Democrats Did Themselves No Favors by Veering Hard to the Left
Economics likely spelled doom for Harris, but extreme ideology sealed her party’s fate.
Government Spending
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."
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.”
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.
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.
To Cut Wasteful Spending, Start With Energy Subsidies
Ending the government’s preferential treatment of energy technologies is the best way to ensure long-term economic and environmental sustainability.
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 Federal Student Loans
Easily accessible student loans give colleges an incentive to raise tuition.
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 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.
The Impact of Trump's Cost-Cutting Initiative Hinges on What He Means by 'Government Efficiency'
Narrowly understood, the president-elect's familiar-sounding plan to tackle "massive waste and fraud" may not give us "smaller government" in any meaningful sense.
Feds Approve $80 Million Budget for 'Private' Horse Racing Regulator
The government should exit the multi-million-dollar business of preventing horse doping.
To Succeed at Cutting Government, Musk and Ramaswamy Must Take on Entitlements
When it comes to cutting waste, fraud, and abuse, what's lacking is not ideas but the political will to act on them.
Trump Has No Discernible Interest in Fiscal Responsibility
The president-elect’s record and campaign positions belie Elon Musk’s talk of spending cuts.
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.
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.
The House Is Democrats' Best Chance To Check Trump's Executive Powers
With control of the House still undecided, a Democratic majority could serve as the strongest check on Trump's worst impulses.
Countries With Economic Freedom Are Far Better Off
Even the poorest citizens of free countries fare better than the middle classes in economically repressive nations.
Pentagon Paid Nearly 8,000 Percent Markup on Boeing's Bathroom Soap Dispenser
The Air Force paid nearly $150,000 above market value for airplane bathroom fixtures, a Department of Defense watchdog found.
Where Is Trump's Plan To Cut Spending?
The former president says the government should be funded like it was in 1890. So where's the plan to reset spending to 1890s levels?
One-Third of Expensive Border Surveillance Towers Don't Work
Decades of border surveillance programs have spent billions of dollars but achieved little.
Reform Social Security for Those Who Need It Most
As it stands, the program effectively redistributes money from younger and poorer people to richer people.
Biden Thinks He Found a Student Loan Loophole
Is this latest attempt at student debt forgiveness a serious policy or a pre-election ploy?
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris Keep Making Economically Illiterate Promises
These policies may sound good on paper—but they would be disastrous in reality.
Oklahoma Loosens Rules for Mandatory Classroom Bibles
The good news is that schools won't be forced to stock Trump-endorsed Bibles. The bad news is that they're still being forced to supply Bibles.
Biden and Harris' Record on Spending and Debt Is a Tragedy of Epic Proportion
When they entered the White House, the budget deficit was a pandemic-influenced $2.3 trillion, and it was set to fall to $905 billion by 2024. It's now twice what it was supposed to be.
Chase Oliver on Budget Cuts, War, and Immigration
"Right now, we need to get ourselves at least to a balanced budget, and that involves cutting a lot of the third rails of American politics," the Libertarian presidential nominee tells Reason.
Universal Basic Income Shows Why Giving People 'Free Money' Doesn't Work
According to recent data, people work less—and actually end up deeper in debt.
Budget Deficit Hit $1.8 Trillion After Huge Increase in Borrowing Costs
Spending increased by 10 percent last year, while tax revenue increased by 11 percent. Interest payments on the debt shot up by 34 percent.
A Year of War in the Middle East Cost Americans Nearly $23 Billion
U.S. taxpayers are underwriting wars in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, and Iraq.
Trump's Deportation Plan Would Cost Nearly $1 Trillion
And it would wreck the economy.
Americans Grow Increasingly Dependent on Government Payments
Many citizens of the land of the free are hooked on government checks.
Arizona School Choice Program Comes Under Bureaucratic Attack
Families like guiding their kids’ education, but the governor and state attorney general disagree.
Don't Expect a Return to the Trump Economy
If the former president wins the 2024 race, the circumstances he would inherit are far more challenging, and several of his policy ideas are destructive.
Rand Paul's Plans To Balance the Budget Are a Useful Illustration of Congress' Addiction To Borrowing
The budget could be balanced by cutting just six pennies from every dollar the government spends. It used to require even less.
Robert Reich Is Wrong About Billionaires—and Almost Everything Else
His ideas would leave us poorer and less free.
Instead of Vote-Buying Tax Promises, Let's Have Real Plans for Tax Relief
Lower taxes are better taxes, but they should be part of well-considered plans.
Congress Fails the Budget Test, Again
Despite promises to pass orderly budgets, the House GOP is poised to approve yet another stopgap spending measure.
Trump Dodged My Question About the Federal Debt
Reason's Nick Gillespie asked former President Donald Trump about how he plans to bring down the national debt.
Should We Blame Fauci for the COVID Pandemic?
America's COVID celebrity is facing scrutiny for funding risky research that may have sparked the pandemic—and for allegedly covering it up.
10 Years and $3 Billion for a New Mail Truck?
Oshkosh Defense’s USPS van is thousands of dollars more expensive than the industry standard.
An Efficiency Commission Led by Elon Musk Would Be Good for the Government
The idea, proposed by former President Donald Trump, could curb waste and step in where our delinquent legislators are asleep on the job.
Take Two
Plus: The Senate wrestles with IVF funding, a dictator dies, and SpaceX passengers conduct the first-ever private spacewalk.
Why Trump's Child Care Policy Incoherence Matters
If the Republican Party's presidential candidate can't articulate a supply-side alternative to costly Democratic proposals, then government will get bigger.
Harris' Candidacy Puts a Spotlight on California's Failed Policies
From overspending to the state's overly powerful unions, California keeps sticking to the taxpayer.
