Michael F. Cannon I have a piece at the Wall Street Journal with the title, “Medicare and Medicaid Fail a Basic Scientific Test.” It explores the implications of the fact that Medicaid failed the test the federal government uses to determine whether new elixirs save lives. Basically, “If Medicaid were a drug, the federal government wouldn’t approve it—and could penalize ...
Jeremy Horpedahl Much has been made of the “China Shock,” or the impact on US manufacturing from two related trade policy changes: the US granting China permanent normal trade relations in 2000, and China’s accession to the WTO in 2001. As Scott Lincicome has pointed out, the policy discussion has strayed from the academic research on this topic in several important ...
Jeffrey A. Singer Dr. Leana Wen is an emergency physician, former Baltimore Health Commissioner, former president of Planned Parenthood, and a Washington Post columnist. In her Washington Post column last week titled “The New Nicotine Product Replacing e‑Cigarettes to Addict Teens,” Dr. Wen expressed concern that, as teen vaping has dropped to historic lows, many teens are instead turning to nicotine ...
Michael F. Cannon The New York Times has a fun article on the absurdity of the income tax. Superficially, of course, it is about greedy MAHA Republicans bending the tax laws to make a buck. But fundamentally, it’s about how taxes spur unproductive activities to avoid the tax. It’s also a good example of how academics and reporters (perhaps inadvertently) ...
Colleen Hroncich “We don’t want to be the only school that you ever go to,” says Margaret Creighton, President and CEO of Positive Tomorrows, a school and social services agency serving families experiencing homelessness. “We want to get the child up to speed academically and socially, that’s super important. And have the parent be stable for six months or more ...
Jeffrey A. Singer Governor Andy Beshear (D‑KY), a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, told an audience of supporters yesterday that Democrats need to eschew “politically correct” language and “speak like humans.” “When we start changing and sanitizing our language, things have less meaning. And I’ll give you an example that’s personal to me: in Kentucky, we are hit by the ...
Chris Edwards We recently examined data on public corruption and noted that 80 to 90 percent of all corruption convictions result from federal prosecutions. The states appear to do little to prosecute corruption by their own state and local officials. Why not? It may be because of federal displacement or “crowding out.” When it comes to government spending, federal increases ...
Jai Kedia The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recently released price index data for June. Unfortunately, tariff defenders are drawing incorrect conclusions from this data. For instance, Vice President Vance used the lower-than-expected producer price index (PPI) numbers to claim that the “economics profession doesn’t fully understand tariffs,” even though the PPI does not include imports, the sector most likely to show immediate ...
Jeffrey A. Singer, Akiva Malamet, and Terence Kealey Last month, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary announced a new initiative: the Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher (CNPV) program. These non-monetary vouchers, valid for two years, let companies shorten the FDA’s final review of a drug application from 10–12 months to just one or two. The companies cannot sell or transfer the vouchers ...
David J. Bier This testimony was delivered July 15, 2025, at a joint hearing of the Homeland Security Committee subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability and the Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement entitled, “Case by Case: Returning Parole to Its Proper Purpose.” Here is my oral testimony: Here is the opening of my written testimony: Chairmen Brecheen and Guest, ...