Maritime Protectionism Continues to Plague Offshore Wind Development
Colin GrabowAfter years of planning and preparation, theVineyard Wind project is swinging into high gear. Wind turbine monopiles recentlyarrived fromSpain have been loaded onto a specialized vessel that is now installing themoff the coast of Massachusetts. When that job is complete it will return to port for another batch. But these back ‐and‐forth trips don’t involve a nearby Massachusetts port, or any U.S. port for that matter. Rather, thanks to the protectionistJones Act the hub of this activity is Halifax, Nova Scotia over 400 miles away from the future wind farm.Passed in 1920, the Jones Act restrict...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 30, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Colin Grabow Source Type: blogs
Fast Facts about Discretionary Spending
Romina Boccia and Dominik LettThe federal government will spend $6.3 trillion in 2023, 27 percent is discretionary and 73 percent is mandatory. Discretionary spending refers to federal programs that receive funding through annual appropriations. Less than half ofdiscretionary spending is for defense. More than half isfor nondefense activitiesincludingeducation, infrastructure, scientific research, and other programs.If Congress does not pass annual appropriations bills before October 1st (the beginning of the federal fiscal year), the government undergoes a partial “shutdown” where non‐essential functions are ha...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 30, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Romina Boccia, Dominik Lett Source Type: blogs
$9.3 Billion San Jose Subway Project Would Reduce Local Car Trips Less Than 0.4%
Marc JoffeA six ‐mile extension to the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system would have a minimal impact on personal vehicle emissions according to data in a federal travel forecast. Further, because the federal analysis is based on pre‐pandemic socioeconomic forecasts and travel patterns, it greatly ove restimates future ridership on the subway extension, which has a $9.3 billion estimated cost.A Federal Transit Administration (FTA)profile of the project shows that the BART extension would provide 32,900 passenger trips per weekday, or just over 9.5 million trips per year in 2040. The annual estimate is about 2...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 30, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Marc Joffe Source Type: blogs
Jimmy Lai: Prisoner of the State
ConclusionHong Kong ’s turn from the principles that made it a great society—namely, the rule of law, nonintervention, and a free market for ideas—has made successful entrepreneurs and advocates of freedom like Jimmy Lai enemies of the state. By silencing critics—under the guise of national security—both Ho ng Kong and China have sacrificed liberty in the name of “stability.” Reversing that trend is the biggest challenge they face in achieving social and economic harmony. (Source: Cato-at-liberty)
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 30, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: James A. Dorn Source Type: blogs
House GOP Pushes Back Against OECD
Adam N. MichelThe House Ways and Means Committee Republicans recently released legislation to retaliate against individuals and businesses based in countries that impose extraterritorial taxes on American companies. The proposal is a reaction to ongoing efforts by the OECD to coordinate a global tax increase on large multinational companies.Instead of raising taxes, Congress should stop funding the OECD and focus on making the United States the most attractive place to do business.TheRepublican proposal would have Treasury identify extraterritorial and discriminatory taxes levied by other countries on U.S. companies. In...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 26, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Adam N. Michel Source Type: blogs
Supreme Court Clarifies Murky “Waters of the United States” Definition: It No Longer Includes Mud Puddles
Jay Schweikert andIsaiah McKinneyThis week, inSackett v. EPA, the Supreme Court closed the book on Mike and Chantell Sackett ’s 19 year saga of trying to build on their land. In 2004, the Sacketts purchased property 500 feet from the shores of Priest Lake, Idaho. In 2007, after they started to fill in wet spots in their property so they could build a home, EPA officials informed the Sacketts that their property was a wetland adjacent to a tributary that fed into the lake, and therefore counted as “navigable waters” under the EPA’s jurisdiction pursuant to the Clean Water Act (“CWA”). The Sacketts would ne...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 26, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Jay Schweikert, Isaiah McKinney Source Type: blogs
Public Schools Can ’t Force Employees to Support Ideas They Oppose
Thomas A. Berry andNicholas DeBenedettoIn the Fall of 2020, public schools in Springfield, Missouri implemented mandatory “equity” training. All employees of the school district were required to attend a session, not just teachers. The employees were told that if they did not participate, the school district would dock their pay and they could lose necessary professional development credit.The training topics included “Oppression, White Supremacy, and Systemic Racism” and tools on “how to become Anti‐Racist educators.” Training sessions included several interactive exercises that required participants to ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 26, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas A. Berry, Nicholas DeBenedetto Source Type: blogs
Friday Feature: Challenger School
Colleen HroncichThe late Barbara Baker left behind quite a legacy. She was a first grade teacher in 1960 when she realized her incoming students were unprepared because her school district had dropped phonics. Despite being pregnant with her fifth child, Barbara quit teaching and started her own preschool in 1963. “I figured that if they learned phonic s in preschool, no one could take that away from them,” shesaid.That modest beginning —half of the students in the first class were family and friends—ultimately launchedChallenger School. Jeff Davis, whose own children attended Challenger, now serves as marketing...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 26, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Colleen Hroncich Source Type: blogs
The HALT Fentanyl Act Doubles Down on Denialism
Jeffrey A. SingerYesterday the House of Representatives voted 289 –133 topass the HALT Fentanyl Act.* Theact permanently classifies fentanyl ‐related substances (FRS)—analogs of fentanyl that differ chemically from analogs currently used medically (e.g.,sufentanil,remilfentanil,alfentanil) —as Schedule 1 drugs. The Drug Enforcement Administrationdefines Schedule 1 drugs as having “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”Set aside the fact that politicians have no way of knowing that future analogs have no potential medical use (think of all those years lost intreating mental hea...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 26, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs
Representative Mooney Calls Out Fed ’s CBDC Pilots
Nicholas AnthonyLate last year, the Federal Reservecaught attention for its central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot projects. Going beyond traditional research, the Federal Reserve contracted with the private sector to build potential CBDCs for the United States. As American Banker ’sJohn Adams reported at the time, “Even as debate in the U.S. rages over the utility of a digital dollar, work continues on the nuts and bolts of a potential American CBDC.”Therefore, with concerns about therisks of CBDCs high and the potential for such CBDC development to go awry, Representative Alex X. Mooney (R ‑WV)introduced a ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 26, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Nicholas Anthony Source Type: blogs
The Supreme Court Strikes Down Home Equity Theft
Thomas A. Berry andIsaiah McKinneyToday, ina unanimous decision, the Supreme Court held that local governments cannot take surplus home equity after liquidating delinquent taxpayers ’ property to pay their tax bill. Typically, if a property owner is behind on her property taxes, governments will take the property, liquidate it, and use the funds to pay off the tax bill and any accrued fees. Most states then return any remainder back to the property owner. However, Minnesota and 13 other states maintained a practice of greedily pocketing any surplus equity instead of returning it to the rightful property owner.That is...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 25, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas A. Berry, Isaiah McKinney Source Type: blogs
It ’s World Trade Week…and (Apparently) the Start of the “Silly Season” in Washington
Scott Lincicome and Alfredo Carrillo ObregonIt ’s a well‐known fact in the nation’s capital that politicians’ rhetoric gets progressively detached from reality as a November election approaches. During a race’s final few months, inconvenient things like “facts” and “logic” tend to get thrown out the window as candidates g et desperate for votes.On trade, at least, it seems President Biden has kicked off the 2024 “silly season” more than a year early.In particular, Biden ’s recent proclamation announcingWorld Trade Week 2023 (and implicitly justifying his tariff ‐ and subsidy‐heavy “w...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 25, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Scott Lincicome, Alfredo Carrillo Obregon Source Type: blogs
Legalizing Organ Sales
This article appeared onSubStack on May 25, 2023.Organ sales are illegal in the United States and most other countries (Iran is a partial exception). The National Organ Transplantation Act of 1984states, “it shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly acquire, receive, or otherwise transfer any human organ for valuable consideration for use in human transplantation if the transfer affects interstate commerce.” The penalty for breaking the law is a fine of $50,000 or up to five years in prison , or both.In Libertarian Land, organ markets are legal. This makes everyone better off.Consider first kidneys. People have ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 25, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey Miron Source Type: blogs
My Thoughts on Letters in Black and White
Erec SmithOn Friday, June 2nd at 3 PM, Cato will hold a book forum on the newly publishedLetters in Black and White: A New Correspondence of Race in America.This book is a epistolary correspondence between a white woman (Jennifer Richmond) and a black man (Winkfield Twyman). This book models civil discourse on race and illustrates how dialogue about this touchy subject can be difficult yet generative and, ultimately, worth it.I am proud to have written theForeword for this book. In that Foreword, available for free inThe Journal of Free Black Thought, I explain what I see as the book’s primary benefit.Twyman...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 25, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Erec Smith Source Type: blogs
New York City, Rhode Island, and Now Minnesota Defy the “Crack House Statute”
Jeffrey A. SingerMinnesota Governor Tim Walz signedSenate File 2974, the Omnibus Human Services appropriations bill into law on Wednesday, May 24. Among the most notable features of the spending bill is that itappropriates $55.49 million in one ‐time grants in 2024 for:[O]rganizations to establish safe recovery sites that offer harm reduction services and supplies,including but not limited to safe injection spaces; sterile needle exchange; naloxone rescue kits; fentanyl and other drug testing; street outreach; educational and referral services; health, safety, and wellness services; and access to hygiene and sanitatio...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 25, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs
