LINGAMFELTER: Getting it Right

After years of fighting counterinsurgency wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the US Army has a tough mission ahead of it.  During those counterinsurgency years—some of which continues today as we keep a lid on any resurgence of ISIS—the US Army engaged in a combination of urban warfare and search and destroy missions.  The tactical skills […]

HANER: Silence, Disinterest Will Get Your Netflix and NFL Sunday Ticket Taxed

After a month of unproductive political theater, Virginia’s leaders will finally sit down like adults and negotiate the budget. Better late than never.  The message is “everything is back on the table,” which leaves the door wide open for the tax increase central to the Democrat’s demands. That deserves a quick no. At this point, Virginians […]

LINGAMFELTER: Budget Standoff

Earlier this week, Virginia could not agree on a budget for the next two years.  So, the Governor and both sides agreed to symbolically meet in the epicenter of the Capitol in the shadow of Geroge Washington’s statue and plot a way forward.  That path will take the General Assembly into a Special Session in […]

HANER: Governor’s Budget Compromise Eclipses Fears of Stalemate

Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) is offering a compromise on the disputed state budget that gives Virginia’s Democratic legislators most of the spending they were initially demanding, especially for local schools and early childhood education. The Governor is also offering a quick path to a resolution that avoids additional months of budget stalemate and political division. “On […]

LEAHY: Billionaires Upset After Taxpayers Reject Sports Stadium Subsidies

Voters in Jackson County, Missouri, rejected a sales tax ballot measure that would have funded stadium renovations to the home of the Kansas City Chiefs and built a new stadium for the Kansas City Royals. The billionaire owners of the two teams expressed their regret that taxpayers were unwilling to subsidize their clubs for the […]

LEAHY: Social Security Reform Proposal Sparks Political Firestorm

What happens when one of the major political parties suggests the most modest of reforms to the benefits future Social Security beneficiaries will receive? The other major political party goes ballistic. Such were the atmospherics when the Republican Study Committee (RSC) played against the prevailing type with the GOP so far and issued a plan […]

MAX: Youngkin Uses Veto Pen to Protect Farmers and Lower-Skilled Workers

There is a near-universal consensus among economists that increases in the minimum wage harm low-skilled workers the most. Originally designed to mimic racially discriminatory laws elsewhere, the minimum wage continues to be a means of picking certain classes and geographic locations over others. For example, the minimum wage benefits the high-cost-of-living areas in the Northeast over the lower-cost-of-living areas in […]

HANER: Wind Lawsuit Poses a Whale of a Problem

Dominion Energy ratepayers are about to find themselves on the losing end of a green energy project gone bad, writes TJIPP's Steve Haner.

Dominion Energy ratepayers are about to find themselves on the losing end of a green energy project gone bad, writes TJIPP’s Steve Haner.