Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
In his emotional monologue a few nights ago, Jimmy Kimmel told us a heartbreaking story with a happy ending. His newborn son, Billy, was diagnosed with a heart disease and underwent immediate surgery—which thankfully was successful. Millions have since watched and sympathized with the comedian and his family—crying when he cried, rejoicing when he rejoiced….
The 2016 elections have passed, but courts still have plenty of work to do sorting out cases of voter fraud throughout the country. Convictions have continued to roll in this spring, and The Heritage Foundation’s voter fraud database is growing longer by the day. This week, we are adding 19 convictions, including cases from Texas,…
It is only Neil M. Gorsuch’s first month as an associate justice on the Supreme Court, but he is already showing just how similar his judicial philosophy is to that of his predecessor, the late Justice Antonin Scalia. In several difficult criminal law cases, Gorsuch has asked sharp questions from the bench and cast one…
President Donald Trump signaled his support for education choice at a Wednesday event celebrating the achievements of charter school students and school voucher recipients in the nation’s capital. It was an honor to be at this White House event to watch Trump, along with Vice President Mike Pence and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, applaud the…
Americans love their mobile devices. They want to be able to watch, listen, and play any video whenever they want, wherever they want, and for as long as they want. And they don’t want to pay a fortune for the privilege to do so. For most of the history of the internet, companies have been…
What is done by executive power can be undone by executive power. Former President Barack Obama began to learn that lesson this Wednesday when President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to conduct a review of all Antiquities Act designations larger than 100,000 acres over the past 30 years. Specifically,…
When we discuss international trade and balance of payments, there are two types of accounts. There is the current account, which includes goods and services imported and exported and receives the most political attention. In 2016, the American people imported $479 billion worth of goods and services from Chinese producers, and we sold $170 billion…
Jenny Craig can’t arrest you if you miscount your calories, but the federal government could if a new calorie-counting rule takes effect. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s “Nutrition Labeling of Standard Menu Items in Restaurants and Similar Retail Food Establishments” (79 FR 71155) rule was originally scheduled to take effect on May 5. The…
Early Monday morning, congressional negotiators released text of a massive omnibus appropriations bill that would fund the government through Sept. 30. The bill is expected to pass later this week with bipartisan support and avoid a government shutdown. While the bill does make progress on issues like additional defense funding and increasing border security, it…
President Ronald Reagan once said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.” The Gipper understood that when the federal government tries to dictate economic outcomes, it distorts markets, harms consumers, and violates the laws of economics. Sadly, some lawmakers are still struggling to…
President Donald Trump made several worrying remarks during an interview with Reuters last week that raise questions about his Asia policy and his ability to implement it. Trump’s comments come at a particularly inopportune time as his administration unveils its North Korea policy and seeks international support to ratchet up pressure on Pyongyang—all while South…
Who has the lowest tariffs of them all? According to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, “Mexico and others have had very big external tariffs on many, many goods. [The] U.S. is the least protectionist country.” Peter Navarro, who is set to head the Trump administration’s new Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, has said:…
The first time that “the First 100 Days” was used as a political yardstick was in 1933 during President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first months in office. America was in the midst of a Great Depression with 25 percent of the adult population unemployed, gross domestic product down 90 percent since 1929, and the stock market…
Editor's note: Republicans' failure to repeal Obamacare after assuming control of the White House as well as Congress registered strongly with our audience in recent days. The day after President Trump's 100th day in office, today's mailbag leads off with two related letters, one signed by 17 GOP and grassroots activists in Pennsylvania.—Ken McIntyre Dear Daily Signal: Since…
In another move to free up domestic energy supplies, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday aimed at lifting the Obama administration’s offshore drilling restrictions. For decades, bad policies have blocked access to America’s abundance of domestic resources, yet America has still managed to be a global energy leader. Trump’s executive order, “Implementing an…
There seems to be a serious disconnect nowadays between what conservatives are, and what they are accused of being. Campus leftists thoughtlessly dub conservatives “racists” and “homophobes,” and regularly fling those epithets on both conservative students and right-leaning speakers who come to campus. This misunderstanding of conservative values is deeply unfortunate, and it comes amid…
Almost a decade removed from the last housing crisis, the economy and housing market have improved—yet the federal government continues to hold significant influence over the housing finance system. The housing market is showing some signs of growth, including a steady decrease of “underwater” homeowners—a trend certainly driven by the increases in home prices across…
Earlier this week, Foreign Policy published a leaked 15-page State Department internal document detailing the fiscal year 2018 budget numbers for five categories of foreign assistance. The article, breathlessly titled “The End of Foreign Aid as We Know It,” asserted that the document portended the imminent incorporation of the U.S. Agency for International Development, or…
The North American Free Trade Agreement has been good for the U.S. Since it took effect in 1994, our economy has grown 60 percent and manufacturing output has increased more than 80 percent. Meanwhile, we’ve added more than 29 million new private sector jobs, and average compensation per job has nearly doubled. So, should we…