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As part of a larger package of "stimulus measures" to be announced by the administration this week, President Obama on Monday unveiled a new nationwide infrastructure overhaul plan. On Wednesday, Obama is expected to announce two new tax credits, a $100 billion permanent extension of the business tax credit for research and development, and a new $200 billion tax cut giving businesses an incentive to buy new equipment in the short term. Comments Cato scholar Daniel J. Mitchell, "All of these proposals suffer from the same flaw in that they assume growth is sluggish because government is not big enough and not intervening enough."
Criminal defense systems are in a state of perpetual crisis, routinely described as "scandalous." Public defender offices around the country face crushing caseloads that necessarily compromise the quality of the legal representation they provide. In a new paper, Professors Stephen J. Schulhofer and David Friedman examine the broken criminal defense system and propose free market solutions to better serve indigent defendants.
President Obama addressed the American people on the evolving role for the U.S. military in Iraq. Obama discussed what the U.S. military draw down in Iraq means for national security efforts and the fight against terrorism. Observes Cato scholar Christopher Preble, "Some people are advising the president to leave a permanent U.S. military presence in Iraq, essentially arguing that the United States is the rightful guarantor of Iraqi sovereignty, and that the Iraqis simply can't be trusted with security matters. The president has wisely turned aside such recommendations in the past, and should do so again."
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Downsizing the Federal Government
Read the free e-book version of this guide to fixing the growing federal budget mess, which identifies more than 100 federal programs that should be terminated, transferred to the states, or privatized in order to balance the budget and save hundreds of billions of dollars. The book proposes a balanced reform package of cuts to entitlements, domestic programs, and excess defense spending to curtail the rapidly expanding government.
The Right to Earn a Living
For many people, owning a business is the American dream, but attaining that dream has grown increasingly difficult due to laws and regulations that interfere with an individual's right to earn a living. Timothy Sandefur, who has defended many citizens against government restrictions on their economic liberty, charts the history of this fundamental right and its prospects for the future.
The Struggle to Limit Government
This book assesses the highs and lows of the nearly 30-year struggle to limit government—Reagan's successes and failures, the drift away from Reagan's legacy, and George W. Bush's rejection of limited government—and concludes that the last elections were a repudiation of the failed Bush presidency, not limited government.
Terrorizing Ourselves
Explores disciplined approaches to terrorism and dismantles the flawed thinking that dominates today's national security policy, exposing how politicians manipulate fear for political purposes and anxiety about terrorism is driving military adventurism, exploding the national debt, militarizing domestic affairs, and shifting expenditures away from other urgent priorities.
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