It’s one thing for Trump to claim that he doesn’t want to reform Social Security and Medicare, knowing that it will have to happen anyway. He’s simply, if irresponsibly, avoiding the political cost of telling the American people the truth about what is unavoidable. But it’s a whole other thing to multiply this irresponsibility with this new proposal.
Exempting Social Security benefits from taxation will further increase the insolvency of Social Security. Since these tax receipts also help fund the Social Security and Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) trust funds, the Committee for Responsible Budget calculates that the move would “advance the insolvency date of Social Security’s retirement trust fund by over one year,” and “advance the insolvency date of the Medicare HI trust fund by six years.”
GMU Econ alum Dominic Pino exposes the shallowness of J.D. Vance’s understanding of international trade. Two slices:
In a campaign speech in Henderson, Nev., on Tuesday, Republican vice-presidential nominee J. D. Vance said, “We believe that a million cheap, knockoff toasters aren’t worth the price of a single American manufacturing job.”
This comment came in a segment of his speech that was about the American dream, which is odd. Cheap and abundant household appliances are some of the things that people who move here from other countries love about America. The availability of appliances reflects the relative ease with which the residents of the world’s wealthiest country live their everyday lives.
But if your version of the American dream is to make toasters rather than use them, it’s really hard to do that without steel and aluminum. And the trade policies of Donald Trump and Joe Biden, which Vance supports, have made it harder for American manufacturers to buy those metals at low prices.
…..
Personally, I’d rather live in a country that imports cheap toasters than produces them. The government could eliminate all tariffs tomorrow, and the U.S. would still import nearly all of its toasters, given the wage rates in different parts of the world. But if Vance cares about manufacturing jobs in general, as he claims to do, he should listen to the toaster-makers about tariffs.
Andrew Stuttaford is understandably unimpressed by the recent record of various industrial policies.
I am writing this from hiding, fearing for my life, my freedom, and that of my fellow countrymen from the dictatorship led by Nicolás Maduro.
Mr. Maduro didn’t win the Venezuelan presidential election on Sunday. He lost in a landslide to Edmundo González, 67% to 30%. I know this to be true because I can prove it. I have receipts obtained directly from more than 80% of the nation’s polling stations.
We knew that Mr. Maduro’s government was going to cheat. We have known for years what tricks the regime uses, and we are well aware that the National Electoral Council is entirely under its control. It was unthinkable that Mr. Maduro would concede defeat.
The regime did everything in its power to sabotage and derail our campaign. Even though I won an open primary with 92% of support, it banned me from running for president. Then it disqualified my chosen replacement, Corina Yoris. Eventually Mr. González bravely took on this job. All the while, dozens of my colleagues were imprisoned, and six of my top aides, including my campaign chief, sought asylum in the Argentine Embassy.
Mike Munger recommends Jonathan Haidt’s 2024 book, Anxious Generation.
Mark Jamison looks at the evidence on merger enforcement in the U.S.
