Anyone remember back in 2008 when the housing market collapsed and the stock market crashed, with many tens of millions of Americans seeing their lifetime savings nearly wiped out? Apparently the politicians in Washington are suffering amnesia – even though it was the worst crash since the Great Depression. What else has been conveniently…

What is it about politicians in Washington that they just can't stand progress or the thought of anyone getting rich? That's the attitude of many Democrats in Congress as they try to cripple the private equity and venture capital industries with higher tax rates. These financers are some of the most dynamic risk-takers on the economic playing field…

In a coalition letter led by the Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF) and sent to Congress today, a group of national and state organizations representing taxpayers, small businesses and free-market, limited government principles cautioned Congress against limiting corporate deductions for state and local taxes, or C-SALT – a potentially counterproductive…

Amid rising economic uncertainty, few ideas could be more counterproductive than raising taxes on American businesses and employers.   Alarmingly, however, some in Washington, D.C., advocate reduction or outright elimination of the federal corporate state and local tax (C-SALT) deduction without proportionally lowering the corporate tax…

At this writing, President Donald Trump plans to impose sweeping new tariffs on imports from around the world. We're told that "Liberation Day" tariffs will raise $6 trillion in federal revenue over the next decade, plus another trillion from automobile tariffs. But the only true "liberation" will be us Americans – …

President Donald Trump has promised to create millions of new high-paying jobs. One easy first step to doing that is to repeal Biden regulations on America's 4 million business partnerships (sometimes known as S corporations) that are prolific job creators. The latest estimates find 10 million Americans employed by these business partnerships, with…

Since the 1950s, every effort to reduce the size and scope of government has been bulldozed by a political establishment more concerned with furthering its own interests than those of the American people. Between sacred cows and special interest groups, we're always told why nothing can get cut. With the exception of Social Security, there is no bigger…

Republicans are searching for ways to "pay for" their tax cuts. Democrats want the rich to pay more tax. Here's a solution that should make everyone happy. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith is suggesting a tax on the $840 billion college endowments. These endowments will soon eclipse $1 trillion in size – …

The Department of Government Efficiency draws two extreme reactions from budget-focused observers. On one side, you have cynics rolling their eyes and arguing that the truly consequential problem is not overpriced government boondoggles but rather entitlements like Medicare and Social Security and interest on the national debt. On the other, you…

Former President Joe Biden left a terrible legacy: the border catastrophe, chaos and disorder abroad, increased crime, oppressive wokeness. But for today's purposes, consider the damage done by Biden's economic policies. Inflation took away 20% of people's purchasing power in a short period of time. Even when the rate of inflation slowed, it is still…

The fate of President Donald Trump's ambitious economic policy plans will be determined by the people he appoints to critical positions. With a debt of over $36 trillion (heading toward $59 trillion in 2035 by some estimates), inflation not resolved, an entitlement crisis looming and the need to extend the president's 2017 tax cuts, we'd better hope…

The Trump tax cuts are set to expire later this year, and that poses a real challenge for policymakers, businesses and taxpayers alike. Americans face a $4 trillion tax hike as key provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act sunset. The stakes are too high to ignore, and it has to be done right. Failure to make most of the cuts permanent would be…

The Federal Reserve's premature victory lap over inflation reveals a worrisome misunderstanding of the predicament we still find ourselves in. Unprecedented government spending and debt, combined with mounting fears that the debt can't (or won't) be repaid, played a misunderstood role in inflation's rise several years ago. As such, fiscal policy must…

You can say what you want about Elon Musk, but he is able to pinpoint in a single tweet some of the most dysfunctional aspects of our federal government. For instance, he recently noted that "Simplifying the tax code will increase productivity, instead of incentivizing bizarre tax-avoidance behavior." He's correct. If President-elect Donald…

Here's my wish list for the incoming Trump administration to make America healthy and prosperous and great again in 2025. 1. Slash Job-Killing Regulations The regulatory state is a $2 trillion tax on the American economy. We all want worker safety, a clean environment and consumer protections, but in too many cases the costs of regulations far outweigh…

One of the highest priorities for the incoming Trump administration should be to end the Democrats' weaponization of powerful government agencies against taxpayers and businesses they don't like. Nowhere has this mission been more pernicious than the party-line vote to fund the IRS with nearly $80 billion and hire tens of thousands of new tax snoops…

Bidenomics, with its obsolete preference for big-government central planning, certainly proved lucrative for its namesake Joe Biden’s cronies and political favorites.   For everyday Americans and our innovation economy, however, not so much.   To illustrate, following four years of Bidenomics the average American family…

“The rich don’t pay their fair share in taxes.”   In the wake of Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter despite multiple pledges to the contrary, that slogan maintains the same validity as Biden’s frequent reference to “my word as a Biden.”  The primary distinction between them is that the public…

The new year will bring a new administration, and I'll be watching to see if President-elect Donald Trump's team finally puts an end to the worldwide taxation of individual Americans' income. Fixing this is imperative. It would not only be sound fiscal policy but could keep millions of law-abiding Americans living overseas from being treated like financial…

Here is something no one in the media is reporting as Vice President Kamala Harris continues to duck and weave like Muhammad Ali in the ring to avoid any questions about her economic plan. The American Business Defense Foundation reports that under the Harris tax plan, the number of Americans subject to the hated death tax would double or triple.…

No matter the result of next month's election, President Joe Biden will soon leave the White House. That makes it a good time for a nearly final assessment of his and Vice President Kamala Harris' first-term legacy on federal spending and debt – a tragedy of epic proportion. Unfortunately, neither Harris nor her rival on the campaign…

During his campaign, former President Donald Trump has proposed his share of bad policy ideas, such as a 20% tariff across the board. But tasking Elon Musk with heading a commission to make the government more efficient is one worth considering. In a speech to the Economic Club of New York, Trump said this commission will conduct "a complete financial…

In 1982 the federal budget deficit rose above $100 billion for the first time (those were the good old days!), and then-President Ronald Reagan agreed to an infamous budget deal with then-House Speaker Tip O'Neill. Democrats would agree to $3 of spending cuts for every $1 of tax increases. Reagan foolishly agreed to the deal. The taxes went up. The…

In the history of American literature, no family personalized the hardscrabble struggles of everyday Americans more poignantly and prominently than the Joad family of John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath.”   That novel and subsequent film classic captured the Great Depression plight of the Joads, who migrated westward…

Democrats and the media are in a quandary to explain why Americans so underappreciate all that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have done for the economy. Or, should I say, TO the economy. They act as if these are the salad days for American families, with inflation falling and jobs aplenty. For now. So why are Americans so dour…

In the ongoing debate over America's trade policy, politicians and pundits often claim that the public supports tariffs and other protectionist measures, such as those given to us by the Trump and Biden administrations. A new Cato Institute poll, however, reveals a more complex picture: Americans might like the idea of tariffs and "Buy American…

On Wednesday morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release inflation figures for July. Whatever the numbers turn out to be, this will remain true: Prices are far higher than they were when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris took office.  Even as the rate of inflation has gone down from its peak in 2022, Americans have learned an unhappy lesson…

The United States is full steam ahead into uncharted fiscal waters, with rapidly growing federal debt promising a choppy economic future. Candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump have added trillions to the national debt during their recent presidential administrations, leaving America at a critical juncture that demands urgent, bipartisan action. If…

Among his litany of other bizarre fictions, Joe Biden continues to insist that he’s some sort of deficit disciplinarian.   Biden’s deficit falsehoods, however, have become so untenable that even notoriously left-leaning pundits have started calling him out on it.   The issue was brought into new and bolder relief last…

Three years ago this month, unmistakable signs emerged that inflation was ascending out of control.   The Biden administration, however, imperiously dismissed growing concerns and even insisted that everything was heading in the “right direction.”   Consumer prices that month surged at a 5.4% annual rate, the highest…