Why Philly’s Soda Tax Scandal Could Haunt Michael Bloomberg

Over the past year, the city of Philadelphia has been embroiled in one of the most significant corruption scandals in recent memory. Powerful local union leader John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty will go to trial this year after a 116-count federal indictment alleging, among other offenses, that he “had city inspectors hold up the non-union installation of an MRI machine at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia,” used local funds as his “personal bank account” and, in a strange plot twist from the typical corruption cases, “pushed the passage of the city’s soda tax solely to exact revenge on the rival Teamster’s Union.”

“Moderate” Democrats Think Your Tax Dollars Should Fund Their Campaigns

Former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) are viewed as two of the most moderate candidates in the Democratic 2020 presidential field. After the most recent Democratic debate, this may need to be rethought — as well as if any moderate presidential candidate exists in the Democrats’ bullpen.   During the sixth Democratic primary debate, Biden and Klobuchar offered vociferous endorsements of one of the most radical ideas embrace by the modern Democratic Party — the belief that your tax dollars should fund candidates even if you don’t agree with their beliefs as a matter of conscience. At

Debate Debacle? Biden Pledges to Sacrifice Energy Jobs for “Green” Agenda

During last night’s Democratic presidential debate, front runner Joe Biden took a page out of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 playbook by endorsing mass layoffs for workers in America’s energy sector. Harkening back to the days when Mrs. Clinton called for putting “a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business,” Biden told debate moderator Tim Alberta that he is ready to layoff blue-collar workers in the oil and gas industry. Biden’s gaffe is made more comical by the fact that Clinton stated her coal remarks were the biggest regret of her 2016 campaign.  It’s hard to imagine this sentiment will

This Week in Economics: 3 Stories You Should Know About

Here is a rundown on some of the biggest economic developments this week. 1.) Former Fed Chair Paul Volcker passes away. Paul Volcker, who’s chairmanship of the Federal Reserve played a pivotal role in Reagan’s supply-side prosperity boom, passed away at 92 this week. Tributes have poured in for Volcker — a literal and figurative economic giant — who will be remembered for his role in slaying the Carter-era inflation as well as the distinguished career in public service that followed. On Fox Business, economist Arthur Laffer remembered Volcker for his role in the supply-side revolution and, intriguingly, his opposition

New Report Shows Why Trump Could Win New Mexico in 2020

Back in September, I wrote about Donald Trump’s plan to win the state of New Mexico — something no Republican presidential candidate has done since 2004. The president’s strategy focuses on Democrats’ opposition to oil and gas development, which is the driving force of New Mexico’s economy. A new report out from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Global Energy Institute (GEI) shows why this strategy has merit. At a campaign rally in New Mexico, Trump said, “[E]very major Democrat running for president, they want to abolish your production of oil and natural gas. In other words, the Democrats want to completely annihilate

Why President Trump’s Latest Tariffs Are the Most Nonsensical

This week, President Trump took to Twitter to announce new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Brazil and Argentina. Although the Trump administration has had its share of puzzling trade war escalations — including declaring auto parts a threat to national security — this is potentially the most indefensible one yet. Anecdotally, the most frequent argument I hear from supporters of Trump’s trade policies is “we need to confront China.” On this point, I would simply note that it is both true that 1) China is guilty of serious, ongoing human rights abuses and 2) China’s greater embrace of

Russian Collusion? 2020 Democrats Share Putin’s Goal to End U.S. Fracking

One interesting takeaway from Trump’s impeachment hearings occurred when former White House national security expert Fiona Hill gave testimony on her conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin on fracking. The Washington Free Beacon reports: Under questioning from Rep. Mike Conaway (R., Tex.) at a hearing on the impeachment of President Donald Trump, Hill agreed that a ban on fracking would play into Putin’s hands. “In November 2011, I actually sat next to Vladimir Putin in a conference in which he made precisely that point,” she said. “It was the first time that he had actually done so to a group

“Capitalist Manifesto” Makes Strong Case Against Socialism, Cronyism Ahead of 2020

This week, a timely new e-book was released making the case for why capitalism is the best system for spreading universal opulence. “The Capitalist Manifesto,” authored by supply-sider Ralph Benko and prominent Tea Party organizer Bill Collier, serves as an easily readable primer on what capitalism is while heading into an election cycle that may challenge this system head on.   The e-book, in equal parts, serves as an indictment of the socialist philosophy — which the authors label “neo-feudalism” — and an indictment of the corrosion of capitalism, which the authors blame for capitalism’s waning public support. The e-book

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