Jacob Sullum: Tiny Cuts, Big Complaints

Republicans and Democrats squabble over crumbs.
In the context of federal spending that will total something like $3.8 trillion this year, $61 billion is a rounding error. Yet the Democrats resisting that amount in House-approved cuts say it will wreck the economy while leaving children unschooled, taking food from ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: Union Myths

The biggest myth about labor unions is that unions are for the workers
Unions are for unions, just as corporations are for corporations and politicians are for politicians. Nothing shows the utter cynicism of the unions and the politicians who do their bidding like the so-called "Employee Free Choice Act" that the Obama administration tried to push through Congress. Employees' free choice as to whether or not to join ... MORE

Walter E Williams: Handouts, Morality and Common Sense

Whether Americans realize it or not, the last decade's path of congressional spending is unsustainable. Spending must be reined in, but what spending should be cut? The Republican majority in the House of Representatives fear being booted out of office and are understandably timid. Their rule for whom to cut appears to be: Look around to see who are the politically weak handout recipients.  ...  MORE

VIDEO: ReasonTV - Are We Broke Yet?

Shikha Dalmia: Global Warming By Another Name


Obama's clean energy boondoggle will be expensive for America.           President Barack Obama uttered not a peep about global warming in his State of Union this year. No dire warnings about climate apocalypse. No calls for cap-and-trade. Has this cold winter convinced him to put his global warming agenda on ice? Hardly. Indeed, even in this age of deficits and debt, the president’s budget is chock full of ... MORE

Star Parker: Union Power - Symptom Of What Ailes Us

Unionized government workers who have taken to the streets to protest moves in Wisconsin and Ohio to limit their power are doing us all a favor. How? Our great nation today is sick and badly in need of therapy. The screams and protests of these government union workers should help all Americans identify these public unions as a major symptom of the sickness that is dragging us down and what we need to do  ...  MORE

VIDEO: Thomas Sowell - What Are They Buying?


Sowell explains the real reason why politicians have spent tax dollars like drunken sailors.

Homeland Security Sought Covert Body Scans

Tax money spent for clandestine digital strip search technology.
The Homeland Security Department paid contractors millions of dollars to develop and study surveillance systems that could covertly track pedestrians and check under people's clothing with airport-style body scanners as they enter train stations, bus depots or major events, newly released documents show. ...   MORE

Michael Barone: Government Shutdown Not a Train Wreck

Sometimes you get an idea of the way opinion is headed by the phrases you don't hear. Case in point: In all the discussion and debate these past weeks about a possible government shutdown if Congress and President Obama fail to agree on funding bills, I don't recall having heard the phrase "train wreck." I think that's significant, because back in the 1990s, when then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich's  ...  MORE

VIDEO: Walter E Williams - Public Employee Unions

Herman Cain: In Defense of American Exceptionalism

There is no denying it: America is the greatest country in the world. 
We are blessed with unparalleled freedoms and boundless prosperity that for generations have inspired an innovative and industrious people. America is exceptional. American Exceptionalism is the standard that our laws reflect the understanding that we are afforded certain God-given rights that can never be taken away.  ...  MORE

VIDEO: Will Net Neutrality Save the Internet?

Jacob Sullum: Mitch Daniel's Pot Luck

Experience taught him the importance of being tough on drug users.
Last week Mitch Daniels, Indiana's governor, told The Daily Princetonian that "justice was served" when he was arrested for marijuana possession during his junior year at Princeton. But like many pot smokers who became politicians, Daniels, a potential  contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination ... MORE

Steve Chapman: Zero Hour For Public Broadcasting

It's time for the government subsidies to end.
I am an American and a male, so you can easily guess the first thing I do when I arrive in a hotel room: pick up the TV remote and turn on ESPN. The second thing may not be so universal: tune the clock radio to the local public radio station. I have been happily addicted to the medium since 1979, when National Public Radio l  ...  MORE