Far better to have an imperfect tax code fairly applied than a perfect tax code unfairly applied. It is far more important that the entire enforcement and regulatory philosophy of the executive branch be radically remade than any particular law be amended. The proponents of tax reform are attempting to seize on the parade of horribles marching out of the Obama IRS to build momentum for their...

On Tuesday night the report of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration on the great Tea Party purge was released. This is a terrible report. Just begin reading it and you will quickly realize that you are in the the swamp of obfuscation and CYA. On the “Highlights” page there are more questions raised than answered –questions such as who ordered “donor...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her senior staff conducted a conference call with Gregory Hicks, deputy chief of the U.S. mission in Libya, in the early morning hours of Sept. 12, 2012. Hicks was overseeing a chaotic scene in Tripoli, where his staff was busy destroying classified material with axes and whatever else was at hand and as the few security people left in Tripoli were preparing...

Republican ennui is engulfing the grass roots as the party’s House majority sits, and sits, and sits, doing nothing except raising money and, yes, taking action to secure the country’s helium reserve. The Balloon Council applauded the latter action. Yes, the council exists, and it says it represents 100,000 balloon-connected manufacturers, distributors and retailers. Perhaps the...

A border fence, “a fence from left to right, from east to west, except obviously the mountainous areas,” as Charles Krauthammer put it, is essential to the effort to pass immigration reform. If a serious fence along the southern border is not mandated in the bill–high, double-fencing with access roads for patrol vehicles– it won’t pass. Certainly not in the House,...

Marco Rubio spent a half hour on the radio program with me yesterday, calling in to respond to the many criticisms (most bogus, some legit) launched at the first draft of immigration reform. (Transcript here.) The wide-ranging interview of the Florida senator also included criticism of the president’s press conference and his Syrian “red lines.” He also managed to endorse the...

The effort to secure the borders and reform immigration law is about to enter a crucial month at the end of which the fate of the bill will almost certainly be known. The bill as it emerged from the Gang of 8 can probably not pass the Senate and certainly wouldn’t pass the House, nor should it. But the Gang of 8 draft was only, as Senator Marco Rubio has said repeatedly said, “a starting...

“When everybody says you are drunk, you had better sit down,” is my favorite alleged old Irish proverb, which accurate or not in its origins, directs us to the wisdom of (informed) crowds. Thus when an idea appeals to me, I’ll test it against at least a few of the first-team minds in the country to see whether it is a keeper. That I can do so with the top tier of the...

Carnage in Boston, ricin in Congress and devastation in West, Texas make this the worst week in years for the U.S. That the parents of some of the victims of Newtown were disappointed in the Senate yesterday adds to the gloom, and the president’s unbelievable timing for his fit of pique Wednesday added to the sense that the country is, genuinely, leaderless. President Obama could not have known...

Down two touchdowns after the first quarter, the House Republicans think they are winning. That’s a big problem, and not only because they are losing the great positioning battle in the run-up to President Obama’s last great campaign — the 2014 congressional elections — but also because the House GOP is destroying what’s left of its already badly disfigured brand in...

Because I cannot imagine the pain the parents of Sandy Hook are suffering, I hope every senator agrees to meet with them and hear them out. I welcome any or all of them to my radio show to tell me how I and my audience can help them and their families. Grief and sorrow do not only wound but they also can serve to energize and clarify. Just last week two amazing Gold Star mothers–Nancy...

Readers of the New York Times on the morning of Sept. 10, 2001, found a front page lead on how congressional leaders were in talks about economic stimulus and below-the-fold stories on school dress codes and the morning television ratings races. The summer of 1950 was just another post-war summer, and on June 23 the Indians’ Luke Easter hit the longest ball in Cleveland Stadium history, 477...

Speeches to lawyers’ groups are among the least fun to give. For one thing, if you get a detail wrong someone is sure to point it out. For another, most lawyers (and judges) have quasi-professional commitments to impassivity in their facial expressions. Tough audience indeed. In a pair of recent outings before collections of general counsels and their outside firms I have had some limited...

Last week’s arguments over marriage were the latest chapter in a very long but very important book about how freedom endures through the separation of powers. The first day’s argument turns on whether the people of the state of California may decide what “marriage” is. They did, and they may yet change their mind, but it is absurd to say that a single district court judge...

Of all the many awful features of the Affordable Care Act –”Obamacare”– the medical device tax (“MDT”) is the most obviously ruinous of a particular sector of the economy. More than 8,000 firms in the United States are at work on such devices, from artificial hearts to sight-saving eye technologies to low tech bandages and surgical screws. More than a half...

Harvard won an NCAA tourney game and the United States Senate voted 79-20 to repeal a tax — both on the same day last week. “Your old men shall dream dreams,” proclaimed the prophet Joel, “and your young men shall see visions.” Strange things are afoot. There is nothing the House GOP can do about arranging for more basketball upsets, but there is plenty it ought to...