Trump’s Team Is the New England Patriots of Deregulation

Although much attention has been focused on the Republican Congress routinely setting-and-missing arbitrary deadlines to repeal Obamacare (remember: it will collapse by itself), our lawmakers’ inability to rollback Obamacare has actually given Americans a blessing in disguise — it has diverted attention from the total regulatory genocide the Trump administration has initiated. Congress’ apparent fecklessness to repeal health care regulations provides near-perfect cover for an administration that has proven itself ambitious in its efforts to “deconstruct the regulatory state.” Remember when President Trump announced that he would eliminate two regulations for every new one added? Just six months into office,

The Democrats’ “Better Deal” Isn’t Even Better Messaging

Despite the media’s nonstop obsession with President Trump and Russia, the biggest political story so far this year remains the unbelievable impotence of the Democratic Party. With a Republican President and a Republican Congress, the Democrats would seem to be in a historically advantageous situation — the President’s party traditionally struggles in midterm elections. But as we have written previously, the “beleaguered” Democratic Party is in bad shape going into 2018. With just two or three genuine pick-up opportunities and more than a dozen seats at risk, the Senate is a virtual lock to stay under GOP control. Meanwhile, the House,

Seattle Liberals Show Concern for Working Families — By Raising Their Taxes

Seattle will become the 8th city in the United States to tax sugary beverages, after a 7-1 city council vote yesterday. Since soda consumption has become the “crisis du jour” for liberals looking for an excuse to raise taxes, it is imperative to scrutinize the claims made by soda tax proponents before more cities fall like dominoes for this regressive scheme. As noted during the Seattle soda tax debate, city officials “repeatedly acknowledged that this tax targets low-income and minority communities by pricing hundreds of different beverages out of their reach. As a result, those who can afford this tax

New Report: These 2 Cities Have Crippled the US Economy

A new study by University of Chicago and University of California, Berkeley scholars Chiang-Tai Hsieh and Enrico Moretti suggests an economic villain shocking to the liberal imagination: San Francisco and New York. Yes, San Francisco, the glittering cosmopolis of the new money, and New York, the towering stronghold of the old money, are together responsible for “lower[ing] aggregate US growth by more than 50% from 1964 to 2009.” Intense development constraints create a market where the rich bid with super-rich to live in the core cities. Tenants in rent-controlled apartments hang on for dear life. New entrants have nowhere to

Both Parties Are Facing Future-Defining Identity Crises

The American political system is in a state of flux. Both Republicans and Democrats are experiencing mirror-image identity crises as they struggle to define anew who their parties are and what they represent. The late former Pennsylvania Gov. Bob Casey, a Democrat, often said that a national candidate who was both pro-life and clearly fighting for the economic dignity of working Americans could not lose. The coalition built from a candidate whose platform combined those policies would be unbeatable. But neither party is truly taking Gov. Casey’s advice to heart right now. The Democratic Party’s problem is their full-throated support

3 Things You Need to Know About Trump’s Tax Plan

We all just saved thousands of dollars on our income taxes by switching to the GOP! (Well, maybe…) The Trump Administration unveiled the basic outline for the Trump tax plan yesterday, which they referred to as “the biggest individual and business tax cut in American history.” You can read their one pager here. The plan would cut the corporate tax rate to 15 percent; reduce capital gains tax rates; and eliminate a number of taxes, including the 3.8 percent net investment income tax featured in Obamacare, the death tax, and the alternative minimum tax. More importantly, it would simplify the

The Real Steve Bannon Revealed!

A marvelous interview with Donald Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon has suddenly appeared in, no less, The Hollywood Reporter: “Ringside With Steve Bannon at Trump Tower as the President-Elect’s Strategist Plots “An Entirely New Political Movement” (Exclusive).” It is a perfect antidote to the McCarthyite insults being heaped on Bannon by the elitist left and its handmaiden, the mainstream media. Bannon is a provocateur. No sin in that; the left has a plethora of provocateurs. By every account he is an open-minded, generous (albeit demanding) soul. The media’s efforts to smear him are the most shameful application of “Tailgunner Joe,”

Will President Trump or Clinton Evade What Sunk the Ford, Carter, Bush and Obama Economy?

Whoever wins the presidency there is a lurking issue, the most underappreciated issue in politics.  Getting it wrong destroyed the economy (and contributed to ending the presidencies) of Ford and Carter and tarnished the records of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Reagan and Clinton got it right and went on to handsome re-election. The political and economic elites are curiously blind to it. An iconic cartoon by Benita Epstein (view it at benitaepstein.com) shows a myopic middle-aged man gazing into a refrigerator full of nothing but butter. It’s captioned “Hon, where’s the butter?” It is the defining image of “Male

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