President Trump signed the Tax Cut and Jobs Act into law in December 2017. It cut taxes for most Americans, especially those living in low-tax states. But higher wage earners living in high-tax states such as California and New York weren’t able to deduct more than $10,000 of state and local taxes (SALT) off of...
After the warmup contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, 14 states and the territory of American Samoa are voting on Super Tuesday. California and Texas will award 48 percent of the delegates that day. Providing some perspective to the size of these two states, their most-populous counties, Los Angeles (10.1 million) and Harris (4.7 million), have a combined...
There is an ongoing dust up involving the First Amendment, allegations of prohibited viewpoint discrimination and legislative immunity in the Texas Senate. It’s fascinating stuff for political scientists, political practitioners, and journalists. It started on Thursday, February 27, when a man testified at a Texas State Senate hearing wearing a t-shirt that said, “F**K the...
The narrow passage of a nearly $10 billion high speed rail plan in California marked a triumph of pay-to-play ballot box corporate cronyism—otherwise known in politics as pork. Groups ranging from train manufacturers to multinational construction companies to trade unions brought the government train idea to the California Legislature back in the mid-1990s. Initially intended...
The Dow is down 1,000. Gold is up $30.30 intraday and $101.70 in the past 30 days. And oil is down $2.79 to $50.59, a drop of 5.2%. Are the markets simply in a correction or are they signaling a recession? The market turmoil is linked to the deadly virus outbreak in China, where factories...
There’s no end to fun surveys that purport to measure patriotism among the states, with military enlistments often part of the criteria. However, using enlistment rates to gauge the regional willingness to volunteer for the armed forces betrays a common misunderstanding of the way the U.S. military operates. What matters is accessions to the military, not enlistments....
Texas, the second-biggest Electoral College prize after California, may be a hard-fought political battleground this year. After Sen. Ted Cruz’ closer-than-expected 2.6 percent 2018 reelection victory over then-Congressman Beto O’Rourke, Democrats across the nation have been proclaiming Texas is theirs for the taking. Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has pledged to spend $1 billion to defeat President...
Will your vote count in 2020? Will your neighbors’ vote count? That might depend on whether you vote in person or try to vote by mail. In states with a significant vote by mail component, hijacking mail-in ballots is the tool of choice for those trying to steal elections. In 18 states, a photo identification...
As the People’s Republic of China grapples with the deadly Novel Coronavirus outbreak, there is mounting evidence that China’s economy is taking a major hit. The latest indicator is that U.S. crude oil futures are at their lowest prices in more than a year, down 21 percent from their January highs to $49.45 a barrel for the...
After 31 years in California, making a good living in commercial real estate, John Ghiselli had enough. His youngest child was out of high school and he was free to move where he wanted to with minimal disruption to his family life. He chose Texas. And he’s hoping you will, too—he’ll even help. Ghiselli wasn’t...
Economists used to that say “when America sneezes, the world catches a cold.” Could the same apply to China—as it struggles to contain the fallout from the coronavirus? After days of paralyzing dithering, the U.N.’s World Health Organization (WHO) finally declared a Global Health Emergency yesterday over the Novel Coronavirus, a week after failing to...
An entire cottage industry has sprung up around the nation, with books, articles, and pundits warning about an impending Electoral College blue shift. The theory is simple; blue-state economic migrants, in search of the opportunity they can’t find in their high-tax states, bring their liberal voting attitudes to their new homes, and then vote to enact the...