“‘Enough is enough.’ With those words, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders launched a push to impose a 5% annual wealth tax on America’s billionaires. With Rep. Ro Khanna, the legislation, ‘Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act,’ echoes the growing ‘eat-the-rich’ mantra on the left — seeking to replicate a disastrous push in California that has led to an exodus from that state and an estimated loss of $2 trillion in taxable assets. It is also flagrantly unconstitutional. Under the plan, Congress would target 938 billionaires to tap them for $4.4 trillion. That money would then be redistributed as a $3,000 direct payment to every man, woman and child in a household making $150,000 or less — $12,000 for a family of four. The timing of the move is telling.” (03/10/26)
Source: Mother Jones
by Nick Schwellenbach & Dan Friedman
“Kristi Noem is out as Homeland Security Secretary, but a luxury 737 she has traveled on remains in government hands. That plane, reportedly dubbed the ‘Big, Beautiful Jet’ by DHS staffers, has been quietly leased to the department by a company linked to William Walters, a former State Department official who donated thousands of dollars to a pro-Noem political action committee. Walters owns a constellation of businesses that — despite a dearth of prior experience working for the government — won lucrative contracts with Noem’s DHS over the past year.” (03/10/26)
“Six months ago today, conservative pundit Charlie Kirk was murdered …. I was nearly nine years old when the Columbine shooting happened. A year or two later, I picked up the book She Said Yes at my school’s Scholastic Book Fair (the best day of my school year). The story of Cassie Bernall — which claimed she was killed after being asked by one of the Columbine shooters if she believed in God — spread like a brush fire through the broader Christian community. Though it was very soon after debunked, it has never been fully extinguished. Cassie and Charlie appear to share only two things in common: they were both professing Christians, and they were both victims of horrific violence. But in death, they have acquired a third. Their stories are used to impress upon young Christians the importance of being willing to die for their faith.” (03/10/26)
“The Supreme Court has ruled against Donald Trump’s tariffs. In a sweeping and landmark decision, the court found by a 6-3 majority that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not authorize the president to impose tariffs by executive decree. Tariffs remain an Article I power of Congress under the US Constitution, a power that cannot be delegated away by speculative inferences from a vague statute that does not even mention the word ‘tariff.’ The Framers placed this power in the legislative branch for a reason: Tariffs are taxes, and the principle of ‘no taxation without representation’ provided a central rallying cry for the American Revolution. The decision has nonetheless drawn the ire of a number of conservatives, who otherwise appeal to history and the intentions of the Founders as a guiding principle for constitutional law.” (03/10/26)
“I hate to be giving the Trump administration excuses for a weak economy, but I do feel an obligation to call the data as I see it and not make it up for political convenience. And the excuse actually does not buy them much anyhow. The seemingly simple point is that we might well have gotten a weaker than expected jobs report in February because of weather-related factors. It wasn’t that February weather was especially bad. We did get some snowstorms in late January and February, but that is what happens in winter. Since our data are all seasonally adjusted, the question would be if February’s weather (before the reference date – February 12th) was worse than an ordinary February. My guess is probably not. But January’s weather was likely better than a normal January.” (03/10/26)
“In a recent edition of this newsletter, I argued that the war with Iran is unconstitutional because President Donald Trump took the United States to war without first obtaining a congressional declaration of war as required by the U.S. Constitution. In response, a reader we’ll call ‘John A.’ wrote in to say the following: ‘Unconstitutional perhaps, but enforcement is political, not judicial.’ As a practical matter, ‘John A.’ is probably right. Despite the fact that the Constitution vests the power ‘to declare War’ exclusively in the hands of Congress via Article I, Section 8, the U.S. Supreme Court has proven itself unwilling over the past half-century or so to hear cases challenging the usurpation of that congressional power by the executive.” (03/10/26)
“Amid the so-called ‘ceasefire’, as imperial grifters and disaster capitalists jockey to remake Gaza in their image and in accordance with their own interests, the genocide has not abated. In its current phase, while the killing continues daily, its defining feature is the deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, in whole or in part. From the outset, Israel has pursued this objective through a policy of urbicide: the systematic annihilation of Gaza City, Khan Younis, Rafah, Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya, and Deir al-Balah. Palestinians remain steadfast in their refusal to be erased. Yet Israel’s assault has rendered Gaza nearly uninhabitable. This devastation cannot be easily dismissed with antiseptic euphemisms such as ‘collateral damage’, a term long employed to sanitize the mass slaughter of civilians. Intent can be inferred from actions, and policy from sustained patterns of conduct.” (03/10/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Lawrence W Reed
“Two hundred and fifty years ago this month, the Scottish philosopher and economist Adam Smith’s monumental work, An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, was published. Its lasting impact means that it belongs on any list of the 100 most influential books ever written. Great teachers produce great students. Smith produced too many to count, but one in particular stands out as extraordinary for his eloquence, his storytelling, and his passion for freedom and free markets. That would be Frédéric Bastiat, best known for his last of many books, The Law.” (03/10/26)
