Regulation Policy & Welfare

Republicans Miss the Point on Government Regulations

by Laurence M. Vance August 4, 2023

First, they came for our incandescent light bulbs and gas stoves, and now, they are after our water heaters and dishwashers. Back in 2007, President George W. Bush signed into law the Energy Independence and Security Act. Among other things, it required greater efficiency for light bulbs, which effectively began the phase-out of the incandescent light ...

Republicans Miss the Point on Mortgage Fee Hike

by Laurence M. Vance June 16, 2023

Back in January, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced that mortgage fees for some borrowers would increase beginning May 1, while other borrowers would see their fees decrease. The FHFA is an independent federal agency that “was established by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) and is responsible for the effective supervision, regulation, ...

Sports Gambling: The Latest “Public Health” Crisis

by Laurence M. Vance March 3, 2023

The Kansas City Chiefs were not the only winners in Super Bowl LVII last month at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The American Football Conference (AFC)Chiefs defeated the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Philadelphia Eagles by the close score of 38–35 to become the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2022 season. A record 50 ...

The Federal Dietary Wrecking Ball

by James Bovard January 1, 2023

Politicians are hellbent on intruding further into Americans’ stomachs. In September, President Biden hosted a White House Summit on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. A vast array of activists gathered, waiting for Biden to mobilize Washington to open the floodgates to far more food handouts. But their fond hopes did not survive the opening moments of Biden’s speech. “Jackie, are you ...

We Don’t Need No Regulation (or Statist Education)

by Robert E. Wright December 1, 2022

Like the long line of school children who mindlessly marched into Pink Floyd’s meat grinder in The Wall, an estimated one million investors recently fell victim to Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto grinder. The fiasco’s silver lining is that it proves that Americans need neither statist schooling nor government regulation, two insidiously intertwined institutions. Soon after cryptocurrency exchange FTX failed about a ...

Republicans Fail to See the Real Issue with Head Start

by Laurence M. Vance February 14, 2022

President Biden’s “Path out of the Pandemic” mandated that four groups of people be vaccinated against COVID-19: all federal executive branch workers, contractors that do business with the federal government, health care workers at Medicaid- and Medicare-participating hospitals, and employees of private-sector businesses with 100 or more employees. Federal courts have struck down three of these mandates. ...

Abolish OSHA

by Laurence M. Vance January 25, 2022

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) should be abolished. But it should not be abolished because of anything to do with COVID-19. In response to President Biden’s national strategy to combat COVID-19 by vaccinating the unvaccinated, on November 5, 2021, OSHA issued an “Emergency Temporary Standard” (ETS) requiring that businesses with 100 or more employees either ...

No One Should Need Government Permission to Work

by Laurence M. Vance September 16, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the workplace in many ways—not all of them good. Last year, most states issued states of emergency and ordered all “non-essential” businesses to close their doors. Bars, restaurants, gyms, nightclubs, barber shops, golf courses, nail salons, and movie theatres were shuttered. Sporting events and concerts were banned. Schools were closed. In ...

Happy Hour May Be Getting a Little Happier

by Laurence M. Vance August 13, 2021

“It’s five o’clock somewhere,” so the song and the story go. This phrase is used by those wishing to justify drinking alcohol at some point during the day instead of waiting until the usual evening hours. But a happy hour is not always just an hour. In 39 of the 50 states, some restaurants, bars, and nightclubs have happy hour from ...

The Conservative Case for Welfare

by Laurence M. Vance May 14, 2021

In the third COVID-19 stimulus package — the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) — which was passed in the U.S. Congress without a single Republican vote, the Child Tax Credit (CTC) for tax year 2020 was increased from $2,000 per child, with $1,400 of this being refundable, to a fully refundable $3,000 per qualifying child (aged ...

Business Regulations

by Laurence M. Vance December 29, 2020

Business regulations are of two kinds: government-imposed regulations on businesses and business-imposed regulations on employees and customers. From the standpoint of liberty and property, the first kind of regulation is always bad and the second kind of regulation is always good, even when the regulations are bad. Let me explain. First of all, there are government-imposed regulations on businesses. These can ...

Religious Discrimination and Foster Care

by Laurence M. Vance November 30, 2020

The new Supreme Court justice, Amy Coney Barrett, who became the 103rd associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court only on October 27, has gotten right to work. On November 4, she sat with the other justices to hear oral arguments in the case of Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. At issue ...