Source: Niskanen Center
by Lawson Mansell & David Schwartzman
“At more than $21 billion annually, Medicare’s Graduate Medical Education (GME) payments are the federal government’s single largest investment in physician training, but the nearly 40-year-old formula for determining payments has not been meaningfully adjusted to address the growing mismatch between where doctors are needed and where they practice.” (06/17/26)
“When Trump launched a war against Iran in late February, his MAGA movement suddenly became nearly indistinguishable from the neoconservative foreign policy Trump once abhorred. For nearly four months, Washington hawks like Senator Lindsey Graham and radio jock Mark Levin were riding high. But over time it became clearer that the president was looking for a way out and now the president has reportedly reached a memorandum of understanding with Iran to end the fighting, open the Strait of Hormuz, and to keep talking. Trump’s friends, who were hoping for Iranian capitulation and regime change, even if that meant indefinite bombing and blockading, aren’t very happy today.” (06/17/26)
“Jay Clayton won’t be sitting for his confirmation hearing today to be President Donald Trump’s permanent director of national intelligence, after Trump said in an early morning Truth Social post that he wants Clayton’s replacement confirmed as the top US attorney in Manhattan first. The abrupt move is sure to rankle Senate Republicans, who moved quickly to schedule Clayton’s hearing to confirm him — and clear the way for passage of an extension of a key surveillance tool that lapsed as Democrats protested Trump’s pick of Bill Pulte for acting DNI. It also guarantees that the surveillance law won’t be renewed anytime soon. Trump also reiterated his demand that Republicans’ voter ID bill, the SAVE America Act, be approved along with the surveillance law despite Senate Majority Leader John Thune saying that can’t happen.” (06/17/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Connor O’Keeffe
“The eye-catching dollar amounts reported as the net worths of the richest people in the world, like Elon Musk, are not large piles of cash sitting around in bank accounts gathering dust. They are mostly the present value of the companies they own. It is not even possible to tax or confiscate these assets without destroying most or all of the initial value. Figures like Warren and Newsom know this. But the implication that the rich are simply ‘hoarding’ trillions of dollars of wealth is useful to them. It feeds the impression that all of our economic problems are, in essence, problems with the distribution of final consumable wealth.” (06/17/26)
Source: Independent Institute
by Stephen P Halbrook
“United States v. DeBorba, decided on June 3, is the latest Ninth Circuit decision that seeks to exclude firearm parts from protection in the reference to the ‘arms’ that the people have a right to keep and bear. The court held that ‘‘optional accessories’ to firearms — such as gun slings, scopes, and, importantly, silencers — fall outside of the Second Amendment’s plain text because they are ‘accoutrements’ and not arms.’ The test for whether an object is included in ‘arms’ is supposedly based on whether it ‘is necessary to the ordinary operation of the weapon.’ ‘Ordinary’ means anything you want it to mean.” (06/17/26)
“Iran was consistently and demonstrably in compliance with all their commitments under the agreement. It was Trump who broke faith, betrayed Iran and unilaterally and illegally pulled the United States out of the agreement. When, despite this history of nuclear negotiations with Trump, Iran returned to the negotiating table, the U.S. three times bombed Iran while negotiating. … Other negotiations with the U.S. have also taught Iran distrust.” (06/17/26)
“A leadership standoff in the Philippine Senate ended Wednesday with the removal of an ally of former President Rodrigo Duterte as leader of the chamber, which will soon start the impeachment trial of his daughter, incumbent Vice President Sara Duterte. With 13 of 24 senators backing him, Sherwin Gatchalian, an ally of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., was elected Senate president. His rival, Alan Peter Cayetano, a key supporter of Duterte, conceded defeat. Both had claimed leadership of the Senate in the last two weeks based on contrasting legal interpretations of the quorum that led to their elections. … Control over the Senate is crucial. It’s expected to start the trial in July of the vice president, who was impeached by the House of Representatives last month over criminal charges, including unexplained wealth and publicly threatening to have Marcos assassinated.” (06/17/26)
