Americans will celebrate their freedom from tyranny on July 4. Unfortunately, these freedoms are rapidly eroding due to an increasing amount of government regulation and intervention into everyone’s daily lives.
Passage of TPA is a Win for All
On June 24, 2015, the Senate followed the House’s lead and voted 60-38 in favor of H.R. 2146, which contained the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act (TPA). After President Obama signed the bill into law on June 29, 2015, he can now “fast track” trade deals to Congress for approval by a simple majority in both chambers. This process assures trading partners that agreements cannot be amended once a deal has been consummated.
Blundering TSA Needs a Mid-Course Correction
In this post-9/11 world, Americans would not argue that the government should do everything possible to protect them from harm. However, an agency tasked with that mission has tallied a frightening number of failures in nearly every area of its mandate and is in need of more significant reform.
Signal Lost and $430 Million Wasted
Following the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, the 9/11 Commission identified the need for an interoperable communication network among the nation’s first responders. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was tasked with creating a common channel that different types of first responders could access. After more than a decade and $430 million spent, the […]
Our Constitution Continues to Dissolve
On Thursday, June 25, the Constitution and our tripartite system of government took a major hit. The Supreme Court, in a 6 to 3 opinion, ruled against the plaintiffs in King v Burwell, a lawsuit concerning who was entitled to taxpayer-funded subsidies in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) better known as ObamaCare. You may recall […]
A Positive Start to Repeal the Medical Device Tax
On Thursday, June 18, the House of Representatives voted to repeal the 2.3 percent excise tax on total sales for certain medical devices that was created in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The legislation, H.R. 160, entitled the “Protect Medical Innovation Act,” passed by a vote of 280 to 140. All the Republicans and 46 […]
The Unfair “Fairness” Act
It is disingenuous to call something fair and equitable when it is clearly not. This is the case with both S. 698, the Marketplace Fairness Act of 2015 (MFA), and the Remote Transaction Parity Act (RTPA), introduced on June 15, 2015 by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah). Both bills purport to bring “equity” between the taxation […]
Taxing the Digital Age
Imagine someone sitting at the airport terminal in Seattle, Washington, waiting for a flight home to Ohio. Boredom has set in, as she waits for her flight to board, and she wants something to do. So she scans through the app store on her mobile device, finds a game that happens to be located on a server in Utah and purchases it. When she is back in Ohio and opens up her mobile billing statement, she could find a sales tax remittance for not just her home state of Ohio, but also from Utah and Washington. In fact, if the company that developed the app was based in yet another state that taxes digital goods, she could potentially be subject to up to four separate taxes on a single purchase.
Up, Up and Away
During both of his two campaigns and the 2009 debate over healthcare reform, President Obama often stated that his plan would cut the average premium of a typical family by $2,500 per year. But not surprisingly, prices are instead going in the opposite and wrong direction. As Jed Graham blared in his May 18, 2015 Investor’s Business Daily column, “ObamaCare Premium Increases Next Year May Shock You.”
Tossing a Broken Lifeline to Subsidize Broadband
In 2014, approximately $8.5 billion was collected in Universal Service Fund (USF) fees from consumers as a tax on their communications services. The four main USF programs are the Low-Income support services, which includes the Lifeline and Link-Up programs; the High-Cost program; the E-Rate Library and Schools program; and the Rural Health program. While there are many questions and concerns about all of these programs, the Lifeline program, which was established in 1985 to provide subsidized telephone services to low-income households, has perhaps the most sordid history of waste, fraud and abuse.