As tax-cut deals go, the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 was never a winner. In fact, it had only one thing in its favor: extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of this month. Tax relief, of course, is just what our struggling economy needs - now. As President Obama said, it would be "a…

A reporter once asked Thomas Edison how it felt to fail thousands of times while attempting to create a working incandescent light bulb. Edison replied that he hadn't failed - he'd simply found thousands of ways that didn't work. That's worth keeping in mind as we assess the worth of President Obama's debt-reduction commission. Eleven of its 18 members voted in favor…

If you think air travel is bad now, just wait until the airport screeners unionize. It’s about to happen. The White House just decided that the Transportation Security Administration will vote on unionizing next year. TSA Administrator John Pistole is widely expected to grant this union collective bargaining rights. This will not improve holiday travel. Unions…

If you think air travel is bad now, just wait until the airport screeners unionize. It's about to happen. The Obama administration just decided that the Transportation Security Administration will vote on unionizing next year. TSA Administrator John Pistole is widely expected to grant this union collective bargaining rights. This will not improve holiday…

We use a variety of yardsticks to judge whether our country is on the right track. Is inflation up? Has unemployment dropped? What's the stock market doing today? Here's another one: Are Americans, who have long prided themselves on their freedom and self-reliance, becoming more dependent on government, or less? It's a yardstick we seldom check. But we…

We use a variety of yardsticks to judge whether our country is on the right track. Is inflation up? Has unemployment dropped? What’s the stock market doing today? Here’s another one: Are Americans, who have long prided themselves on their freedom and self-reliance, becoming more dependent on government, or less? It’s a yardstick we seldom check. But we should.…

Congressional Republicans—including freshly minted senators and representatives—will be confronted with one of the most important votes of the year when they regroup on Capitol Hill just two weeks after Election Day. It’s not the issue of electing a speaker or minority leader. It’s whether or not to extend the GOP’s earmark moratorium for the 112th Congress.Regardless of…

Today, George Osborne, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer – the man responsible for Britain’s budget –announced the results of a high-profile spending review. He promised cuts, and he delivered. The question is whether the cuts will be deep enough, and Osborne’s other policies wise enough, to restore Britain to financial stability. After 13 years of Labour…

There he goes again.  President Obama is proposing yet another huge tax hike. Maybe we should cut to the chase and just ask our Tax-hiker in Chief to state his final figure — what he thinks the total level of taxes and the tax distribution should look like.  Then we could have an honest debate about tax burdens. As it is, all we know for sure is that he wants…

Government jobs have long enjoyed a reputation for being plum positions. But it took Robert Rizzo to really make the case. Rizzo is the man who became famous last month for the unbelievable salary he was pulling down as city manager of Bell, Calif. - $787,000 a year, nearly double President Obama's salary. Who knew that running a city of 38,000 was so difficult?…

In Washington, politicians often give their bills clever names designed more to obscure than to reveal. Consider the CLASS Act. It sounds like yet another federal attempt to meddle in local schools. Instead, it stands for “Community Living Assistance Services and Support.” CLASS was a little-noticed part of the massive Obamacare bill that the president…

In many respects, Dan L. Duncan was the embodiment of the American dream, the self-made man incarnate. He transformed $10,000 and two propane trucks into a natural gas empire and a personal net worth of $9 billion—making him the richest person in Houston, and the 74th wealthiest individual in the world.Even though Duncan died last March, his story provides the “only in…

Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) have put out a report titled “Summertime Blues,” chronicling how the $862 billion in stimulus money is being spent. It proves that much of the money deemed “stimulus” is nothing more than wasteful pork doled out to buddies of the Obama Administration with zero economic simulative effects. One program provides…

The sooner that we fix Social Security the better. We are fooling ourselves if we delay. Note please that I say "fix" and not "end." Despite others’ rhetoric, no responsible policy person wants to end Social Security. The problem is simple: As baby boomers age, there will be more retirees collecting benefits and fewer workers paying taxes. We have promised younger…

"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money" - Margaret Thatcher With our country in the midst of a recession, it's easy to forget the obvious: We still live in the most prosperous and influential country in history. Unfortunately, Congress and the Obama administration are putting our country in a perilous path: massively…