DOGE Can Succeed by Scaling Back Its Ambitions
The new advisory group promises bold savings and massive spending cuts, but without any expertise in the federal budget, it’s likely to be all bark and no bite.
Federal government
We Don't Need RFK Jr. To 'Make America Healthy Again'
The federal government can't make the right health choices for you and your family. Only you can do that.
Mining Is Safer, Cleaner, and More Ethical in America. So Why Do Environmentalists Stand in the Way?
The U.S. now ranks second to last in the time it takes to develop a new mine—roughly 29 years. Only Zambia is worse.
Trump Targets Birthright Citizenship and Calls for Military Role in Deportations
Both plans are an affront to America’s image as a nation of immigrants.
The Clock Is Running Out for Student Loan Forgiveness
With only months left in his term, Biden wants to forgive the loans of nearly eight million borrowers experiencing "hardship."
The Bureau of Prisons' Casual Cruelty to Families of Those Who Die Behind Bars
Families whose loved ones died in federal prisons describe outrageous delays in being notified, ignored phone calls, and troubling discrepancies in the official reports.
How Elon Musk and DOGE Can Deliver on Smaller Government
Plus: a listener asks the editors why it is acceptable to allow unrestricted border crossings into the United States without penalty.
Pentagon Fails 7th Audit in a Row but Hopes To Pass by 2028
Congress required all federal agencies to submit annual financial reports in 1990. The Pentagon finally got around to complying in 2018, and it still hasn't passed an audit.
Social Security Approaches Its Day of Reckoning
Americans should plan for their futures rather than relying on a nonexistent Social Security “trust fund.”
Infographic: How Republicans and Democrats View Federal Agencies
Democrats tend to view the feds favorably but many agencies are under water among Republicans.
Map: Pearl Clutchers in Hot Spring County
A rural Arkansas county files more than twice as many FCC complaints per resident than anywhere else in the United States.
Can RFK Jr. Fix Our Dysfunctional Public Health Agencies?
His priorities may not be the drastic reforms that are actually needed.
The National Debt Just Hit $36 Trillion. Does Trump Have a Plan To Control It?
It would take nearly $8 trillion in budget cuts merely to stabilize the national debt so it does not grow faster than the economy.
One Brainworm To Rule Them All
Plus: The sex-withholders, new JAQ with Lee Fang, and more...
DOGE's Chances Are Slim, but It Might Be Our Only Hope
Congress and the president show no interest in cutting government. Maybe outsiders can get it done.
Trump's Immigration Picks Are Terrible
An administration staffed by Stephen Miller, Thomas Homan, and Kristi Noem will be punitive and authoritarian on this issue.
Abolish the FDA
Many seriously ill people die waiting for the FDA to approve drugs that regulators in other advanced countries have already approved.
Abolish the TSA
The agency has not made air travel safer but it has made it costlier and more time-consuming to fly.
Abolish the NSA and CIA
Ending these unaccountable agencies would safeguard civil liberties and improve intelligence gathering.
Abolish the Federal Alcohol Tax and Regulation System
The states already overregulate alcohol. There's no need for a federal layer of red tape.
Abolish the Department of Education
The federal government furnishes a relatively tiny amount of K-12 funding—but the feds need relatively little money to exert power.
Abolish Obamacare
The Affordable Care Act has become a broken welfare program for people who don't need it.
Abolish the Small Business Administration
Like all government perks, SBA lending creates unseen victims.
Abolish Antitrust Law
Having a large market share may just mean that a company is really good at what it does.
Abolish FOIA
FOIA has no teeth and bureaucrats abuse its exemptions. Just redact and release every federal workers' emails instead.
Abolish Amtrak
Why should the federal government run a transportation corporation?
Abolish the EPA
Climate change is a serious environmental concern, but it is not clear how the EPA helps.
Abolish the DEA
The DEA's attempts to enforce the nation's drug laws have been a resounding failure by pretty much any measure.
Abolish the Federal Minimum Wage
There is a "virtual consensus" among economists that the minimum wage puts people out of work.
Abolish Borders
If government-drawn lines within your country don't possess some sort of moral magic that voids your rights, why would government-drawn lines between countries?
Abolish the National Park Service
Revising how America's most beautiful public lands are protected would create more ways for Americans to interact with some of the best parts of the country.
Abolish Social Security
Stop robbing poor, hard-working Peter to pay well-off, retired Paul.
Abolish Federal Student Loans
Easily accessible student loans give colleges an incentive to raise tuition.
Abolish ICE
The federal immigration agency disrupts communities and families, for no good.
Abolish the Department of Transportation
When money comes down from the DOT, it has copious strings attached to it—strings that make infrastructure more expensive and less useful.
Abolish the Army
"Standing armies are dangerous to liberty," Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist No. 29.
Abolish the IRS—and the Income Tax Too
Americans spent an estimated $133 billion and 6.5 billion hours filing their tax returns in 2024.
Abolish FEMA
FEMA has given Americans every reason to believe it is highly politicized, a poor steward of federal resources, bad at establishing priorities, and often unable to communicate clearly to people in distress.
Trump's First Term Wasn't Fiscally Responsible. Will His Second Be Different?
Even before the pandemic spending increase, the budget deficit was approaching $1 trillion. The GOP has the chance to embrace fiscal sanity this time if they can find the political will.
Feds Approve $80 Million Budget for 'Private' Horse Racing Regulator
The government should exit the multi-million-dollar business of preventing horse doping.
FEMA's Targeting of Trump Supporters Makes the Case for Less Government
Government agencies and officials can’t be trusted, so we should give them less to do.
Workplace Raids
Plus: Land acknowledgements, New York's migrant expenditures, and more...
Feds Use 'Border Security' To Justify Social Media Surveillance
Supposedly targeted at immigrants and travelers, the program endangers everybody’s liberty.
Want To Lower the Political Temperature? Make the Presidency Less Important
Congress needs to reassert its powers and bring the imperial presidency back down to earth.
How Donald Trump and Elon Musk Could Cut $2 Trillion in Government Spending
If Musk is truly serious about fiscal discipline, he'll advise the president-elect to eschew many of the policies he promised on the campaign trail.
Good Riddance, Lina Khan
Under Khan's leadership, the Federal Trade Commission has been bad for business and bad for consumers.
The Next President Should Abolish Everything
In the Abolish Everything issue, Reason writers make the case for ending the Fed, the Army, Social Security, and everything else.
