Free Republic

Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna blasted a so-called “immigration expert” testifying before a House committee in Washington on Wednesday when he began laughing at her over her accusations that the Biden administration is aiding in the trafficking of children at the southern border. David J. Bier, associate director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, was testifying before lawmakers during a House hearing on immigration when he began openly laughing at Rep. Luna when she was asking him her questions. The Cato Institute is a libertarian think tank based in Washington, D.C., that is funded by the Koch Brothers...

In this letter dated July 22nd 1721, Cato explained that the world is regularly lead into mistakes by people who profit from them. If the people were properly apprised of the truth, no one would live in slavery. There are lessons here for early 21st century America. In most nations there is neither the light of truth nor liberty. Where they exist, they are inseparable. Destroy one and the other follows. In these nations we find tyranny and deception, ignorance and slavery joined together, such that “Wherever truth is dangerous, liberty is precarious.” Among sciences, Cato regards political science as...

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, which leftists now love to exploit to push critical race theory and pretend they honor the black heroes of American history. But in my research of recent years, I discovered dozens of black American heroes whose courage and sacrifice shaped this country and who are barely known at all. James Armistead Lafayette went from being a slave to being one of the best spies working for the Americans during the American Revolution. Armistead Lafayette outwitted British commander Gen. Cornwallis and provided George Washington vital information that contributed to the victory at the Battle...

The left-wing PolitiFact hacks worked overtime to gaslight Americans on the deleterious effects of President Joe Biden’s student debt forgiveness scam. PolitiFact took a swipe at multiple criticisms of Biden’s irresponsible student debt policy on Aug. 26. The “fact-check” required three authors and came after Biden announced a legally dubious plan to cancel $10,000 in student loan debt for anyone making less than $125k (or $250k for couples filing jointly). In one portion of the 921-word article, PolitiFact targeted National Review for daring to share an estimate by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF) that found that the average cost...

Romania and the United States have signed an agreement that would establish the first U.S. military bases in an Eastern European country from the former Soviet bloc. The United States already has the rights to a base in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan, and is in the process of vacating one in neighboring Uzbekistan. With the United States already possessing a military presence in much of the world, what does it want with even more foreign bases? Washington, 7 December 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Romanian President Traian Basescu seemed as pleased to be hosting the bases as the Americans are...

Only a state with the motto “Live Free or Die” is freer than the Sunshine State.That’s according to the nonprofit CATO Institute’s annual Freedom in the 50 States report, which compares states based on different aspects of autonomy and choice in key policy areas. The report uses hundreds of variables to gauge states on fiscal, regulatory and personal terms.Overall, Florida came in second to New Hampshire in the 2021 ranking that used 2019 data to compare states.The CATO Institute bills itself as a libertarian public policy think tank that promotes limited government, free markets and peace.It highlighted the state’s lack...

In this letter dated July 22nd 1721, Cato explained that the world is regularly lead into mistakes by people who profit from them. If the people were properly apprised of the truth, no one would live in slavery. There are lessons here for early 21st century America. In most nations there is neither the light of truth nor liberty. Where they exist, they are inseparable. Destroy one and the other follows. In these nations we find tyranny and deception, ignorance and slavery joined together, such that “Wherever truth is dangerous, liberty is precarious.” Among sciences, Cato regards political science as...

Against the backdrop of an orchestrated South Sea Bubble, subsequent economic crash, and unpunished stock-jobbers, Cato interwove Lockean concepts regarding the laws of nature, civil society, and high crimes which were found some fifty and sixty years later in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution.What follows are illustrative of the thought train of two foundational truths, from Locke to Cato to our Declaration of Independence, which culminated in the free government design of our Constitution.The Purpose of Government.John Locke: Civil Society comes into being when every individual has resigned up to the society or the public his individual power to...

Thomas Jefferson famously adapted key passages of John Locke’s Second Treatise in his draft Declaration of Independence. An 18th century gentleman could hardly regard himself as learned without the ability to quote a few Lockean passages from memory. Yet, what of the average colonial? Books were expensive imports. How were the yeomanry educated well enough in Lockean concepts to readily understand and accept this radical document, the Declaration of Independence? Through newspapers. Like modern Americans, our colonial forebears were also political junkies. Freewheeling editorials, letters to the editor that criticized parliamentary and colonial governments were standing features of public life....

The Cato Institute 2021 Immigration and Identity National Survey, a new national survey of 2,600 U.S. adults, finds that nearly three‐​fourths (72%) of Americans believe immigrants come to the United States to “find jobs and improve their lives” while 27% think immigrants come to obtain government services and welfare. Support for More Immigration Is on the Rise Support for more immigration has tripled from the mid‐​1990s when about 10% of the public supported more immigration and two‐​thirds wanted less. Today 29% of Americans want more, 38% want to maintain current levels, and 33% want less. Democrats’ views largely account for...

One top CATO economist is letting The Wall Street Journal have it for pushing more federal bailouts for states and using liberal spin to justify it. CATO Director of Tax Policy Studies Chris Edwards slammed The Journal for pushing “a biased news story regarding state budgets” in a piece headlined “Error and Spin in Wall Street Journal Budget Article.” The Journal’s story, headlined “Coronavirus-Hit State Budgets Create a Drag on U.S. Recovery,” reflects “only Keynesian thinking, exaggerates the plight of governments, and only quotes analysts in favor of more federal bailouts,” according to Edwards.

Poll: 62% of Americans Say They Have Political Views They’re Afraid to ShareStrong liberals are “the only political group who feels they can express themselves” without fear of repercussions, a new Cato Institute survey finds. In a national survey of 2,000 Americans at least 18 years old, conducted July 1-6, 2020, Cato asked respondents to agree or disagree with the following statement:“The political climate these days prevents me from saying things I believe because others might find them offensive.” Sixty-two percent (62%) of Americans agreed, up from 58% in 2017, leading Cato to conclude that “self‐​censorship is on the rise...

A radical, utterly sincere, and determined movement is on to abolish police departments. A radical, utterly sincere, and determined movement is on to confiscate our guns, to confiscate our right to defend ourselves. This is no accident. But first the facts… Links to mainstream Democrats calling for the police to be defunded, which will obviously result in the police being abolished, can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and most especially here.

Not only is Nowrasteh’s evidence irrelevant, but his own research proves him wrong, and shows that immigration changes America’s political culture because immigrants vote overwhelmingly for Democratic Party candidates and support socialist policies. Consider the following data from his paper, “Immigrants Assimilate into the Political Mainstream.” Figure 1, which shows that 50 percent of all immigrants lean Democrat, compared to just 18 percent who lean Republican—a much starker divide than we see among native born citizens. Furthermore, Figure 3 shows that these political preferences persist for at least four generations—immigrants’ decedents are more than twice as likely to be “strong...

The Cato Institute, a think tank partially founded by the billionaire, pro-mass immigration Koch brothers, is advocating for full open borders to the United States. In an op-ed for USA Today, the Cato Institute’s Director of Economic Studies, Jeffrey Miron, says the U.S. “has nothing to fear, and much to gain, from open borders,” saying that Americans should “forget” about putting a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border to stop illegal immigration. Miron downplayed the negative impact open borders would have on American citizens, writing: Immigrants will not flood into America, although the rate of immigration might increase. Instead, much of...

WASHINGTON, June 25 (UPI) -- The Iraq war has demonstrated the limits of American power, not the capabilities, according Stefan Halper, a policy aide under Ronald Reagan's presidency. This is "what people around the world see," said Halper, and "that's a very frightening development." Halper, who served under Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Reagan in the White House and State Department, made the comments at the New America Foundation, a bipartisan think tank that hosted the presentation of his book, "America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order" in Washington Wednesday. He described the policies of the neo-conservatives as...

A recent Cato Institute poll shows Republicans, at least those surveyed by the libertarian think tank, and average voters are at odds with each other on the NFL controversy. "Sixty-five percent of Republicans say that NFL players who refuse to stand for the National Anthem should be fired," Cato pollster Emily Ekins said on Sept. 28 in a First Amendment conference at the Libertarian think tank. "This is wildly out of step with what most Americans think." "Sixty-one percent say that players should not be fired for refusing to stand." Yet, the Cato survey oversampled college students. Moreover, the Cato...

Donald Trump has proposed eliminating or severely modifying the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Many Americans believe that the presence of unauthorized immigrants is harmful to the economy and would like to see steps taken to reduce their presence. However, a repeal or roll-back of DACA would harm the economy and cost the U.S. government a significant amount of lost tax revenue. We estimate that the fiscal cost of immediately deporting the approximately 750,000 people currently in the DACA program would be over $60 billion to the federal government along with a $280 billion reduction in economic growth...

Bill would create 500,000 new visas, include path to citizenship, and be open to current aliens A bill introduced this month by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) would increase foreign guest workers by up to 500,000 a year and offer a back-door amnesty for illegal immigrants. The legislation, the State Sponsored Visa Pilot Program Act of 2017, has attracted support from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the libertarian-oriented Cato Institute. “We pretty strongly oppose it. It’s an indefinite renewable visa. In our eyes, that’s a permanent worker.” The bill would represent a massive increase in the number of non-immigrant visas...

The ongoing controversy and litigation over the Trump administration’s “Muslim ban” has reignited a debate that has raged since the 9/11 attacks: Who commits more domestic terrorism–violent Salafists or traditional “right wing” extremists? According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, it’s the latter and by a very wide margin. From p. 4 of GAO’s report: Of the 85 violent extremist incidents that resulted in death since September 12, 2001, far right wing violent extremist groups were responsible for 62 (73 percent) while radical Islamist violent extremists were responsible for 23 (27 percent). But as researchers at the Georgia State...