Student loan forgiveness is once again treated as taxable income . That is the correct policy. It restores a basic rule of the tax code and closes a loophole that would otherwise invite abuse. As reported by CNBC , the temporary exemption that allowed student loan forgiveness to escape taxation has expired. Going forward, borrowers whose loans are forgiven will owe taxes on that forgiven balance, just as they would with any other form of income. This outcome is not punitive.

Tariffs hurt U.S. manufacturing because imports are a critical input into American production. That basic fact is often ignored in trade debates, and it leads to policies that damage the very industries they claim to protect. Roughly half of all U.S. goods imports are not consumer products. They are industrial supplies and capital goods used by American manufacturers to produce goods, expand capacity, and invest in new equipment. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis

President Trump closed the year with a clear message on affordability and Making America Great Again. The numbers now back it up. His administration is delivering one of the most aggressive deregulation efforts in modern history, and American workers and families are already seeing the benefits. New data show just how far Washington has shifted away from red tape and toward growth. In a single year, federal agencies finalized 646 deregulatory actions  while issuing just five

Colorado Governor Jared Polis just said out loud what many Democrats quietly know. School choice works. That is why Colorado will opt in to President Donald Trump’s new nationwide school choice program. The program was created as a tax credit as part of the Working Families Tax Cut, passed by President Trump and the Republican Congress in July 2025. It is a pro-family reform that directs education dollars to students and parents, not entrenched systems. Polis put it plainly.

Congress quietly delivered a major upgrade for families saving for education. The new tax law significantly expands how 529 plans can be used, making them more flexible, more practical, and better aligned with how students actually learn and train today. For families with children, or those planning ahead, these changes materially improve the value of saving through a 529 plan. What a 529 Plan Does A 529 plan is a tax-advantaged savings account designed to help families pay f

Congress is once again debating whether to extend the enhanced, temporary Obamacare subsidies enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic under the Biden administration, layered on top of the law’s permanent subsidy structure. Doing so would be a costly mistake. Most of this spending does not help patients. It enriches insurers and fuels inefficiency. The numbers make this clear. A recent analysis highlighted by the Paragon Institute , drawing on new data from the Joint Economic Com

The welfare fraud uncovered in Minnesota’s Somali community was not a minor scandal. Tens of millions of taxpayer dollars meant to help the poor were siphoned off with ease. That kind of abuse does not happen in a well-designed system. It happens when federal welfare programs are so large, complex, and poorly monitored that fraud becomes inevitable. That broader failure is the focus of a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed by Jason Riley , which argues that the real problem goes

Source: SIPP; SHED (2022) Washington policy debates often assume seniors are the most financially vulnerable Americans. The data tells a different story. Seniors are the wealthiest age cohort in the country. By a wide margin. That outcome reflects decades of work, saving, and asset accumulation, and it should not be viewed as a failure. The real financial strain shows up elsewhere. Young families with children are far more likely to struggle with basic needs. Data shows young

Washington’s loudest voices calling to “tax the rich” keep selling the same fantasy. If billionaires just paid more, America’s debt problem would disappear. That claim collapses under even basic scrutiny. Even confiscatory tax hikes would not come close to solving the debt. The federal government could theoretically seize the entire wealth of every American billionaire and still fail to pay off even one fifth of the national debt. The math is not close. Meanwhile, the facts

Conservatives were right to be skeptical of Mitt Romney. His latest tax proposals confirm why. In a recent New York Times op-ed , Romney argues for a new round of “tax the rich” policies. They are sold as deficit reduction. In reality, they raise little revenue, hammer economic growth, and rely on class warfare talking points instead of serious reform. The proposals read more like bumper-sticker economics than a workable tax plan. Sky-High Marginal Tax Rates on Work Romney’s

A new Bloomberg report puts a hard number on something families already feel in their gut. Americans with four-year degrees now make up 25.3 percent of all unemployed workers . That is the highest share on record. When one in four unemployed Americans holds a bachelor’s degree, the system is not working. People say “college is a scam”  for a reason. It is not because they oppose education. It is because colleges have spent years drifting away from their mission while driving

Rural America should be furious. Hospital lobbyists pushed lawmakers to create loopholes that let big city hospital systems pretend to be “rural” so they can siphon off money meant for small-town care. That abuse sits at the center of the “340B” drug price discount program. What was designed to support genuinely rural and safety-net hospitals has been warped into a profit engine for large, urban hospital networks that know how to work Washington. Through technical classificat

President Trump’s approval rating on the economy is slipping, and the reason is not hard to find. According to a new AP-NORC poll, voters are souring on tariffs. That dissatisfaction is bleeding directly into broader views of Trump’s economic performance. The poll, reported by the Associated Press, shows Trump facing weaker approval on economic stewardship even as inflation concerns ease and job growth continues. The common thread behind the decline is trade policy. Voters in

Tariffs always come with a predictable sequel. First, Washington imposes new taxes on imports in the name of toughness. Then, when the economic damage becomes impossible to ignore, taxpayers are asked to clean up the mess. That cycle is playing out once again in American agriculture. A recent National Review  op-ed by Dominic Pino explains the problem clearly. In “Trump Bails Out the Farmers He Kneecapped With Tariffs Again,” Pino details how tariffs raised costs, shrank exp

Washington keeps reaching for the same failed solution in health care: bigger subsidies for a system that is already too expensive and too insurer-driven. That approach took a hit last week when the U.S. Senate rejected an extension of the COVID-era Obamacare “super subsidies.” The vote was a reminder that affordability will not be fixed by writing bigger checks to big insurance companies. Real reform has to start with empowering patients. As reported by the Associated Press

Families need real relief from high health-care costs. They are tired of Washington’s habit of pouring more Obamacare tax dollars into a system that keeps getting more expensive. There is a better way. A new five-point platform from the Committee to Unleash Prosperity shows how we can make care more affordable without writing bigger checks to Big Insurance. Their plan is simple and targeted. It focuses on giving patients more control, expanding choices, and opening the syste

Families expect federal programs to follow basic rules. They expect taxpayer money to be protected. They expect the government to check whether a person is who they say they are. This week, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) showed that the Obamacare marketplace is failing that test in stunning fashion. GAO released the results of a covert audit that should alarm every lawmaker. Investigators created four completely fictitious identities and attempted to enroll them

A new investigation from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) should be a wake-up call for anyone who still thinks Obamacare is working as promised. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman  Jason Smith highlighted the findings in a recent appearance on CNBC , and the results are hard to ignore. Fake applicants were approved. Dead enrollees kept receiving subsidized coverage. One Social Security number was tied to more than 125 different insurance policies. That is not

Patients deserve a prescription drug market that is open, honest, and affordable. For too long, pharmacy benefit managers have operated behind a wall of secrecy that hides how they make money and why drug costs keep climbing. The bipartisan Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) Price Transparency and Accountability Act , introduced in the U.S. Senate by Sens. Ron Wyden and Mike Crapo, offers a clear path to fixing that. This bill tackles one of the biggest drivers of high drug pric

Washington has a chance to deliver real relief to families who are struggling with high prices and limited choices. Last year’s reconciliation bill made some progress, but it did not finish the job. The Republican Study Committee is right to call this moment what it is: an opportunity to lead and to deliver on the promises made to hardworking families. A second reconciliation bill should focus on three priorities. We need further tax relief. We need patient-centered health c