The Tragic but Unsurprising Costs of Loose U.S. Weapons in Ukraine
Jordan CohenOver the last 48 hours, national news outlets have begun reporting that Ukrainian militias used U.S.-made armored vehicles (albeitunconfirmed by the U.S. government) in anattack over the Russian border and that Ukraine ’s security services conducted a drone attackagainst the Kremlin earlier this month. It is important to note that despite Washington ’s support for Ukraine, the United States was not involved in either attack. This recent escalation – with U.S. weapons systems in one case – is disappointing but not surprising.Since the start of the conflict, I have writteneightdifferenteditorialsaddr...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 24, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Jordan Cohen Source Type: blogs
High Earners Make Relatively Smaller Tax Errors
Chris EdwardsSenate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D ‑OR) held a hearing last week to counter the House Republican plan to cut the recent IRS enforcement boost. Sen. Wydensaid, “If you’re looking for the big winners of the McCarthy IRS defunding plan, it’s billionaires and corporations who cheat on their taxes … Repealing that funding is a $191 billion giveaway to wealthy tax cheats.”Ioffered a different view at the hearing. I noted that tax enforcement imposes collateral damage, that the tax gap has been stable for decades, and that the U.S. tax gap appears to be smaller than Europe ’s. The “tax ga...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 23, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Chris Edwards Source Type: blogs
The Libertarian behind the World ’s First Freedom of the Press Act
Johan NorbergUNESCO has just designated the Swedish Freedom of the Press Act of 1766 a“Memory of the World.” It ’s a well‐deserved honor. This more than 250‐year old document, enacted during a period of strong parliamentary power in Sweden, is the world’s first freedom of the press act, signed into law ten years before the United States of America even existed.In defense of “unrestricted mutual enlightenment,” the1766 act created a constitutional right to publish one’s thoughts and ideas, abolished censorship (in everything but theological texts) and introduced the principle of public access to ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 23, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Johan Norberg Source Type: blogs
California Tries Charging for Electricity Based on Income
Marc JoffeIn California, private sector innovation is giving way to public sector experimentation. From the state that pioneered special gasoline formulations, cap ‐and‐trade, and natural gas bans, we now have income‐based electricity billing. While this idea may seem like a reasonable response to the problem of moderate‐income families being priced out of the state, a better approach would be to tackle the underlying causes of high energ y prices.A2022 state law instructed the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) to replace a flat monthly charge for the fixed costs of providing electricity w...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 22, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Marc Joffe Source Type: blogs
Collateral Damage of IRS Audits
Chris EdwardsThe Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 boosted the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) budget over the coming decade by $79 billion, most of which is for increased enforcement. President Biden ’s March budget includes the new spending and would more than triple enforcement outlays by 2031. House Republicans have proposed cutting the new IRS funding as part of the debt deal being negotiated.At a Senate Finance Committee hearing last week,I argued that jacking up enforcement and auditing would cause collateral damage to the private sector. There are better ways to reduce taxpayer errors, including simplifying the ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 22, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Chris Edwards Source Type: blogs
La Sombrita, or, How to Fail at Infrastructure
Paul MatzkoLos Angeles spent $200,000 on La Sombrita ( ‘“in the shade”), a bus stop shade/light structure that provides littleshade or light. It has been almost too easy to criticize its design, the token DEI framing given to the project, how most of the funds went to a global junket for the designers, or the fact that city officials held a tone deaf celebratory press conference for its unveiling. Would this “make waiting for the bus at night [feel]safer” to you?But La Sombrita isn ’t really the problem. Rather, its failures are symptoms of its designers trying to work around deeper, structural problems ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 22, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Paul Matzko Source Type: blogs
From Debt Ceiling Crisis to Debt Crisis
Romina BocciaThe U.S. government teeters on the brink of defaulting on its payment obligations over the next few weeks as the debt limit threatens to bind in early June. There ’s been extensivecoverage about the potential for catastrophic impacts on the economy if Congress and the President do not raise the debt ceiling. What ’s missing from the debate is serious consideration of the potentially catastrophic longer‐term scenario the United States could face if spending and debt continue growing unabated.Current debt limit discussions are indicative of the myopia that characterizes the federal budget process. A d...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 22, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Romina Boccia Source Type: blogs
FBI Budget
Chris EdwardsThe Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is in the news with the release of theDurham report and this week ’stestimony in the House about the agency ’s politicized leadership. In response to the FBI’s recent failures, many columnists and policymakers have called for eitherreforms, fundingcuts, or agencydismantling.The FBI has anannual budget of more than $11 billion and a workforce of 37,000 spread across headquarters, 56 field offices, 350 satellite offices, and dozens of foreign offices.The chart shows that real FBI spending almost doubled from $5.25 billion 2000 to $10.44 billion in 2011 and has si...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 19, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Chris Edwards Source Type: blogs
SCOTUS Sidesteps Section 230
Will DuffieldGonzalez v. Google, a much ‐watched Supreme Court case about whether Section 230 protects algorithmic curation,ended with a whimper on Thursday. In a three page per curiamopinion, the Court avoided addressing Section 230 at all. Instead, the court decidedGonzalezviaTwitter v. Taamneh, a related case about platforms’ underlying liability for hosting terrorist speech under the Anti‐Terrorism Act (ATA).In a clear, unanimousdecision authored by Justice Thomas the court held that Twitter did not “aid and abet” ISIS under the ATA by failing to prevent the terror group from using its platform...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 19, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Will Duffield Source Type: blogs
Friday Feature: Compass Educators and Ellemercito Academy
Colleen Hroncich“Prior to the pandemic, I had never considered microschooling or delved into out‐of‐system learning environments,” says Lizette Valles, founder ofCompass Educators andEllemercito Academy in California.Lizette and her husband Oscar were long ‐time private school teachers. After COVID-19 regulations closed schools, they founded Compass Educators: A Holistic Tutoring Company to help parents and students deal with distance learning challenges. Their goal was to meet students where they were and equip them to thrive in the new environ ment. It succeeded so well that some parents asked Lizett...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 19, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Colleen Hroncich Source Type: blogs
The Theory and Practice of Rhetoric: An Interview
Erec SmithInan interview for the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), I discuss the theory and practice of rhetoric. Although I am a professor of rhetoric by trade, many consider my participation in the current “culture war” as my primary motivation. This interview shows that my involvement in promoting viewpoint diversity and my embrace of rhetoric is symbiotic in nature.This 12 ‐minute video can be broken down into five segments.The Definition of Rhetoric. Rhetoric, according to Aristotle, is “the ability, in any given cast, to discern the available means of persuasion.” This definition implie...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 18, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Erec Smith Source Type: blogs
Tennessee Leads the Way in Removing Barriers to Foreign Doctors
Jeffrey A. SingerI have long beencalling for states to make it easier for doctors who are licensed and experienced in other countries to serve patients in this country. States require such doctors to repeat their entire residency training in an accredited residency program in the United States —even if they have been practicing successfully for years in their home countries—and pass the standardized U.S. Medical Licensing Exam. These onerous requirements deprive state residents of competent care from experienced physicians, many of whom are unable to find residency positions or cannot afford to start all over again. Ma...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 18, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs
Hearing Remarks: Protecting American Families from Higher Taxes
Adam N. MichelI recently testified for the Senate Budget Committee on the topic of taxes, economic growth, and budget deficits.You can read my full written testimonyhere, and watch the hearinghere. Below is a lightly edited version of the three main points I emphasized in my oral remarks.First, the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was a success. Second, tax cuts did not cause the federal deficit. And third, the topic of this hearing is really about the appropriate size and scope of government—a topic on which reasonable people can disagree. However, if Congress decides that the current trajectory of federal spending does ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 18, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Adam N. Michel Source Type: blogs
Tennessee Becomes the Latest State to Remove Barriers to Assistant Physicians
Jeffrey A. SingerTennessee Governor Bill Lee (R) signedHB 1311 into law onMay 17, creating the new health care practitioner category called “graduate physicians.” Tennessee now joins Missouri, Arizona, Arkansas, Utah, Kansas, Louisiana, and Idaho in removing barriers that prevent medical school graduates who have not landed a residency position from providing primary care services to patients and honing their knowledge and experien ce while licensed primary care physicians supervise them.With a large, medically underserved rural population, Missouri was the first state to launch a new licensure category in 2017: as...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 18, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs
The Fifth Amendment is Self ‐Executing
Ilya Somin andIsaiah McKinneyRichard Devillier and his family owned property abutting a highway in northern Texas, alongside other property owners. Texas built a dam next to their property to keep flood waters from flowing across the highway, which would have made it impassible. But this damming to protect the highway instead flooded and damaged the Devilliers’ property. When the Devilliers and other property owners sued for the taking of their property via the flooding, their claim was dismissed because states are sovereignly immune from lawsuits.The Devilliers had sued in state court, claiming that the state owed th...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 17, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Ilya Somin, Isaiah McKinney Source Type: blogs
