Economy

Trump’s Policy “Magic Wand” Boosts Manufacturing Jobs 399% In First 26 Months Over Obama’s Last 26

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump consistently promised to revive America’s manufacturing economy. Trump’s focus on manufacturing brought out high-profile critics who scoffed at the notion. President Obama notably said in June 2016 that manufacturing jobs “are just not going to come back.” He said this at a time when manufacturing job growth had...

March 11, 2019

Energy & Environment

Federally-Funded NPR Joins The Green New Deal Chorus, Citing A Flawed Climate Disaster Study

On March 5, National Public Radio (NPR) posted an investigatory piece entitled, “How Federal Disaster Money Favors The Rich,” which asserted that the U.S. is experiencing more disasters due to climate change and that federal disaster assistance favors the wealthy over the poor. This is a classic call to action: things are bad and getting...

March 5, 2019

Taxes & Spending

As Texas Property Taxes Soar, Local Governments Spend Taxpayer Dollars To Stymie Reform

Texas is one of seven states that doesn’t levy a personal income tax. And while Texas’ overall state and local tax burden is considered relatively light, putting Texas 15th on the Tax Foundation’s 2019 State Business Tax Climate Index, the Lone Star State’s property tax ranking is 37th, meaning that 36 other states have a...

February 26, 2019

Energy & Environment

Wildfires Caused By Bad Environmental Policy Are Causing California Forests To Be Net CO2 Emitters

In the past two years, wildfires scorched 2.9 million acres in California, including five of the state’s 20 deadliest fires killing 131 people. Former California Gov. Jerry Brown grimly warned that because of man-made climate change, these destructive wildfires are the “new abnormal” that threaten “our whole way of life.” Newly elected Gov. Gavin Newsom’s rhetoric has...

February 25, 2019

Energy & Environment

Texas Taxpayers, the French Government and Wind Power

At least 57 times in 2017, and many more last year, Georgetown’s residents paid EDF, a company owned 84.5% by the government of France, around 6 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity produced in the middle of the night when demand was low—so low, in fact, that because of tax incentives and government subsidies, the...

February 21, 2019

Taxes & Spending

Will Trump Put California’s Broken Bullet Train Out Of Its Misery?

A little more than a decade after California voters narrowly approved a ballot proposition to build an 800-mile high-speed rail system for $35 billion, with completion promised for next year, the project has been derailed by gross government incompetence and malfeasance. The remarkable (and very public) beginning of the end for the state-run rail project...

February 20, 2019

Taxes & Spending

California’s Gavin Newsom throws Green New Deal train network under the bus

Chuck Devore, former California assemblyman, says the cost of high-speed rail tickets would cost twice as much as an airline ticket. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, under budgetary pressure to provide more government health care for illegal immigrants and more housing for the working poor, just threw the Green New Deal’s nationwide train network under the...

February 13, 2019

Economy

State Fiscal Health: 10 States Facing Tough Times And 10 States Looking Strong

Unlike the federal government, Article I, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution prohibits states from issuing their own money. State power to tax and borrow is thus limited only by economics and commonsense. Some states rely heavily on volatile revenue sources, such as personal income taxes with high marginal rates or excise taxes on oil...

February 5, 2019

Economy

Manufacturers Added 6 Times More Jobs Under Trump Than Under Obama’s Last 2 Years

The federal government released its first jobs report of 2019, showing that nonfarm payroll grew by 304,000 in January, far above economists’ consensus estimate of 170,000. The average monthly gain in 2018 was 223,000. Over the past year, average hourly earnings were up 3.2%. After revising its data for past periods, the U.S. Bureau of...

February 1, 2019

Economy

Two Huge Effects Of Trump’s Economic Policies: Jobs Surge In Both Manufacturing And Low Tax States

Federal statisticians are beginning to put a wrap on 2018, providing a clearer picture of the positive effects of President Trump’s tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks. There are two sets of data that truly stand out: manufacturing job growth and the rate of private sector job growth in the states. Looking at the national jobs...

January 30, 2019

Energy & Environment

Texas town’s environmental narcissism makes Al Gore happy while sticking its citizens with the bill

Political leaders in a college town in central Texas won wide praise from former Vice President Al Gore and the larger Green Movement when they decided to go “100 percent renewable” seven years ago. Now, however, they are on the defensive over electricity costs that have their residents paying more than $1,000 per household in...

January 29, 2019

Energy & Environment

It’s Cold in China, And Environmental Central Planning Has Turned Off The Heat

The rural areas surrounding Beijing get cold during the winter, with an average low of 15 degrees Fahrenheit in January. To cope with the daily chill, millions of farmers and laborers have burned coal to keep warm. But the coal—especially coal burned in a home furnace—came at the cost of air pollution, not only in...

January 23, 2019