Read this piece by James Hohmann, which argues that the importance of Trump's loss on health care is being overblown and that, in fact, Trump is largely succeeding so far. It includes this passage: Despite the chaos and the growing credibility gap, Trump is systematically succeeding in his quest to “deconstruct the administrative state” [quoting Steve Bannon] He’s […]
Author Archives: Brian Wolfman
This article by Alan Rappeport provides details on the Trump Administration's plans to move on to tax legislation and climate policy, after Trump's spectacular failure to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Rappeport says that this week "the administration will issue an executive order that will begin to dismantle a rule issued by former president […]
About I week ago, I posted an opinion piece by consumer reporter Michelle Singletary explaining why Trump's plan to cut medicaid was "disastrous." She's now written an article about readers' vicious reactions to that piece.
Remember when then-New York mayor Michael Bloomberg banned sales of sugary drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces? The idea was that the ban would cause people to drink fewer ounces of sugary drinks overall. (For Richard Posner's take on that issue, go here.) The New York Court of Appeals ultimately threw out Bloomberg's ban on New […]
From time to time, we discuss evidence about what types of consumer education and regulation (for instance, prohibitions on industry conduct vs. disclosure obligations) best protect consumers. So, I was intrigued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's research study entitled The power of light-touch financial education: A demonstration with credit card revolvers. Here is the agency's summary […]
According to this story by Matt Fuller, the original sponsors of the bill to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act have now been cut out of the legislative process and won't know what they are voting on. And it sounds like the last-minute revisions will cause massive harm to people most in need of essential health […]
Law prof Lawrence Gostin says preliminary evidence suggests that they will in 2016: The Year of the Soda Tax. Here's the abstract: The year 2016 was pivotal in the history of the “soda wars” – the politically divisive conflict between soda as a joy of life or as a uniquely harmful food. This past year, the […]
Go here to view the witnesses' written testimony. (The witnesses were Ted Olson, Saikrishna Prakash, Adam White, and Brianne Gorod.) To watch the hearing, click here or on the embedded video below.
Law prof George Yin has written a brief and timely paper called Congressional Authority to Obtain and Release Tax Returns. Yin is the former chief of staff of Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation. In his paper, Yin explains that particular congressional committees possess the power to obtain, review, and disclose filers' tax returns in limited circumstances and […]