David J. Bier President Trump signed a new proclamation that bans nearly all legal immigration from about 40 countries, covering about one in five legal immigrants from abroad and nearly 400,000 legal immigrants over three years. Although it exempts some foreign workers and travelers from certain countries, this ban does not include any categorical exemption or waiver for spouses, minor ...
Alex Nowrasteh and Krit Chanwong The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) first set a goal to balance the budget by cutting $2 trillion in waste, fraud, and abuse. This goal was later reduced to $1 trillion and then again to just $150 billion. DOGE also aimed to reduce the size and scope of the administrative state, improve the procurement process, ...
Adam N. Michel Over the last few weeks, a wave of headlines has painted a similar story: the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) has handed corporate America a massive cash windfall. The Wall Street Journal says the “cash windfall from Trump’s tax law is starting to show up.” The Washington Post highlights the $16 billion firms are projected to ...
Tad DeHaven In an interview with the Wall Street Journal over the weekend, the president confirmed that he’s considering taking equity stakes in defense companies—“he” being the federal government. Trump was then quoted as saying: We should take stakes in companies when people need something. I think we should take stakes in companies. Now, some people would say that doesn’t ...
Matthew Cavedon When defendants in criminal cases are arrested in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, they appear before magisterial district judges to be arraigned. Judges set the amount of cash bail at these hearings, but they do not take into account arrestees’ financial circumstances. This is unconstitutional. Incarcerating people before trial simply because they are too poor to pay for their release ...
Romina Boccia and Ivane Nachkebia The Cato Institute recently conducted a nationally representative Social Security survey of 2,000 Americans, exploring their attitudes toward the program, their understanding of how it works, and their openness to potential proposals aimed at addressing its long-term shortfalls. Among all the ideas tested, one result stands out: Americans want to take politics out of Social ...
Norbert Michel and Ryan Chan-Wei Yesterday, Politico’s “Morning Money” had a great interview with House Financial Services Chair French Hill (R‑AR) discussing, among other upcoming issues, the path forward on crypto and stablecoins. While the stablecoin debate should be settled by now, it’s not behind us yet. Despite the GENIUS Act being passed into law in July and creating the ...
Ian Vásquez Four years after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the level of human freedom in the world has remained depressed, according to the Human Freedom Index 2025, published today by the Cato Institute and the Fraser Institute in Canada. The report uses 87 distinct indicators of personal, civil, and economic liberty to measure the level of freedom in ...
Romina Boccia Last week, I hosted a Cato book discussion with Kurt Couchman (Americans for Prosperity), author of Fiscal Democracy in America. We were also joined by Marc Goldwein (Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget). It was one of those rare Washington conversations where political framing falls by the wayside and the real issues emerge clearly: Congress has proven incapable ...
Peter Van Doren The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recently denied a request for disaster assistance from Allegany County, Maryland, which voted for Donald Trump by a margin of 40 percentage points. Many assumed there had been a bureaucratic misunderstanding. “They thought he was going to take care of the little person,” said one resident. “Because that’s what he said.” The decision ...