April was another strong month for jobs. According to Department of Labor numbers out this morning, the economy added 274,000 payroll jobs in April-across a myriad of industries-and the unemployment rate held steady at a low 5.2 percent. The timing of this report, coming the day after the Treasury made news by announcing that… Read more
Repealing the President's tax cuts to pay for Social Security would reduce economic growth, make Social Security an even worse deal for workers than it is already, and fail to address the growing problem of entitlement spending. Beyond these shortcomings, repealing the tax cuts would not even fix Social Security's… Read more
Are we $26 trillion in the hole on Social Security? Or is it just $4.0 trillion? It is difficult to make sense of all the numbers floating around as people discuss Social Security reform. To do so, one needs to understand just what the most-cited measures of Social Security's future… Read more
President Bush proposes to solve the problem of Social Security's unfunded liabilities by enacting a reform plan that includes personal retirement accounts (PRAs). Proponents of PRAs argue that this sort of reform would increase national savings, bolster employment, and improve economic growth, all while closing Social Security's funding gap. Opponents, such as Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY),… Read more
Did the policies of the Clinton Administration cause a decrease in the abortion rate nationwide during the 1990s? The decline in abortion rates during the 1990s has lead some to suggest that electing "pro-life" politicians does little to advance the cause of lowering the incidence of abortion. They posit that the link between abortion… Read more
Last week, Google, a company renowned for its search service, released the Google Desktop, a software program that lets users search through materials stored on their own computers, from e-mail to Word files to recently browsed Web pages. The Desktop is Google's first major foray onto the desktop, and its release may mark the… Read more
The U.S. economy has displayed a remarkable resilience following the 2001 recession. The economic slowdown of late 2000 that turned into a fully developed recession in early 2001 worsened with the terrorist attacks and corporate scandals late in the year. This economic "perfect storm" produced a sluggish economy that many experts, including Federal Reserve Chairman Alan… Read more
Some members of Congress want to deny federal workers new health benefits that are increasingly popular among workers in the private sector. But keeping Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) out of the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program (FEHBP) or unnecessarily encumbering them with restrictions would be to the detriment of federal employees. Congress should instead welcome the… Read more
Today, the Supreme Court tossed out the work of a district court that attempted to force its own electoral maps on the...… Read more
[caption id="attachment_87701" align="alignnone" width="550" caption="President Barack Obama shakes hands with Richard...… Read more
“Are you serious? Are you serious?” then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D–CA) famously replied when asked where,...… Read more
Last week, Bloomberg reported that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulatory push against the fossil fuel...… Read more
Here’s a simple test for whether the President is serious about jobs and the economy: Does he rein in the Environmental...… Read more
For some partisans—especially those who believe in the “living Constitution”—the Constitution sanctions all they favor...… Read more
Today the Supreme Court took up the case of American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut, reviewing a Second Circuit...… Read more
Again, we present a quick wrap up of the day’s events. Perhaps the most significant nomination-related news didn’t come...… Read more
Yes, it's early in the day, but this one is a winner. Sotomayor, responding to Senator Coburn, on the use of foreign...… Read more
In response to questioning by Senator Cornyn, Judge Sotomayor explained that, "When parties are dissatisfied, they file...… Read more
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