Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
Obamacare, a veritable fountain of unintended consequences, is a 21st century showcase of government central planning. Let’s be clear. This is what President Barack Obama wanted. Liberals in Congress meticulously designed the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchanges as powerful regulatory bodies. They defined the kinds of insurance plans, benefits, and medical treatments and procedures the…
The long-term costs to taxpayers of immigrants and their descendants are detailed in a new report from the National Academy of Sciences. The findings in the report indicate that if amnesty for illegal immigrants were enacted, the government would have to raise taxes immediately by $1.29 trillion and put that sum into a high-yield bank…
The labor market didn’t change much in October, according to today’s Bureau of Labor Statistics employment report. Unemployment and job creation have remained steady over 2016. Those trends continued last month. The household survey reported that unemployment fell by 0.1 percentage points, to 5.0 percent. However, this drop primarily occurred because over 400,000 Americans left…
Next week, four cities are holding ballot measures on soda taxes (i.e. taxes on many sugar-sweetened beverages). Not surprisingly, the four cities are far-left havens, including the California cities of Albany, Oakland, and San Francisco, as well as Boulder, Colorado. In 2014, voters in Berkeley, California, passed a soda tax, and this past June, the…
U.S. government spending on public relations campaigns, including NASA's Green Ninja videos on global warming and the Pajama Boy ads for Obamacare, should raise serious questions about fiscal responsibility and where to draw the line between appropriate communication and propaganda. The government spent about $1 billion annually on advertising and public relations from 2006 to 2015,…
If a California pro-life pregnancy center refuses to speak the state government’s propaganda, it would face a civil penalty of $500 for a first offense and $1,000 for each subsequent offense. That’s the result of a decision in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Harris, issued by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S….
The Affordable Care Act has a serious “affordability” problem. For President Barack Obama, the latest round of insurance cost hikes once again undercut his iconic—and repetitive—promise: Obamacare would not only control, but actually reduce (by $2,500 annually) the “typical” family’s health care costs. Recent liberal policy proposals would make the health care cost problem even worse….
What do former President Bill Clinton and filmmaker Michael Moore have in common? They, along with a host of other Democrats, have had moments of honesty about Obamacare. From the law’s chief architect to elected officials such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Gov. Mark Dayton, D-Minn., here are seven times Democrats admitted…
P.J. and Rachel Anderson’s story is about as Nashville as they come. P.J. is a singer-songwriter who frequently travels around the country to play shows. His wife Rachel is a graphic designer who is able to set her own hours and work remotely. This had worked out well for them as a young family, as…
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, having a net worth of $81.8 billion, and Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, having a net worth of $70.4 billion, are the nation’s two richest men. They are at the top of the Forbes 400 list of America’s super-rich individuals, people who have net worths of billions of dollars. Many see the…
Earlier today, the D.C. City Council voted to allow physician-assisted suicide. But the debate isn’t over. The Washington Post reports that “the council must still hold a final vote on the bill, possibly as early as Nov. 15,” and that the mayor, Muriel Bowser, must decide if she’ll sign or veto the bill. The mayor…
In the 1800 U.S. presidential race, it was Alexander Hamilton who was behind what was essentially the first “October surprise.” An October surprise is a carefully planned political event meant to impact an election just before it happens. My book, “Tainted by Suspicion: The Secret Deals and Electoral Chaos of Disputed Presidential Elections,” explains how…
