5 years ago
November 2020
“As predicted by the vast majority of trade economists, [President Donald] Trump’s tariffs have failed in their stated intent to prop up domestic producers and jobs, triggered reciprocal actions that have punished American exporters, and created a cottage industry of lobbying in Washington for exemptions.”
Matt Welch
“The Case Against Trump: Donald Trump Is an Enemy of Freedom”
“[Joe] Biden’s career was built on the politics of panics. In the 1990s, he supported a Trump-like crackdown on illegal immigration, including a border fence and expedited removals, that resembled tactics he now deplores. A decade later, he was still calling for more border barriers, saying employers who hire unauthorized residents should go to prison, opposing driver’s licenses for people who can’t prove their citizenship, and condemning ‘sanctuary cities’ that refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement.”
Jacob Sullum
“The Case Against Biden: Joe Biden’s Politics of Panic”
10 years ago
November 2015
“The tactics employed to ‘get tough’ on drugs ended up entangling millions in the criminal justice system, sanctioning increasingly intrusive and violent policing practices, worsening tensions between law enforcement and marginalized communities, and degrading the constitutional rights of all Americans. Yet even as the drug war’s failures and costs become more apparent, the Land of the Free is enthusiastically repeating the same mistakes when it comes to sex trafficking. This new ‘epidemic’ inspires the same panicked rhetoric and punitive policies the war on drugs did—often for activity that’s every bit as victimless.”
Elizabeth Nolan Brown
“The War on Sex Trafficking Is the New War on Drugs”
15 years ago
November 2010
“Federal education spending has increased by close to 80 percent in real terms since 2001, but test scores in reading and math among 17-year-olds have been flat since 1971, according to the National Assessment of Education Progress. Politicians have talked for a long time about eliminating the Department of Education. While this remains an excellent idea, there is plenty of low-hanging fruit that can be plucked immediately.”
Lisa Snell
“How to Slash the State”
“I would much prefer that the government get out of the business of certifying marriage altogether. But as long as myriad provisions of state and federal law hinge on marital status, the government has to decide which couples qualify, and basic fairness demands that sexual orientation play no role in that determination. What legitimate government interest can possibly justify preventing a veteran’s longtime spouse from being buried alongside him, simply because both of them are men?”
Jacob Sullum
“Strange Love”
45 years ago
November 1980
“Perhaps the strongest refutation of the charge that drug usage is socially harmful comes again from history: With the exception of the drugs covered by local laws prohibiting alcohol and blatantly anti-Chinese laws like the act of February 23, 1887, prohibiting the importation of opium by Chinese subjects in the United States but not by American citizens, all drugs were freely available in this country prior to the implementation of the Harrison Act in 1915. When there were no drug laws, there was no drug problem.”
Michael Monson
“The Dirty Little Secret Behind Our Drug Laws”
“Today, when even assembly-line workers can see that something is terribly wrong, the corporate statists have come forward once more. Their new game plan is called ‘reindustrialization’ or ‘industrial policy.’ In various versions, its basic idea is that the United States must become more like Japan, where—claim its advocates—the economy prospers because government and industry work hand-in-hand, deciding which sectors will expand, which will contract, which will export, etc…..The common thread in all of these schemes is the idea that—somehow—government knows best. For reasons which are never stated it is assumed that planners ensconced in Washington can identify those industries which ‘should’ be expanded and those which ‘should’ be allowed to die. The alternative, of course, is for the marketplace to decide—in other words, for individual consumers to determine, by their purchases, which firms are doing a good job and which are not. There is no evidence whatever that government can do this better than consumers, and there are sound moral reasons (like individual freedom) for keeping it from doing so.”
Robert Poole
“What Kind of ‘Reindustralization’?”
