Trump’s presidency may have amplified executive power, but unless lawmakers roll back those powers—and the bloated government behind them—the next administration will do the same.
Plus: Canal St. raids, Baumol effect, gun safety makes lefties angry, and more...
Government interference in health care should be reduced, not expanded.
Suspending federal workers' civil obligations during government shutdowns would be bad news for property rights, landlords, and tenants.
We’ll take less government however we can get it.
Plus: new tariff threats escalate China trade war, federal layoffs begin amidst the government shutdown, and Democrats face a candidate-quality crisis
Civil servants are normally temporarily furloughed during shutdowns. The White House insists the current funding lapse empowers them to permanently fire workers.
A new White House budget memo frames shutdown furlough pay withholdings as fiscal restraint, but the budgetary impact is minimal—the greater effect may be expanding executive control over the federal bureaucracy.
Four ideas that are better than extending Obamacare subsidies and a government shutdown.
There are plenty of private alternatives to the employment report put out by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Plus: the legality of Trump’s National Guard deployments, Democrat A.G. nominee’s leaked texts about shooting GOP rival, and what Argentina’s crisis means for libertarians.
Plus: Mamdani wants to cut gifted programs, Tyler Cowen's AI film takes, Newsom's revenge, and more...
The president would be justified in wanting to rescind all state grants. Instead, he's apparently letting states that voted for him keep the cash.
Democrats should use the shutdown to curb the Trump administration's worst authoritarian abuses, not to try to goad Republicans into eliminating an important check on executive excess.
This time, Democrats turned the most basic government housekeeping into hostage drama.
The federal government continues paying its biggest bills during a shutdown, and hundreds of thousands of federal employees get a belatedly paid vacation.
Refusing to fund the government is the primary way minority party lawmakers can check the excesses of the executive branch and the majority party.
The fight over whether to extend "temporary" health insurance subsidies is really a fight over how best to hide the costs created by the Affordable Care Act.
Plus: Addressing "the enemy within," the FTC's pointless meddling, Joy Reid finally understands half the country, and more...
Reason's Peter Suderman and Eric Boehm discuss the government shutdown live at 3 p.m. Eastern time today.
The Department of Homeland Security will retain 95 percent of its employees if the government shuts down and remain funded in large part by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Take your opportunities for smaller government where you find them.
Plus: Jimmy Kimmel Live! plagues my neighborhood, Hegseth's fancy meeting, Eric Adams gone but not forgotten, and more...
Plus: the Comey indictment, Trump deploys the National Guard to Portland, Eric Adams exits New York City's mayoral race, and a listener asks about cyclical theories of history
Plus: Eric Adams drop out, Assata Shakur gets fawned over, James Comey gets roasted, and more...
Plus: Robert Munsch chooses Canadian healthcare, Argentina in trouble, ignoring Greta, and more...
Plus: Trump’s "woke AI" order, Gawker’s cultural legacy, and a listener question on deregulation and the BBB.
Plus: Rate reductions, Apple encryption, the Mahmoud Khalil case, and more...
Plus: House Speaker Elon Musk, the value of the debt ceiling, and D.C.'s shut down specials.
Plus: "Black Nazi,” Oprah interviews Kamala, and yet another looming government shutdown.
Plus: A listener asks about the absurdity of Social Security entitlements.
Plus: Balkan begging, California corruption, Russian gravediggers, and more...
Plus: Nuclear reactors, space firsts, Fani Willis' love life, Trump sneakers, and more...
Next week, Congress will have to choose between a rushed omnibus bill or a long-term continuing resolution that comes with a possible 1 percent spending cut.
The federal budgeting process was broken long before Matt Gaetz and Kevin McCarthy's recent spat.
Those sounding the loudest alarms about possible shutdowns are largely silent when Congress ignores its own budgetary rules. All that seems to matter is that government is metaphorically funded.
Plus: A listener asks the editors to weigh in on a hypothetical executive order to establish an American Climate Corps.
Plus: Dianne Feinstein's replacement doesn't even live in California, New York's biblical floods, and more...
Shutdowns don't meaningfully reduce the size or cost of government, but they also aren't the end of the world.
The Senate is an incompetent laughingstock regardless of what its members wear.
Plus: Trump commits fraud, a hacker house cooks steak, progressive movements can't stop failing, and more...
When you use incorrect stats to bolster your claims, as Reuters did, all kinds of foolish conclusions follow.
Plus: Nonessential government programs (all of them?), AI firefighting, tech-world hit pieces, and more...
Plus: A listener asks whether younger generations are capable of passing reforms to entitlement spending.
Fiscal irresponsibility might eventually shut down the government, but at the moment it’s all for show.
Plus: DeSantis campaign on life support, Biden climate corps seeks to waste your money, implanting chips into brains, and more…
Plus: Separating child poverty facts from fiction, EU will ban payments for sperm and blood, and more...
America’s biggest fiscal challenge lies in the unchecked growth of federal health care and old-age entitlement programs.
