- Spinning the Catholic Killer's Bio
- Can't Sit Still Pop a Pill (Part I)
- Avenging Charlie Kirk: The Conservative Redemption of Liberal Academia
- Top 20 Nations Ranked by 2025 GDP (PPP)
- Tennessee and the Return to Common Sense: Historical Education is in Fact Safety
- The American Spectator
- Congress Takes a Holiday from Oversight
- Leibniz and Calhoun: The Christian March of Progress and Postmillennial Truth
- A Seat at the Table, Not Just a Chair in the Room
- National Debt to GDP Ratios Survey
- Venezuela Briefing 9-15-2025
- Now We Must Ask: ‘QUO VADIS” America?
- Ukraine War Update September 22, 2025
- The Direction of American Religion
- Concise Theology in Scripture
An IRS That's Armed and Dangerous
- Details
- By Stephen Moore
The Biden administration has a lot of nerve proposing to double the budget of the Internal Revenue Service and add 87,000 employees.
This plan is set to become law as part of the soon-to-be-enacted Inflation Reduction Act. And it comes around the same time as the outrageous FBI raid of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago compound in Palm Beach, Florida. The Biden administration has converted the FBI and the Justice Department into functionaries of the Democratic Party's character assassination campaign. Think they will do the same with a Yankee Stadium full of new IRS auditors? They will be on search-and-destroy missions.
Biden Puts IRS Funding Ahead of Military and Border Security
- Details
- By Stephen Moore
Everyone should be deeply troubled by the recent report that the Army is on pace to miss its recruiting goal by dozens of thousands of troops and by the report that followed a few days later, alleging that the Border Patrol is running short of agents in Arizona and Texas. The border is so porous these days that even mayors of sanctuary cities are starting to complain about illegal immigration.
So, what is Congress doing about these crises? They are going to spend tens of billions of dollars to increase the number of ... IRS employees. The plan calls for spending some $80 billion to hire some 80,000 new agents and investigators. This will give the IRS the resources to double the number of people who get audited every year.
The Left Wants To Abolish Everything, Even This Column
- Details
- By Stephen Moore
Any aging baby boomer (like myself) knows that the anthem of the radicals of the 1960s and 1970s was sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. Let the good times roll. Back then, the joke was that a conservative was someone who lived in mortal fear that someone, somewhere, was having fun.
But if this new generation of authoritarian liberals has its way, sex and rock 'n' roll will be illegal.
As I've said in the past in these pages, the ironic ideological twist that has occurred over the past 20 years is that the once permissive "live and let live" Left is now the nonpermissive Left. The leftists in America are the new puritans.
When Millionaires and Billionaires Leave, Everyone Loses
- Details
- By Stephen Moore
Liberals are very good at chasing rich people out of their states.
Blue states lose billions of tax dollars and many tens of thousands of jobs as a result of the migration of rich people leaving high-tax and high-crime states. It seems to happen nearly every day.
Consider Elon Musk. He left California for Texas. He paid $11 billion in federal taxes last year, and the state of California will likely lose billions in tax revenues in his absence -- and that doesn't include all the property and sales taxes that his Tesla employees will now pay in Texas rather than the Golden State. Texas has no state income tax, of course.
How Angela Merkel's Green Agenda Caused the Economic Collapse of Germany
- Details
- By Stephen Moore
Remember how the world, especially the American media, fawned over former German Chancellor Angela Merkel?
The adoration was so over the top that in 2015 Time magazine named Merkel its "Person of the Year." It described her as the "Chancellor of the Free World."
Time owes whatever readers it has left a solemn apology. Today, Germans are suffering the bitter fruits of nearly every major economic and geopolitical decision Merkel made as chancellor.
Start with the German economy that she attempted to reset for the 21st century, which is reminiscent of how President Joe Biden explains to inflation-weary voters that we are going through "an incredible transition."
Biden's Green New Deal Is Increasing Greenhouse Gases
- Details
- By Stephen Moore
Here's an amazing but true statistic. After more than a decade of declining carbon emissions here in the United States, in 2021, President Joe Biden's first year in office, emissions rose.
In other words, not only have Biden's energy policies been a disaster for our economy and national security as we have become more dependent on Russia and Iran, but they haven't worked as a global warming solution.
To understand the utter futility of Biden's "renewable energy" crusade, we must go back about 15 years in time to when the amazing shale revolution, thanks to energy pioneers such as Harold Hamm of Oklahoma, the man who drilled the Bakken Shale in North Dakota, began. These new drilling techniques have vastly expanded America's natural gas production over the past decade and turned America into the world's leading oil and gas superpower.
Biden Is the Economy's Supply Chain Problem
- Details
- By Stephen Moore
Joe Biden has become America's "it's not my fault" president. Whether it's the inflation, the border, the crime, the gas prices, the Afghanistan exit fiasco or the stock market collapse, Biden has become an expert at pointing the finger at someone else.
His presidency so far reminds me of the famous campaign slogan of then-New York Mayor David Dinkins, who admitted that everything was going wrong in the Big Apple on his watch and confessed, "I'm doing the best I can." New Yorkers believed him. And they wisely tossed him out of office for Rudy Giuliani, who actually fixed things.
Take the supply chain crisis. Biden constantly blames shortages, empty shelves and back orders of everything from cars to tampons to baby formula on "supply chain" disruptions. For example, if you try to buy a new car these days, you will probably have to wait for weeks or even months to pull into your driveway. Or you will have to pay $5,000 to $20,000 above the sticker price to get a car immediately.
The Great Biden Recession of 2022 Is Already Here
- Details
- By Stephen Moore
Last week, I was invited to testify before a House committee hearing titled: "How the Biden American Rescue Plan Saved the Economy and Lives." I am not making this up. Can you imagine taking a victory lap, given our current conditions?
I told the Democrats on the committee that the idea that Congress would hold a hearing like this when the economy is coming unhinged only reinforces the suspicion held by most people that the Washington swamp is totally out of touch with the lives and hardships of everyday America.
The reality of our predicament is best summarized by JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who warned investors to "brace yourself" for what he called a fast-approaching economic "hurricane."
The Swamp vs. America: Biden Policies Are Making America Poorer
- Details
- By Stephen Moore
I've been struck by the opinion divide on the state of the economy between people with real jobs in America and the elite opinions in Washington.
Gallup and other primary and reputable pollsters find that the public is very worried. About 2 in 10 respondents rate the U.S. economy as good or great. That compares with nearly 6 in 10 people who thought the economy was good or great throughout Donald Trump's presidency. In other words, three times the number of people liked the way things were going under Trump policies than feel the same way about Bidenomics.
Beware: 100% Green Energy Could Destroy the Planet
- Details
- By Stephen Moore
The untold story about "green energy" is that it can't possibly be scaled up to provide anywhere near the energy to replace fossil fuels. (Unless we are headed back to the stone ages, which is what some of the "de-growth" advocates favor).
Right now, the United States gets about 70% of its energy from fossil fuels. To go to zero over the next 20 years would be economically catastrophic and cost tens of millions of jobs. With gas prices at nearly double their price back from when Donald Trump left office and inflation up from 1.5% to 8% in just 15 months, we are already experiencing the economic damage from the green energy crusaders.
House GOP Trust-busting Bill Is an Economic Disaster
- Details
- By Stephen Moore
With President Joe Biden's Build Back Better agenda in ruins, Democrats want to blame Big Business for the mayhem of high inflation and a collapsing stock market.
The White House has pointed its finger at every industry, from Big Tech to meat producers, oil and gas producers, the poultry industry and pharmaceutical companies. Apparently, corporate America suddenly became incredibly greedy when Biden entered office.
Now another move against capitalism is in the works.
Democrats' Latest Phony Inflation Scapegoat: Credit Cards
- Details
- By Stephen Moore
In this administration, it's always someone else's fault. Inflation is now the No. 1 concern of voters, so the White House first blamed COVID. Then Donald Trump's tax cuts. Then Vladimir Putin. Then meatpackers and the poultry industry, Big Oil and pharmaceutical companies.
Now, Democrats have identified a new inflation scapegoat: plastic. Visa, Mastercard, American Express and other credit cards hidden away in your wallet.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) has had it out for credit cards for almost two decades, even though over that period, credit cards, which were once reserved for the rich, are now nearly ubiquitous in our society. Many stores don't even take cash anymore in the post-COVID world. The benefits and conveniences of paying with a plastic card are easily in the tens of billions of dollars to retailers and shoppers. Stores benefit because shoppers don't have to have cash on hand to make purchases. They also benefit from not having to deal with the exchange of cash, which can lead to theft by unscrupulous employees at the register.
When the People Tasked With Protecting Our Children Are the Villains
- Details
- By Stephen Moore
The evidence shows that school closures during COVID were an epic public policy blunder. The school lockdowns in many states were arguably the most significant episode of government-sponsored child abuse in American history.
You don't have to take my word for it. Last week, the liberal New York Times came to the same conclusion after an extensive investigation. The New York Times found:
"Extended school closures appear to have done much more harm than good, and many school administrators probably could have recognized as much by the fall of 2020. In places where schools reopened that summer and fall, the spread of Covid was not noticeably worse than in places where schools remained closed."
Beware the Popping of the Housing Bubble
- Details
- By Stephen Moore
Washington never learns. Never. Politicians are like collective Alzheimer's disease patients. They have no short-term memories.
Does anyone remember 2008? It was only 14 years ago. Then, America suffered through one of the most significant and most painful financial crises in our nation's history -- and the worst losses since the crash of 1929. Millions of people lost their jobs. Hundreds of thousands defaulted on their mortgages and lost their homes.
Trillions of dollars of lifetime savings and wealth evaporated. Central billion-dollar banks and investment houses that were thought to be invincible were swept away like straw huts in the face of a tsunami.
Canceling Student Loan Debt Would Make College More Expensive
- Details
- By Stephen Moore
It might be the biggest giveaway in American history. President Joe Biden wants to cancel more than $1 trillion of outstanding student loan debt. Biden has already delayed for more than a year student loan repayment, and under his new rules, most delinquent and deadbeat borrowers would NEVER have to repay.
What a deal for the people who never paid a dime back of the tuition money they owe to Uncle Sam.
This plan makes suckers out of the millions who have felt honor-bound to pay off their debts. My wife spent years after graduating from college diligently writing checks to pay off the tens of thousands of dollars of loans. That's the way it works when you borrow money and you've signed a commitment to pay the money back.
Another High-tech Titan Falters
- Details
- By Stephen Moore
You've probably heard of the high-flying Big Tech FAANG stocks -- Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google. Among the five of them, their market cap reached $6 trillion last year, which is more than the GDP of all but a small handful of entire countries. Moreover, their net worth is larger than the entire annual output of India, with more than 1 billion people.
These companies got so big and profitable so fast that politicians on the left, right and center started accusing them of monopolistic behavior. "Break them up!" shouted Democratic Sens. Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar. Some Republicans, such as Josh Hawley, endorsed the same strategy.
Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at Freedom Works. He is also author of the new book: "Govzilla: How The Relentless Growth of Government Is Devouring Our Economy." To find out more about Stephen Moore and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2022 CREATORS.COM
Browse by the Top Tags ...
