About $8.8 billion — that is how much the U.S. Postal Service lost in the past year. That is an eye-popping number. The agency is also carrying $11 billion in debt and has more than $120 billion in funded pension and health liabilities. To be sure, some of that deficit is due to actuarial factor. […]
Barely one in five Americans approve of the way Congress is operating. It is overwhelmingly clear that Congress needs to do a better job of understanding complex policy issues, being responsive to communications from the American people, and overseeing the 170-some agencies of the executive branch. Thankfully, after decades of institutional decline, Congress is finally taking steps to revitalize itself. In January, the […]
There’s been quite the hullabaloo raging over the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) pricing of parcels. President Donald J. Trump started a volley in late December 2017 by tweeting….(Read more)
This past week, Congress held another hearing on budget reform. Two former budget committee chairmen, Leon Panetta and David Obey, both testified. They lamented the current state of congressional budgeting and identified aspects of the 1974 Budget Act that discourage fiscally responsible and timely annual budgeting. Readers might be tempted to shrug this off as a non-event. “Elected officials […]
Highly automated vehicles (HAVs) have gone from fantasy to reality in the past decade. It is remarkable to witness the various prototypes motoring about courses and taking test drives on America’s roads. Already, related technology helps people parallel park their cars — some don’t even require the driver be in the car. Among other benefits, […]
President Donald Trump’s principal policy accomplishments thus far have been in the area of regulatory reform. The adoption of regulatory budgeting, use of the Congressional Review Act to repeal Obama-era regulations and a considerable slowdown in new rulemaking over the first 150 days are all positive steps. But, of course, there is more work to […]
