The hypocrisy of Washington elites is nothing new, as we’ve covered here and here, just to give two recent examples. Yet another example of hypocrisy is that of insider trading, which is disallowed for the peasants, but perfectly acceptable for members of Congress and their staff: Your senator learns that a much- maligned weapons system […]

Consider this a prelude to Obamacare: Tens of thousands of Texas children will be directly affected by the 11th-hour decision of a number of major health insurance companies to stop selling child-only policies rather than comply with the new federal law that requires they cover youngsters with pre-existing conditions. …Spokespersons for Aetna and Cigna said […]

This news report demonstrates the lengths to which bureaucrats will go to pick your pocket.  It doesn’t matter if your taxes have already ostensibly paid for government services, many local governments are now double taxing for the use of emergency services, even if they never get out of their vehicle to actually help you. Cary […]

It seems that reports of Castro’s conversion were premature.  While American politicians are learning from Castro how to tank an economy with reckless government intervention (not that there’s any other kind), Castro has apparently learned from our pols how to walk back an accidental utterance of the truth, otherwise known in political circles as a […]

Excise taxes, where government taxes the sale of particular goods, are usually levied with the excuse that consumption of a good or engagement in a certain activity is harmful for individuals.  If this were actually true, you’d expect government bureaucrats to be happy when activities hit by excise taxes decreased – not that government has […]

Advocates of big government think it is appropriate for the state to redistribute wealth out of a sense of fairness.  They usually claim to want some form of taking from the wealthy to give to the poor.  But the practice of redistribution is actually quite different.  In reality, redistributive states take from those without political […]

General Motors, having been bailed out by the government, is preparing for its massive initial public offering, which could be the biggest in U.S. history.  Some will no doubt look at the bailout and conclude that GM investments now come with explicit government backing.  But there’s a catch, as caught by CEI’s OpenMarket: Government ownership […]

Vincent DeMarco, president of the Maryland Citizens’ Health Initiative Education Fund, recently wrote to the Baltimore Sun to stick up for Maryland’s sin taxes.  He seems to view it as the obligation of government to reduce activities it determines to be bad: In his Commentary disparaging both Maryland’s life-saving one dollar per pack tobacco tax […]