Political Commentary & Opinion
Analysis, commentary, and opinion essays on politics and policy from The Daily Signal’s contributors and experts.
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news
Texas State Coalition Sends Letter to Trump Voicing Support for the Freedom Caucus
“For seven long years, we have been suffering from the rising costs of Obamacare.” That’s the opening sentence of the letter a Texas grassroots coalition has sent to President Donald Trump this week, in the wake of the House health care bill’s failure to pass and Trump’s criticisms of the House Freedom Caucus, which was… -
opinion
How Federalism Can Give Head Start a New Start
Wherever one sits on the ideological spectrum, we all agree that our children deserve access to a high-quality education. The American economy will not grow without qualified workers and our democracy will not thrive without an informed citizenry. This is critical to the very idea of America—everyone should be free to reach as high as… -
opinion
Profiling Is Perfectly Reasonable. In Fact, We All Do It.
Profiling is needlessly a misunderstood concept. What’s called “profiling” is part of the optimal stock of human behavior and something we all do. Let’s begin by describing behavior that might come under the heading of profiling. Prior to making decisions, people seek to gain information. To obtain information is costly, requiring the expenditure of time… -
news
Conservatives Skeptical of White House’s Proposed Changes to Obamacare Replacement Bill
Less than two weeks since the collapse of Republicans’ plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, lawmakers and White House officials have revived talks aimed at crafting a health care bill that can make it through Congress. But a new pitch from the White House designed to get conservative lawmakers on board, though in its early… -
news
The Border Buildup
The battles over how to pay for President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall are just getting started, but the administration is already calling for proposals from companies who would build it. The wall is just one part of the White House plan to stop illegal immigrants crossing the southern border. There’s also going to be… -
news
Retiring Staffer Claims EPA Employees Were ‘Insulted’ by Trump’s Recent Visit
A retiring Environmental Protection Agency employee said career staff were “frankly insulted” when President Donald Trump visited agency headquarters to sign an executive order rolling back global warming policies. Michael Cox, a retiring EPA staffer who worked on global warming programs, wrote in a letter to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt that it “was beyond comprehension… -
opinion
To Fix Health Care, Congress Must Reverse Costly Regulations
When I was first elected to the Senate in 2010, I ran on a promise to repeal Obamacare. When I ran for re-election last year, I again ran on a promise to repeal Obamacare. For more than six years, I’ve made finding a way to make health care more affordable for Utahns my top priority… -
opinion
Democracy Dies in the Administrative State
In the age of Trump, the so-called “mainstream media” has once again been possessed of its manic Republican administration energy levels, determined to shine the light on government corruption and malfeasance stemming from the administration. The Washington Post even adopted the motto “Democracy Dies in Darkness” to show the world its rediscovered commitment to keeping… -
news
Politically Incorrect Professor Gets Denied Grant Funding
A professor who opposes political correctness and refuses to use gender-neutral pronouns was denied research grant funding. Professor Jordan Peterson of the University of Toronto, who has recently sparked controversy for opposing social justice initiatives, was denied research grant funding, according to his Twitter account. For the 1st time in my career, my research grant… -
news
Bad Science Guides California City’s Anti-Smoking Laws
Anti-smoking nannies have pushed their crusade further and further, and in California, they’re increasingly reaching into peoples’ lives. Next up? They’re trying to prohibit smoking inside your own home. The city of Novato has passed one of the most sweeping anti-smoking ordinances in the country. It prohibits smoking in all restaurants, service areas, public parks,… -
opinion
Congress Right to Affirm That States Can Defund Planned Parenthood
It isn’t often that Congress moves a heavy burden off the backs of the states and allows them the freedom to be actual “laboratories of democracy.” Yet the Senate did just that Thursday in voting 51-50 (with Vice President Mike Pence breaking the tie) to invoke the Congressional Review Act to rescind an Obama administration… -
opinion
GOP Repeal Bill Left Too Much of Washington Power Grab in Place
The federal government has been too involved in regulating America’s health care system for years. Yes, long before the unaffordable “Affordable Care Act,” aka Obamacare, came along, Washington was picking winners and losers in health care. The unfair tax treatment of health care started post-World War II when we began giving tax breaks to those… -
opinion
Government Funding Won’t Address Western Water Issues
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Sometimes, members of Congress have the memories of goldfish. One such example is a taxpayer-backed subsidy program for water infrastructure projects. The Bureau of Reclamation within the Department of Interior oversees water resource management in Western states for activities like water supply, storage,… -
opinion
North Carolina’s Leaders Are Trying to Appease Cultural Bullies. It’s Not Working.
If the goal of compromise is to ensure that nobody’s happy, then North Carolina is succeeding. With the NCAA’s ultimatum to repeal H.B. 2 just hours away, the state flew into action Thursday to try to appease the NCAA, which has become a puppet of the radical left. Turns out, the compromise only made liberals… -
news
Left and Right Unhappy With Repeal of North Carolina’s Bathroom Law
A legislative compromise watering down North Carolina’s “bathroom law” leaves access to public bathrooms muddier than ever, conservative opponents of the change say, and it removes the standard of privacy espoused last year by state officials. “They’ve taken away that baseline of privacy that ensured that [use of] every multi-occupancy restroom, locker room, and shower… -
opinion
Freedom Caucus Is an Ally, Not an Enemy in Draining the Swamp
President Donald Trump's tweet that it’s the House Freedom Caucus that “we must fight” shows there may be a little confusion about what "draining the swamp" means or, at the very least, what it looks like. The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don't get on the team, & fast. We… -
news
She Never Joined a Union. But Union Fees Got Deducted From Her Paycheck.
ST. PAUL, Minn.—Patricia Johansen has worked as a home caregiver for her two special-needs grandchildren for about 10 years. Since she never agreed to join the union that represents such Medicaid-eligible caregivers in Minnesota, Johansen was surprised to discover that union dues had been deducted from her benefit check for about four months. In an affidavit,… -
opinion
Why Congress Is Right to Reject FCC’s Double Standard for Broadband Providers
On Monday, the House of Representatives, following similar action last week by the Senate, voted to disapprove a Federal Communications Commission rule on internet privacy. The 400-page order had been rushed to completion by Obama-appointed FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in October on a 3-2 party-line vote. Among other things, it established a set of online… -
news
Environmentalists File First Wave of Lawsuits Against Keystone Pipeline
Environmentalist groups filed lawsuits Monday suggesting the Trump administration’s approval of the Keystone XL pipeline violates several environmental laws and potentially worsens climate change. Members of the Indigenous Environmental Network and North Coast Rivers Alliance argued the Department of State’s approval does not disclose Keystone’s environmental impacts and fails to give the public adequate time… -
news
First Amendment Rights Still in Peril Following Climate Change Probes
Wednesday marked the one-year anniversary of the day an army of Democratic prosecutors unveiled a coordinated campaign to hunt down so-called “climate change deniers.” Constitutional experts have described the initiative as one of the more egregious attacks on the First Amendment in U.S. history. One year later, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s coalition of Attorneys General United for…