, or the moral authority, to address. Stated simply, inflation is a case of too many dollars chasing too few goods are services – a monetary problem. And while politicians from Team Red and Team…

What happens when the federal government sends tens of billions of dollars of (borrowed) money to states that really don’t need it to fight an economic downturn that was already over? Rather than, say, use that money to shore up their balance sheets, cover pension obligations or simply send the money back…they indulge in the mother of all bipartisan corporate welfare frenzies. In this case, for electric vehicle manufacturing sites. According to Bloomberg: Michigan’s largesse — and Tennessee’s and Kentucky’s — was made possible in part by hundreds of billions in federal aid pumped into US states as part of…

Even autocrats are afraid of high prices. It’s not because they can’t afford them – having unfettered access to the public purse cushions inflation’s blow. It’s that rising prices can lead to instability…which can sometimes lead to autocrats being chased from office in the dark of night. (RELATED: Senate Democrats Unanimously Vote With China to Downsize US Economy) What’s a fearful strongman to do? If you are Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko, you issue a decree banning price increases, which history has repeatedly shown not only fails to do the job but makes matters much worse. As Lawrence Reed writes: …the…

Interest rate hikes affect more than how much people pay for mortgages, car loans and credit card debt. Higher rates also affect how much money the federal government must put toward financing the national debt. Unsurprisingly, those payments are getting larger, too. And there’s a real possibility interest payments on the federal debt could exceed defense spending before the decade is out: Higher rates could add an additional $1 trillion to what the federal government spends on interest payments this decade, according to Peterson Foundation estimates. That is on top of the record $8.1 trillion in debt costs that the…