Free Republic

In a book that was long in the works, George Mason University economics professor Bryan Caplan explains, as his subtitle reads, “why the education system is a waste of time and money.” He is emphatically not against people learning skills and knowledge, but argues that our current system of education does a poor job of that, and at inordinate cost. He would like to see government subsidies for education stopped. Caplan puts his case starkly: “Most critics of our education system… miss what I see as its supreme defect: there’s way too much education. Typical students burn thousands of hours...

Amazon released its short list of contenders for its second-headquarters project on Thursday, and the news was bad. Whether it was worse for the hundreds of communities left out of the running or for the 20 so-called finalists is an open question. Judging from the willingness of some remaining contenders to endow one of the world's richest companies with billions in handouts, we're going with the latter. As we've been reporting since September, when the Seattle-based online retailer and tech giant announced plans to locate a $5-billion, 50,000-employee complex as its second headquarters somewhere in North America, offering tax abatements...

President Donald Trump will meet with a group of Republican lawmakers Thursday to discuss ways of addressing problems oil refiners have with the EPA’s biofuels mandate. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is among nearly a dozen Republican lawmakers prepared to confront Trump over his administration’s refusal to ratchet down the biofuel standard. They want to find a way to lessen the impact the standards have on oil refiners. “President Trump will meet with senators today to discuss his commitment to the Renewable Fuel Standard and how to effectively address the program’s impact on independent refiners,” White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said...

It looks like Congress is taking steps to end some of the special tax breaks and subsidies for major sports leagues in its tax reform package. Professional sports leagues like the NFL enjoy tax exemptions on the municipal bonds that are used to build their stadiums. A provision in Sec. 3604 eliminates this perk. If sports teams want to build new stadiums, they’re now going to pay federal taxes to do it.

Greetings to you, with my hope that you are doing well! According to public records, most of you are. That’s good! The whole U.S. produces somewhere around 15 billion bushels (BB) of corn a year at a rate of ca. 145 bushels per acre. Roughly, that’s 1/3 of the entire world production. Nearly 1/3 of the entire U.S. production comes from Iowa (2.7 BB), Illinois (2.3 BB), Nebraska (1.7 BB), Minnesota (1.5 BB), and Indiana (0.9 BB). Of that bountiful harvest, in the order of 25% are being converted via fermentation and distillation into ethanol, resulting in ~2.9 gallons of...

SHIFT IN THOUGHT   In a world awash in red ink, Argentina’s reforms since 2015 show how attitudes can shift toward excessive debt. The world’s largest economies are awash in red ink, the International Monetary Fund reported in October. And they are hard-pressed to service their debts, which on average amount to more than twice their domestic output. China accounts for much of this global rise in debt. After a leadership reshuffle this week, Beijing may start to finally tackle the problem. But one country in particular, Argentina, has shown how to change attitudes and turn around an unhealthy dependence...

Users of the Dulles Toll Road can expect to pay more in 2019, according to a 2018 draft budget presented to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Board today.No increase from the $3.50 toll ($2.50 at the plaza and $1 at the ramp) is planned in 2018; however, it is expected to jump to $4.75 the following year. Numbers presented by the Board’s Finance Committee show that is only the beginning of the hikes.In 2023, the toll is projected to go up to $6. Additional jumps of $1.25 or more are projected every five years for the following two decades, resulting...

Donald Trump is criticized, often justly, for misstatements of facts and failure to understand the details of public policy. But in two of his most recent controversial actions, he has taken stands upholding the rule of law and undoing the lawless behavior of his most recent predecessor. The question now is whether the author of "The Art of the Deal" -- and congressional Republicans and Democrats -- can maneuver and compromise on these issues in ways that produce sensible public policy. The first action in question was Trump's Sept. 5 announcement that he would withdraw Barack Obama's Deferred Action for...

Policymakers want to unleash economic growth in America by fixing our broken tax system. Or so they say. Now that the conversation has moved beyond just lowering tax rates, pro-growth tax reform is in danger of losing the stuff that actually makes it pro-growth. That’s because policymakers are caving to big-government advocates and other special interests. Here are the top five worst ideas that would surely dampen pro-growth tax reform. 1. Failing to enact full expensing. Full expensing—allowing businesses to deduct the full cost of their investments when they incur those costs, instead of spreading them out over many years—is...

There’s are a lot of liberals frothing at the mouth over the Trump administration’s decision to end the unconstitutional subsidies to insurance companies under the Affordable Care Act last week. The subsidies were given to insurance companies to help offset costs from lower-income individuals concerning deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses. It's meant to prevent premium spikes. And the termination of this subsidy is not just a conservative view or action item, by the way. It’s the opinion of the courts, as the LA Times reported back in May of 2016–it’s unconstitutional: House Republicans won Round 2 in a potentially historic...

President Trump is throwing a bomb into the insurance marketplaces created under the Affordable Care Act, choosing to end critical payments to health insurers that help millions of lower-income Americans afford coverage. The decision follows an executive order on Thursday to allow alternative health plans that skirt the law’s requirements. The White House confirmed late Thursday that it would halt federal payments for cost-sharing reductions, although a statement did not specify when. According to two people briefed on the decision, the cutoff will be as of November. The subsidies total about $7 billion this year. Trump has threatened for months...

President Donald Trump’s decision to end a provision of the Affordable Care Act that was benefiting roughly 6 million Americans helps fulfill a campaign promise, but it also risks harming some of the very people who helped him win the presidency. Nearly 70 percent of those benefiting from the so-called cost-sharing subsidies live in states Trump won last November, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.The subsidies are paid to insurers by the federal government to help lower consumers’ deductibles and co-pays. People who benefit will continue receiving the discounts because insurers are obligated by law to provide them....

A feature of the Trump Administration's proposed tax reform plan that has stirred fear among governors of high-tax states is the elimination of deductions for state income and property taxes. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) called it a "death blow" for his state. "New York has traditionally relied on high taxes to fund the services we provide for our population," the Governor pointed out. "Resistance to these tax high rates has been moderated by the fact that deductions from federal taxes has helped pass some of the burden onto to states that have lower taxes. If we lose that...

The Commerce Department slapped duties of nearly 220 percent on Canada’s Bombardier C Series aircraft Tuesday in a victory for Boeing that is likely to raise tensions between the United States and its allies Canada and Britain. Commerce ruled that Montreal-based Bombardier used unfair government subsidies to sell jets at artificially low prices in the U.S. “The U.S. values its relationships with Canada, but even our closest allies must play by the rules,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said. Canada responded by saying it “strongly disagrees” with the U.S. move. “This is clearly aimed at eliminating Bombardier’s C Series aircraft from...

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D.-N.Y.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D.-N.Y.) announced yesterday that the federal government will spend up to $18,000,000 to buy Concord grape juice in an effort to increase the price that New York farmers can get for their grapes. In a letter to Agricultural Secretary Sonny Perdue urging him to have the government buy the grape juice, Sen. Schumer noted that there are “more than 280 growers with over 9,700 acres” of Concord grape vineyards in New York State. “I write to encourage the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agriculture Marketing Service (AMS) to utilize...

Premiums for the most popular health insurance plans would shoot up 20 percent next year, and federal budget deficits would increase by $194 billion in the coming decade if President Trump carries out his threat to end certain subsidies paid to insurance companies for the benefit of low-income people, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday. The subsidies reimburse insurers for reducing deductibles, co-payments and other out-of-pocket costs that low-income people pay when they visit doctors, fill prescriptions or receive care in hospitals. Even before efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act collapsed in the Senate last month, Mr. Trump began...

Elon Musk is a very creative guy. We all know it, and often admire it. He’s the guy who’s going to colonize Mars, the guy who’s going to roof your house with solar shingle and pave highways with solar pavers. He’s also the guy who is now bringing us the Tesla 3 electric motor car, his new, more compact and sporty model for which he claims to have already received 500,000 orders. It’s all so wonderful, and his giant PR operation issues about 27 press releases a week bragging about his every move. Well, ok, not quote every move. Here’s...

Being a visionary billionaire and chief executive of three companies at once isn’t all fun and games, Elon Musk tweeted Sunday, describing “unrelenting stress” and suggesting he may be bipolar. Musk tweeted his replies to a number of questions on Twitter, starting with his response to a tweet that said he had “an amazing life.” “The reality is great highs, terrible lows and unrelenting stress,” Musk tweeted. “Don’t think people want to hear about the last two.” When someone else asked if he was bipolar, Musk replied “Yeah,” but then followed up with: “Maybe not medically tho. Dunno. Bad feelings...

Yes, it’s true… the United States smashed another fuel production record this year. According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA), the country produced over one million barrels per day of this liquid fuel in the first six months of 2017. Unfortunately, this isn’t something to brag about. It would be wise just to keep this lil record to ourselves, rather than broadcast it loudly across the energy news wires and Mainstream media. Why do I say that? Because the U.S. produced a record 1.02 million barrels per day of corn-based ethanol, the lowest quality fuel in the world. Corn...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk — whose company makes electric cars and has a new solar roof panel division — reminded more than 30 state governors at the National Governors Association meeting this weekend exactly how much real-estate is needed to make sure America can run totally on solar energy. “If you wanted to power the entire United States with solar panels, it would take a fairly small corner of Nevada or Texas or Utah; you only need about 100 miles by 100 miles of solar panels to power the entire United States,” Musk said during his keynote conversation on Saturday...