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Can moderators ask debate questions that don’t presume a progressive policy agenda?
Numerous policy issues are shaping this year’s first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, as well as the entire campaign atmosphere. These include…
![Freddie Mac second mortgage funding could foment financial crisis](https://cei.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1584621472-578x324-c-default.jpg)
Blog
Freddie Mac second mortgage funding could foment financial crisis
The 2008 mortgage meltdown and financial crisis never fails to be invoked whenever there is any pushback to excessive financial regulation. Progressives regularly bring up…
![Biden’s budget: A continued attack on reliable energy and freedom](https://cei.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/GettyImages-517934076-578x324-c-default.jpg)
Blog
Biden’s budget: A continued attack on reliable energy and freedom
President Joe Biden’s FY 2025 budget request of $7.3 trillion is exactly what Americans should have expected: increased spending and taxes. A budget…
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Blog
Can moderators ask debate questions that don’t presume a progressive policy agenda?
Numerous policy issues are shaping this year’s first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, as well as the entire campaign atmosphere. These include…
Blog
Freddie Mac second mortgage funding could foment financial crisis
The 2008 mortgage meltdown and financial crisis never fails to be invoked whenever there is any pushback to excessive financial regulation. Progressives regularly bring up…
Blog
Biden’s budget: A continued attack on reliable energy and freedom
President Joe Biden’s FY 2025 budget request of $7.3 trillion is exactly what Americans should have expected: increased spending and taxes. A budget…
Blog
New student loan proposal is regressive, politicized, and won’t stop rising prices
President Biden this week unveiled a new student debt relief proposal. It would cancel student debt for up to 153,000 people who incurred $12,000…
Blog
Red tape? More like chains, thanks to deficit spending and subsidies
Federal subsidies and grants are infamous for having strings attached. That’s nothing new, but those strings are increasingly chains. Businesses are being seduced into corporate…
Blog
The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund: A slush fund for the EPA and favored nonprofits
President Joe Biden signed the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into law on August 16, 2022. The bill, enacted on a purely partisan basis,…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Against crony capitalism with Nick Sorrentino
In this week’s episode we cover emergency federal spending, workplace management trends for 2024, suppressing speech about public health, and defending…
Blog
Tom Vilsack tries to change the subject, but a slush fund is still a slush fund
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack published an op-ed in direct response to an op-ed written by CEI’s Patricia Patnode in the Cedar Rapids Gazette.
Blog
Ten Thousand Commandments 2023 is out now
The 2023 edition of CEI’s flagship annual study, Wayne Crews’s Ten Thousand Commandments, is out now. For those not familiar, 10KC gives a big-picture…
Forbes
Congress Must Halt The Ascendance Of Regulation By Subsidy
Excessive regulation is one of those perennial Washington issues, which makes sense given that Washington pops out new rules like chocolate bunnies. A …
Blog
Senate needs to block USDA slush fund in its minibus bill
The House agriculture appropriations bill, which was favorably reported out of the Appropriations Committee, includes language to help put a stop to what has…
Blog
Fighting extreme climate policies must happen now
There’s no need to make slippery slope arguments when it comes to analyzing the policies pushed by climate alarmists. There’s a simple reason why: We…
Blog
Don’t believe the ‘cost-of-thriving’ doom
There has been a lot of discussion in the last several years – and even more so in the last few weeks – about income…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: teaching capitalism with Allen Mendenhall
In this week’s episode we talk about the cost of thriving in America, the incredible expanding CHIPS Act, and occupational licensing…
Blog
Bill targets ag department slush fund worth billions
The House Appropriations agriculture subcommittee favorably reported its spending bill along party lines Thursday. The bill’s next stop is the full House Appropriations…
Blog
Making the Perfect the Enemy of the Good: Everything-Bagel Public Policy
Thanks to Caleb Watney of the Institute for Progress for recommending the great New York Times column by Ezra Klein about the red…
Blog
Blue State Bailouts on the Horizon?
Whenever we see risky and poorly thought-out ventures in the business world, the negative consequences of those ideas will usually be limited to the shareholders…
New York Post
Team Biden’s latest welfare expansion: Medicaid payments for housing, food, even furniture
The latest front in the Biden administration’s crusade to bypass the congressional appropriations process and expand the welfare state comes in the form of the …
Citation
CEI’s Joel Zinberg Joins Mornings with Maria to Discuss the Inflation Reduction Act
CEI Senior Fellow Joel Zinberg joined Mornings with Maria on Fox Business Network to discuss the Inflation Reduction Act.
Blog
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill Shows Much of What’s Wrong with Congress
Although it now looks unlikely, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D_NY) wants the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act, popularly known as the bipartisan infrastructure bill,…
Blog
Boeing-Airbus Dispute Remains Unsolved: Tariffs Gone, Subsidies Stay
The European Union and the United States eagerly announced today that they had resolved their 17-year dispute over aerospace subsidies. They exaggerate their claims.
The Washington Examiner
Biden’s Expansion Of The Affordable Care Act Was Never About The Pandemic
Less than two months after jamming through a “temporary” expansion of the Affordable Care Act in the American Rescue Plan, President Joe…
News Release
Federal Bailouts for States Forestall Necessary Reforms Needed for Long Term Resilience
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) today reacted to reports that Congress is considering including a provision for state bailouts in legislation aimed at…
Blog
Tit-for-Tat Tariffs Don’t Work: Boeing and Airbus Show Why
A 16 year-long aerospace subsidies dispute between the United States and the European Union began another round this week. The U.S. claims that the EU’s…
American Greatness
U.S. Economy Suffers Biggest Quarterly Decline Ever, Under Coronavirus Lockdowns
American Greatness cites CEI senior fellows John Berlau and Iain Murray: The U.S. House of Representatives and Senate are considering bills for additional coronavirus relief…
Blog
Does Uncle Sam Support Single Moms? The Question of Federal Funds for Strip Clubs
Should U.S. taxpayer dollars be loaned to strip clubs? What would have sounded like a joke just a few months ago is now a reality…
Blog
Time for the Postal Service to Enter the 21st Century
U.S. Postal Service boosters re calling for a taxpayer-funded bailout of the agency. Today’s specter of a bailout signals it is time to start thinking…
Forbes
Phase 4 Coronavirus Infrastructure Spending To Start At $2 Trillion
There’s still a chance for what next juggernauts America’s way to be made more sensible. We can liberalize infrastructure and the regulation of it rather than…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter Urging House to Reject “Take Responsibility for Workers and Families Act”
We, the undersigned 26 organizations, on behalf of more than 250 million taxpayers and consumers across these United States, urge you in the strongest possible…
Blog
Minting Trillion-Dollar Platinum Coins Won’t Help Fight the Economic Downturn
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) introduced legislation aimed at tackling the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. Tlaib’s bill would give every single person in America…
Blog
Don’t Save Restaurants by Shafting Consumers
Restaurants are among the hardest—if not the hardest—hit of industries impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Like other industries, restaurants are lobbying Congress and state legislatures…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter to SEC on Leveraged/Inverse Investment Vehicles
On November 25, 2019, the Commission re-proposed rule 18f-4 under the Investment Company Act of 1940, proposed new rule 15l-2 under the Securities Exchange Act…
Blog
White House Blocks Most Green Energy Tax Credits in Final Spending Bill
The spending packages to fund the federal government through the end of the 2020 fiscal year ending on October 1st, which were passed by the…
Blog
Congress Racing To Extend and Expand Electric Vehicle, Wind, and Solar Tax Credits
It would be comforting to think that the House’s impeachment proceedings have so poisoned relations between Democrats and Republicans that the Congress won’t be able…
Blog
Wind and Solar Tax Credits: Special Interest Subsidies
The House Ways and Means Committee on November 19th released a draft of its “Growing Renewable Energy and Efficiency Now (GREEN) Act” (summary). The sponsors propose to extend,…
Blog
Ex-Im Bank Reauthorization: Lesson in Institutional Design
For all its flaws, the Export-Import Bank’s charter gets an important thing right: the agency must be reauthorized every few years, or it will close.
Blog
Export-Import Bank Fight Not Over Yet
The Export-Import Bank’s charter is currently set to expire on September 30. If authorization lapses, the agency will shut down. On Thursday, the House passed…
Blog
Ex-Im Bank Reauthorization: Major Victory against Cronyism, Despite Setback
Nobel laureate economist Ronald Coase wrote in his 1975 essay “Economists and Public Policy” that “An economist who, by his efforts, is able to postpone…
Blog
Reform Proposal Addresses Cronyism in Government-Backed Mortgages
Earlier this year, the Trump administration issued an executive memorandum directing the Department of the Treasury to “develop a plan for administrative and legislative reforms” of…
Blog
Study on Export-Import Bank: Repeal Is Best, Other Reforms Can Help
The Export-Import Bank is up for reauthorization by September 30. It should be shut down, as I’ve pointed out before, but reauthorization will almost certainly…
Blog
Welfare for Billionaires: Stadium Subsidies Are Pure Cronyism
Our old friend (and former Competitive Enterprise Institute journalism fellow) Tim Carney is doing excellent work at the American Enterprise Institute these days, where he…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter to Oppose Federal Reserve’s Real-Time Gross Settlement System
We write to express strong opposition to the Federal Reserve’s consideration to operate a Real-Time Gross Settlement system and urge the Federal Reserve to reevaluate…
The Hayride
Coalition Calls on Congress to Reject Corporate Welfare, End Ex-Im Bank
The Hayride cites a coalition letter, joined by CEI, opposing the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank. President Donald Trump supports filling the board and…
Blog
Electric Vehicle Tax Credits Not Popular with Americans: Poll
A recent survey conducted for the American Energy Alliance clearly shows that the public does not support congressional efforts to extend or expand federal tax credits for purchasers of…
Blog
Prevent Another Mortgage Crisis: Let Qualified Mortgage ‘Patch’ Expire
Last month, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released its rulemaking agenda for Spring 2019. While there weren’t too many surprises in the agenda, which mainly…
Blog
Don’t Let Credit Scoring Kerfuffle Compromise GSE Reform
Just when it seemed that reforming the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was becoming a “third rail” that politicians did not want…
Blog
Credit Card Interest Cap Would Create Consumer Credit Bread Lines
Last Thursday Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) teamed up to introduce a bill that only two democratic socialists could have dreamed up.
Blog
VIDEO: Bitter Taste of Big Sugar’s Corporate Welfare
John Stossel and the team at Reason TV have a new video out on the expensive and wasteful federal sugar program, which benefits a tiny…
Blog
Help the Poor by Making Their Lives Less Expensive
The Cato Institute’s Ryan Bourne has a great new study (and accompanying video) out about social welfare, government spending, and regulatory reform.
Blog
Five Western States Will Vote on Energy Questions on November Ballots
Five western states have initiatives or referendums on energy issues. They include increasing renewable energy mandates, instituting a carbon tax, restricting oil and gas production,…