GAO: HHS unprepared for the next pandemic
The Government Accountability Office recently issued a report on whether the Department of Health and Human Services would be able to handle a new pandemic or other global health threat….
Congress revives legislation that would trash online privacy and security
Bad ideas may be defeated in official Washington. But that doesn’t mean they are forgotten. A very bad idea like the EARN IT Act, which threatened both online privacy and…
Inflation begins to dig in
While the Federal Reserve promises it will start taking inflation seriously, likely through a series of interest rate hikes over the year, prices are still going up. And that means…
How busting price gougers makes shortages worse
Politicians love to issue press releases saying they nabbed another heartless price gouger who ripped off customers during a recent spate of bad weather/emergency/other supply chain crunch. But as Cato’s…
Transportation Department fails at memes and lobbying
The Department of Transportation has decided it doesn’t have enough to do, so it’s decided to fill the idle hours posting memes on social media lobbying for the passage of…
Build Back Better would have devastated the prescription drug market
Among the array of policy prescriptions that were embedded in the Biden administration’s now-bricked Build Back Better proposal was a destructive nostrum that isn’t getting nearly the attention it should….
Biden administration threatening to plant the seeds of another housing market collapse
In an ominous sign that parts of the nation’s financial apparatus have totally forgotten the lessons of the 2007-2008 Great Recession, it looks like a mortgage buying binge, all in…
Democrats do like tax breaks…for unions
Congressional Democrats need a lot of new tax revenue to pay for at least a portion of the social spending they wish to pass. But they also have a few…
Cooks push back against gas stove bans
We’ve written before about how some local governments have stopped issuing permits for natural gas hookups in residential and commercial projects, mandating instead that such projects be electric-power only. The…
GAO High-Risk List Includes Postal Service Financial Woes and Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities
Every two years, the Government Accountability Office issues a report on “high-risk” programs and operations in government that have “vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement, or that need transformation.”…