OpenMarket

Bad Internet sales tax legislation (mercifully) continues to stall in Congress. Pro-tax expansionists like Rep. Kristi Noem (R-SD) made a big political push to tie the ill-advised Remote Transactions Parity Act to the omnibus-spending bill in March, but to no avail.

With a possible party change in play this November in one or both chambers of Congress, the time might be now or never to pass substantive regulatory reform. President Trump is amenable to reform legislation, and both chambers of Congress have GOP majorities. A number of bills are already in play, and some have even passed the House.

Washington, D.C. has a $12.50 per hour minimum wage. But for tip-earning workers, such as servers and bartenders, the minimum is $3.33 per hour—tips are supposed to make up the difference. And if they don’t, then employers make up the shortfall. Ballot initiative 77, due for a vote on Tuesday, would raise tipped workers’ minimum wage to $12.50. It would also raise D.C.’s minimum wage to $15.00 in steps through 2025. The proposal has divided the restaurant community.

Thanks to the great Nick Gillespie of Reason for Friday’s exciting announcement that the Competitive Enterprise Institute short film “I, Whiskey: The Human Spirit” has been nominated for the 2018 Reason Video Prize. We’re proud of the recognition that the film has received since its initial release, including Best Editing for Erin Michelle Kruger and Lucas Abel at the Southern Shorts Awards and an Excellence in Commercial Filmmaking award at the 2017 Anthem Film Festival.

Congress and President Trump recently gave Main Street banks and credit unions some much-need but still modest relief from the mountains of red tape stemming from the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Yet, as I have pointed out, some of the most onerous and nonsensical provisions were left untouched.

Angry allies, North Korea, and Chinese tariffs dominated the news last week. Under the radar, regulatory agencies closed in on their 1,500th new regulation of the year. The newest batch of rules range from air cargo to dietary fiber.

The White House has announced that President Donald J. Trump will nominate two individuals for positions of considerable importance to energy and environmental issues.

Ever wonder why installations of household solar photovoltaic (PV) systems and utility-scale solar power have surged since 2014? The declining cost of solar technology is part of the reason. But a bigger factor may be the profusion of state and federal “incentive” programs, i.e. subsidies.

The Massachusetts Senate on June 14th unanimously passed a mammoth climate bill that contains instructions to put a price on carbon dioxide emissions. S. 2545, “An Act to Create a Clean Energy Future,” does not actually set up a carbon tax. Instead, according to a press release republished on the Wareham Wicked Local, it “requires the Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs to establish market-based compliance mechanisms to maximize the ability of the commonwealth to achieve its greenhouse gas emission limits.

The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, which would restrict production of many commonly-used refrigerants on the grounds that they contribute to global warming, was signed by President Obama in 2016 but still needs to be submitted by President Trump to the Senate for the required two-thirds ratification before becoming law.