Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
Chile has the highest level of economic freedom in Latin America and was the 7th most economically free country in the world according to the 2015 edition of the annual Wall Street Journal/Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom. But, if the Chilean Congress passes President Michelle Bachelet’s proposed changes to Chile’s labor code, that high…
Private school choice initiatives have become increasingly common across the United States. Far from being rare and untested, private school choice policies are an integral part of the fabric of American education policy. In the United States today, 56 different school choice policies exist in 28 states plus the District of Columbia, and the number of…
CHICAGO—While serving as a fellow for the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics this month, I had an opportunity to sit down with former White House senior adviser David Axelrod to discuss the current state of American politics. I begin by asking him what he believes is the biggest misconception conservatives have about both President…
Should transgender parents be able to adopt? In April, President Obama made it clear he thinks they should. In a presidential proclamation for National Foster Care Month, Obama wrote, “With so many children waiting for loving homes, it is important to ensure all qualified caregivers have the opportunity to serve as foster or adoptive parents,…
Earlier this month, I predicted that a scheduled hearing at the Federal Election Commission was shaping up to be nothing more than a presentation of “the goofy gender ideology and politics of the progressive left and academia.” And, oh, how right I was. The May 12 forum on “Women in Politics” was organized by FEC…
Two little-known bills in Congress—one on world press freedom, the other on Hong Kong—seek to reassert the idea that a moral defense of human rights overseas is in U.S. national interests. It’s a concept worthy of a full airing over the next 18 months as candidates of both parties seek the presidency. One of the…
If any day is more than just a day, then Memorial Day is it. Sometimes remembering just one soldier reminds us why. His name was Lawrence Gordon. He grew-up on a hard-scrabble farm in Canada. After Pearl Harbor, he decided to join the American Army. The Americans had better “kit.” The Army sent Gordon into…
It’s easy to adopt a ho-hum attitude about the Middle East at times. To see it as the place where, as comedian Louis C.K. recently said on “Saturday Night Live,” they’ve been having the same fights for hundreds of years, so “it’s boring now.” The name “Middle East” is fitting for more than just geographic…
Earlier this month the Illinois Supreme Court overturned a state law that would help fix the state’s notorious pension crisis. What a tragedy for the state’s taxpayers. The justices basically ruled that the pension arrangements are iron-clad, although these pensions are on a course to bankrupt the state and imperil public services that Illinois families depend…
Developments over this last weekend have left many Americans (and many of our allies) wondering about the progress (or lack thereof) of our fight against ISIS. First came news that U.S. Special Operations Forces had conducted a daring raid into Syria, killing a major ISIS leader. Then came word that ISIS had captured the city of Ramadi in…
The Justice Department’s latest filings in the immigration lawsuit brought by 26 states in the Southern District of Texas are a little hard to believe—and somewhat comical, in a way. Back in February, Judge Andrew Hanen issued a preliminary injunction against the implementation of President Obama’s executive orders on immigration. Now, in an attempt to…
If we were to design a regulatory framework from scratch, for any sector of a modern economy, it would make no sense to ignore regulatory costs and benefits. It would make even less sense to implement new rules and regulations and then worry about their impact. But that’s pretty much what we do in the U.S., where…
It’s hard to say which is more galling: when politicians want to extend the life of a program that doesn’t work, or when they want to pull the plug on one that does. A prime example of the latter: the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. It allows children from low-income families to attend the school of…
No doubt, the recent oil pipeline spill in California is a real mess, but it isn’t the end of the world or a reason to end use of petroleum. In fact, oil spills are not even the worst source of water pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency notes: “In the 2000 National Water Quality Inventory, states…
While doing a fellowship at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics, I sat down for a chat with Ray LaHood, a former Republican congressman who represented Illinois’ 18th congressional district for 14 years before becoming President Obama’s secretary of transportation in 2009. We begin our conversation with LaHood’s take on why the increasing polarization between the…
As we roll into Memorial Day weekend, commemorating America’s fallen service members—but really all our troops—you can’t help but feel a sense of pride about the U.S. Special Ops raid last weekend that took down a senior Islamic State leader. In case you missed it: In a daring airborne assault, the U.S. Army’s Delta Force…
Say you got a recall notice for your car. You’d naturally be alarmed, especially after reading that the problem involved Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 208—“Occupant Crash Protection.” Is something wrong with the brakes? The air bags? The seat belts? Nope. You know the airbag warning label on the sun visor? It might peel….
For much of the last century, Latin America has seldom been a major focus for U.S. foreign policy. Yet President Obama’s controversial Cuba policy appears to have brought the region back into play. But Obama’s days in the Oval Office are numbered. How will the next occupant of the White House treat our neighbors to…
The Obamacare mandate requiring non-profit religious employers to facilitate health care coverage of abortion-inducing drugs and devices for employees may be heading to the Supreme Court soon. This mandate—which exempts formal houses of worship and their integrated auxiliaries like church-run soup kitchens—requires non-profit religious employers to provide this coverage or notify the Department of Health…
Pyongyang claimed on Wednesday that it already has developed nuclear weapons small enough to fit on missiles. The powerful National Defense Commission declared “it is long since [North Korea’s] nuclear striking means have entered the stage of producing smaller nukes and diversifying them.” It also highlighted its ability to put miniaturized nuclear warheads on short-range,…