As a new year dawns, it's customary to reflect on the past and set resolutions for the future. This year, let's resolve to greet three widespread claims with healthy doses of skepticism. The first dubious claim is that income inequality in the United States has inexorably risen since the 1960s. It's a scary narrative heavily bolstered by the work…

How's America doing? Government statisticians provide mounds of data that provide useful clues, and none more so than the Census Bureau's estimates of population, announced in the holiday weeks at the end of each calendar year. The latest numbers measure the estimated population of each state as of last July 1 as compared to the constitutionally required…

The story of the 2024 campaign so far is the effort by Democrats and their appointees to use criminal charges and lawsuits to force former President Donald Trump out of the race for a second term in the White House. The name for such an effort is "lawfare" – that is, "the strategic use of legal proceedings to intimidate…

As the festive season approaches, with its twinkling lights and merry carols, the item topping my Christmas wish list is fiscal responsibility from Congress and the administration. If this sounds like an economist conflating policy with goodwill, remember this: In a world where holiday wishes usually lean toward "stuff" – …

When James Comer wondered on CNN whether special counsel David Weiss had indicted Hunter Biden on nine tax-related charges to protect him from having to be deposed in the House Oversight Committee, Jake Tapper snarkily responded: "Yes, the classic rubric. He indicted him to protect him. I got it." Well, yes. Indicting a person on lesser…

With U.S. government revenues rising, 2023 might have been a good year to get America's post-COVID-19 finances on track, but the budget deficit is still growing. You can thank overspending for this. It's also the reason we've had to live with inflation, higher interest rates and the threat of massive future tax hikes for another year. That sets up…

Two things are true: One, former President Donald Trump's polling – nationally, in key swing states, and in the first-voting state of Iowa – has never been better. And two, Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed by the Biden Justice Department to prosecute Trump, is taking self-described "extraordinary"…

After being asked the other day why he's interacted with "so many" foreign associates of his son Hunter and brother James, President Joe Biden responded by claiming the allegations were "a bunch of lies." This, of course, wasn't the first time the president blatantly lied about his role in the family influence peddling business…

Why would former Rep. Liz Cheney run for president? Is she nuts? Is she trying to sell a book? Why would a Republican whose last election was losing a state primary by 37 points think she should now seek the highest office in the land? Why would a politician hated by most of her own party and used by the other party simply to attack her colleagues…

By now it’s familiar news that Joe Biden’s toxic approval ratings have sown growing panic among Democrats.   Raising particular alarm to Biden supporters less than one year before the 2024 election, The New York Times released a poll earlier this month showing Donald Trump leading Biden in five of the six most pivotal swing states…

Most Americans meticulously plan their Thanksgiving meals and travel, sometimes budgeting months in advance to celebrate at a reasonable price tag. This prudent embodiment of both gratitude and restraint starkly contrasts with the approach of our politicians. It's an inconsistency that, especially this season, merits reflection. The national debt,…

You can see it with your own eyes. But Democrats and their left-wing media allies call it a "fantasy." What is it?  Election fraud. A Lawrence, Massachusetts voter who had been turned away from the polls on Election Day and told he had already voted found out he was the victim of fraud. He checked the footage on the video camera outside…

In the last several months, I have debated some of the intellectual leaders of a group called the "national conservatives." I consider myself a conservative (on most issues, though I lean more libertarian). National conservatives are well meaning and make some very valid points about the things that are going in the wrong direction in America…

Democrats claim election fraud is a myth. But videos don't lie.  Roll the tapes:  On Nov. 1, Connecticut Judge William Clark overturned the results of the Bridgeport mayoral primary, calling video evidence of potential fraud "shocking." Wanda Geter-Pataky, the vice chair of the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee, appears to…

The entire Democratic political establishment freaked out recently when The New York Times published a story headlined, "Trump Leads in 5 Critical States as Voters Blast Biden, Times/Sienna Poll Finds." The story was based on a new Times survey in which voters in six key swing states – Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan…

Some policy experts who, over the last few decades, saw little need for serious fiscal austerity because the government could borrow at low interest rates are now changing their tune. Their argument is that with rates now rising and the government's interest payments set to become extremely expensive, it's time to adjust. While I suppose that's progress…

The headline from a new Des Moines Register-NBC News poll of Iowa is that former President Donald Trump still has a big lead in the Republican race. Among those likely to take part in the Iowa caucuses, Trump is at 43%, with Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley tied for second place, at 16%. So, Trump has a 27-point lead, which is actually bigger than his…

According to a new Harvard/Harris poll, only the police and military are more respected than Israel. It's heartening that Americans overwhelmingly support civilization over the Islamofascists of Gaza and Iran. Then again, "Palestinian Authority" gets 17% support, and Hamas has a 14% positive rating – which is to say 14% of…

Former President Donald Trump's support now stands at 59% among Republican voters nationwide in the 2024 presidential nomination race. His lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, still the second-place candidate in the race, is 46.3 points. Both Trump's support and the size of his lead are the biggest they have ever been. After four indictments from…

Congress and the Biden administration seem unaware that rising interest rates are about as "transitory" as they told us inflation would be – meaning, likely to be around for quite a while. Why does this matter? Ask someone who's been enticed by a mortgage with a variable interest rate that starts low and then rises quickly…

An extraordinary document emerged from the 2024 Republican presidential race this week, and it isn't getting enough attention. It's a memo from the super PAC supporting Tim Scott, the GOP senator who was once seen as a promising contender but has recently slipped in polls both nationally and in early primary states. Scott is now in seventh place in…

Painful inflation.  Rising interest rates.  Societal malaise.  Now add to that toxic mix an emboldened Iran, ongoing Russian thuggery against its weaker neighbor and an audacious assault resulting in American hostages taken by a murderous Middle Eastern regime.   Suddenly, it’s beginning to look a lot like 1979 again…

For all the talk that has sometimes surrounded his presidential candidacy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was never able to break through in the Democratic primary race against President Joe Biden. Reports would say his support was "growing," or that he was "surging," but he was never able to surpass the 20% support in national polls he…

You've undoubtedly noticed how up-in-arms everyone becomes when the government is on the verge of shutting down. I've also noticed that the people who most loudly express their horror at the notion of a partial government closure seem totally comfortable with the fiscal wall we are barreling into. That wall is being built, brick by brick, by two political…

Last week, President Joe Biden's German shepherd Commander bit a Secret Service agent. That marked the 11th time – yes, the 11th time – that Commander had bitten one of the agents and other Secret Service officers who guard the president. Some of the attacks left wounds requiring medical attention, and at least one required…

Joe Biden defenders have been on a wild ride this past year. It began with them arguing that the president knew absolutely nothing about his family's influence-peddling business to arguing that it's no big deal that Chicom wire payoffs happen to have Biden's home address listed on them. The quality of the excuses, unsurprisingly, has been deteriorating…

President Joe Biden is pitching himself as the savior of democracy. "I will always defend, protect, and fight for our democracy," he said at a campaign event last week in New York City. He's been saying it for four years. It's a blatant lie. He's the king of censorship, silencing his critics like a despot and even trying to defend his censorship…

House Republicans are in another titanic battle with President Joe Biden on how to balance the budget. Actually, it's a lopsided debate because Democrats have no interest at all in reducing the deficit. They are operating under the delusional idea paradigm of "Modern Monetary Theory," which posits that the U.S. government can borrow $2 trillion…

Democrats find themselves suffering a deepening panic as Joe Biden trails almost every potential Republican 2024 opponent, even according to CNN’s latest survey.   A multitude of performance failures explain Biden’s stubborn unpopularity, and the net disapproval from which he hasn’t recovered began in the wake of his disastrous…

The Biden administration is setting a booby trap in case a Republican wins the presidency in 2024.  On Friday, the White House unveiled a proposed rule that would make it even harder than in the past for an incoming Republican president to wrestle control of the left-leaning federal bureaucracy and actually implement the conservative policies…