The Senate soon will take up ill-advised legislation (S. 743) misnamed the “Marketplace Fairness Act” to authorize every state to force out-of-state businesses to serve as the state’s sales tax collector, overruling the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1992 decision in Quill Corporation v. North Dakota. As Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) said …
The President has a right to nominate cabinet secretaries who share his political views. He does not have a right to appoint unqualified cabinet secretaries. The Senate should critically examine Thomas Perez’s nomination for Secretary of Labor. He has a record of selective law enforcement, questionable judgment, and bad management. …
President Obama’s budget proposes raising the minimum wage to $9 an hour. This would hurt the very workers the President wants to help. When the price of something rises, people—both consumers and employers—purchase less of it. Americans responded to the higher cost of gas by driving less. Businesses similarly respond …
The situation encountered by Heritage analysts on the ground in Venezuela last week was of a country that has been looted and is falling apart—literally and figuratively. The once thriving nightlife of downtown Caracas is but a distant memory. These days the streets are deserted, surrendered to gangsters and narcotraffickers. …
The death of Margaret Thatcher received extensive media coverage in Chile, proving that the “Dama de Hierro” (“Iron Lady”) is still capable of stirring powerful emotions among Chileans—of irritation among her opponents and admiration from her supporters. Her passing occurred while Heritage economic experts were in Santiago to present results …
The United States is currently engaged in Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade negotiations designed to reduce barriers to international trade and investment. The latest text from these negotiations shows how trade agreements, if properly designed and implemented, help advance economic freedom around the world. Among other things, the draft text calls …
The Obama Administration is reportedly pushing banks to increase mortgage lending to people with relatively weak credit in hopes of boosting home sales. But the very same policy under Presidents Clinton and Bush contributed mightily to the housing bubble that ultimately devastated millions of families in mortgage default. Credit is …
Scott Winship’s recent piece in National Affairs, “Overstating the Costs of Inequality,” elevates the national debate over the role that income inequality plays in economic mobility and growth. Winship, an economist at the Brookings Institution, finds “simply very little evidence to suggest that…income disparities between the rich, middle class, and …
Union contracts often pick winners and losers in the workplace. However, teachers unions may soon lose the power to pick losers—at least in Kansas. Legislators there are considering giving unionized teachers the option of negotiating for themselves. The pain of union control is illustrated by Bria Klotz, a former sixth-grade …
