Tad DeHaven Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chief Elon Musk recently said the following: “I think we do need to delete entire agencies as opposed to [leaving] part of them behind … If you leave part of them behind … It’s kind of like leaving a weed. If you don’t remove the roots of the weed, then [it’s] easy for ...
Alex Nowrasteh Congress is currently debating whether to spend about $175 billion on deportations to avoid future payments like the $650 million that Congress spent on shelter and other services for migrants last year. Poorly spending $650 million last year doesn’t justify spending 269 times as much to avoid similarly relatively small costs when Congress could just decide not to ...
Nicholas Anthony and Norbert Michel Senators Bernie Sanders (I‑VT) and Josh Hawley (R‑MO) have proposed new price controls on credit cards. They frame the proposal as something that will give the public relief, but it’s hard to imagine “relief” is what people will feel if they have their accounts closed. The Democratic socialist and Republican populist built their case for ...
Jeffrey Miron and Jacob Winter The Trump administration sparked controversy this month by reducing grant funding from the National Institutes of Health. The move, currently blocked by a judge, caps the percentage of grant funds that can be used for indirect costs at 15 percent. There are legitimate debates about a universal cap on funding for indirect costs, as well ...
Chris Edwards Republicans criticized President Biden for his huge spending and deficits, which spurred inflation and jacked up debt to dangerously high levels. The GOP are now in the driver’s seat and must reform the budget to ward off a fiscal crisis. Inflation is ticking up, borrowing costs are rising, and annual interest spending is now so huge it surpasses ...
Mike Fox This blog is an update of the Dec. 24, 2024 post, “DOJ Jumps the Shark.” Imagine you were operating a shark diving charter boat in Florida and came across a long fishing line that you believed to be the work of poachers. You haul in the line, release a number of fish, and take the rig back to ...
Walter Olson The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is unique among federal agencies in the extent to which its core mission is to safeguard the integrity of the law, and virtually the definition of a crisis event there is a mass resignation or firing of senior officials occasioned by their belief that they are being ordered to act in disregard ...
Kyle Handley Robert Lighthizer, former US trade representative. Robert Lighthizer’s recent New York Times op-ed presents a dire view of US trade policy, arguing that trade deficits, foreign ownership of US assets, and policy failures have left the country vulnerable. His solution? An elaborate new system of tariffs designed to enforce balance in bilateral trade. But this one-dimensional argument is ...
Chelsea Follett As another Valentine’s Day approaches, much ink has been spilled on the declining marriage rate and on the topic of which people are more or less likely to marry. Statistics showing a long-term decrease in marriage are concerning for many reasons: Fewer marriages may mean fewer people finding love, fewer children being born, and perhaps a lonelier and more fragmented society. ...
Colleen Hroncich Entrepreneurship is hard. Education entrepreneurship can be even harder, in part because education is highly regulated and in part because you’re trying to attract families who have a “free” option in the public school system. Microschool founder April Jackson has experienced these challenges firsthand. As a military wife, April was a public school teacher and academic coach in ...