The Conservative Case for Welfare by Laurence M. Vance May 14, 2021 In the third COVID-19 stimulus package — the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) — which was passed in the U.S. Congress without a single Republican vote, the Child Tax Credit (CTC) for tax year 2020 was increased from $2,000 per child, with $1,400 of this being refundable, to a fully refundable $3,000 per qualifying child (aged ...
Hayek’s Still Relevant Response to Today’s Paternalist Planners by Richard M. Ebeling May 12, 2021 Among many American “progressives” and those in the Democratic Party establishment, there is a heady euphoria that their day has again come, that there is an opportunity to establish and implement their dream of a far more comprehensive and commanding government presence over the society. Their vision already promises well over $6 trillion of additional federal government spending; and this ...
Victimhood Professionals Exploit Victims: Look at VAWA by Wendy McElroy May 10, 2021 The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is currently in the Senate awaiting debate and reauthorization. VAWA is the federal touchstone for how sexual abuse, especially domestic violence (DV), is addressed and funded nationwide. It has vastly expanded from its 1994 roots and epitomizes not only the inevitable drift of government toward greater power but also the dynamics ...
Building Up the State Means Pulling People Down by Richard M. Ebeling May 7, 2021 I still vividly recall sitting with a high school friend on the evening of July 20, 1969 and watching on television as astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped down onto the surface of the moon, a few minutes before 8 p.m., west coast Pacific time, and saying his famous words, “One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” ...
The Real Gateway Drug by Laurence M. Vance May 6, 2021 Although even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that marijuana is not a gateway drug, it is a standard claim of conservatives. In response to the question it raises, “Does marijuana use lead to other drug use?” the CDC says, The majority of people who use marijuana do not go on to use other, “harder” ...
Biden’s Agenda of “Democratic” Paternalism and Planning by Richard M. Ebeling May 4, 2021 President Joe Biden’s address to a joint session of Congress on April 28, 2021 marked the first 100 days of his administration, and enabled him to lay out his vision and vistas for government policy. Besides promising even more trillions of dollars in federal spending, it showed what guides his thinking: Nothing is possible without government, and liberty does ...
James Woolsey’s JFK Conspiracy Theory, Part 1 by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 2021 Part 1 | Part 2 Former CIA Director R. James Woolsey has written a newly published book entitled Operation Dragon, which poses one of the silliest conspiracy theories ever in the Kennedy assassination. Woolsey says that Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Lee Harvey Oswald conspired to assassinate John Kennedy. He says that Khrushchev later changed his mind and withdrew ...
The Deep State Defeat of Donald Trump by James Bovard May 1, 2021 “The Trump–Deep State clash is a showdown between a presidency that is far too powerful versus federal agencies that have become fiefdoms with immunity for almost any and all abuses,” I wrote in an FFF article a year ago. Since then, Donald Trump lost the 2020 election by fewer than 50,000 votes in a handful of swing states that ...
What Is Missing in the Arguments against a Minimum-Wage Hike? by Laurence M. Vance May 1, 2021 For several years now, Democrats, liberals, progressives, Democratic socialists, and socialists not afraid to proudly wear the name have been agitating for an increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. Organized labor groups, many large corporations, and organizations such as Fight for $15 have joined them. A standard 40-hour workweek at $15 an hour results in ...
An Old Geezer on Learning about Liberty and Its Loss by Richard M. Ebeling May 1, 2021 I am now in my 70s. No longer a spring chicken but not a dead duck yet either, with, I hope, a few good years left. When I was in my mid 20s, I had the opportunity and good fortune to meet and interact for most of two summers with the noted Austrian economist and Nobel Prize winner Friedrich ...
My Case against Minimum-Wage Laws by George Leef May 1, 2021 Minimum-wage laws are again in the news, as Joe Biden and his political allies in Congress seek to push the national minimum from its current level of $7.25 per hour up to $15 per hour. Some politicians, Sen. Bernie Sanders for one, declare that people can barely survive even on $15 per hour. If the law takes the minimum ...
Taking the Good with the Bad by Laurence M. Vance April 28, 2021 Marijuana freedom is a good thing. The taxation of marijuana is a bad thing. Unfortunately, owing to the greed of spendthrift politicians, it looks as though we will have to take the good with the bad or not at all. Now, this does not mean that smoking marijuana is “good.” It just means that the freedom to smoke marijuana — ...