By Bill Wilson — In 2013, $2.2 trillion of the $3.65 trillion budget will be on so-called “mandatory” spending — a Washingtonian euphemism for automatic spending. This is money that will be spent regardless if Congress ever votes on anything ever again — with the notable exception […]

By Bill Wilson — 122,000 fewer Americans had jobs in November than in October, yet the government reports that the unemployment rate declined to 7.7 percent.  This simple fact is why the unemployment rate has become one of the least relevant economic statistics that the federal government […]

By Bill Wilson — “If Congress in any way suggests that they’re going to tie negotiations to debt ceiling votes and take us to the brink of default once again as part of a budget negotiation — which, by the way, we had never done in our […]

By Bill Wilson — Despite higher-than-expected inventories giving the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) a seeming boost in the third quarter — being revised upward to 2.7 percent even as consumer spending was revised down — it may still be premature to pop the bottle of champagne. Average […]

By Bill Wilson — In the past 30 years, the national debt has increased 1,328 percent from $1.1 trillion to $16.3 trillion. From 1952 to 1982, it nearly quadrupled, from about $250 billion to $1 trillion. And from its 1922 level of $23 billion, it increased by […]

By Bill Wilson — A recent report by the World Bank has found that the world will warm by 4 degrees Celsius this century, and that the negative impacts of climate change will disproportionately hurt developing, poorer regions. The report, “Turn Down the Heat,” warns of rising sea levels, less arable […]

NRD Editor’s Note: This column originally appeared at The Daily Caller . By Bill Wilson — “One likes to believe in the freedom of music,” Rush’s Geddy Lee crooned in the 1980 hit “The Spirit of Radio,” “but glittering prizes and endless compromises shatter the illusion of integrity.” These words […]

By Bill Wilson — “[T]he only thing that’s worse than cutting national defense is not having any scheduled cuts at all take place.” That’s how Rep. Jim  Jordan, chairman of the House Republican Study Committee, put it recently, in defense of $109 billion of reductions to budget […]

NRD Editor’s Note: Americans for Limited Government sent 26 letters to Republican governors either urging them not to implement, or praising for not implementing state exchanges in the health care law. By Bill Wilson — It is incredible that the Republican Governors Association is struggling trying to figure out what to do about Obamacare’s provision that states form a health insurance exchange .  If a majority of Republican governors simply followed Texas Gov. Rick […]

By Bill Wilson — Those governors that are today considering whether or not to implement a state-run health insurance exchange under the new health care law may hold the fate of Obamacare in their hands. Under the law, state exchanges would be responsible for dispersing some $800 […]