Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
How should Congress respond when the Supreme Court hands down its decision in King v. Burwell? At issue in the case is the Obama administration’s regulatory interpretation of the statute governing payment of the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance subsidies. If the Court rules against the administration then those subsidies cannot be paid to individuals…
Did the Obama administration lie about the details surrounding Osama bin Laden’s death? A recent article in the London Review of Books titled “The Killing of Osama bin Laden,” by Seymour M. Hersh argues that the Obama administration has lied about several of the details of the U.S. raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in…
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will now require states to plan for climate change before they are eligible for grants. This de facto oath of fealty to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and its failing climate models further politicizes FEMA—an agency that can only operate effectively through nonpartisan cooperation with the affected…
In March 2014, pioneering Internet company Mozilla announced the appointment of co-founder Brendan Eich as CEO. That same day, a Twitter mob exploded with criticism of Eich. Gay rights supporters were angry about a 6-year-old donation of $1,000 to the “Yes on 8” campaign, which sought to ban same-sex marriage in California in 2008. It’s…
The scenes of Baltimore set ablaze have many Americans thinking: What can be done to rescue families trapped in an inner-city culture of violence, despair and joblessness? There are no easy answers, but down the road from Baltimore in Washington, D.C., an education program is giving children in poor neighborhoods a big lift up. The…
As America observes the 150th anniversary of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, we find that this great American’s legacy is as much a source of division as of unity. Lincoln is the first and greatest of America’s Republican presidents. Nevertheless, some voices on the contemporary left claim that the Republican Party no longer deserves to…
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, has done something well-nigh unthinkable on Capitol Hill: He has filed a bill to cut red tape. Thornberry’s goal is to make the military’s acquisition process more efficient, but his approach—while intuitive for most people—goes against the grain of “normal” congressional problem solving, which typically tries to increase efficiency…
This year is shaping up as a milestone for an immigrant group that has often felt little-understood (or liked) by the news media. Cuban Americans are coming of age as two Cuban Americans run for president. Yet the candidacies of Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz coincide with one of the community’s most stinging political defeats…
There’s still a widespread belief that the federal government will bail out large financial firms if there’s another crisis. Curbing the Federal Reserve’s ability to spread money around would be a great way to lower the chances of future bailouts. So it’s encouraging to learn that Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and David Vitter, R-La., have…
Employers, not politicians, can spark a health care revolution. For many years employers have struggled with providing health insurance to workers and their families. Competing for high-skilled workers typically requires offering fairly comprehensive benefits (valued at an average of $6,000 for an individual in 2014). Public sector employers—states and municipalities—are often hemmed in by the…
Foreign policy should work to advance a constructive agenda—something that’s been largely lacking in the Obama era. Hopefully, the next president will come up with appropriate actions to fill that void. As a cornerstone of that effort, I would suggest a commitment to promoting free trade and more liberal markets worldwide. I’ve written before that…
Have average wages for American workers grown since 1972? Absolutely—and only a reliance on measures with well-documented flaws can show otherwise. First, look around you: Americans at all income levels own more cars, have more air-conditioned homes, travel more, are more likely to attend college, and live longer than they did in the 1970s. Reliable…
The green energy movement in America is dead. May it rest in peace. No, a majority of American energy over the next 20 years is not going to come from windmills and solar panels. One important lesson to be learned from the green energy fad's rapid and expensive demise is that central planning doesn’t work….
With an overall score of 78.5, Chile remained the 7th freest economy in the world in the 2015 Index of Economic Freedom and retained its rank as first in the Latin American and the Caribbean region. Beginning with the first edition of the Index in 1995, successive governments in Chile from the center-left and center-right…
Editor’s note: Democrats’ so-called Inflation Reduction Act, passed by the Senate this weekend, would allow the IRS to hire 87,000 new agents. There aren’t many gyms that employ obese personal trainers, or investment firms that retain bankrupt financial advisers. If they did, their business would certainly suffer. But that’s precisely what the Internal Revenue Service…
News coverage of the Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas, where the two attackers who opened fire on the event were killed by police, has exposed a lack of understanding about the First Amendment among many in the mainstream media. It was not created to protect speech that doesn't offend anyone. It was created to protect…
In 2004, voters in Michigan and 10 other states passed state constitutional amendments defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Ten years later, in March 2014, a federal judge struck down the law saying it violated the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. But just eight months later, the 6th…
On April 24, renowned Pakistani human rights activist, Sabeen Mahmud, was gunned down and killed by two men in Karachi, Pakistan. Mahmud was a respected, outspoken intellectual who founded a coffeehouse and meeting place in Karachi called The Second Floor, commonly referred to as T2F. “The Killing of Sabeen Mahmud is a tragic demonstration of…
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ April jobs report contained modestly encouraging economic news. The payroll survey showed employers added just under a quarter million net new jobs in the month while the household survey reported unemployment falling to 5.4 percent—its lowest level since mid-2008. On the whole, the report provided a positive counterpoint to recent…
Greatly exceeding expectations, the Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister David Cameron, surged in yesterday’s United Kingdom General Election, winning 330 parliamentary seats, enough to form a majority in the House of Commons. The socialist Labour Party won just 232 seats, and the Liberal Democrat vote collapsed, securing just 8 seats. The Scottish National Party…