David J. Bier Welfare fraud cases in Minnesota involving some Somali immigrants have led to demands for broad immigration restrictions. Former Trump official Gene Hamilton, for instance, claims, “It’s not just from that particular country but from so many countries.” Welfare fraud is an issue that has received less attention than it deserves, and immigrants certainly participate. However, the most ...
Jeffrey A. Singer and Bautista Vivanco A 2024 Commonwealth Fund survey compared prescription rates among seniors (aged 65 and above) in 10 different countries, including the US and Canada (Figure 1). According to the survey, 54 percent of American seniors regularly take four or more prescriptions. For Canadians, this rate is 43.9 percent. A 2020 survey in the Journal of the American Medical Association ...
Norbert Michel For the last century, the federal government has provided many good reasons why America so badly needs to revive the idea of a limited government. But the past few days of financial policy announcements alone show just how dire the situation is. Don’t stress. If you need info on any of these topics, my Cato colleagues—Nick Anthony, Jai ...
Jon Hoffman As Iranians take to the streets over legitimate political and economic grievances, President Trump is expected to decide in the coming days whether the United States will use force against the regime under the pretext of protecting protesters. Striking Iran risks both entangling Washington in this domestic upheaval without a clear endgame and endangering US troops stationed across ...
Jeffrey A. Singer January 12 is National Pharmacist Day, established in 2005 to recognize the contributions pharmacists make to Americans’ health. Various organizations, health departments, and employers observe this day and encourage people to thank pharmacists. Over the years, the pharmacy profession has become more sophisticated. While pharmacists in the past earned a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy, recent advancements ...
Michael F. Cannon President Trump graciously posted to Truth Social about what would provide relief from soaring Obamacare premiums—and what would not. The post is broadly faithful to comments I’ve made about how Congress and states should provide relief from Obamacare: Don’t renew any expired COVID-19-era subsidies. Don’t convert Obamacare premium subsidies into cash subsidies. Make universal and permanent the ...
Dan Greenberg Several of my colleagues have written about today’s controversy: the shooting, at point-blank range, of Renee Good. They are just a few participants in a nationwide argument over what her death means—and, more precisely, who bears responsibility for it. Our vice president has explained that Renee Good was a “deranged leftist”; our president has explained that Renee Good ...
Marcos Falcone Over 26 years, Venezuela’s gradual transition from a democracy into a dictatorship involved increasing authoritarianism on the part of the Chávez-Maduro regime. It also involved ineffective opposition leaders, who were often divided and unable or unwilling to challenge the socialist dictatorship or its ideological foundations. However, María Corina Machado, the current opposition leader and a recent recipient of the Nobel ...
Matthew Cavedon A recent conversation between two judges suggests that mercy should have more of a role in the criminal legal system than many people think. On November 19, Judges Stephanos Bibas and Richard Sullivan met at the Catholic Information Center in Washington, DC, to discuss “Mercy, Retribution, and the Sentencing Judge.” The talk was sponsored by The Center for ...
Stephen Slivinski President Trump’s recent Truth Social missive about housing fits the mold of many of his others to date: he identifies an issue (that may or may not be important, and summarizes it in a way that may or may not be accurate) and then blames a boogeyman before he suggests a terrible way to eradicate the boogeyman. He ...