“Thirty years ago, when America’s welfare debate was truly raging, some conservatives and centrists would have opposed generous cash benefits that increase family size among the low income bracket. But many of these same people now see such benefits as a good thing, precisely because they’ll help increase family size. Whenever societies debate natalism, ‘cash for kids’ proposals are inevitably part of the discussion. … Ardent natalists perceive demographic decline to be a war-like threat to America and other 21st-century nation states, and a future with fewer people does look austere in many ways. But in America, it may lead to a more expansive attitude toward benefit programs, and convergence with European-style social democracy.” (06/30/25)
“The financial system of the United States has always been prone to instability and crises. Now, however, under the new Trump administration, which is pushing for major cuts in regulation, including in the cryptocurrency sector in which the Trump family has a major financial stake, the financial system has become more vulnerable than ever, posing serious risks to the wider economy. Of course, this matters very little to Donald Trump, his family, and his billionaire friends. For Trump, the actual meaning of ‘America First’ is ‘self-enrichment.’ In the interview that follows, progressive economist Gerald Epstein, a leading expert in finance and banking, talks about the changing nature of the U.S. finance system under Trump 2.0.” (07/01/25)
“The Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iran might be a military success but the deteriorating plight of the Palestinians may well produce more future conflict.” (06/30/25)
“For many Gen Xers, the greatest Saturday Night Live sketch of all time is ‘Sprockets,’ a recurring piece in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It made genius use of our vague notions about the bleakness of German popular culture during the twilight of the Cold War. The sketch had black turtlenecks, celebrations of the macabre, and an inexplicable pet monkey. I remember reading that one of the sketch’s writers had never seen German television, but Sprockets is what he imagined it was like. … It’s time to admit that DOGE was the ‘Sprockets’ of government reform. Elon Musk seemed genuinely enthusiastic about cutting government, but he didn’t know a lick about governing. He took bits of information, added some uncharitable speculation, and created a caricature of policy and public leadership. In the end, what he offered America was comic theatre.” (06/30/25)
“‘e who saves his country violates no law,’ tweeted President Trump in February. He was echoing a line often attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte. His supporters were electrified by Trump’s tacit invocation of a right to boundless power. The Trump presidency is already spurring legal battles across the nation. It is far too soon to speculate on Trump’s final win/loss record in federal courts. But Americans should be aware of how the entire judicial process is skewed against holding officialdom liable for its crimes.” (06/30/25)
“There are great reasons for the United States to adopt a non-interventionist foreign policy. Some of these are ethical, such as not violating the rights of other people and not supporting or engaging in aggressive conduct generally. Others are partly ethical and partly prudential, such as not wasting taxpayer’s money on foreign adventurism and limiting the influence of arms dealers and the like on our political system. But one overriding prudential reason for a non-interventionist foreign policy is to avoid becoming entangled in foreign intrigues and conflicts where we lack control over our involvement and the outcome. For all his ‘America First’ bluster, President Donald Trump seems to understand none of these, and it is the third that I will focus on here.” (06/30/25)
Source: The Erick Erickson Show
by Erick-Woods Erickson
“We are expected to cheer on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act because it is the Republican bill. This Republican bill adds to the deficit, adds to the debt, picks winners and losers, raises the debt ceiling beyond the $37 trillion in existing debt, and just rearranges deck chairs as the nation sinks into insolvency. It is fiscally irresponsible. Without its passage, taxes will go up. That is the only real justification for this legislation. But taxes are going to go up on everyone significantly eventually because this legislation does not seriously tackle the issues of our fiscal solvency and uses sleights of hand to suggest any real benefit. … All the savings come towards the end of the duration of the legislation, which means it is an accounting gimmick and the cuts will never actually come to be.” (06/30/25)
“[F]or decades, both parties have relied on expansive executive power to achieve their goals. In that sense, all Americans are imperial presidentialists. Is Trump really so different from the presidents before him? The expansion of presidential power has undoubtedly been one of the central developments of the United States’ 249 years of nationhood. Though the Constitution attempted to constrain the executive branch, President George Washington nonetheless issued a stern warning in his farewell address …. ‘the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism.'” (06/30/25)
“Just when you think CNN’s Jake Tapper can’t become an even bigger media hack than he already is, he finds a way to prove you wrong. The latest incident of the network host’s shoddy conduct as a so-called ‘journalist’ came on Friday during his interview with New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Among the topics covered during the exchange was the Big Apple’s upcoming mayoral contest, which will pit Adams against the newly nominated Democrat candidate, radical socialist Zohran Mamdani. When the conversation shifted to the race against Mamdani, Tapper — whose network a jury found is actually fake news — probed Adams about his criticisms of his Democrat opponent.” (06/30/25)
“Amidst the trade wars and troubled economic understanding, it is tempting for economists to seek the counsel of despair. Indeed, the fallacies in popular economic reasoning are not the stuff of minute mathematical modeling, profound methodological disagreement, or advanced debate on controversial models. Rather, the sophistry on trade and tariffs is the stuff of the first or second week of economics 101. How could we have gone so wrong? In this time of economic illiteracy, it is worth returning to one of the masters of our tradition. Bastiat (1801-1850) was a brilliant economic mind, but he also remains an unmatched and witty expositor of simple truths. And he can be a lesson of hope.” (06/30/25)
