To allow our our work to reach the widest audience, as of May 2018, new blog posts will appear on the Independent Institute’s main blog, The Beacon. Please visit The Beacon for the latest insights on government waste, tax policy, economics, and more.
One of the stranger side stories to come out of the FBI’s secret investigation of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s election campaign back in 2016 came out in the news last week, where the FBI apparently chose to redact (or black out) a portion of a text message sent between FBI agents Lisa Page and…
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Back on March 19, this writer put in his typical Monday workday and never left his neighborhood in California’s capital city. That schedule is somewhat at odds with a notice I received from FasTrak, California’s freeway tolling agency. “Immediate Attention Required—Official FasTrak Notice,” read the outside of the envelope, mailed on May 14. “Violation…
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As of the end of 2017, there were over 2 million bureaucrats who directly work for the U.S. government. That amazing number doesn’t include the 503,103 people who work for the U.S. Postal Service or any of the 1.3 million active duty members of the U.S. military services or the nation’s 800,000 reservists. Nor…
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The scandal-plagued U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs does not currently have a congressionally approved leader. At the same time, the VA’s bureaucrats also appear to have little interest in providing timely health care to America’s veterans, nor do they appear to take the business of maintaining safe and clean medical facilities for their patients…
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June 6 will mark 40 years since California voters passed the People’s Initiative to Limit Property Taxation, more commonly known as Proposition 13. As its primary backers recall, “property taxes were out of control. People were losing their homes because they could not pay their property taxes, yet government did nothing to help them.”…
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Two weeks ago, the White House was floating a trial balloon for using rescission to cut $25 billion worth of spending. Last week, the White House moved forward with what appears to be a down payment on that plan, where they are initially seeking to surgically claw back some $15 billion worth of spending…
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Former governor George Deukmejian recently passed away at 89. Many Californians have little memory of the Golden State’s 35th governor, who served from 1983 to 1992. Millennials and such may be unaware that Deukmejian was the last California governor to return surplus funds directly to taxpayers in the form of a check. In 1987,…
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April is the one month in which the U.S. government can be expected to run a budget surplus, thanks largely to the annual filing of personal income taxes that are due during the month. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, April 2018 saw the biggest budget surplus ever recorded in the nation’s history of…
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New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman is the latest target of the #Me Too movement, with four women charging that Schneiderman abused them, calling one his “brown slave” and making her say that she was “his property.” Schneiderman, a self-proclaimed advocate for woman, dismissed it as “role playing,” and says he never crossed the…
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