The Cutting Edge of Waste

The Cutting Edge of Waste

Lots of folks in America today really need more money. Our kids, for starters. We ought to be investing in their futures, not stuffing them in overcrowded classrooms or forcing them to graduate from college with tens of thousands of dollars in debt. And plenty of...
The GOP Bucks Teddy Roosevelt’s Legacy

The GOP Bucks Teddy Roosevelt’s Legacy

Republican lawmakers celebrated Tax Day by voting to repeal the estate tax. If they get their way, the multi-millionaires and billionaires who fund their election campaigns will reap a huge tax break. First, some myth busting. The federal tax on inheritance only...
Subsidizing the Idle Rich While Poor Kids Go Hungry

Subsidizing the Idle Rich While Poor Kids Go Hungry

To hear some politicians tell it, America’s welfare system is facing a grave crisis: Millions of poor people, they say, are idling away their time eating lobster and relaxing on cruises. Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, for example, recently signed welfare reform...
Send in the Clowns

Send in the Clowns

Hardly a day goes by that another candidate doesn’t announce his or her intention to run for the presidency. One day it’s Carly Fiorina, the next it’s Mike Huckabee, Bernie Sanders, or Hillary Clinton, even. It’s like the circus — when the little car rolls into the...
Why We Need $50,000 Traffic Tickets

Why We Need $50,000 Traffic Tickets

All of us would like to live in a world where people always do the right thing — without anybody looking over their shoulder. But that world doesn’t exist and never will. So every society on our planet has penalties. You break the rules, you pay a price. But penalties...