Myrtle Beach, SC Correspondent — We have the score now and the answer is neither ambiguous nor surprising. The published estimate has this adding something over three trillion to deficits across the decade, and the debt ceiling went up five trillion in the same instrument. So it did not change the path. It steepened it, … Continue reading The reconciliation bill was enacted today. Does it change the deficit path this decade, or only move favorite constituencies?
Author: thinkingoutsidetheboxe
Twelve days after American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and a ceasefire that is holding, what should the posture be now — and does the strike settle the nuclear clock or only reset it?
Gastonia, NC Correspondent — The argument we were all having about whether to impose a cost is over. A cost was imposed on the twenty-second and the fuse got moved. Moved is not removed, and that's the whole file now. What I want is an honest answer to a narrow question: where is the enriched … Continue reading Twelve days after American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and a ceasefire that is holding, what should the posture be now — and does the strike settle the nuclear clock or only reset it?
Has the early deportation and parole unwind shifted crime and shelter costs in a measurable way in the cities that asked for relief?
Myrtle Beach, SC Correspondent — Shelter costs move first. Crime stories move louder. Measure the first like an adult and treat the second like a prosecutor rather than a rally. The shelter numbers are the printable ones and they have moved. New York's census is down substantially from the peak and emergency sites have been … Continue reading Has the early deportation and parole unwind shifted crime and shelter costs in a measurable way in the cities that asked for relief?
Should federal research and student-aid dollars be withheld from specific universities this year on viewpoint and discipline grounds, or is firm-by-firm litigation the better tool?
Gastonia, NC Correspondent — This stopped being hypothetical in the spring. Money has already been withheld at scale from named institutions and the litigation is already running alongside it. So the real question is whether the version being executed is the one any of us would have designed, and I'd say partly. Withholding on a … Continue reading Should federal research and student-aid dollars be withheld from specific universities this year on viewpoint and discipline grounds, or is firm-by-firm litigation the better tool?
Is a mid-year fight over the Federal Reserve’s independence a necessary assertion of elected control, or a risk to the only remaining adult in the rate room?
Myrtle Beach, SC Correspondent — The Fed isn't a priesthood and it isn't a campaign desk. Elected control already exists in the statute — a mandate Congress wrote, governors the Senate confirms, a chair who can be embarrassed in a hearing. Using those tools is adult. Turning the mid-year rate path into a loyalty test … Continue reading Is a mid-year fight over the Federal Reserve’s independence a necessary assertion of elected control, or a risk to the only remaining adult in the rate room?
The tax and reconciliation bill was signed today. Did Congress write a durable code, or a stack of expiring provisions that will be relitigated in 2027?
Gastonia, NC Correspondent — We can stop arguing about how it should be written. It was signed this morning, and the answer is both. The core is permanent. The rates and brackets don't expire, and full expensing was made permanent. Those are real and they're what a lender models. Everything the campaign was actually about … Continue reading The tax and reconciliation bill was signed today. Did Congress write a durable code, or a stack of expiring provisions that will be relitigated in 2027?
Should mass-removal operations be paced to agricultural and hospitality labor demand, or does that pacing recreate the old wink under a new name?
Myrtle Beach, SC Correspondent — This coast sells rooms and plates. I know what a July without dishwashers looks like, and I know what a wink looks like, and they aren't the same kindness. We are not speculating about this. Three weeks ago there was a public statement about farm and hotel workers being hurt, … Continue reading Should mass-removal operations be paced to agricultural and hospitality labor demand, or does that pacing recreate the old wink under a new name?
Have mid-year tariff actions produced more reshoring and bargaining leverage than they have raised input costs for builders, farms, and retailers?
Gastonia, NC Correspondent — A tariff is a price and a letter. At mid-year we have more of the letter than we have of a finished plant. That isn't a reason to call the letter a failure. It's a reason not to call it a factory. Input costs are real. Builders are paying them in … Continue reading Have mid-year tariff actions produced more reshoring and bargaining leverage than they have raised input costs for builders, farms, and retailers?
Is federal IT procurement — legacy systems, contractors, multi-year “modernization” that never ends — the actual waste engine, and if so why has every previous reform commission failed to kill it?
Gastonia, NC It is an engine, and the second half of this question contains a false premise that I want to correct before anybody builds on it. Not every previous reform failed. One passed. The Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act became law in 2014. It gave agency chief information officers real authority over IT … Continue reading Is federal IT procurement — legacy systems, contractors, multi-year “modernization” that never ends — the actual waste engine, and if so why has every previous reform commission failed to kill it?
Should Social Security and Medicare administration be opened to the same improper-payment and systems audit as smaller programs, or does touching those brands poison any serious waste effort?
Myrtle Beach, SC Open them, and be ready for what the audit finds, because it is not what this Forum has been assuming. Social Security has one of the lowest improper-payment rates in the federal government. Well under one percent of benefits paid. Not one percent of the improper-payment total — one percent of the … Continue reading Should Social Security and Medicare administration be opened to the same improper-payment and systems audit as smaller programs, or does touching those brands poison any serious waste effort?
