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Big government needs to diet

National Columnists

It's the most wonderful time of the year — and I don't mean Christmas. It's the time when Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) releases its annual "Congressional Pig Book Summary," exposing some of the most outrageous, ridiculous and in many cases unconstitutional spending one can imagine. I guarantee you won't be able to imagine most of it. Why should you when it's not their money they are spending and borrowing, which has driven the debt to unprecedented and dangerous levels. According to CAGW, the number of earmarks, which is spending that avoids going through the normal ...

Why does AOC think billionaires can't exist?

National Columnists

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doesn't believe in billionaires. On a podcast the other day, she said that it's impossible to make a billion dollars without lying, cheating or stealing. "There's a certain level of wealth and accumulation that is unearned, right," AOC declared. "You can't earn a billion dollars. You just can't earn that. You can get market power, you can break rules, you can abuse labor laws, you can pay people less than what they're worth, but you can't earn that." The New York congresswoman makes it sound as though our billionaires are the equivalent of Russian oligarchs ...

China Is not merely a competitor

National Columnists

President Donald Trump's visit to China this week arrives at one of the most dangerous and morally complicated moments in modern geopolitical history. The Chinese Communist Party has mastered the art of projecting stability, strength and inevitability to the world. But beneath the gleaming architecture and diplomatic theater lies a far darker reality that the world continues to confront only selectively and often cowardly. This is not merely a strategic rivalry between two superpowers over tariffs, trade imbalances, semiconductors, artificial intelligence or rare earth ...

Hantavirus cruise: A 'Ship of Fools'

National Columnists

On April 1, 114 guests and 61 crew members, unaware of the presence of a killer virus among them, boarded the MV Hondius. That ship has earned the moniker "Ship of Fools." Because of the top brass's reckless disregard of infection control principles, the ship's passengers and thousands of people around the world have been exposed to the rare Andes strain of the hantavirus, a disease found in rat urine and feces, and which has a 40% mortality rate. Among the passengers who boarded that day was a 70-year-old birdwatcher who had spent his final days ashore traipsing through an ...

Pass the Major Richard Star Act

National Columnists

Major kudos to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. During his testimony before Senate Armed Forces Committee, Hegseth was asked by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal if he will support the Major Richard Star Act. Hegseth affirmed his support. The act was first introduced in 2023 but has not moved forward because of Republican opposition. Now, with the Defense secretary on record in support of this legislation, its prospect for passage dramatically improves. And indeed, it should be passed. Veterans who are injured and disabled in the course of military service, but manage ...

How about initiative for fiscal fitness?

National Columnists

The new consumer prices report showing a 3.8% price rise in April confirms what Americans have been complaining about for months: Inflation is continuing to squeeze family budgets. It's indisputable that oil and fertilizer supply disruptions in the Middle East are driving up prices here at home. But that's only part of the inflation story. Consumer prices overall are up nearly 30% since COVID-19 derailed the U.S. economy six years ago. That's the worst stretch of inflation since the bad old 1970s under Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, when inflation hit ...