Think Tank West

By Andrew J. Coulson “Math class is tough!”  –Teen Talk Barbie Political scientist Jay Greene bravely decided to read the new NEA paper that is billed as showing that “Teachers Take ‘Pay Cut’ as Inflation Outpaces Salaries.  Average teachers’ salaries declined over the past decade.” But a funny thing happened when he reviewed the study: it didn’t [...]

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By David Boaz In the Washington Post and many other papers today, in re the State of the Union: Obama’s leitmotif is: Washington is disappointing, Washington is annoying, Washington is dysfunctional, Washington is corrupt, verily Washington is toxic — yet Washington should conscript a substantially larger share of GDP, and Washington should exercise vast new controls [...]

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By Tad DeHaven Earlier this week I criticized the U.S. Conference of Mayors for going to Washington and groveling for more federal handouts. Let me provide some more background for my criticisms with a look at federal budget data. The first chart shows that since 1960, total federal subsidies to state and local government have [...]

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By Chris Moody In a recent Cato study, “The Libertarian Vote in the Age of Obama,”  authors David Boaz and David Kirby found that libertarian voters, who make up about 14 percent of the electorate, are a leading indicator of how independents will cast their ballots. Appearing on Freedom Watch earlier this week, Boaz explained [...]

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By David Boaz In response to my Los Angeles Times op-ed on the movie “Avatar,” in which I claim that conservative critics missed the central conflict over property rights, I’ve received some emails arguing that the Na’vi in the film lacked “well-defined property rights” or simply that a collective group cannot have rights to the [...]

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By Chris Moody Cato experts give Obama’s State of the Union a video fisking. Are we watching the History Channel or something?  Because this new president sure does sound a lot like the old one. Time for the SOTU fact check:  Cato experts put some of President Obama’s core State of the Union claims to [...]

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By Daniel Griswold In his State of the Union speech, President Obama vowed to double U.S. exports in five years to (all together now) “create jobs.” Exports are dandy, and they do support higher-paying jobs, but the president’s pledge was unrealistic and raises false hopes that it will make any dent in the unemployment rate. [...]

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By Andrew J. Coulson Yesterday, the president proposed yet another big increase in federal education spending. The Washington Post quoted ”senior White House officials” as saying that the spending would boost “the nation’s long-term economic health.” I sent the story’s authors a blog post laying out the evidence that higher government spending hasn’t raised student achievement, and [...]

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By Jason Kuznicki Each idea below is totally unwinnable, downright daft, and probably unconstitutional to boot. Some are mutually incompatible. But each would effectively end the corruption that campaign finance “reform” advocates worry about. Each would also show more respect for individual liberty than the usual fare we get from them. And there’s even a [...]

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By Cato Editors Cato experts put some of President Obama’s core State of the Union claims to the test. Here’s what they found. THE STIMULUS Obama’s claim: The plan that has made all of this possible, from the tax cuts to the jobs, is the Recovery Act. That’s right — the Recovery Act, also known [...]

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