Each year we celebrate Veterans Day on the 11th day of the 11th month of the year — the anniversary of the First World War coming to an end following the armistice in Europe.
It’s a day when the nation collectively pays their respect to the men and women who have sacrificed and risked everything to protect our freedoms.
With the toxic culture of political bickering this time of year, it is often easy to lose sight of the freedoms we take for granted — the freedoms for which countless men and women have risked everything to preserve.
Today, as a nation, we set the day aside to embrace and thank the men and women who have stepped up to fight for our liberties.
On behalf of everyone at the Nevada Policy Research Institute, we send our most heartfelt thanks to those of you who have served this great nation. Your dedication to the American ideal gives each and every citizen the freedom to pursue our own happiness, and fight for our own beliefs.
Your service is greatly appreciated.
In case you missed it:
Election 2016:
The CEO of Grubhub, an online food delivery service, sent a company-wide email after the election, making it perfectly clear that Donald Trump supporters are not welcome as employees at his tech company. Despite bragging about Grubhub’s culture of “inclusiveness,” co-founder Matt Maloney called on employees who disagreed with his assessment of Trump to “reply to this email with your resignation,” adding that such employees “have no place” at the company. (Read more)
Fiscal and taxes:
For the first month of the federal government’s 2017 fiscal year, Treasury collected a record amount of tax revenue. However, despite the record $221 billion dollars collected in October, the government managed to spend roughly $265 billion — leaving a deficit of approximately $44 billion. Doesn’t this indicate that government has a spending problem, rather than a revenue problem? (Read more)
Public pensions:
It’s not just government watchdogs, such as the Nevada Policy Research Institute, that are warning about the looming public-pension crisis. Even Harvard is warning that the basic structure of public pensions is a sword of Damocles hanging over taxpayers, governments and public-sector workers. (Read more)
‘More Cops’ tax:
As county commissioners consider whether to increase the sales tax by one-tenth of a percentage point to strengthen Metro PD’s staffing levels, a large number of the department’s budgeted positions are vacant — which means that money for these positions has already been allocated. So the question remains, why should Metro receive more tax revenue when it is not using the funds it already has for ‘More Cops’? (Read more)
Federal overreach:
The Nevada Department of Water Resources has given the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 90 days to return water to the property of a private church ministry, or face significant administrative fines. The state order is a boost to the “takings” case against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — brought by the Nevada Policy Research Institute’s Center for Justice and Constitutional Litigation — for having illegally diverted water from the Solid Rock Ministry in Nye County. The case is currently pending in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. (Read more)