Education Savings Accounts:

Keith Diggs, from the Institute for Justice, explained exactly what is wrong with the argument against Education Savings Accounts. “These groups, which have attacked ESAs in the Nevada courts, will tolerate no new ideas in education,” Diggs wrote in the Reno Gazette Journal. He’s right. With oral arguments just one week away, be sure to RSVP now for our ESA Policy Luncheon on July 29th, featuring Vicki Alger from the Independent Institute. (RSVP here)

Over regulation:

Anxious to please activists and environmentalists, politicians have agreed to force companies that sell produce to clearly label their genetically modified organic foods (GMOs). So what exactly is a GMO? Well, no one really knows. Genetic engineering is essentially a continuum of techniques that have been used over millennia — and the legislation itself is so broad, it fails to narrowly define what kind of bioengineered foods might qualify as “GMOs.” Maybe, before regulating an entire industry, government should first obtain a better understanding of what, precisely, is being regulated. (Read more)

Climate Change:

Climate-change alarmists, activists and even lawmakers try to silence scientific and policy debate by claiming that “ninety-seven percent of scientists agree” on global warming. But, as former NASA scientist Dr. Roy Spencer points out, science is not a democratic process. “Since when is science settled by a survey or a poll? The hallmark of a good scientific theory is its ability to make good predictions… From what we’ve seen, global warming theory is definitely lacking in this regard,” Spencer wrote. The truth is, climate change is a complex issue, and the science behind it is constantly evolving. Debate over the issue shouldn’t be censored or ignored simply because some alarmists want it to be. (Read more)

Economic Development:

For a prime example of how government manages to stifle job growth, look no further than your local licensing requirements. License requirements for various occupations — essentially a government-created permission-slip to work — have been on the rise for decades. And many of these requirements do virtually nothing to protect the public from abusive businesses. In Washington D.C., for example, a shoe-shine must obtain four separate licenses from various government agencies before being legally allowed to operate. (Read more)

Federal debt:

The federal debt climbed to more than $19.4 trillion dollars this week. That means in less than nine months since Congress passed the “Bipartisan Budget Act” — which suspended the legal debt limit until March of 2017 — the federal government has overspent by more than $1.25 trillion dollars. (Read more)