Political Commentary & Opinion

Hillary Clinton’s newly proposed top estate tax rate of 65 percent on $1 billion estates can sound innocuous enough to the average taxpayer. Last year only a handful of estates would have been large enough to have been affected. If that was all there was to the new Clinton estate tax announced in September, most…

Elections are opportunities for Americans to take a serious look at their country and evaluate its current health. Looking around as the election season shifts into high gear, we find several ominous symptoms of political illness. Consider, for example, our increased ideological polarization, the repeated disregard for the Constitution by office holders, heightened racial tensions…

“We can no longer tolerate this infraction.… We will no longer tolerate this behavior!!” A government-sponsored board in Arizona has posted this message on the front page of its news column, under the heading “ATTENTION TO ALL SHOPS.” What is the intolerable crime in question? Unlicensed barbering. “Break the law and pay the fine. Work…

The World Trade Organization announced this week that it expects global trade to grow much slower than originally projected. WTO analysts, who projected global trade would grow by 2.8 percent this year, now expect it to grow by 1.7 percent, the lowest rate since 2009. Trade growth rates in North America contributed to the WTO’s…

What are the barriers women face in the economy today? A special congressional committee is addressing this question and getting to the heart of how women can succeed in the workforce and balance other life priorities. On Sept.22, the Republican Policy Committee Working Group on Women in the 21st Century Workforce held its first hearing…

Shimon Peres, the former prime minister and president of Israel, died Wednesday morning in a hospital in Tel Aviv. He was 93. His passing marks the end of an era as the last of Israel’s founding generation of statesmen, and Israel’s loss will be felt around the world. Peres had suffered a stroke Sept. 13….

Many people have been impacted by the harm that can be caused by cigarette smoking, including the loss of family members. The market has found a solution to this major public health problem. The federal government is about to crush that solution. Recent technological innovations, such as vaping products (e.g. e-cigarettes), have provided an alternative…

Taxpayers expect their government to spend tax dollars wisely, on activities that benefit the public. But across the country, governments at all levels give away tax dollars to the exclusive benefit of public unions without getting anything in return. This subsidy, known as union release time, has flown under the radar for decades, but now…

Tax reform remains a central issue in Washington because of its overwhelming necessity. Tax reform is badly needed to revive the slow-growing economy and increase job creation and wages for American families. The current tax system is a large weight holding the economy back from growing as strongly as it could, thereby suppressing opportunity for…

Steel producers in the United States are facing stiff competition from China and other countries, whose high steel production rates are driving down the prices of the product globally. In response, domestic steel producers are lobbying the government to impose restraints on imports. This poses a serious threat to U.S. companies that rely on steel—and…