There are serious issues with America’s federal budget. Very serious issues. Where to begin? Let me first start with the process of budgeting, that process of drafting a plan for raising revenue and spending it. Congress often does not adopt a budget. In 2024, the House of Representatives passed a resolution; the Senate did not. […]
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House committee tries to rein in a VA lo...
The House Committee on Veterans Affairs met recently to discuss the topic of regulation and to pick a bone with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. “It is the fundamental duty of this committee,” Chairman Mike Bost (R-IL) said in December 2024, “to make sure that no matter who is in the White House, the administration that’s in charge […]
Abolishing the Department of Education w...
As a conservative, I can sympathize with the Republicans and conservatives who wish to abolish the U.S. Department of Education. The Constitution does not empower the federal government to fund schooling. For much of our nation’s history, what children needed to know was a matter left to parents, localities and eventually states…. (Read more)
Trump-tapped federal budget-cutters Musk...
The Department of Government Efficiency has been much in the news since its creation was announced in mid-November by President-elect Donald Trump. Wealthy supporters Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the co-chairmen of the advisory panel, are collecting ideas to right the nation’s finances. Good ideas are needed. The federal government spends $6 trillion annually, runs a $2 trillion deficit, and has piled up […]
I Won’t Drink to That: A review of Malör
Did you hear the one about the Russian Jew from Minnesota who walked into a Chicago bar to sell the owner Swedish booze? Sure, it sounds like the set-up of a bad joke, but it’s a true story and one entertainingly told by journalist Josh Noel in Malört: The Redemption of a Revered and Reviled […]
Tale of a Cocktail: A review of The Fren...
“History is bunk,” according to Henry Ford. But there is an irony to that quotation—the motor industries patriarch and presidential candidate did not say it. No, when asked about his views on foreign affairs in 1916 the isolationist plutocrat grumbled….(Read more)