Try to think of a country that elected a populist president: someone who wanted to boost manufacturing jobs, insists that domestically-sold products should be made domestically, and threatens to use tariffs to shut off foreign competition. How would that work out? I am, of course, referring to President Cristina Kirchner of Argentina, not President Donald … Continue reading Argentina Already Tried Trumponomics
Category: Washington
In the Republican debate last week, CNN’s Dana Bash pressed the candidates on how they would deal with Social Security. Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz gave solid answers, explaining that the system was headed toward insolvency, suggesting ways to slow spending growth, and scolding candidates who denied the need for cost-saving reforms. One of the … Continue reading Flashback: Donald Is in Denial about Social Security
Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) have just introduced a bill that would implement an idea that I have long championed: making drugs, devices, and biologics that are approved in other developed countries also approved for sale in the United States. Highlights of the “Reciprocity Ensures Streamlined Use of Lifesaving Treatments Act (S. 2388), or … Continue reading One Bill Could Massively Improve Access to Lifesaving Drugs
On the campaign trail, Donald Trump promised to spend twice as much on infrastructure as whatever Hillary Clinton was proposing, which at the time was $275 billion. Doubling down again in a speech after winning the election, Trump now proposes to spend a trillion dollars on infrastructure over the next ten years. President Obama had … Continue reading Why One-Size-Fits-All Infrastructure Spending Doesn’t Work
President Donald Trump has issued his preliminary federal budget proposal looking to the U.S. government’s next fiscal year. What it shows is that there will likely be no attempt to reduce the size and cost of most of the American interventionist-welfare state. On Thursday, March 16, 2017, the White House released, “America First: A Budget Blueprint to … Continue reading Trump’s Budget Paves the Road to Fiscal Failure
Once again, the United States government is rapidly approaching a fiscal debt ceiling. After March 16, 2017, Uncle Sam will not be legally allowed to borrow any more money to cover its budget deficits, unless Congress votes to raise the debt limit, once again, like it has every time in the past. Uncle Sam’s debt … Continue reading Don’t Raise Uncle Sam’s Credit Limit
Americans who are concerned about unsustainable and reckless government spending have faced a fundamental problem: It’s hard to track what their representatives are doing to either curb, or increase, spending. But thanks to a new tracking tool, those days may be coming to a close. The Coalition to Reduce Spending has just released a tool … Continue reading A New, Easy Way to Track Your Representative on Spending
I shared last year a matrix to illustrate Milton Friedman’s great insight about the superior results achieved by markets compared to government. Incentives explain why markets work best. When you spend your own money on yourself (box 1), you try to maximize quality while minimizing cost. And that drives the businesses that are competing for … Continue reading Why Single-Payer Health Care Delivers Poor Quality at High Cost
“We’re going to build a big, beautiful wall—and Mexico is gonna pay for it,” was one of Donald Trump’s campaign mantras. However, as Americans who don’t have political short-term memory loss will remember, politicians break promises once they’re elected. Such is the case with Trump’s promise to make Mexico pay for his “great” wall. You’re paying for it, … Continue reading It’s Official: You’re Paying for Trump’s Wall, Twice
Several members of the House Freedom Caucus shared their concern for the future of entitlement reform, emphasizing disappointment that it was not a part of President Donald Trump’s newly released budget. Reps. RaĂşl Labrador, R-Idaho; Mark Meadows, R-N.C.; and Louie Gohmert, R-Texas; expressed support for entitlement reform at a monthly Capitol Hill gathering. Trump’s budget … Continue reading Freedom Caucus pushes Trump on entitlement reform
