U.S. taxpayers are familiar with marriage penalty, but it is not merely a problem facing American families. In the Netherlands, afamily with a stay-at-home mother could pay more than 560 percent more in taxes than an identical family making the exact same e. Ironically, the Dutch tax code treats families with es in vastly disparate ways in the name of equality, explains Arnold Huijgen, Ph.D., in a new essay for Religion & Liberty Transatlantic. This bizarre state of affairs e...

There has been much discussion this week surrounding the effects that Seattle’s minimum wage law has had on job creation (see PowerBlog posts here, here and here). Is it time for those Catholics who have supported substantially raising the minimum wage in Seattle and other cities to rethink their position? In January of 2014, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote a letter to the United States Senate that urged Congress to consider any legislation that would increase minimum...

As humans, we are made in the image of God. We are co-creators, fashioned to produce and create, contribute and collaborate, give and receive, trade and exchange. Yet far too often, in our approaches to fighting poverty, we subscribe to a fundamental distortion of this reality, treating humans as mere consumers and“drains” on wealth and resources. In the context of poverty, this quickly leads to treating people as the problem, not the solution. “When we put the person at the...

President Donald Trump turned heads and drew criticisms for his efforts to curb the regulatory reach of the Environmental Protection Agency. With the appointment of Scott Pruitt to lead the agency, Trump has vowed to create a leaner bureaucracy by requiring agencies to repeal two regulations for each new regulation enacted. This, however, is no small task considering the sheer number of regulations left behind by previous administrations. The Obama administration—which broke the record for the most rules and regulations...

Note: This is the post #22 in a weekly series of explanatory posts on the officials and agencies included in the President’s Cabinet. See the series introductionhere. Cabinet position:Director of the Office of Management and Budget Department: Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Current Director:Mick Mulvaney Department Mission:“The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) serves the President of the United States in overseeing the implementation of his vision across the Executive Branch. Specifically, OMB’s mission is to assist the President...

On Monday, June 26, the Washington Examinerpublished an article by Ryan Lovelace titled “Conservatives cheer Gorsuch amid flurry of decisions on final day of Supreme Court term.” After concurring with Chief Justice John Roberts on Trinity Lutheran v. Comer, a 7-2 decisionin favor of a church preschool in Missouri,Justice Neil Gorsuch leaves his firsttwo months inthe high court with the approval of many conservatives. In the article, Joe Carter, a senior editor at the Acton Institute, applauds Gorsuch: In his...

Taking their cue from Seattle, cities and states are implementing minimum wage increases all over the country. Late last year, voters in Washington approved an increase in the statewide minimum wage that will raise it to $13.50 per hour by 2020. Three other states have also approved increases, including the typically conservative Arizona, where by 2020 the minimum wage will increase to $12 per hour. Yet such policies rely on a fundamental abridgment of employer and employee freedom, leading to...

“Everybody has a cell phone,” Steve Jobs told John Lasseter, chief creative officer at Pixar, “but I don’t know one person who likes their cell phone.” The frustrated CEO of Apple decided to do something about the problem, which lead to one of the greatest products of the modern age. Ten years ago today he released the first version of the famed iPhone. Jobs didn’t invent the smartphone. And while he was the guiding force behind the iPhone, he really...

Okja, the new filmfrom the director of Snowpiercer, was simultaneously released online and in the theater to coincidewith the extended Fourth of July holiday. ButOkja, which seeks to portray capitalism in a negative light, deserves to be remembered for its portrayal of how free markets save lives. Okja is the story of a simple South Korean orphan named Mija (An Seo Hyun) whose only friend is the film’s titular character, a genetically modified “super pig” about to be slaughtered. Okja...

The Declaration of Independence contains the clearest, most concise, and most eloquent articulation of the American creed, says David Azerrad, a political definition of man in two axioms, and three corollary propositions on government. In the course of making this argument and building their case, the founders also laid down the timeless and universal principles that were to define the new country. In that second paragraph, we find the clearest, most concise, and most eloquent articulation of the American creed....