Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi backs the Equality Act. (Photo by Aaron Po. Bernstein/Getty Images)
Hans Bader
My Articles
May 21, 2019, 3:18 PM EDT
May 7, 2019, 4:22 PM EDT
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May 6, 2019, 3:43 PM EDT
President Donald J. Trump (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
May 2, 2019, 4:32 PM EDT
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April 29, 2019, 3:50 PM EDT
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Record numbers of teachers are being physically attacked in America’s schools, as policies have changed to make it harder to suspend students who repeatedly defy their teachers.
April 24, 2019, 3:19 PM EDT
Democratic presidential primary candidate, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
April 23, 2019, 3:48 PM EDT
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Yesterday was Earth Day. Celebrate it by opposing more politically-motivated closures of nuclear power plants. Nuclear reactors provide a steady supply of electricity with no carbon emissions.
April 16, 2019, 10:25 AM EDT
Lady Justice (left) (Screenshot) and Kim Kardashian (right) (Photo Credit: James D. Morgan/Contributor/Getty Images)
April 5, 2019, 3:56 PM EDT
U.S. Capitol building (Screenshot)
April 2, 2019, 4:35 PM EDT
Then House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) (R) speaks during a news conference to mark Equal Pay Day and urging Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, on Capitol Hill, April 8, 2014. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
April 1, 2019, 12:19 PM EDT
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March 27, 2019, 3:24 PM EDT
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Nuclear power plants are becoming more efficient and reliable. So nuclear energy production peaked in 2018, even though some nuclear power plants have been shut down.
March 25, 2019, 4:05 PM EDT
Chick-fil-A restaurant (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
March 18, 2019, 2:56 PM EDT
Nothing is as powerful as a bad idea whose time has come. 72 percent of economists say that a $15 minimum wage is a bad idea. But Maryland’s House and Senate has passed an increase in the state’s minimum wage to $15 by 2025 and 2028 respectively, on a largely party-line vote. The legislature is mostly comprised of progressive Democrats, who have adopted the $15 minimum wage as a political litmus test. So the increase passed by a veto-proof two-to-one margin. Maryland law only requires a three-fifths vote to override a governor’s veto. It remains to be seen whether Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, will veto it and try to get legislators to change their mind.
March 12, 2019, 2:32 PM EDT
Americans aren’t willing to spend even small amounts of their own money fighting climate change. But many are willing to have other people foot the bill. That is shown by their support for the incredibly expensive and impractical “Green New Deal.” To pay for that flaky proposal, its sponsors have proposed tax increases on utilities, borrowing vast amounts of additional money, and having the government print trillions of dollars of new money to finance it. Printing money on that scale would ultimately result in hyperinflation.
March 11, 2019, 12:53 PM EDT
Oregon’s legislature has passed the first statewide rent control law in the country, which Governor Kate Brown (D) signed into law. It will cap rent increases to inflation plus 7 percent for all units that are 15 years or older.
March 4, 2019, 4:26 PM EST
Big minimum wage hikes wipe out a lot of jobs. Illinois recently enacted a $15 minimum wage, a large increase in the minimum wage that will be phased in over several years. And businesses are already announcing plans to close up, move out of the state, or curb their expansion in the state.
February 26, 2019, 9:55 AM EST
How much will the Green New Deal backed by leading Democratic candidates for President cost? Up to $90 trillion, says a Washington think-tank. As Reason Magazine notes, the estimated cost of the Green New Deal is at “least $50 trillion and possibly in excess of $90 trillion, according to a report released today by the American Action Forum (AAF). The AAF, a center-right think tank that focuses on economic issues, projected costs for six aspects of the Green New Deal,” such as its “reworking the electricity grid,” “revamping the nation’s transportation network,” and “affordable housing.”
February 20, 2019, 12:16 PM EST
It has never been a safer world in which to be a child. According to the UN, in 1950, most of the world had a child death rate (by age 5) of over 20 percent, while only a few countries, such as the United States, Cuba, Canada, England, Australia, and New Zealand, had child death rates of below 5 percent. By 2015, most the world had a child death rate of below 5 percent, and every country on Earth had a child death rate below 20 percent (even war-torn Yemen, whose child death rate fell from 50 percent in 1950 to 4.8 percent in 2015, the first year of its current civil war).
February 4, 2019, 2:16 PM EST
What good is a transportation project that actually increases traffic congestion (and thus pollution), even as it drives up transportation costs? But increasingly, transportation spending is being used on projects such as light-rail systems that carry very few riders, take up space needed for buses and cars, and consume enormous capital and operating costs.