Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson Federal courts have thrown out part or all of the voter-ID laws in states like North Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin. Judges and politicians argue that they are racially discriminatory and completely unnecessary since voter fraud rarely occurs. Americans apparently disagree. The latest Pew Research Center survey found that only 31 percent of Americans were confident that the votes were accurately counted in the 2012 election. Last night I was at a meeting where party officials were concerned about…

by Kerby Anderson Every four years there is usually a debate about the accuracy of the polls. So here is my quadrennial commentary on polling. First, let’s look at their statistical accuracy. A typical three-day poll of 1000 people if proportioned among the 3000 counties can accurately represent American adults 19 out of 20 times within three percentage points. The real question about the polls isn’t whether they are statistically accurate but whether they are polling the right people and…

by Kerby Anderson The circumstantial evidence was very clear but the Obama administration told us that it was just a coincidence. The government secretly organized an airlift of $400 million worth of euros and Swiss francs that coincided with the January release of four Americans held hostage in Iran. On my radio program I played a Fox Business Network interview with Pastor Saeed Abedini, who was told at the airport that he and the other hostages would be waiting for…

by Penna Dexter During the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ivanka Trump gave a well-received speech introducing her father, Donald Trump. In it she proposed a policy that’s not a typical stance taken by Republicans, nor is it part of the official GOP platform. Citing statistics regarding the differences between the pay of men and women in the workforce, she made the valid point that, “As researchers have noted, gender is no longer the factor creating the greatest wage discrepancy…

by Kerby Anderson Bob Kocher served as a special assistant to President Obama for health care and economic policy. In fact, he was the only physician on the National Economic Council advising the president. So it is remarkable that his most recent op-ed had the title: How I Was Wrong About ObamaCare. He and many others pushing the Affordable Care Act believed that the consolidation of doctors into larger physician groups would improve health care delivery and patient care. Some…

by Kerby Anderson This year we will be hearing quite a bit about the Trans Pacific Partnership, also known as TPP. It not only will be part of the presidential campaign, but there is good reason to believe an important vote will be taken on it after the November election. The TPP agreement establishes a Trans-Pacific Partnership Commission that has sweeping regulatory powers. It is charged with overseeing the implementation and operation of the agreement and has the power to…

by Kerby Anderson It isn’t any real surprise that voters this year aren’t too excited about the two major party candidates. Some apparently don’t want to choose between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. They are taking a second look at third party candidates. That is probably why support for these candidates seems to be increasing. An article in The Hill reports that Libertarian Gary Johnson has gone from 4.5 percent to 7.2 percent in the RealClearPolitics polling averages. Green Party…

by Kerby Anderson Is crime on the rise in America? You got two different answers to that question at the two political conventions. Donald Trump said, “violent crime has increased in cities across America.” President Obama talked about “huge drops in the murder rates” in a number of cities. You also get various answers depending on the commentator. Newt Gingrich wrote about the crime rate statistics because comedy show host John Oliver mocked Gingrich for defending Trump’s statement that crime…

by Penna Dexter In oral arguments last year in Obergefell vs. Hodges, the case that struck down the laws against same-sex marriage in every state, the Obama Administration’s lawyer made a very accurate prediction. During the proceedings, Justice Samuel Alito asked Solicitor General Donald Verrilli a question about how the religious liberty of religious schools that oppose same-sex marriage might be affected if the Court were to rule that same-sex marriage is a civil right. He wanted to know whether…

A number of state attorneys general along with some state legislatures want to prosecute people and institutions that are climate change skeptics. Back in March, seventeen of these attorneys general vowed to use the legal system to pursue fraud allegations against fossil fuel companies and their supporters who they labeled as climate change deniers. In California, the legislature briefly considered (but did not pass) a bill with the title: California Climate Science Truth and Accountability Act of 2016. Recently I…

One of the more controversial planks in the Democratic Party platform is the call for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment so that there can be full taxpayer funding of abortion. This is a remarkable change from just four years ago. The Hyde Amendment is named for Representative Henry Hyde and prohibits the use of federal funds for abortion (except in cases of the mother’s life or rape or incest). It was passed by Congress in 1976 and signed into…