The Debt Crisis Explained

Imagine a family that earns $50,000 a year but is spending more than $88,000 with a credit card balance of $330,000.  The discussions around the kitchen table are likely to be a little tense. Proportionally, that’s where Washington’s finances are today, and that’s why the national discussion is a little tense, too. Even these figures […]

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The First Conservatives: The Constitutional Challenge to Progressivism

Modern conservatives look to a variety of historical figures for guidance as they confront progressive liberalism.  Some are from the 1700’s and 1800’s, including Edmund Burke, the Founders, and Abraham Lincoln.  Others, like Russell Kirk, F.A. Hayek, Milton Friedman, and Ronald Reagan, are from the postwar era.  Strangely enough, conservatives rarely turn to the original […]

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When America Paid off the National Debt

Winter has turned to spring and spring has turned to summer, but Congress and the White House are still debating how to handle the limit on our national debt.  In the 1830’s, however, President Andrew Jackson set about an even more daunting task: paying the debt off entirely.  America accomplished that feat in 1835, and […]

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