By Andy Blom, TES Washington Editor
What an interesting election. Both sides won. The D’s won the Presidency (assuming the legal challenges fail). The R’s held the Senate and gained in the House (assuming an R win in Georgia’s runoff). Sanity, in some form, maybe won, giving us a gridlocked Washington. If President-maybe-elect Biden’s regulating Executive Orders aren’t out of control the final analysis will be the American people won, because a do nothing Washington is a do no harm Washington. They have accidentally taken the political equivalent of the Hippocratic oath. And while they stumble on, Free Market advocates and organizations will be our faithful watchdogs, doing the critical policy work that makes a real difference. Here’s this week’s news:
Taxpayers Fleeing Your State’s High taxes? Tax Neighboring States. That ought to be a joke, right? Sadly, it’s actually a trend. Or at least an attempted trend. The latest villain? Massachusetts. Neighboring New Hampshire had a reasonable agreement that people living in NH (to avoid Massachusetts’ high income and sales taxes, NH has neither) would pay Mass Income Taxes for days they worked in Massachusetts. Then the pandemic hit and people started from working home. The Bay State’s solution? Tax them anyway. Ouch. Work from your pleasant, untaxed residence in New Hampshire and pay Massachusetts Income Tax. Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform, tells the story, and warns about other abuses (Hello California!) here.
Is Foreign Money Corrupting U.S. Higher Education? You Decide. Responding to a request from Congress, the U.S. Department of Education Office of the Senior Counsel has released a study to inform the public on compliance with section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965. In English, rather than government-ese, this examines transparency from colleges and universities on the question of foreign funding and foreign influence on our colleges and universities. So now you can make such an assessment yourself and hold those institutions accountable. Wonder just who is directing what your children are learning? Learn more yourself here.
If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It – EU/US Trade Edition. There is a tendency for new Administrations to rush in and change everything the previous one did. This seems especially likely if there is a Biden Admin (we believe electors, not the media, select a President) as they seek revenge after four years of opposing anything President Trump did. But hold on a minute. He did a lot of things that were good for America — American businesses, American consumers — you know, America. Take U.S./E.U. trade. Lucio Miranda did and has prepared an informative look at the state of our trade with the European Union. It’s a clear-eyed look that should be studied before taking anything apart.
Not Election News! State Legislative Update. The National Conference of State Legislatures deals with lots of things…suicides, tribal lands, covid priorities, ballot measures…and their blog covers them all. Take a look at the November issue and be informed. What happens out there can be more important than what happens in Washington.
Borking the Democrats – the Importance of Amy Coney Barrett. The unpleasant, highly partisan, contentious approval of Supreme Court Justices that we now suffer through began with Senator Ted Kennedy’s ad hominem attack on the eminently qualified Robert Bork. Thus began decades of politicizing the Supreme Court. By playing by the rules and behaviors laid down by the likes of Kennedy and Harry Reid, President Trump and Senator McConnell have now established a majority conservative, or originalist court. Read the illuminating piece by Peter Roff in Newsweek to see how the D’s chickens have come home to roost.
And While We’re At It, Keep 9. The threat, should Biden hold on to the Presidency and the Democrats win the runoff elections in Georgia, is that they will pack the Supreme Court with liberal justices until they can again gain the balance of judicial power. Not how it’s supposed to work, the Court is not supposed to be a policy or law making body. The Madison Coalition has a lot to say on this and they want your help in supporting the Keep Nine Amendment. See their argument, and what you can do to preserve the Founding Fathers’ vision.
Andresen Blom is a Washington based policy and political analyst and author who has been published in The Wall Street Journal, The Hill, and Politico.
