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Opinion

There is no trust, no fund

National Columnists

What cruel irony that we recently learned Social Security is going broke even sooner than we thought. The Social Security trust fund will be exhausted in 2032, according to the latest Trustees Report. How odd that it is even referred to as a "trust fund," because there is no trust, and there is no fund. Because of the Ponzi scheme structure of Social Security that only works if you have more young people paying in than old people collecting checks, the system is crashing. Right now, roughly 11,000 Americans are retiring every day (the baby boomers), and only about 8,000 ...

Republican dissidents show themselves the door

National Columnists

Tucker Carlson says he can no longer support the Republican Party. In that regard, he finds himself in familiar company. A growing faction on the populist Right – including figures such as Candace Owens, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Nick Fuentes – has increasingly positioned itself in opposition to core Republican foreign policy principles. Rather than seeking to persuade the party, many now appear ready to abandon it altogether. That may not be a crisis for Republicans. It may simply be a clarification. Political movements require ideological boundaries. Parties are more than ...

World Cup visitors get it

National Columnists

Several things have taken place over the past week that shore up the importance of understanding what has truly made the United States of America the most prosperous country in human history. First, we have the foreigners visiting the U.S. to cheer on their teams in this year's World Cup soccer championship. It’s been heartwarming to see how much these people love America, and how surprised they've been to find that Americans are warm, welcoming, generous and kind people. Another aspect of America that has astonished our guests is the number, size and variety of our businesses: ...

Trump's second term is costly spectacle

National Columnists

Every time I get asked by a TV anchor what I think about the drama of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, my favorite "historical" headline from the Onion comes to mind: "World's Largest Metaphor Hits Ice-Berg." And every time I do, I hear from defenders of the Trump administration complaining about the disproportionate media coverage of what should be a very minor story in the grand sweep of things. They have a point. President Trump has done some good work rehabbing Washington, D.C., where I live. But the Reflecting Pool has bedeviled him. Algae keep returning to the pool, despite ...

Public opinion blunts power in democracy

National Columnists

President Trump has been musing about whether he's the most powerful man in world history, and judging by the results lately, the answer is definitely "no." It's certainly true that Trump has technical tools at his disposal that would have astounded famous pre-20th century contenders for the title of most powerful man, whether Caesar, Alexander the Great, Charlemagne or Napoleon. Trump's power, though, isn't defined by, say, the precision and explosive punch of the Tomahawk missile. As the leader of a constitutional republic that disperses power and depends ultimately on democratic ...

Minimum wage law fails

National Columnists

Not long ago, new kinds of jobs appeared: app-based gig work. They include jobs like dog walking on Rover, Taskrabbit work, DoorDash food delivery, Uber and Lyft driving ... Lots of people like gig work. It's flexible. You work when you want to work. But "workers' rights" activists and governing socialists don't like that. Gig workers rarely join unions. They don't get a minimum wage. "Uber and Lyft exploit their workers" is a headline at MS NOW. "We can't ignore it." The Democratic Socialists said they had a solution. Seattle's city council imposed a $26 delivery driver minimum ...