Blog
10KC in WSJ
The Wall Street Journal editorial board weighed in this morning on the issue of regulation, citing a few numbers from the forthcoming 20th anniversary edition…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
This week in the world of regulation: Last week, 71 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. This is up from 64 new final…
Blog
IRS Abuse of Americans Is Nothing New
Blog
Regulation Roundup
Height limits for flying witches on broomsticks, mandatory street musician auditions, and more.
Blog
Could a Unionized Federal Employee Reject a Visa Application for Political Reasons?
Now that IRS officials have been caught red-handed targeting conservative organizations, it is reasonable to ask whether officials at other federal agencies also need more…
Blog
Treasurers’ Union: A Treasure Trove for Democrats
The Internal Revenue Services claims to be “one of the world's most efficient tax administrators.” But it may also be one of the most biased.
Blog
Obama Recess Appointments Violate Constitution; Another Appeals Court Rules Against the NLRB
Another federal appeals court has ruled that President Obama's so-called "recess appointments" to the National Labor Relations Board were unconstitutional because the Senate was not…
Blog
CEI Podcast for May 16, 2013: A Controversial EPA Nominee
According to Myron Ebell, the deeper cause of this political fight is a startling lack of transparency at the EPA that McCarthy is unlikely to…
Blog
Surprising Junk Science on Fox News
News stories trumping junk science are common, but I expect better from Fox News, which claims to be "fair and balanced" and hosts great shows…
Blog
Chaos at the NLRB
Yes, a second court has now ruled that President Obama's "recess" appointments to the National Labor Relations Board were unconstitutional. The 2-1 decision from the…
Blog
Rep. Whitfield Discusses CEI’s Battle With EPA on House Floor
In the below video, U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield (KY-01) talks about the Environmental Protection Agency’s discriminatory practice of granting fee waivers to political allies and…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 230: The Temperature of Beer
The state of Indiana regulates the temperature at which convenience stores may sell beer. Specifically, they must sell it at room temperature. Cold beer is…
Blog
Coalition Urges Policymakers to Reform the “Terrible Twelve” of Farm Policy
Action is heating up on the next farm bill, as the Senate Agriculture Committee today completed its markup of their bill which will go…
Blog
‘Gift Clause’ Can Eliminate Union Pork
What happens when state laws grant government unions the power of collective bargaining? Taxpayer funds become misused and end up aiding government union bosses at…
Blog
Sorry, Daily Beast: E-Verify Will Be National ID
Daily Beast blogger Justin Green, who blogs on columnist David Frum’s Daily Beast blog, has responded to Wired’s recent article “Biometric Database of All…
Blog
Milton Friedman, Immigration, and Birth Control
Milton Friedman, perhaps the most important free market economist and libertarian activist of the 20th century, is also the favorite of immigration restrictionists for comments he…
Blog
IRS Investigated Groups for Teaching about the Constitution
The IRS didn’t just investigate groups based on their perceived political views, but also targeted groups for “educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights”…
Blog
“Shocking” Truth about Government and Soap
Is your hand wash slowly killing you as government regulators sit idly by? Sounds silly, but that’s what environmentalists seem to think about an antibacterial…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
64 new regulations, from drawbridge schedules to official seals.
Blog
Correcting Misconceptions about Autonomous Vehicles: Reason Magazine Edition
In the June issue of Reason, one of my favorite publications, Greg Beato has an article discussing the public policy implications of autonomous vehicles, such…
Blog
Excuses, Excuses
The IRS today acknowledged that it had wrongfully targeted Tea Party groups for heightened scrutiny. In trying to explain the agency’s mistake, IRS spokeswoman…
Blog
Federal Title IX Enforcers Effectively Define Dating and Sex Education as “Sexual Harassment”
No one would believe you if you made this up, but it's now actually happened: The Justice Department and the Education Department's Office for Civil…
Blog
Coalition Urges Reform of Sugar Program
The Hill picked up our coalition’s release on reforming the U.S. sugar program. The letter, sent to all Senate and House offices, was…
Blog
IRS Apologizes for Targeting Conservative Groups
Blog
Heritage Immigration Report Implies 70% of Americans “Increase Poverty”
The Heritage Foundation’s new report on the fiscal costs of legalization for unauthorized immigrants concluded that it will cost taxpayers $6.3 trillion. Yesterday, I…
Blog
Government’s Chinatown Bus Shutdowns Based on “Statistical Malpractice”
Reason’s Jim Epstein has an article up that does a nice job debunking a National Transportation Safety Board study, prompted by a 2011…
Blog
Seven Ways Heritage Concluded Immigration Reform Will Cost $6.3 Trillion
The Heritage Foundation’s report this week that suggests legalization for unauthorized immigrants will result in a $6.3 billion fiscal deficit is an important conversation…
Blog
The Economist on “the muddle-headed world of American public pension accounting”
As state governments across the nation struggle to address a public pension underfunding crisis they can no longer deny, The Economist is the latest…
Blog
CEI Podcast for May 8, 2013: The Debate over Undocumented Immigration
CEI Immigration Policy Analyst David Bier is critical of a new Heritage Foundation study that estimates that giving legal status to America's undocumented immigrants would…
Blog
Europe’s “Green Energy” Initiatives Don’t Want Your Help
As European renewable energy initiatives seek to radically reform their means of energy production, it would make sense that it be done in the most…
Blog
Youth Unemployment Is at Highest Sustained Level Since World War II
Real youth unemployment is at 16.1 percent, the highest sustained rate since World War II. As the non-partisan youth advocacy group Generation Opportunity notes,…
Blog
Ohio Deserves Right-To-Work
Right-to-work has been sweeping the country like a glorious fever (symptoms include swelling opportunity and dangerous spikes in liberty), even seizing brows in deep-blue union strongholds like…
Blog
‘Life of Julius’ shows how unions kill jobs, hurt workers
Many people realize that unions can hurt the workers they claim to represent. For example, the United Auto Workers union drove labor costs up for…
Blog
Government Gives Students Lifelong Lesson— In Debt
Jodi Romine is just your typical 26 year-old. Like most students, Jodi took out a student loan so that she could afford university in hopes…
Blog
John Locke’s Response to Heritage: Don’t Blame Immigrants for Fiscal Problems
Washington's largest conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation, has released a study that suggests legalization for illegal immigrants will cost taxpayers trillions of dollars over the next…
Blog
First Amendment Menace: Obama Administration to Expand Americans with Disabilities Act over Websites?
Can websites be forced to change to accommodate the disabled -- by using "simpler language" to appeal to the "intellectually disabled," or by making…
Blog
Update in Apple MagSafe settlement Ninth Circuit appeal
CCAF filed an opening brief in October; after many delays in the briefing schedule, we filed our reply brief in April. Details at…
Blog
Twinkie, Twinkie, Little Star
America will be celebrating this July with parades and fireworks. That’s right, the Twinkie is back! The private equity firms Metropoulos & Co and Apollo…
Blog
Conservatives Must Reject the “Poor Are Parasites” Narrative
When Mitt Romney made his comments about the 47 percent of Americans who don’t pay taxes and were supposedly “dependent on government,” many conservatives rightly…
Blog
The Doctor Is In, America: Get With the Estonian Program
Don’t let the optimism surrounding last month’s job numbers fool you. The unemployment rate’s decline from 7.6 percent in March to 7.5 percent in…
Blog
How Online “Marketplace Fairness Act” Could Tax Your 401(k)
Today, the Senate likely will pass the Marketplace Fairness Act, which would force online retailers to collect sales taxes for states in which purchasers reside. Most have heard how this…
Blog
Historian: Housing Nominee Mel Watt Helped Spawn the Subprime Crisis
In the Daily Caller, historian and presidential biographer Charles C. Johnson writes that “Housing nominee Mel Watt helped create the…
Blog
Obama: A Sweet Pension for Himself, But Not For America’s Savers or Investors
In The Washington Post, Allan Sloan points out that while President Obama wants to cap American citizens' IRAs at $3 million or substantially…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
62 new regulations, from the federal flood insurance to California olives.
Blog
Southwest Drink Voucher objection
I’ve previously discussed the problems with the Southwest Drink Voucher coupon settlement, and CCAF attorney Melissa Holyoak is representing a class member objecting…
Blog
Anti-Immigration Group: “They’re Taking Your Jobs!”
The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), the close-America’s-doors lobby group, has a facile new study that purports to show “there really are no jobs…
Blog
Poisoned Apple: Unions Taint NYC’s Economy
The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s recent video “The Life of Julius: How Unions Hurt Workers” demonstrates how unions lead to higher taxes. Many scoffed at this…
Blog
What Are the National ID Implications of the Senate Immigration Bill?
1. ID standards: The bill requires all employers to check photo IDs of all employees they hire—any employee who fails to present a photo ID…
Blog
Fraley v. Facebook
Lots of class members forwarded me their notices in this settlement, which is likely to pay the class zero; if it pays anything, it will…
Blog
CEI Podcast For May 2, 2013: Small Business Owners Sue Over IRS Obamacare Power Grab
Small business owners and individuals in six states, with help from CEI, are suing the IRS over what General Counsel Sam Kazman calls a flagrantly…