Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
Today the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver will hear oral argument in the Little Sisters of the Poor’s challenge to the Obamacare abortion-inducing drug mandate “accommodation.” The case, made famous by Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s midnight injunction almost one year ago, challenges an “accommodation” the Obama administration has offered to religious non-profit organizations allowing…
The media can’t stop cooing over Kate Middleton’s baby bump. “Prince William, Kate Middleton, and Bump Touch Down in New York City,” proclaimed a Daily Beast headline. NBC’s Today.com announced, “Americans are giving the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge a warm reception for their first visit to the Big Apple, where the royal couple gave…
Madeline Scotto, a math teacher in New York City, is no fan of Common Core. “They’re making it more complicated as far as I’m concerned,” she told Business Insider derisively. “I don’t think they waited long enough for this common core to produce something outstanding so that we could say, ‘I think we should do that,’”…
Last month, President Obama announced his support for unprecedented “network neutrality” regulation of the Internet under Title II of the Communications Act—a step that would reclassify broadband providers as “common carriers” like telegraph and old-style telephone services. Such heavy-handed regulation, he and other advocates say, is necessary to protect consumers and innovators from unconstrained Internet…
Did you know that the National Institutes of Health spent $374,000 to find out if a puppet show would convince preschoolers to eat more vegetables? Or that the Department of Agriculture gave $50,000 to a business that packs and sells alpaca manure? Your tax dollars paid for it–and much more. In 2014, federal spending per…
The lame-duck session presents the first test for Republican leadership in the House and Senate since the American people overwhelmingly spoke on Election Day. As usual, President Obama and congressional Democrats are playing their Washington games. They are trying to scare and intimidate Republicans in Congress into funding their liberal priorities all the way through…
It’s no secret that the Obama administration badly wants a nuclear deal with Iran. And it’s no secret that the Iranians are playing hard to get. The talks, which were supposed to yield a final agreement last week, have been extended to July. That’s a relief, because right now, the best deal is no deal. Many…
If you're like most Americans, you haven't been questioning the welcome drop in gasoline prices. You just fill 'er up and feel grateful that you're spending less. Why has this remarkable drop come about? And what can we do to help keep prices lower? Some of it, unfortunately, is beyond our control. Worldwide demand for…
If you think President Obama’s unilateral exercise of executive powers granting near-blanket amnesty to illegal immigrants was an abuse of power, get a load of what this administration is doing over at the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA’s proposed Clean Power Plan regulations are the most expansive and economically disruptive rules in four decades from…
Last month, the Supreme Court surprised the national news media by refusing to hear any of the seven same-sex marriage cases that had been pending. Following that denial of review, the status of same-sex marriage appears to be based on an odd sort of federalism. If you live in a region of the country governed…
Survivors of the Benghazi terrorist attack and members of Congress alike are voicing deep frustrations with the report released on Nov. 21 by the House Select Committee on Intelligence. The “Investigative Report on the Terrorist Attacks against U.S. Facilities in Benghazi, September 11-12, 2012” has widely been characterized by Democrats and the mainstream media as exonerating the Obama administration. Yet,…
“Saturday Night Live” often acts as a good barometer of what’s going on in the world. Last week, its opening sketch nailed just how grumpy Americans are over President Obama’s executive action on immigration, which kicks the rule of law down the Capitol steps. But later in the show’s “Weekend Update,” a guest appearance by…
Perhaps the biggest problem with the reaction of President Obama and his attorney general, Eric Holder, to the grand jury verdict in Ferguson is their non-support for the difficult work of the grand jury. That and their support for the mistaken proposition that the administration of justice is unfair, biased, and prejudiced towards “communities of…
In a recent blog post, Brookings scholar Ron Haskins identifies five social programs as being highly effective and highlights the Obama administration’s “evidence based” policy efforts to fund effective federal social programs. Unfortunately, these five social programs — Career Academies, Nurse-Family Partnership, Carrera Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program, Success for All, and Small Schools of Choice —…
Some economic indicators, including the short-term unemployment rate, have recovered to levels associated with “normal times.” But long-term unemployment remains high: Almost 2 percent of the labor force is unemployed and has been so for at least six months. The persistence of long-run unemployment in 2014 is something of a surprise. Many economists, myself included, expected that…
The death of Eric Garner, the black New York man who died after police held him in an alleged chokehold, has sparked an enormous amount of outrage across the nation. A grand jury found the police officer responsible not guilty and individuals on both the left and the right are angry. Unlike the Michael Brown case,…
Insatiable – that would seem to be the word that best describes the appetite of some in Congress and their friends in the environmental community. Congress has added over 450 pages to the defense authorization bill to designate wilderness, create new parks, designate Wild and Scenic Rivers and fund National Heritage areas – things that have…
CULLMAN, Ala. — Teacher unions finally met a foe they couldn’t conquer in the form of the yellow, spiky-haired Bart Simpson. Those unions were skewered in a recent episode of the long-running Fox series “The Simpsons.” A new teacher at Springfield Elementary tormented Bart before being embarrassed by him at Blazing Man, a knockoff of…
The election results were a crushing political blow for the Obama administration, giving Republicans firm control of both houses of Congress for the final two years of his term. But this in no way signals the end of the president’s policy agenda. It simply shifts the action to regulatory agencies. In the days since the…
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ November employment report showed solid economic growth, but also provides clues about why many Americans report unhappiness with the economy. The headline figures contained mostly good news. The household survey reported the unemployment rate remaining flat (5.8 percent) at the lowest rate since July 2008. Labor force participation also remained flat…