Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
The Congressional Budget Office’s budget and economic outlook for the next decade paints a grim picture of the nation’s fiscal situation and shows we continue to be on an unsustainable budget path. Despite years of warnings by CBO and others that this path will lead to fiscal disaster, Congress continually has failed to make substantive reforms….
For years, the Obama administration used its executive authority to obstruct two crucial energy infrastructure projects: the Dakota Access pipeline and the Keystone XL pipeline. Today, the obstruction finally came to an end when President Donald Trump signed two executive orders. This action affirms our new president’s respect for the rule of law and his…
In a win for the economy and the environment, President Donald Trump signed executive orders backing the construction of two unnecessarily controversial energy infrastructure projects: the Keystone XL pipeline and the Dakota Access pipeline. Getting the green light for the completion of the pipelines is kind of like receiving your appetizer halfway through your meal….
During a White House meeting with business leaders on Monday, President Donald Trump pledged to slash regulations by at least 75 percent. Activists were positively apoplectic, of course, and media ridicule was swift. But exaggerated as the comment was, the larger point is incontrovertible: The unparalleled expansion of the administrative state is crushing America’s entrepreneurial…
Among President Donald Trump’s first actions as president was issuing a hiring freeze for certain federal employees. Trump made it clear in his inaugural address that he thinks the federal government is doing a lousy job of fulfilling its primary purpose of serving the American people. So why not press the pause button and allow…
On Nov. 8, America elected a president with vastly different views on crime from former President Barack Obama. The Obama administration’s views on crime and police undercut local law enforcement and left vulnerable some of the nation’s most crime-ridden communities. The Trump administration can help to reverse these trends. In his farewell speech delivered in…
It’s no secret that conservatives love numbers. Numbers are often cited as reasons one, two, and three to change an existing law or introduce a new initiative. Numbers matter. Numbers should be used to defend whatever policy position you take. But Americans don’t care about numbers unless they know how those numbers affect them and…
Until his speech at the CIA yesterday in which he praised the CIA and intelligence community, President Donald Trump had been openly critical of the intelligence community as a whole, and former CIA Director John Brennan in particular. So, what will his relationship with the intelligence community be like now that he’s in the Oval…
Today, Britain’s Supreme Court ruled that Parliament must be allowed a vote before the British government initiates Brexit. This ruling will not derail the Brexit process. It will, however, mean that Parliament must approve the triggering of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which formally begins the two-year process by which Britain withdraws from the…
Conventional wisdom holds that the great malady plaguing American life today is the toxic combination of political polarization and social fragmentation. And there’s a great deal of truth to this diagnosis. We are, as one astute observer put it, a “fractured republic,” fraught with intense divisions and deep anxieties that are not easily resolved. But I…
I never trusted or liked pro-life activists. Even at college I thought them too earnest and too religious. I thought the shocking images they showed were manipulative. I distinctly remember my argument: A heart transplant is gross to look at, too. I don’t want to look at pictures of that, and heart transplants are brilliant. So…
As the debate over repealing Obamacare intensifies, it’s important to remember the law’s most glaring failures. Here are eight: 1) Costs Despite repeated promises of premium reductions, Obamacare has delivered major increases. In the employer-sponsored market, costs continue to increase. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, average family premiums for employer-sponsored plans have increased almost…
In one of his first official actions, President Donald Trump reinstated the life-affirming Mexico City policy, ensuring that American taxpayers do not fund international organizations that perform or promote abortion overseas. The news comes just after the 44th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion on demand across the country. Pro-life Americans are undoubtedly…
In his Jan. 11 remarks on nuclear weapons policy, the outgoing Vice President Joe Biden praised former President Barack Obama’s nuclear weapons policy. In reality, there are very few grounds for congratulations when it comes to Obama’s legacy. Take, for example, the Iran deal. Biden argued that the administration got the deal through a combination…
A newly inaugurated President Donald Trump rang the opening bell for what will be a multistep process to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, as he signed an executive order on Friday directing his subordinates to: exercise all authority and discretion available to them to waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay…
Is National Public Radio’s description of an Obama urban directive as something that merely “links [government] funding to desegregation” fake news? Well, it’s so slanted that if you had no prior knowledge of the program, and heard NPR’s depiction of it, you would just say to yourself, “Sounds good to me.” But to many conservatives, including…
In some parts of the nation's capital today, it looks like a war zone. And it's because of protesters who are presumably taking out their anger over the election—and the voters' decision—by acting violently and destructively on the streets of Washington. Here are some of the most compelling photos and tweets documenting the destruction: .@POTUS supporter…
This is the text of President Donald Trump’s inaugural address: Chief Justice Roberts, President Carter, President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, fellow Americans and people of the world, thank you. We, the citizens of America, are now joined in a great national effort to rebuild our country and restore its promise for all of our…
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry recently had his confirmation hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. If confirmed as energy secretary, Perry should work with Congress to reduce the size and scope of the agency’s intrusive reach into energy markets. Here are three priorities: 1. Stop and eliminate taxpayer-backed loans and loan guarantees….