John A. Parnell, Ph.D.
I have to hand it to the those on the left. They have succeeded in avoiding serious discussions about issues like health care, taxes, and the ecology by demonizing President Trump. Their latest attempt brands Trump as a racist for a less than perfect response to the Charlottesville tragedy. I’m not here to parse his […]
Read MoreI recently addressed the idea that Republicans should scale down their tax reform ideas and just push through a tax cut. This idea is gaining steam following frustration with the Obamacare repeal debacle, but it’s fraught with two major problems. I’ve already discussed the first problem. We must get rid of the cronyism embedded in […]
Read MoreThere’s a reason Tesla CEO Elon Musk departed the President’s advisory council when Trump withdrew the US from the Paris climate agreement. Tesla has been feeding at the government trough of alternative energy subsidies for years. Less government involvement in climate regulation means fewer goodies for Musk, which means the company might have to get […]
Read MoreSeattle’s minimum wage is now $15 per hour at large companies that do not provide health insurance. A recent study by scholars at the University of Washington calculated that the mandated hike has actually cost the average worker about $125 per month. There’s a lot of misinformation circulating about this and a competing study with […]
Read MoreHaving lost the House, the Senate, and the Presidency, most on the left simply want to obstruct government, slow things down, and keep from talking about big issues like the economy, tax reform, and health care. Six months into the Trump presidency, I’d stay they are doing a good job, and the corporate wing of […]
Read MorePresident Trump’s proposed budget seeks to rein in federal expenditures for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). It’s fair for progressives to debate the merits of SNAP, but many on the left and their media surrogates argue that spending less on SNAP would hurt the broader economy. See, for example: https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/05/24/us/ap-us-food-stamps-cuts-economy.html The argument goes something […]
Read MorePresident Trump’s proposed budget has been released and the left is already attacking it for the “deep cuts” it makes to social programs. In reality, the budget does not reduce social spending, but rather proposes a 10-year rate of growth slightly lower than the current projections. In the socialist lexicon, any attempt to rein in […]
Read MoreThere’s an elephant in the room on the health care issue—who pays for it. This problem is illustrated in an exchange, a version of which I’ve heard several times this week: Democrat: The health care plan passed by Congress doesn’t protect those with preexisting conditions. Republican: It certainly does. The plan provides $100+ billion for […]
Read MorePresident Trump’s draft tax proposal is a clear improvement over the status quo, but it falls short of the type of overhaul we really need. It’s a long way from fruition and as I noted in a previous post, the greatest opposition to even moderate change in the tax code will come from the special […]
Read MoreThere’s a lot to learn from the video depicting airport security dragging a passenger from an overbooked United flight earlier this week. The airline had the right to (humanely) remove the passenger, but dragging him from the plane was a horrible decision that only fuels demands for more regulation. Airlines overbook flights because some passengers […]
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