Op-Eds
Dick Durbin’s Backward Approach to FDA Reform
It is a tragedy when a patient suffers or dies because the drugs that could help him are simply not available. In recent years, the…
Op-Eds
Compulsory ‘Free’ Speech
What is free speech? Is it the right to speak out and give money to causes, politicians and push ideas? Is it the ability to…
Op-Eds
Sugar Program Isn’t Sweet for Consumers or the Economy
Don’t look now, but here comes the farm bill, one of those catch-all legislative behemoths littered with wasteful programs and supported by entrenched special interests.
Washington Examiner
A Free-Market Solution for Fisheries
When humans first shifted from hunting and gathering to agriculture thousands of years ago, the establishment of private property rights yielded enormous benefits to natural…
Washington Examiner
Keystone and the Troubling Growth of NIMBYism
A constant theme of the 2012 election season has been the national bewilderment over President Obama’s initial decision to veto the Keystone XL oil pipeline,…
Washington Examiner
Letter to the Editor: Helping Those With Disabilities Secure Employment
James Bovard rightly criticizes the Obama administration for seeking to force many businesses to adopt hiring quotas for disabled applicants. Such quotas not only raise…
Washington Examiner
President Obama Pledges To Recycle His Campaign Pledges
In a bold move aimed at reviving a renewable energy program struggling to bounce back from a string of bankruptcies (investing in the future isn’t…
Washington Examiner
Direct Alcohol Shipping To Minors Is Not a Public Safety Problem
(Also published by the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity) If you’ve ever had a remarkable local beer while traveling, you may…
Washington Examiner
Letter to the Editor: Court Lenient on Time in Pay Discrimination
A recent story in The Washington Times grossly oversimplified a Supreme Court decision and overstated the decision’s effect on equal-pay claims (“Romney’s wooing of female…
Washington Examiner
On the Waterfront
As he tries to clean house at the bloated Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, new PA chief Pat Foye’s thorniest problem will…
Washington Examiner
Why Is Apple Getting Cored in Washington?
What should be the price of the paperless word, now that books are going digital in one of the most important transformations in history? Steve…
Washington Examiner
The Occupy, MoveOn.org, SEIU, AFL-CIO, DNC Street Mobs Start Spring Training
Rejoice, those of you who believe that democracy is about making clear and honest choices. Clear steps toward transparency and accountability may have begun. All…
Washington Examiner
Free-Market Environmentalism? It’ll Never Fly, Orville!
The week before Easter I gave a brief speech at the Association for Private Enterprise Education, a foundation dedicated to assembling scholars, professors and students…
Washington Examiner
Removing H-1B Visa Quotas Will Create American Jobs
The U.S. government began accepting applications for H-1B high-skilled work visas this week. As the requests pour in, U.S. business leaders are already telling Congress…
Washington Examiner
Walker’s Reforms Stand Up in Court, On Balance Sheets
Asked recently if he was a “union buster,” Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker answered, “I know that collective bargaining is not a right; it’s an expensive…
Washington Examiner
PETA vs. People . . . and Animals
Liberals love to slur conservatives as “anti-science.” But when it comes to damaging life-saving scientific research, no one can top the ultra-liberal People for…
Washington Examiner
A Breather From Regulations
‘It’s so meager,” proclaimed House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on March 9, the day after the House passage of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS)…
Medical Progress Today
Mayo v. Prometheus and Diagnostic Patents: What Does the Supreme Court Decision Really Mean?
I finally had a chance to read the Supreme Court's recent decision in the Mayo v. Prometheus Labs case, which invalided two patents claiming methods…
Medical Progress Today
The Orphan Drug Conundrum
It’s not a crisis. Yet. Bigger health care issues loom. Right now. There are still fortunes to be made. While it lasts. But one could…
National Journal
Carbon Pollution Standard: 4 Ways Weird
EPA’s proposed “Carbon Pollution Standard” requires new fossil-fuel electric generating units (EGUs) to emit no more than 1,000 lbs of carbon dioxide (CO2) per megawatt…
National Journal
Bono Wants to Save the World (But He Needs Your Money to Do It)
Full Document Available in PDF Summary: Through his nonprofit ONE Campaign, the rock star Bono advocates Western aid to help…
National Journal
Saturday Showdown: Human Achievement Hour vs. Earth Hour
On March 31st at 8:30pm people around the world will shut off their lights for one hour as a symbolic gesture that they want “something”…
National Journal
War on Coal Escalates
Faced with rising gas prices, President Obama recently outlined what he calls an “all-of-the-above” energy policy “that develops every available source of American energy…
National Journal
Obama Kills Coal–As Promised
“If someone wants to build a new coal-fired power plant they can, but it will bankrupt them because they will be charged a huge sum…
National Journal
Will Congress Stop NLRB?
Imagine an election in which one candidate may campaign for a year while the other is only allowed to enter the race a week before…
National Journal
How Senate Dems and Scott Brown Failed ‘Maxine Waters’ Test
Attention Senators! Test results are in. Time to announce who passed and failed “the Maxine Waters test of political moderation.” As I reported last week,…
National Journal
How to Regulate the Federal Communications Commission
The House of Representatives just passed H.R. 3309, the Federal Communications Commission Process Reform Act, in an attempt to normalize the FCC‘s propensity to regulate…
National Journal
The Founders’ Immigration Policy
Today is the anniversary of the passage of America’s first immigration and naturalization law, the Naturalization Act of 1790. Passed in the first Congress, it…
Daily Caller
No to Broccoli Mandate, Yes to Health Insurance Mandate?
The results of a Reason-Rupe poll that was released on Monday are more interesting than the pollsters may have intended. Two of the questions they…
Forbes
Ma Bell’s Long Legacy of Unsustainable Pensions Is Alive and Well
“Communism,” comedian Lenny Bruce once quipped, “is like one big phone company.” This dated joke refers to the monolithic phone company known as “Ma Bell,”…
Forbes
Civil Rights or Dues: The Truth Behind the UAW Protests of H.B. 56
This month, the United Auto Workers (UAW) bussed out-of-state activists into Alabama to protest what they describe as several car companies’ insufficiently strong opposition to…
Forbes
Supreme Court rebukes EPA in landmark property rights case
Property rights in America are sinking to the bottom of a regulatory swamp. The biggest threat to property rights is unchallenged bureaucratic decisions that command…
Forbes
The Export-Import Bank Should Be an Ex-Bank
Among the nation’s failing financial institutions the Export-Import Bank has received little notice. Now, however, the House and Senate are considering whether to reauthorize the…
Forbes
Why Regulations Aren’t Good–Again
The first week of Spring is also “hooray, regulation” week at the White House. Regulatory policy chief Cass Sunstein, one of the most accomplished and…
Forbes
Two Budget Proposals Demonstrate the Depth of the Political Divide in the U.S.
This morning, House budget committee chairman Paul Ryan (R.-WI) unveiled his budget proposal, which took aim at the culture of debt financing that most analysts…
Forbes
The JOBS Act and the Maxine Waters Test
Call it the Maxine Waters test of political moderation. Late last week, this test was failed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Senate Majority…
Washington Examiner
Chemical Law Is Not Broken, Doesn’t Need To Be ‘Fixed’
Environmental activists and some industry groups seem to agree that the nation’s chemical law is broken. Their drumbeat calling for “modernization” of the Toxic Substances…
The Wall Street Journal
Letter to the Editor: Cheap Gasoline and Human Rights
The notion of $2.50 gasoline would not only be a “veritable policy revolution” domestically (“Newt Is Right About Gas Prices” by Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.,…
The Wall Street Journal
The Real Reasons You Should Shun Goldman Sachs
By now, Greg Smith’s resignation letter heard around the worldwide Web has moved through its arc of infamy-passing from titillating revelation to corporate damage control…
The Wall Street Journal
Let States Regulate Internet Gambling
This country has many serious problems to address, but an activity that millions of people around the world voluntarily enjoy, mostly without incident, is not…
The Wall Street Journal
AFSCME Leadership Fight Will Shape Public Employee Union
Unions are salivating at the opportunity to take down their arch-nemesis, Wisconsin’s Gov. Scott Walker. Last year, Walker curtailed the collective bargaining power of Wisconsin’s…
The Wall Street Journal
Letter to the Editor: New Regulations Will Force Hotels to Close Pools
Conn Carroll was right to criticize the Obama administration for potentially forcing thousands of hotel swimming pools to close through its onerous re-interpretation of the…
National Review
An EPA Power Grab
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) claim that the Obama administration’s model year (MY) 2017 and later fuel-economy…
American Spectator
The Regulatory Path to Full Employment
Who will regulate the regulators who regulate the regulators? An important new book about the financial crisis just came out: Guardians of Finance: Making Regulators…
American Spectator
Immigration Restrictions Incentivize Corruption
The allegations surrounding Pinal County, Arizona, Sheriff Paul Babeu and his attorney Chris DeRose are what tabloid writers dream of. It’s got it all: a…
Washington Times
Raising the Tipped Minimum Wage Does More Harm Than Good
Politicians and interest groups playing the gender card to push their agendas is nothing new. But recently, it seems to be getting harder, as they…
Washington Times
Can California’s Economic Self-Immolation Be Exported?
What is it about California that make its elected leaders work so hard to earn their place in the dunce’s corner alongside Greece? With all…
Washington Times
Come, Sweet Debt: Civilizational Reset on the Horizon
From the presidential inaugurations of George Washington to George W. Bush, our federal government accrued a debt of more than $5 trillion. Thanks to the…
Washington Times
New IRS Rule Benefits Only Foreign Dictators
Since when is it the U.S. government’s job to report on the financial activities of foreign nationals to their home governments? It is now. The…
Washington Times
Consumers Shouldn’t Bank on Savings From Debit Card Price Controls
Coauthored by Kelly McCutchen, President and CEO of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation The news that Bank of America is again testing new…
RealClear Policy
Bill Clinton’s Too Spiteful to Help Govern
Bill Clinton, Back to Work: Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy Alfred A. Knopf (New York), 2011, 208 pages, $23.95 Reviewed by…
RealClear Policy
Is Your Company Ready to Meet its New Disability Hiring Quota?
Has the economy got you worried about reelection? Looking for clever ways to showcase your bona fides as a promoter of “fairness,” champion of the…
RealClear Policy
Breitbart Forever Changed Political Activism
RealClear Policy
Too Fat? Too Thin? Progressive Policies Can Fix That!
Political projects that seek the perfectibility of man by using the coercive powers of the state have a long and checkered history – perhaps the…
RealClear Policy
Liberals Need to Choose: Welfare State or Immigration
Overcoming the costs of the welfare state is the biggest challenge faced by proponents of immigration reform. The perception that immigrants use and abuse the…
RealClear Policy
Mixing Pensions With Politics
Who here is better to run a business? In 2011, Apple recorded a net profit of $6.62 billion and its highest September earnings ever. The…
Capital Research
The Battle for New England
Full Document Available in PDF New England is generally considered among the most leftleaning regions of the country. This perception is largely…
Capital Research
Letter to the Editor: What Is the Place of Unions Today?
Richard D. Kahlenberg and Moshe Z. Marvit argue that unionization should be legally recognized as a civil right. They are correct that freedom of association…
Capital Research
UAW: Building Taxpayer Burdens
President Obama and United AutPresident Obama and United Auto Workers (UAW) President Bob King are touting the “achievement” of the auto bailouts while slamming Republicans…
National Journal
One Law for Me, Another for Thee
National Journal
Is Drug War Driven Mass Incarceration the New Jim Crow?
Once in a great while a writer at the opposite end of the political spectrum gets you to look at a familiar set of facts…
Twin Cities
A Highway Bill Everyone Can Hate
Also appeared in: The Arizona Daily Star, The Sacramento Bee, The Press of Atlantic City, South Bend Tribune, The Bellingham Herald,…
Forbes
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s Real Crisis
On February 1, American Airlines—which declared bankruptcy last November—announced plans to end defined benefit pensions as part of its Chapter 11 restructuring plan. If approved…
Forbes
Recounting George Washington’s Brilliant Entrepreneurship
February is an important month in the history of American commerce. In this month is the birthday of one of the country’s earliest business innovators…
Forbes
The STOCK ACT and the SEC
Needless to say, it is a minority opinion that current insider-trading laws reach government information, or else there wouldn’t have been this much of a…
The American Spectator
FakeGate: Just Another Day at Team Green
As I follow FakeGate's trajectory, on its way to being another instructive crash-n-burn for the global warming industry's zealots, I see a pretense…
The American Spectator
Give Greece a Going Away Present, But Go It Must
The rate at which things are deteriorating in Greece now officially exceeds the rate at which desperate Eurocrats weave new fantasies as they try to…
Daily Caller
Simplicity is Beautiful: How to Build a Democracy
The Arab Spring is over a year old now. It’s too early to tell if that movement will bring liberal democracy to countries that badly…
Daily Caller
Global Warming–the Great Delusion
(This op-ed also appeared on RealClearPolitics.) In 1841 a Scottish journalist named Charles Mackay published a study of mass hysteria titled “Extraordinary…
Daily Caller
Shoppers already have a choice regarding biotech foods
Consumers increasingly base food purchasing decisions on individual preferences about product content. For many, this means a focus on nutrition or fat. Others care more…
Daily Caller
Bringing Democracy Back to the Workplace
Imagine a presidential election in which one candidate may campaign for a year and the other is told he is running only one week before…
Daily Caller
Letter to the Editor: Obama’s Contraception Compromise Doesn’t Quell Debate
Rachel Maddow [“The Republican war on contraception,” op-ed, Feb. 12] is mistaken when she defends the Obama administration’s recent rule requiring Catholic hospitals and…
Daily Caller
How is the FDA Really Doing?
I read with interest—and mounting skepticism—Patricia Dimond’s Insight & Intelligence™ piece about FDA, “FDA New Drug Approvals in 2011 Outpace…
Daily Caller
Making Sure Corruption Remains “Made in America”
In the annals of American legislation, few laws are as futile in their impact, capricious in their enforcement, and hypocritical in their content as the…
The American Spectator
Busting Union Reform
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is touting the recent passage of his "compromise" bill reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration, the agency that oversees U.S. air…
The American Spectator
Orwellian Doublespeak Dominates Economic Policy
While taking in my morning helping of news and commentary, I was struck by a certain similarity in every article touching on economic policy. It…
The American Spectator
How to Swap the Obama Budget for an Optimistic Economic Growth Agenda
New spending in President Obama’s $3.8 trillion fiscal year 2013 budget would increase investments in education, manufacturing and R&D, transportation projects, electric vehicle incentives and…
The American Spectator
Immigration Tariff: Improve System, Shrink Budget Gap
Of the public policy problems most Americans worry about, there are two that seem intractable. The first is the federal budget deficit. The second is…
The American Spectator
On Both Sides of Atlantic, Faceless Bureaucrats Are Assailing Religious Freedom
In late January, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a rule that requires nearly all employers, including many affiliated with religious…
The American Spectator
Obama’s Amazing Energy Spin Machine
The bankruptcy of Ener1, a “green energy” firm that got a $118 million stimulus grant, has brought the Obama administration’s commitment to sinking billions of…
The American Spectator
Letter to the Editor: Constitutional Limits
Edd Doerr made bizarre claims in defending the Obama administration’s unjustified rule forcing Catholic hospitals and colleges to pay for contraception and abortifacients starting in…
The American Spectator
Rome vs. the Unions
Relative to Italy’s debt problems, the country’s biggest impediment to growth gets relatively little international press. Burdensome labor regulations are nothing new to Italians. But…
The American Spectator
Keystone and the Unions
President Barack Obama placated one wing of his liberal base, environmentalists, with his decision to kill the Keystone Pipeline, but he’s angered another — labor…
The American Spectator
The Burden of Federal Rules: Our Other Trillion Dollar Debt
During the State of the Union address, President Barack Obama ridiculed regulations like one designating spilled milk an “oil,” and exclaimed, “In fact, I’ve approved…
The American Spectator
The Price of Fairness
President Obama is big on fairness. “Fair” or some variant thereof was mentioned eight times in his State of the Union speech, more than “health…
The American Spectator
Study Saul Alinsky to Understand Barack Obama
There is a vast and perplexing dichotomy between President Obama’s rhetoric — peppered as it is with vows of ethical purity and moral rectitude —…
The American Spectator
Why Can’t Mainstream Media Connect the Economic Dots?
Politicians and journalists sure seem to believe that voters have the attention span and reasoning ability of a two-year old. Convinced that we are unable…
The American Spectator
Alinksy Disciple Obama Does the Master Proud
Polls show that, even as his job approval ratings have struggled against continued grim economic news, majorities nonetheless find President Obama personally likable.
The American Spectator
Could Indiana’s Right to Work Law Mean Trouble for Neighboring States?
Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois soon may need to construct a wall—not to keep people out but to keep business in. While such a drastic move…
Wall Street Journal
Letter to the Editor: McDonald’s and Pepsi’s Different Response to Pressure
Holman Jenkins's "What Pepsi Can Learn From McDonald's" (Business World, Jan. 28) hits on a failure of corporate management that is far more widespread…
Institute of Economic Affairs
Countering the Assault on Capitalism
Full Document Available in PDF Introduction: Capitalism has been the most successful institution in human history yet it…
Institute of Economic Affairs
The FDA Has It Dead Wrong
Institute of Economic Affairs
Cuba, Where Sheep Are Trained to Venerate Wolves
With the death of Cuban dissident Wilman Villar Mendoza, Cuba has lost one of its precious remaining brave souls. While a sputtering dissident movement…
Institute of Economic Affairs
‘Fly Me To the Moon’: You Go First, Newt
Today we consider the political economics of establishing a permanent colony on the moon, the price offered by disgraced former Congressman and rehabilitated presidential candidate…
Institute of Economic Affairs
Letter to the Editor: Dodd-Frank Shields Fannie and Freddie
G. William Beale noted in his Commentary column, “Big regulations stifle small banks,” that small banks are being crushed by pointless red tape due to…
Huffington Post
Could Our Immigration Laws Prevent the Next Google?
While President Obama’s State of the Union address did not focus on immigration, his few statements on that issue sent out…
Human Events
Ethanol Subsidies: Down But Not Out
Human Events
Social Security: The Birth of Big Brother
Nearly eight decades after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law in 1935, the program remains the most popular ever instituted…
Human Events
Who’s the Bigger Regulator: Bush or Obama?
During his State of the Union address Tuesday, President Barack Obama got applause for acknowledging that some federal regulations are outdated, unnecessary or costly. He…
Human Events
A Really Inconvenient Truth Is Earth Is Not Melting After All
Earth is not warming. According to Big Green enviros, only Luddites and lunatics would believe such a ludicrous statement. Well, now government scientists…