Travis Fisher, Adam N. Michel , and Joshua Loucks In 2022, President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)—one of the most brazen political projects in recent memory, designed to remake the American energy sector. As Congress faces tough negotiations over how to bring the American people a “big, beautiful” budget reconciliation bill that is also ...
Jon Hoffman Summary: The ongoing co-option of Islam as a religio-political tool by authoritarian Middle East regimes is applauded by Western governments, who fail to see that such an approach ensures ongoing instability rather than the security it promises to deliver. Islam continues to play an important role in Middle East politics. But how has this changed given the ever-evolving ...
Clark Packard and Alfredo Carrillo Obregon On February 9, President Trump announced he would impose a 25 percent tariff on all imports of steel and aluminum this week. Protecting American steelmaking may make for good politics, but it’s a recipe for significant losses for the American economy, particularly manufacturing. One needs to look no further than the last time President Trump occupied ...
Romina Boccia and Ivane Nachkebia The Social Security Administration (SSA) recently released an FAQ on the so-called Social Security Fairness Act (HR 82), which eliminates the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO). While the SSA focuses on the benefit increases that public sector workers can expect to collect (some in excess of $1,000 more per month!), the FAQ ...
Adam N. Michel Some Republican members of Congress believe that extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts with anything less than $4.7 trillion in revenue reductions is impossible. This belief is misguided. Such a large tax cut—without equally large spending cuts—suggests Republicans may have given up on cutting spending and other subsidies in the tax code. The tax code still has ...
Patrick G. Eddington Late on Friday, February 7, President Trump issued an executive order titled Protecting Second Amendment Rights. The order directs newly confirmed Attorney General Pam Bondi to …examine all orders, regulations, guidance, plans, international agreements, and other actions of executive departments and agencies (agencies) to assess any ongoing infringements of the Second Amendment rights of our citizens, and ...
John F. Early The Census Bureau has filed a Federal Register notice of its intent to change and expand its coding of race and ethnicity in the 2030 decennial census and the ongoing American Community Survey, with any comments due by February 18, 2025.[1] Census claims that it is “not seeking feedback on how the US Office of Management and Budget ...
Scott Lincicome On February 7, President Donald Trump announced his intention to unveil a “reciprocal tariff” system sometime next week, so that the United States is “treated evenly with other countries.” Trump didn’t provide details of how such a system would work. But it appears he wants US tariffs on countries’ imports to match their tariffs on US exports: “They ...
David J. Bier During his inaugural address, President Trump promised to deport “millions and millions of criminal aliens.” I have a new essay exploring this premise. In it, I note: There are not “millions and millions” of removable noncitizens who have criminal convictions. Trump has rescinded requirements to focus on public safety threats. Trump is mandating ICE officers arrest a certain ...
Jack Solowey In 2023, some creative tinkering produced what you might call primitive “AI agents.” They were programs (with names like “BabyAGI”) that used LLMs to help users accomplish multistep tasks by breaking out and sequencing subtasks. The tasks were limited (mostly text-based) and performance was halting. But the app designs were clever, and the implications were vast. I considered ...