Why Some States Want To Cut The Cigarette Tax
Bucking a national trend of raising cigarette taxes, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Rhode Island have considered reducing theirs, hoping to draw smokers from other states and increase revenue. Supporters argue reducing the tax by a dime would make New Hampshire more competitive with Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts, while opponents say that even if the state experienced higher sales as a result it still would ... MOREVIDEO: Walter E Williams - Davis Bacon Sellout
Why Black Congressmen pit themselves against low-skilled workers.
Andrew Romano: How Dumb Are We?
America's ignorance could pose huge problems.They’re the sort of scores that drive high-school history teachers to drink. When NEWSWEEK recently asked 1,000 U.S. citizens to take America’s official citizenship test, 29 percent couldn’t name the vice president. Seventy-three percent couldn’t correctly say why we fought the Cold War. Forty-four percent were unable to define the rights ... MORE
Robert P Murphy: Why Unemployment Is So High
Everyone knows that the unemployment situation is very bad, but the official figures (not surprisingly) understate the problem. In this article I'll outline the severity of the stalled labor market, and explain some of the major causes. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the official civilian unemployment rate in February was 8.9 percent. However, this figure (called U-3) is very misleading in the present ... MORESheldon Richman: No One Can Run The Country
I don’t mean to pick on David Brooks, the resident conservative op-ed scribe at the New York Times, and I have no reason to defend President Obama on any count, but I can’t keep silent when I read Brooks assailing Obama for being too “prudent.” "Prudence can sometimes look like weakness…. Prudence is important, but Americans do have an expectation that their president will be the one out front, dominating ... MORESen. David Vitters: Obama's Energy Doubletalk
The gap continues to widen between what President Obama claims to be true about domestic energy production and what Louisianians know is true. With prices at the pump climbing toward $4 a gallon, the President is asking us to believe that his administration supports expanded drilling off the Gulf Coast. Those of us who live there know that nothing could be further from the truth. ... MOREJohn Stossel: End the Drug War, Save Black America
One key to getting past the race issue in America is to end the war on drugs. John McWhorter says it's the most important thing we could do. Cato's Letter features a lecture by McWhorter in which he calls for an end to the war on drugs. (It's really a war on certain people.) McWhorter, the former Berkeley linguistics professor and now senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, specifically indicts the war on drugs ... MORELarry Thornberry: Cap And Control The EPA
There's a relatively new front in the war against elephantine government and the Obama administration's socialist dreams. It's called The Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011, and it's gotten less attention than it deserves, even in the conservative press. If it becomes law, the bill, which the full House Committee on Energy and Commerce approved 34-19 on Tuesday, would prohibit the federal Environmental Protection Agency ... MOREArt Carden: Walking On Broken Glass?
Can we avoid natural disasters? Probably not. Can we avoid disastrous economic ignorance? Yes. The disaster in Japan provides yet another tragic illustration of how fallacies permeate the public conversation. First, destruction is not production. It never is, and society isn’t better off because of it. To claim otherwise is to fall victim to the Broken Window Fallacy, a fallacy that was exploded by Frederic Bastiat ... MOREJacob Sullum: Let There Be Light
Dim bulbs in Washington have condemned me to pee in the dark.During a Senate hearing last week, Rand Paul complained about the federal energy standards that will force conventional incandescent light bulbs off the market during the next few years. "I can't buy the old light bulbs," the Tennessee Republican said. "That restricts my choice." ... MORE
Walter E Williams: Continuing Stubborn Ignorance
Within the past decade, I've written three columns titled "Deception 101," "Stubborn Ignorance," and "Exploiting Public Ignorance," all explaining which branch of the federal government has taxing and spending authority. How can academics, politicians, news media people and ordinary citizens get away with statements such as "Reagan's budget deficits," "Clinton's budget surplus," "Bush's budget deficits and ... MORE
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