RealClearPolicy Articles

Hunger in the US is rising at an alarming pace – or is it? Last year’s annual report on food insecurity in the US led lawmakers to believe hunger is on the rise, and, unsurprisingly, federal lawmakers are using rising levels of food insecurity to advocate for expansions to federal government programs. Unfortunately, policymakers are conflating hunger and food insecurity – a subjective metric that is fundamentally flawed. Congress should reject calls for expanding government programs under the mistaken belief that hunger in the US is rising. Officially, a household is...

Following the Dobbs decision, Ohio’s strong pro-life laws were able to be enforced protecting unborn babies and their mothers. This was thanks to President Donald Trump. He did what no previous president had been willing to do in committing and following through on his promise to appoint pro-life justices to the Supreme Court. It’s no question he is the most pro-life president we have had. But last November, Ohio became one of 26 states to allow late-term abortions. Deceived by ads branding the abortion ballot measure as women’s healthcare, voters approved a sweeping...

Tax policy should be simple. The government should tax just enough to fund core government functions. Fairness in the tax code has always been a core of the American system. The government should not over tax consumers and corporations, or the economy will stagnate. The government should not give tax benefits to corporate friends and use the tax code to change behavior, because that is an abuse of the tax code. Right now, Congress is trying to sneak a tax change, in the form of refunds of duties, taxes and fees associated with the import of whiskey past the goaltender. If allowed, this...

While the entire country has struggled with the high cost of energy, the pain has been particularly felt in the Pacific Northwest. For years, this region has faced sky high energy prices that fuel a larger cost of living crisis. That is why consumers in these states would be outraged to learn that a key project to provide reliable and affordable energy is being delayed at an independent regulatory agency called Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) because of pressure from politicians.  If the U.S. regulatory system were working as designed, the Gas Transmission Northwest XPress...

Just recently, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Ed Markey’s (D-Mass.) bipartisan AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act surpassed majority support in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, setting it on the straightaway for passage. However, in a last-ditch effort, the auto industry is aggressively lobbying Congress to stop it. Leveraging the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board to draw attention to their argument by intimating that any bill introduced to retain AM radio in cars is nothing more than a “sop” to AM broadcasters, they painted the bill as mere government...

The Biden administration has begun waging a very public diplomatic war on Israel. After first pledging staunch support for Israeli war aims of eliminating Hamas, the White House now seems to be the terrorists’ last, best hope for survival. The Israel-shaming effort kicked off in earnest with Senator Chuck Schumer’s speech several weeks ago criticizing Israel’s government and calling for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be ousted as an “obstacle to peace.” President Biden praised the speech even as Schumer was walking it back. The diplomatic blows escalated in...

A Delaware federal trial court trimmed much of the Justice Department’s ambitious civil lawsuit against Walmart in connection with the opioid crisis last month, and in so doing spotlighted the politics that seem to infect the case.  U.S. District Judge Colm Connolly dismissed claims requesting civil monetary penalties and injunctive relief for Walmart’s and its pharmacists’ alleged failures to report suspicious orders to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and document resolution of “red flags” prior to filling prescriptions. Litigation will proceed...

Putting your taxes together, you may have noticed that many details of your personal life change how much you pay. Are you married? Do you have kids? Do you pay for child care, or does one parent stay home? These policies are, essentially, the tax code’s answer to the mommy wars, providing at least a little of something to everyone: better tax brackets for this, a credit for that. It can be hard for an individual taxpayer to figure out what he owes – and even harder for the concerned citizen to figure out how it all adds up across society and which types of families receive the...

The Rules Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives may be obscure to most of the public, but it may be the most important and powerful committee in Congress, since it has the power to guide the debate and amendment of almost every piece of legislation. Here are Five Facts on the House Rules Committee. The Rules Committee was formally constituted in 1789.  Originally, its role was to propose general rules for House procedure – in contrast to the more deliberative Senate, the House is governed by stricter rules regarding debate and process. Over time, especially starting in...

Living conditions need to improve for our military men and women. When you think about the costs of our service members to protect America, the bare minimum in return that we can give them is decent health care, food, and housing. Congress and the Pentagon can, and must, do more to make sure that military housing is not risky for those, and their families. A recent government study found that there are unacceptably hazardous living conditions for the members of the military. The General Accounting Office (GAO), notified Congress on September 27, 2023, “Junior-enlisted service members...

I would never lecture Tiger Woods on how to swing a golf club, Michael Phelps on how to swim, and I certainly won’t try to tell President Trump how to be pro-life. President Donald J. Trump has delivered more pro-life victories than any other president in American history. Unlike so many politicians in Washington who talk a good game and never deliver, President Trump appointed pro-life judges to the United States Supreme Court, overturned Roe v. Wade just as he promised, and was the first sitting President to ever speak at the March for Life in Washington DC. President Trump’s...

New nonpartisan reports on the soaring national debt are highlighting long-term concerns over the stability of our nation’s finances. Experts warn that this instability poses a direct threat to economic growth, as increased borrowing costs could lead to higher interest rates for consumers, stifling innovation and investment. Here are Five Facts on the national debt. New analysis by the Congressional Budget Office shows national debt levels rising to 166 percent of GDP by 2054. A higher debt-to-GDP ratio provides a snapshot of a nation’s overall fiscal health and its ability to...

One of the first programs Congress created to assist Americans thrown out of work by the pandemic was the unprecedented Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program. PUA expanded unemployment benefits to millions of independent contractors, the self-employed, and others never before eligible for regular Unemployment Insurance (UI) checks. But in some of the worst policy choices of all time, lawmakers failed to require PUA to confirm claimants’ identity or prior work history and even allowed individuals to “self-certify” their eligibility for benefit checks. Identity...

A recent New York Times story sent a shot of privacy concern across the auto industry. But the piece—neutrally reported by ace privacy reporter Kashmir Hill—shows that things are on the right road, once you take a step back from the immediate controversy. The controversy is part of the process—a market process by which we collectively configure goods and services. The headline is a good summary. Automakers Are Sharing Consumers’ Driving Behavior With Insurance Companies. Some drivers are understandably angry because insurance companies are using the data to adjust the...

Free speech matters. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail on Congress’ attempt to ban TikTok now that some time has passed from House debate and passage of a bill, H.R. 7521, forcing ByteDance’s divestment of TikTok or a complete ban of the social media platform in March on a 352-65 vote. The vote came after the Members were herded into a closed-door classified briefing from intelligence officials on national security concerns about TikTok's Chinese ownership. The fearmongering worked. Members of Congress have embraced the idea of taking away access of well over 100 million...

Last month the House overwhelmingly passed a bill that could force the sale of the social media platform TikTok. The bill, which garnered broad bipartisan support, would separate TikTok from its CCP-controlled parent company, ByteDance, cutting the platform off from a source of harmful propaganda and safeguarding the American public from America’s foremost national security threat. The bill could not be more timely, or necessary. TikTok is now the fastest growing news and video content platform in the United States. Although data privacy concerns surrounding the app have been well...

With the threat of yet another government shutdown finally behind us – at least for the remainder of this fiscal year, Congress can now focus on other important issues that have been set aside pending the resolution of the funding impasse. One of those issues is the perennial challenge of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) implementing policy to provide our nation’s disabled veterans with easy and timely access to the benefits they deserve. The unfortunate situation with disabled veterans is another case of the federal government making big promises but failing to deliver....

President Joe Biden signed a $1.2 trillion package funding federal agencies for the remainder of fiscal 2024 after the Senate passed the measure early on a Saturday morning and avoided a partial government shutdown, but Republicans seeking deeper cuts in spending were disappointed. Earlier this month, President Joe Biden proposed that the federal government would spend $7.3 trillion in fiscal 2025. The Wall Street Journal added three exclamation points to its headline: “Biden’s Budget: $7.3 Trillion!!!” As Americans are inundated with news about so many crises from all over...

The House overwhelming passed H.R.7521 – Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act by a bipartisan vote of 352 to 65.  With over two-thirds of the House coming together to support this bill, the Senate must bring it to a vote. President Joe Biden has already signaled he will sign the bill if the Senate passes it. If signed into law, the legislation would require Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest in the platform within six months, or face being shut down in the United States. After the House bill passed, Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, one of...