Railroads Are Overwhelmingly Safe, but Congress Wants More
After many years of working in the policy world, I have concluded that politics is at most 10% about making the world better and safer. The rest is at least 45%...
About: Veronique de Rugy
Posts by Veronique de Rugy
What to Make of New Projections of Big Government Savings
We have a debt-ceiling deal. It’s a relief for most people. This deal avoids a default and the need for the Department of the Treasury to make hard choices over which...
Resist Dangerous Political Theater and Look to “That Which Is Not Seen”
Too many politicians are thespians. When there’s a conflict — as there often is — between appearing to solve problems and actually helping to solve those problems, politicians can almost always...
Surprise: Debt Conversation Brings More Pointless “Tax-the-rich” Talk
Whenever we have a national conversation about government debt, Democrats invariably respond that spending is not the reason the debt is now nearly equal to our national GDP. The real cause...
Why the Debt Ceiling Continues to Matter
The debt-ceiling standoff has people concerned about what will happen if the U.S. defaults on its debt. I certainly hope both sides will come together to avoid this outcome. But it...
Junk Fees Are Just Bureaucratic Junk Food
Any parent will tell you that forcing children to eat their spinach is no way to win a household popularity contest. Children don’t care about the long-term benefits of eating healthy...
What You Need to Know About the Debt-ceiling Debate
If you read news coverage about the brewing battle over raising the debt ceiling, you might think it’s a fight between demons and angels. On one side, you have Republicans who...
One Stat Rarely Tells the Story
Government debt as a share of the U.S. economy is falling. This must mean the Biden administration and Congress are practicing fiscal responsibility, right? No, it doesn’t. The main driver behind...
The Fed Has More Than a “Credibility” Problem
I have heard some people say that the Federal Reserve has a credibility problem. The agency missed the biggest inflation spike since the 1980s, was slow to start rolling back pandemic...
More Entitlement Red Flags as Politicians Tout Inaction
Republicans and Democrats have been tripping over each other to tell voters how committed they are to making zero changes to Social Security and Medicare. Meanwhile, the Social Security and Medicare...
Are More Progressives Coming Around on Overregulation?
George McGovern, the Democratic Party’s 1972 presidential nominee, was a liberal icon. During many years in political office, including as a U.S. senator from South Dakota, McGovern successfully championed loads of...
How Banning Chinese Products Could Backfire for the U.S.
The controversy over proposed state and federal bans of Chinese-produced apps has sparked debate about the wisdom of country-of-origin bans in general. On the surface, banning TikTok and other controversial products...
The President’s Budget Reveals the Real Priority: Tax Hikes
Budgets are about priorities. In the Biden administration’s new budget, its apparent priorities are marred by problems. Here’s the cheat-sheet version: Rather than containing explosive growth in spending, it would use...
Welcome to the Age of Political Capitalism
Welcome to our regime of political capitalism, where merit matters but political connections matter even more. In an unalloyed capitalist system, money flows to those who offer goods and services of...
The American Way Versus the Politicians’ Way
Let’s call it the “Biden way”: When our president can’t get his policies through Congress, he tries to impose them in other ways. Just look at his student loan forgiveness plan,...