Laurence Vance

Republican Tax Reform Plan: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

by Laurence Vance | Nov 14, 2017 | Featured Articles

Last month I did a preliminary libertarian analysis of the Republicans’ newest tax-reform plan. I concluded that their “Unified Framework For Fixing Our Broken Tax Code” left us with too many unanswered questions to render a verdict. Now the Republicans have issued the specifics of their plan. H.R. 1, the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” was introduced in the House on November 2. The 429-page bill—which has 5 titles, 25 subtitles, and 116 sections—amends the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 in a number of ways. I have read though much of the bill and skimmed the rest so that you don’t have to. But...

Decriminalization Is Not Enough

by Laurence Vance | Oct 10, 2017 | Featured Articles

According to recently released FBI crime data, there were 1,572,579 drug arrests in the United States last year. That’s an average of one drug arrest nearly every 20 seconds. The total number is up by about 5.6 percent from the 1,488,707 arrests for drug crimes in the United States in 2015. Because of a change in how the annual law enforcement numbers are publicized, it’s harder to determine just how many people were busted for marijuana and how many were busted for other drugs. However, Tom Angell — founder of the nonprofit Marijuana Majority and editor of the cannabis news portal Marijuana...

How Not to Cut Welfare Spending

by Laurence Vance | Oct 3, 2017 | Economics, Featured Articles

The U.S. federal budget is now in the neighborhood of $4 trillion. Just ten years ago it wasn’t even $3 trillion. It was “only” $2 trillion in 2002, and didn’t reach the trillion dollar mark until 1987. The greatest component of the federal budget is spending on the welfare state. Welfare programs There are in the United States about 80 means-tested welfare programs. These are programs that limit benefits or payments on the basis of the beneficiary’s income or assets. The best-known of these programs are Medicaid; the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP); the Supplemental...

When Foreign Aid Is Wrong

by Laurence Vance | Sep 11, 2017 | Featured Articles

People sometimes do the right thing, but for the wrong reason—including presidents and politicians. The Obama administration slashed hundreds of millions of dollars in military and economic assistance to Egypt in 2013 after the ouster of Egypt’s president Mohamed Morsi. This was a great thing, although Obama did promise future support that will depend on “Egypt’s progress in pursuing a democratic path.” As expected, $575 million in military aid to Egypt that had been frozen since the ousting of Egypt’s president was released in 2014. The Trump administration has now done the same thing. It...

Free the Airports!

by Laurence Vance | Jul 20, 2017 | Featured Articles, Justice

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), U.S. airlines and foreign airlines serving the United States carry about 900 million passengers per year systemwide on more than 9 million flights (domestic and international). The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) projects that the total number of enplanements will grow to 1.2 billion by 2036. More than 400,000 Americans work in the airline industry. There are more than 5,100 public-use airports in the United States. The busiest airport in the United States (in terms of passenger count) —...

The Marijuana Juggernaut Rolls On

by Laurence Vance | May 29, 2017 | Featured Articles, Justice

Although most media coverage last November was on national elections — and especially the presidential election — most elections are actually for state and local offices. On the national level, voters choose two senators every six years, a president every four years, and a member of the House of Representative every two years. That is it. No one gets to vote for federal judges, cabinet secretaries, or agency heads. But on the state and local level, in addition to governors, lieutenant governors, state senators, and state representatives, there are (depending on the state) judges, supreme...

Conservatives and Foreign Aid

by Laurence Vance | May 11, 2017 | Economics, Featured Articles

Conservatives maintain that they believe in the Constitution, limited government, private property, individual liberty, and the free market. Their actions when it comes to foreign aid show that they believe in none of those things. According to ForeignAssistance.gov (a new government website dedicated to foreign aid), The U.S. Government provides assistance to over 100 countries around the world. There are over 20 U.S. Government agencies responsible for either funding or executing U.S. foreign assistance activities. Foreign assistance funding is classified into one of nine categories, which...

The Change America Needs is Libertarianism

by Laurence Vance | Apr 3, 2017 | Featured Articles, Libertarianism

The French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (1808–1890) famously said that “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” This epigram is a perfect description of the American electoral process. Americans elect a new president every four years. Members of the U.S. House of Representatives have a two-year term. U.S. senators are elected for six years. That means that every two years all House seats and one-third of the Senate seats are up for grabs. Although the president is limited by the Twenty-Second Amendment to just two terms, there are no term limits for U.S. representatives...