FreedomTalks

The Heritage Foundation recenly published its third-quarter report card for Congress, and it looks as if some improvement is needed, especially in the area of entitlement reform. That story here.

When tax cuts are proposed, some Members of Congress and outside agencies clamor about how much the cuts will deplete the government coffers. The Wall Street Journal reports, though, that the CBO and Joint Tax Committee managed to underestimate tax revenue by $2.04 trillion over the last ten years. It seems as though their outdated method of forecasting, in which they didn’t take […]

Reason Foundation senior analyst Shikha Dalmia comments that the Kyoto protocols carbon trading scheme has collapsed, with a glut of emissions credits flooding the market.  Prices of per ton of CO2 emissions credits dropped from 31euros to 12euros in just three weeks, finally resting at 9euros.  This is not because of drastic reductions in emissions, […]

Yesterday, Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL), along with Alex Pollack of AEI and David John of Heritage, spoke at the Heritage Foundation on reforming the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). Passed in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom scandals, the goal of SOX is to tighten corporate governance and remedy the problem of moral hazard in corporations. While […]

Daniel Mitchell of the Heritage Foundation exposes the US practice of ‘world wide taxation’ where expatriates living overseas are forced to pay US taxes along with the taxes they pay in their adopted country. He explains the harm this does to business because many of the companies agree to pay for their employees taxes so […]

It appears that former Goldman Sachs CEO is headed to quick confirmation as Treasury secretary after his Senate confirmation hearing today. At the hearing Paulson discussed a wide range of issues from tax revenues to trade with China. Paulson spoke in favor of the President’s tax cuts on dividends and capital gains and that with […]

The Supreme Court yesterday declared a Vermont campaign finance law unconstitutional, as it capped gubernatorial campaign contributions at a mere $300,000. The majority argued the limit is far too low to allow candidates to adequately reach voters with their message. In the 6-3 decision, Justices Souter, Stevens, and Ginsburg voted against free political speech. A Wall Street Journal […]

A commentary in the Washington Times argues that outlawing price gouging would have a similar impact to price controls.  By arbitrarily setting prices below market value the government would stimulate demand while dampening supply, leading to shortages.  Fortunately, the Federal Trade Commission, whom Congress has proposed giving the authority to define price gouging, wants no […]

This week, the House will vote on a measure that would reverse a 25-year ban on offshore natural gas exploration. Rep. John Peterson, a Republican from Pennsylvania, and Rep. Neil Abercrombie, a Democrat from Hawaii, are spearheading the effort to give U.S. businesses increased access to this resource as its price continues to climb. Unlike oil, the price of natural gas is determined domestically, and it is expected […]

An article entitled Why Pay a Fraud Plaintiff to Sue? from the Washington Post online edition describes how Milberg Weiss LLP, the nation’s top securities class-action law firm, was recently indicted for recruiting fraud plaintiffs by paying them to sue.  It turns out that lawyers’ fees and the other costs concerned with securities fraud lawsuits […]