Author: Norman Leahy

The latest in a long series of legal perils confronting former President Donald Trump has generated a storm of headlines and commentary wondering/hoping it spells the end for Trump, his campaign and everything associated with him. Such wish casting is hardly new. But even the most ardent Trump backers must realize that eventually, the weight – never mind the crushing financial cost – of all these court cases will diminish his appeal to those outside MAGA-land. But let’s be clear: diminished appeal is not new for Trump in GOP primaries, either. And it didn’t stop him from winning. (RELATED: Special…

Fitch Ratings downgraded U.S. sovereign debt from AAA status to AA+ on Aug. 2, a move the agency warned might happen back in the spring when the federal government toyed with the idea of defaulting on its debt. That default didn’t happen. But for Fitch, that springtime dalliance with fiscal insanity was reason to enough to question the stability and the seriousness of our institutions: In Fitch’s view, there has been a steady deterioration in standards of governance over the last 20 years, including on fiscal and debt matters, notwithstanding the June bipartisan agreement to suspend the debt limit until…

There has been a lot of press coverage of our aging political class in recent weeks. Whether it’s the ongoing, multiple stories about 80-year-old President Joe Biden, a 90-year-old Sen. Dianne Feinstein getting confused at a hearing and being told how to vote and so on, the greying of our political leaders is undeniable, inescapable and a legitimate area of debate. (RELATED: McConnell Speech Drowned Out By Chants Of ‘Retire, Retire, Retire’) Just as it has been in the past. In 1984, a 73-year-old Ronald Reagan – at the time, the oldest president we’ve ever had – was openly questioned…

More polling shows more of what is becoming the dominant narrative of the GOP presidential nomination race – it’s Trump’s to lose. But well away from the horse race data is a far more interesting, if underreported, story that could have a dramatic effect on the race’s outcome: how Trump is winning the fight for how convention delegates are awarded. The Washington Post has a good write-up of the most recent state party to change its delegate rules in a way that should favor Mr. Trump: Donald Trump’s presidential campaign notched a major victory Saturday when members of the California…

There’s been a long-simmering debate in official Washington and elsewhere about the fate and future of conservatism. There are, broadly speaking, two camps: so-called “national conservatives” and the response to this group, the self-described “freedom conservatives.” Each one asserts that it is the one true path toward a brighter, more free, more conservative future. Personally, I see more familiar names – including former colleagues, associates and contacts, in the “freedom conservative” listing than in the “national conservative” listing. But that doesn’t mean either one is right – on politics, morals, economics, private or public virtue and so on. (RELATED: Both…

While the clock continues to tick on the spending bills Congress should (but very likely won’t) get done by the end of the government’s fiscal year, it’s worth noting that the deficits and debt we’ve already accumulated have profound national security consequences. As the Cato Institute’s Romina Boccia and Dominik Lett write, the culprit is the entitlement spending most members of Congress, in both parties, are unwilling to discuss: Without reforms to health care and retirement benefits, other domestic and defense priorities will be increasingly squeezed. As debt levels and associated interest costs rise, economic growth will suffer. And as…

The Biden administration created a gold rush, of sorts, when it set up a program to hand out tens of billions of dollars in public subsidies to encourage companies to build the infrastructure for his green energy dreams. There was a catch to the giveaways, though an assortment of “made in America” requirements on components and materials to protect and create domestic jobs with U.S.-based companies. The rest of the world put up a fuss, demanding both a piece of the American (taxpayer-funded) action while it got its own subsidy scheme underway. But that was just the beginning of the rush…

The federal government’s fiscal year ends on Sept. 30, and between now and then, the worthies in Congress are supposed to finish their work on bills that will keep the federal system running through the next year. At least that’s how things work in the textbooks. In reality, the last time Congress got all of its spending bills approved on time, and the president signed them into law was in 1996. And there’s no reason to believe that very long string of missed deadlines will end this year. If anything, there’s a real possibility there will be a government shutdown…

It’s no secret that our current political class is in love with trade protectionism, regardless of the costs such policies have to American consumers. But sometimes, as the Wall Street Journal notes, trade protectionism conflicts with an administration’s other high-profile policy goals. In one case, it’s a Biden administration effort to clap tariffs on foreign steel used to make cans (which would help “protect” union jobs at U.S. steel mills) versus Mr. Biden’s high-profile effort to lower inflation. (RELATED: Woke ‘Capitalism’ Betrays True Cost Of Inflation Reduction Act) It seems foreign steel is a cheaper input than U.S.-made steel. Protecting…

A bipartisan bill in the Senate would ban members of Congress and the executive branch from owning shares of stock in individual companies. Sens. Josh Hawley (R) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D) also propose to ban lawmakers and officials from owning individual shares in blind trusts, a long-used way for government officials to surrender day-to-day control of their personal wealth while they hold office. Unlike existing ethics rules, which are riddled with loopholes and exemptions, the Hawley-Gillibrand proposal has some teeth to it: The bill includes stiff penalties for government officials who violate the rules. Employees of the executive branch would…