Category Archives: Uncategorized

The best way to avert a crisis is to reform entitlement spending. The next best way is growth. By Jeb Hensarling and Mike Solon Jan. 11, 2024 6:21 pm ET As Congress begins a new session, the price of government expansion during the pandemic is coming into sharper focus. The...

The fatal flaw was FDR’s decision to make it a pay-as-you-go benefit. We should have fixed it by now. By Phil Gramm and Mike Solon Dec. 19, 2023 6:29 pm ET Americans imagine that the Social Security benefits they are promised belong to them. That’s by design. In 1935, President Franklin...

The real rate is 2.5%, but the Census Bureau inflates it by excluding most social-welfare benefits. By Phil Gramm and John Early Dec. 5, 2023 6:33 pm ET The credibility of the Census Bureau’s official measure of poverty didn’t survive the pandemic. Though government payments for social benefits rose by...

When Congress and the courts say no, his agencies recruit foreigners to apply pressure here at home. By Phil Gramm and Jeb Hensarling Oct. 17, 2023 6:15 pm ET American exceptionalism, the product of economic freedom and source of our prosperity, is being threatened by the Biden administration, which seeks...

The amount of improper pandemic payments dwarfs what its new agents stand to recoup for taxpayers. By Phil Gramm and Jodey Arrington Aug. 10, 2023 5:37 pm ET Criminals stole at least $1 trillion from taxpayers during the pandemic. To date the Biden administration has offered only lip service and...

If they stay united, House Republicans can use the power of the purse to restrain unilateral executive action. By Phil Gramm and Mike Solon July 13, 2023 5:38 pm ET Before the rise of the regulatory state, America’s economic exceptionalism flowed from clear constitutional boundaries between the spheres of individual...

A credit-tightening increase on capital standards won’t help the American economy. By Jeb Hensarling and Michael Solon Updated June 22, 2023 7:29 pm ET In response to this year’s failures of midsize banks, the Biden administration—through the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Comptroller of the Currency—is...

Unrestrained spending would crowd out private economic activity and risk triggering a recession. By Phil Gramm and Mike Solon May 21, 2023 5:04 pm ET House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last month mustered the votes for a bill to raise the debt ceiling, thanks in no part to his Democratic colleagues. His victory shifted the topography...

‘Robber barons’ of the 19th and 21st centuries enrich, not exploit, the poor and middle class. By Phil Gramm and Amity Shlaes May 7, 2023 4:29 pm ET Everything old is new again, and blaming the rich for America’s woes is no exception. The rise of progressivism before the turn...