Author: Norman Leahy

A key element of the political theater surrounding the debt ceiling debate back in the spring was the agreement between the two major parties not to talk about entitlement reform. No cuts. No tweaks. Not even a blue ribbon panel of experts in sight. The reasons were entirely political: talking about even modest reforms of Social Security and Medicare bring down the wrath of voters who get those checks. And it will feed the political consultants all they need to produce ads about how candidate X wants to throw grandma off a cliff. It’s cynical, irrational and extremely effective. (RELATED:…

More signs that we’re in the (very) silly season before the presidential election campaigns shift into high gear: the mutterings that a third party or independent candidate could spell doom for the incumbent. The press has a number of such articles recently, and this one, which originated on Bloomberg, is a classic of the genre. The basic thesis: polls show voters are open to a third-party candidate. That means Joe Biden is in trouble. Setting aside the question of whether Mr. Biden is in trouble (we won’t know for many months whether this is close to true), does a poll…

The federal government has a long, expensive habit of trying to be our national nanny.  From dictates on how much water flows through our showers, toilets and dishwashers, to how much meat we should eat and steps we should take, there are few areas of life where government doesn’t butt-in to make matters worse for everyone. Which brings us to Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy’s proposal to do something about the “loneliness epidemic.” Yes, the government believes loneliness is a public health crisis in need of attention. But at least the Surgeon General’s office doesn’t call for legislation and spending to…

One of the realities of post-COVID life is that the long accepted pattern of workers commuting to offices five days a week is broken. That may be a good thing for individual workers (who can avoid costly commutes) but it threatens to crash the business models, and bank accounts, of the landlords who own all those office buildings. Fewer workers heading to the office means employers don’t need all that office space or the rent that goes with it. One of the biggest commercial real estate owners in the U.S. – the federal government – is confronting similar challenges to…

Being a member of Congress has its privileges. Among them: a generous combination of salary and benefits, plus the opportunity to earn some extra cash through a side hustle. And the benefits keep on coming long after retirement, thanks to a generous retirement plan. Which, thanks to a loophole, will pay benefits even to members who’ve been convicted of a crime. (RELATED: The Antiquated Law That Deserves To Be Scuttled) But maybe not for much longer. As the National Taxpayers Union’s Demian Brady writes, bipartisan legislation – called the “No Corruption Act” – to close that pension plan loophole has…

When inflation was running high a year or so ago, there was a lot of discussion of specific ways government could help bring down prices. One idea: scrapping the 100-year-old Jones Act, which was passed way back in the 1920s as a way to spur U.S. shipbuilding, protect national interests, generate jobs, etc. Its key provision: “…goods shipped between U.S. ports [must] be transported on ships that are built, owned, and operated by United States citizens or permanent residents.” (RELATED: Inflation Cools – But Workers Continue To Lose Ground) What the Jones Act has done over the last century is…

Congress may have ducked any discussion of entitlement reform in the June budget agreement, but there are a few bills under discussion that intend to shore up funding for existing Social Security payments. They involve raising taxes – specifically, increasing the amount of wages subject to Social Security taxes: Senate Budget Committee Chairman Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., touted his bill, the Medicare and Social Security Fair Share Act, that would require wages above $400,000 to be taxed for Social Security. “Right now, the cap on Social Security contributions means a tech exec making $1 million effectively stops paying into the…

While we’re on the topic of government picking winners and losers – and how it all looks suspiciously like a species of Bastiat’s “legal plunder” – The Wall Street Journal has a story about New York’s $1 billion boondoggle of a deal with Elon Musk’s Tesla. It’s a tale of government grandees using the public checkbook to buy jobs, social cachet and add support to the green agenda. It’s…not going according to plan: New York state paid to build a quarter-mile-long facility with 1.2 million square feet of industrial space, which it now owns and leases to Tesla for $1…

“Bidenomics” is the newest buzzword the White House hopes will take hold of the public’s imagination in time for the 2024 election. What does the term really mean? Nothing new or different, really. It’s more of the old fashioned big government ideas and practices that, once upon a time, Bill Clinton declared were “over.” But Bidenomics also revives the old and discredited idea of industrial policy. What is industrial policy? Industrial policy generally refers to efforts to promote specific industries that the government has identified as critical for national security or economic competitiveness. The Roosevelt Institute’s Todd Tucker has defined…

Few things bring out the global warming doomsayers than summer weather. Rising temperatures in July when El Nino is underway, are all taken are proof positive that we must use the full power of government to end various destructive behaviors, policies and products. A case in point is the push to ban the sale of that most dreaded and destructive of products, the internal combustion engine, sometime within the next decade. The eventual replacement for all those gas burners? Electric cars, of course. While EVs make great sense for some – particularly those who can afford them – they don’t…