Fixing the Budget Process by Breaking It

February 21, 2025

A popular blogger called Taylor Cone gave some great advice for budding inventors, discussing the process of prototyping: build it, then break it, then fix it. That’s a strategy Congress ought to try. The House Appropriations Committee, Congress’s most powerful panel, has 63 members, only 8 of whom have ever voted to do what the […]

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How Many Border Guards Do We Need?

February 14, 2025

Police have an unflattering nickname, “Permit Patty,” for someone who calls police over frivolous complaints. It originated when a woman called the police on a little girl selling lemonade at a streetside stand – as generations of kids have done – without a permit. It illustrates a commonsense truth, namely that not everything in life […]

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Let’s Use What We Already Have

February 7, 2025

In planning the nation’s 1976 bicentennial celebration, Congress made one of its dumbest-ever boondoggle decisions. Recognizing the near death of railroad passenger service since the 1950’s, Congress decided to spend millions turning the aging and crumbling Union Station into the National Visitor Center. But they missed the obvious red flag – the millions of visitors […]

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Shovel, Baby, Shovel

January 29, 2025

My friend Amos Eno, one of the country’s leading conservation experts, spent a decade running the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and more recently the Land Conservation Assistance Network. His writing appears in all the right publications, and he is a popular speaker at conferences everywhere.  Writing about the old/new President’s endorsement of the almost-cliché […]

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DOE Throws Cold Water on Biden Legacy

January 22, 2025

Headlines this week claimed that “Heading Out the Door, Biden Seeks to Ban 40 Percent of Water Heaters.” It is highly unlikely that President Biden is even aware of the last regulation published by his Department of Energy (DOE). Though he supported their green agenda over the past four years, most details have been left […]

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Do It Now, Even If It’s Wrong

January 14, 2025

My grandparents were avid card players, spending many happy hours with family playing hearts, rummy, pinochle, and similar games. I remember occasionally, when Grandma was a little frustrated that someone was taking too long, she would say, “Well play something, even if it’s wrong.” That’s actually one of the oldest and most reliable strategies, especially […]

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The Unproud Western Legacy of Jimmy Carter

January 14, 2025

Alaska comprises nearly 20 percent of the entire U.S. at over 665,000 square miles, and is the richest state in natural resources. Yet it remains the most sparsely populated state, partly because of its isolation and weather, but largely because the federal government owns most of it, 406,000 square miles. The U.S. purchased Alaska in […]

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Is Government Going to the DOGE?

January 3, 2025

A lot of jokes about Elon Musk are making the rounds, in light of his new role in identifying government waste, fraud and abuse. One says after he puts a car into orbit, outer space will be full of germs and diseases, no longer auto-immune. Another asks what he has in common with Thomas Edison. […]

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Federal Agencies Should Look in the Mirror

December 18, 2024

In the 1950 movie version of Grimm’s Fairy Tale, the cruel stepmother scolds Cinderella, “You clumsy little fool – clean that up!” But of course, it was the stepmother, not Cinderella, who made the mess. Sometimes it seems like the world is full of people who expect others to clean up their messes. It is […]

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Time is on Colorado’s Side – No Need to Rush

December 10, 2024

An early lesson I learned as a young staffer for the late Senator Bill Armstrong was the importance of careful consideration. He disliked being rushed into hasty decisions and developed a standard response to any demand for immediate action. “If you need an answer right now,” he would say, “the answer is no.” If there […]

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