Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
Last week, the Tax Foundation released its State Business Tax Climate Index for 2016. This annual report ranks all fifty states (plus D.C.) on how hospitable their tax systems are to businesses. Many factors affect a business’s ability to succeed, including prudent tax policy. While improvements to other important business factors, such as the workforce…
Hard on the heels of attacks in Beirut and Paris, terrorists have struck again. This time, an unconfirmed number of gunmen stormed the upscale Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako, capital of the West African country of Mali. Details are murky and likely to change in the hours and days ahead, but what is clear is…
Following the ISIS attacks on Paris, to say that President Obama looks weak on the world stage would be an understatement. And Monday’s performance at the G-20 summit in Antalya, Turkey, was an embarrassment. In tone, his remarks were defiant, arrogant, and dismissive. In substance, he offered no ideas or proposals for combating the ISIS threat. Indeed,…
In Tunisia, the one nation progressing in the struggle to build a democracy from the Arab Spring revolutions, the governing party of President Beji Caid Essebsi has fractured. On Sunday, more than a third of the legislators from the Nidaa Tounes party resigned their membership, in a leadership dispute that the dissidents say is largely about nepotism…
ISIS, Russia, Iran, and China all share a common concern: the United States. In short, it’s a problem. As conventional states, three of them have a view of how the world ought to be organized, but America stands in their way. They all also have the same idea—to win without fighting. Of the four, ISIS…
During the last debate Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee and Senator Rand Paul all waded into monetary policy, a hot topic since the 2008 crisis. Predictably, the last few days have seen a flurry of news articles attackingtheir views. Some of these stories, such as Greg Ip’s, are quite thoughtful. But on balance…
Just this month, 3D Systems in Los Angeles, Calif., opened “their new culinary innovation center, the 3DS Culinary Lab … a first-of-its-kind workshop kitchen where avant-garde culinary experts and artists can experiment with the latest in 3D printed food innovations.” That’s one step (for man) closer to cranking out a turkey feast with all the trimmings. 3D printing…
While the presidential candidates clash over how to handle illegal immigration and border security, Arizona is doing something about it. When Doug Ducey ran for governor, he made doing something about all the illegal activity on the border with Mexico a cornerstone of his campaign. Since taking office, he has made a high-profiled effort to deliver. His latest…
West Virginia may well become the next right-to-work state. Bill Cole—the state-Senate president and probable GOP gubernatorial nominee—has made passing right-to-work legislation a top priority. However, Cole didn’t bring it up for hearings or a vote in this year’s legislative session. At the time, liberal groups celebrated the fact that right-to-work was bumped from the…
On November 2, President Barack Obama signed the Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA), which passed Congress with 233 Democrats and 97 Republicans voting in its favor. Enactment of the BBA was a historic event. For the first time in modern history, Congress granted a president unlimited borrowing authority for nearly an entire term in office. The…
As we saw in Paris and Mali, local law enforcement officers are on the front line of defense against terror. Now that ISIS is threatening similar attacks here at home, police should have a keen understanding of what happened there to inform their efforts here. A unique program devised by the New York City Police…
Millions of people worldwide were horrified to learn that Paris had been attacked by terrorists. But some supporters of the student protests at the University of Missouri had a unique reason for their dismay: outrage over what had happened in France was taking the spotlight off their grievances. “Wow, all this ruckus on the news…
MADISON, Wis.—It’s pretty clear that state Rep. Chris Taylor doesn’t much care for the American Legislative Exchange Council and its limited-government, free-market principles. But now the Madison Democrat and self-described anti-ALEC spy wants to put regulatory chains on the organization for doing what Taylor’s left-leaning allies freely do every day. Taylor is the author of…
For almost two generations, since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, self-proclaimed jihadis have been fighting to re-establish Islamic supremacy and domination in the world. Leaders of the nations they have been targeting have regarded them as a problem—but mostly not as dangerous enemies who must be decisively defeated. And so their numbers have grown and their…
Jim DeMint wrote earlier this week on President Obama's leadership: On Nov. 12, President Barack Obama said of ISIS: “What is true is that from the start, our goal has been first to contain, and we have contained them.” On Nov. 13, ISIS-connected terrorists left 129 people dead and 352 wounded in Paris. ISIS naturally…
As we approach the holiday season, one thing that many Americans will have in common is travel. In light of recent high-profile mistakes, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) needs to make some serious changes to security methodology. The TSA has already taken some steps to better manage risks at airports. It cut back on the…
I was recently bemoaning the fact that mens rea reform was not part of the various proposals that were being considered in the House and the Senate under the rubric of criminal justice reform, and that what was really being discussed was criminal sentencing reform. Well, I need lament no longer. This week, significant mens…
Planned Parenthood gave the winter finale of “Scandal,” a TV drama about politics, a big thumbs up for its portrayal Thursday of a character’s abortion. “We saw one of our favorite characters make the deeply personal decision that one in three women have made in their lifetime,” Planned Parenthood said in a statement, per Entertainment…
Washington almost always approaches political problems incorrectly. Instead of thinking about human beings as unique individuals, many experts and lawmakers focus only on them as numbers to be used in mathematical solutions. What they forget is that the endless studies, books, and blogs that are produced, often miss what matters most about human life. For…
Congress has a chance to reassert itself against regulatory overreach. The Senate has passed three Congressional Review Act (CRA) disapproval resolutions that would repeal the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineer’s water rule, and two EPA greenhouse gas rules targeting electric power plants. The ball is now in the House’s court. Under…