By Robert Romano Trade promotion authority for the president to negotiate commercial treaties — which pass with simple majority votes in both chambers of Congress — has lapsed since 2007, when Democrats had majorities. Once Barack Obama became president, Democrats never granted him trade authority. They could […]

By Robert Romano The National Review’s Quin Hillyer had a very interesting piece on May 11 that points to the Republican voter turnout deficit in 2012 among what Sean Trende at Real Clear Politics described as “largely downscale, Northern, rural whites. In other words, H. Ross Perot voters.” Here, Hillyer and Trende are pointing to the 2.5 million potential Republican voters who stayed home in 2012 , probably costing Mitt Romney […]

By Rick Manning Why does the left hate entry-level jobs? That’s what many former fast food workers must be asking themselves after massive increases in the minimum wage in places like Seattle, Washington are being blamed for a wave of restaurant closures. Closures that deprive entry-level workers an opportunity […]

By Robert Romano 0.8 percent. That is how much winter weather knocked off the Gross Domestic Product estimate by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which came in at just 0.2 percent in the first quarter, says St. Louis-based Macroeconomic Advisers. The firm finds a small link between […]

By Sen. Jeff Sessions Adapted from a statement at http://www.sessions.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2015/5/critical-alert . Congress has the responsibility to ensure that any international trade agreement entered into by the United States must serve the national interest, not merely the interests of those crafting the proposal in secret. It must […]

By Robert Romano “I support any plan that the chairman [Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas)] can get through his committee, whether it would reform the bank, wind it down.” That was House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) calling for an act of Congress to wind down the Export-Import Bank of the United States , the $27.5 billion a year operation that, according to its charter, is supposed to “facilitate exports […]

By J. Wesley Burnett, Ph.D. & Nathan P. Mehrens, Esq. After one of the longest Congressional debates over agricultural policy in U.S. history, the Agricultural Act (Farm Bill) of 2014 was signed into law on February 7, 2014. This bill ended the direct payment program but left two key features. First, the […]

By Robert Romano “[T]his is going to be a living document, so the treaty signatories are able to change it any time if we authorize it to go forward.” That was Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), speaking with John Fredericks  on WHKT out of Portsmouth, Va. , describing the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership commercial treaty now under consideration by […]

By Robert Romano “The one that gets on my nerves the most is the notion that this is a secret deal.” That was President Barack Obama complaining about criticisms of legislation that would grant him trade promotion authority to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Chief among those criticisms is the secret nature of the agreement, most recently leveled […]