I hate to dredge up bad memories so early in a new year, but we need to remind ourselves of the awful TARP bailout of 2008. Our financial system had gone out of whack because of bad monetary policy from the Federal Reserve and unsustainable housing subsidies from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Some financial institutions gambled on […]

Let’s start 2014 with a depressing story about the reprehensible way in which big companies get in bed with big government. If asked to list the example of cronyism that I find most nauseating, the Export-Import Bank would be at the top of my list. The Obamacare handouts for Big Insuranceand Big Pharma obviously belong on the list as well. […]

The sequester was a victory for advocates of small government and a major defeat for the Obama administration. It was also a defeat for the special interest bottom feeders who leech off the American taxpayer. But they’re not going down quietly: The defense aerospace industry gave 60 percent of its donations to Republicans during the […]

Remember Sandra Fluke, the 30-year old student who got her 15 minutes of fame last year by becoming the poster child for subsidized birth control? She’s fortunately faded away, but the issue is still with us because the courts are being asked to decide whether government has the right to coerce people into decisions that […]

Regular readers know I complain about the army of overpaid bureaucrats in Washington, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The larger problem is that Washington also is filled with hundreds of thousands of other people who get rich thanks to big government. And these politicians, lobbyists, crony capitalists, interest groups, contractors, and influence […]

Government mandates benefit the politically connected, not consumers.

At the risk of oversimplifying, there are two major challenges to overcome when you’re a pro-freedom policy wonk in Washington. The first challenge is getting people to connect the dots. They may understand that the job market is weak and they may understand that redistribution programs are overly generous, but can you help them understand […]

I’ve written before that Obama’s Solyndra-style handouts have been a grotesque waste of tax dollars. I’ve argued that they destroy jobs rather than create jobs. I’ve gone on TV to explain why government intervention in energy creates a cesspool of cronyism. I’ve even shared a column from Obama’s hometown newspaper that criticizes the rank corruption […]

There’s an old joke that the definition of quandary is when your mother-in-law drives off a cliff in your new car. But since I’m not married, I can’t use that joke. Besides, I’m a policy wonk, so the type of quandary that catches my attention is when the Obama Administration delays big parts of Obamacare […]