The big banks are at it again. They enjoy tremendous market power over American consumers, and between government regulation and the shift to digital payments, it’s nearly impossible to function without a bank account. You can barely pay with cash for much of anything anymore. And checking accounts are notoriously sticky – anyone who has Read More…
As many small businesses struggle to find and retain qualified workers, several states across the country have implemented government-run systems to pay unemployment to individuals who voluntarily walk off the job to go on strike. Unemployment benefits for striking workers create an incentive for employees to abandon their responsibilities without negative consequences like termination or Read More…
Across our region, policymakers have been taking action that significantly moves the economic needle: cutting waste and trimming red tape. It’s a key reason Idaho, Montana and Wyoming regularly show up among the least-regulated states in the country, and is a major draw to families, job creators and taxpayers alike. Washington has made some permitting Read More…
President Trump’s tariffs and hardline trade negotiations are not just political theater; they are the backbone of a bold America First economic strategy. The results speak for themselves: stronger leverage abroad, revitalized U.S. industries, and greater economic security here at home. Critics may complain about short-term price fluctuations, but the numbers prove the policy is Read More…
OPINION: A week after moving into the White House, President Joseph R. Biden ordered his minions at the Justice Department to arrest Hillary Clinton’s online antagonist. Douglass Mackey became the first American captured, prosecuted, convicted and nearly imprisoned over a funny picture circulated on what is now X. Count the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Read More…
OPINION: More than 100 people died in the recent flash flooding in the Texas Hill Country. After hours of torrential downpours Friday, the waters of the Guadalupe River surged 30 feet in a torrent that swept away everything in its path, including a Christian summer camp located along the river and a nearby creek. Capitalizing Read More…
The national conversation around cannabis has shifted dramatically in the last few years. What was once a fringe issue is now a mainstream discussion, with a broad consensus emerging across the political spectrum: it’s time for federal cannabis policy to catch up with the reality on the ground in America. The proposed rescheduling of cannabis Read More…
OPINION: Defiance of court orders sets a bad precedent for the rule of law. Sometimes, however, following an order like the one issued Monday by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani could lead to even worse outcomes. Without bothering to listen to the other side, the Boston-based magistrate, appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama, Read More…
OPINION: The world’s richest man is annoyed at President Trump. Elon Musk says the recently enacted One Big Beautiful Bill’s excessive spending levels have compelled him to become a political spoiler. He’s forming the America Party as a “moderate” voice for fiscal sanity. It’s correct to say elected Democrats and many Republicans aren’t serious about Read More…
OPINION: Hillary Clinton wasn’t the only one engaged in dirty tricks against then candidate Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election. An analysis released last week by the Central Intelligence Agency admits the intelligence community’s December 2016 assessment of Russian interference in the election was the product of political manipulation. On Dec. 6 that year, Read More…
OPINION: Hillary Clinton wasn’t the only one engaged in dirty tricks against then candidate Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election. An analysis released last week by the Central Intelligence Agency admits the intelligence community’s December 2016 assessment of Russian interference in the election was the product of political manipulation. On Dec. 6 that year, Read More…
OPINION: Earlier this year, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders outlawed anti-competitive practices in the pharmacy industry, and lobbyists are hopping mad about it. There are many reasons drug prices are inflated, but she realized some of the biggest retailers have figured out how to game the system. “These massive corporations are attacking our state because Read More…
OPINION: One year from today, America will observe its semiquincentennial. That’s a milestone worth celebrating, as few forms of government have lasted 250 years. Our republic’s longevity is a testament to the truth of the propositions set forth in 1776. Donald Trump will rise to the occasion. When the Army knocked on his door, saying Read More…
OPINION: The judicial resistance sustained a major setback last week. Thanks to a long-overdue Supreme Court intervention, lone judges can no longer hold the nation hostage to their whims. In the 5½ months since President Trump’s second term began, Justice Amy Coney Barrett sat on the sidelines with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. Their Read More…
OPINION: Sometimes the desert can turn into a swamp. It happened last week in Phoenix, when Arizona politicians gathered for the end of the legislative session to tell their constituents one thing before proceeding to do the opposite. There’s no better example of legislative legerdemain than the state House’s decision, by a 34-22 vote, to Read More…
OPINION: President Trump is on a roll. By Friday, the stock market had recaptured the value lost after traders sustained a severe case of tariff jitters. A successful strike against Iran’s nuclear development sites ended with a ceasefire. And the One Big Beautiful Bill Act cleared Senate procedural hurdles Sunday. These victories are precarious, as Read More…
OPINION: Europe’s decline into authoritarianism was on display in Belgium last week as an appeals court condemned a former member of the Federal Parliament to a year in jail over internet memes. The politician, Dries Van Langenhove, wasn’t even the one who shared the offending content. As the appellate panel stated, “It is not the Read More…
Lately, you may have come across articles from some members of the Legislature promoting the new property tax bills (now laws) that were passed this year. It appears they have been on a publicity tour highlighting the benefits of these new laws while criticizing those who opposed them. There were legislators, including myself, who opposed Read More…
In a political landscape often mired in hyperbole, President Donald J. Trump’s decisive actions to secure the southern border stand out as a rare and resounding success. Since taking office, Trump has delivered on his campaign promise to restore order and protect American sovereignty, transforming a chaotic border situation into one of unprecedented control. The Read More…
Who knew there were this many things that had to be fixed? The legislative sessions in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Washington are over. Depending on your political perspective, the benefits – or damages – will be felt for years to come. One thing that isn’t in dispute? Lawmakers couldn’t help but introduce a record number of bills Read More…
The Trump administration has begun the hard work of moving federal government policy toward market-affirming policies and away from the progressive tax-spend-debt madness of the Biden years. Unfortunately, the economy may require a much bigger rescue than is politically possible – or perhaps even economically possible. The fact that the American people have always been Read More…
The 2025 Montana legislative session got off to a rocky start on day one in the Senate when a group of nine Republicans defected to collude with Democrats in a surprise maneuver to change the Senate’s rules and committee assignments giving themselves and Democrats more power. For the entire legislative session, the 9 censured Republicans joined with all Read More…
Today’s Utterly Moderate podcast episode focuses on the positives and negatives of President Trump’s first 100 days in office in this his second term. We are joined by Jim Swift, a longtime Republican and senior editor at The Bulwark. If you aren’t familiar with the work that they do over at The Bulwark, it is an online Read More…
As a registered and licensed dietitian nutritionist for over 15 years in Louisiana, I have worked alongside many providers with the common goal of providing the best possible care and supporting patients with guidance on balanced diets. With high rates of childhood obesity in Louisiana, I recognize that the state legislature is looking to apply Read More…
For states like Washington, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, the 10-year regulatory moratorium on artificial intelligence recently passed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity. The committee’s decision to advance this pause on state-level AI regulations marks a crucial step toward creating the regulatory certainty needed to attract substantial tech investment to our region, Read More…
“Better than a thousand hollow words is one word that brings peace.” – Buddha (560-483 B.C.) World War II changed the world forever. In 1945, the scars of the war were as fresh as many combat wounds. People feared another war and the United Nations was founded to prevent disputes. It included 57 nations that Read More…
The Make America Healthy Again movement has gained significant attention throughout the nation and many of the top initiatives highlighted have found their way into state legislatures this session. Louisiana is no exception and Senator Patrick McMath, R-Covington, has, via Senate Bill 14, proposed a significant cleanup of our food supply, especially focused on kids. Read More…
“Conservatism has always been about reforming government and solving problems, and that’s why the conservative movement should lead on immigration reform.” – Marco Rubio The United States has long been a destination for freedom and opportunity for millions of men and women from around the globe. Immigration has been an essential element for the socioeconomic Read More…
Every few years, Congress discusses some form of spending limits. Usually, these go nowhere or are ignored or repealed a couple of years or so after passage. There is a similar rule for federal tax revenues. Unlike the spending rule, the revenue rule is always in effect. Regardless of what Congress and the president may Read More…
Debanking is a growing concern for conservatives nationwide, and Montana is no exception. Financial institutions have been weaponized to silence conservatives by cutting off essential banking services. Rather than addressing this injustice, the Biden administration allowed it to continue unchecked. While President Trump recognized the importance of preventing banks from targeting conservatives, Montana’s Senate Bill Read More…
Today we saw oral arguments in the lawfare case against Attorney General Knudsen. Sadly, this is nothing new. We’ve seen this movie before. The left uses “lawfare” to silence and target political opponents, manipulating the legal system for partisan gain. This isn’t just happening at the national level, as we’ve witnessed in the ongoing lawfare Read More…
Everyone has seen the stories. A homeowner goes on vacation only to return and find strangers in their bed and half their furnishings sold. Or a widow vacates a family home, puts her house on the market and then finds out someone moved in and changed the locks while the house was unoccupied. Or a Read More…
“Electric cars aren’t pollution-free; they have to get their energy from somewhere.” – Alexandra Paul You’d have to have been asleep in a cocoon for the last decade to escape the doom and gloom heaped upon our energy dependent society by climateers and green energy advocates. The jury is in and then the jury is Read More…
As a veteran public school educator, I’ve learned a thing or two over my 21 years in the classroom, from classroom management techniques to technology and learning during the COVID pandemic. But one of the most shocking discoveries was learning how the teachers’ union works to undermine my conservative values. In dozens of Idaho school Read More…
Last week, President Trump appeared before a joint session of Congress to lay out a list of policy priorities his administration will pursue over the next three and a half years – one of which is to Make America Healthy Again (MAHA). The slogan has become a favorite of moms and dads who are skeptical Read More…
This episode of the Utterly Moderate Podcast deals with liberal bias in higher education and what to do about it, with a specific focus on the field of sociology. According to Gallup, a strong majority (68%) of Americans believe that higher education is headed in the wrong direction. Barely more than a third (36%) of Americans Read More…
With the federal government facing a debt of $36 trillion and realizing that 49 out of 50 states have to balance their budgets, Americans are losing patience with the ability of Congress to enact meaningful fiscal discipline. This is why resolutions have been introduced in Idaho, Montana, Washington and Wyoming this year calling for a Convention of the Read More…
Prospects for a federal wealth tax could be nil in the Trump era, but states – specifically blue states – may be tempted to take up that cause, demonstrating the devastating effect that policy would have on citizens, businesses and the economy. Massachusetts went first, adopting a “millionaire tax” in 2022 that imposes a 4 Read More…
The United States is falling behind in energy and infrastructure development, and the culprit is our own federal bureaucracy. This can change if Congress implements significant permitting reform, repeals decades of senseless and duplicative regulations, and restores regulatory order by returning power to the states as our founding fathers intended. While states like Texas can Read More…
Housing affordability is a real concern, but Washington lawmakers are proposing a deeply flawed solution: rent control. While Argentina reaps the benefits of repealing its disastrous rent control law, Washington legislators are hurling headlong down the path of ruinous third-world housing policy. House Bill 1217 would limit rent increases to 7% per year, prohibit any increases during a Read More…
Once a relatively popular, if ineffective, public official, Marc Racicot has reappeared on Montana’s political scene after a near 20-year absence. But rather than returning as a statesman, he comes back as a shameless shill of a liberal judiciary that has routinely overstepped its authority. Once trusted with Montana’s highest office, Racicot’s transition from public Read More…
I’m a busy parent. My wife and I juggle the schedule for four kids (three in the Noblesville, Indiana, school system) on top of work, church and fun activities when we can squeeze them in. And like many Hoosier parents, when it comes down to learning about school board candidates, we often find ourselves cramming Read More…
The mostly friendly state battle for tax competition and economic competitiveness is alive and well in our region. Except for some states on the left coast (looking at you Washington), prioritizing additional tax relief is front and center in state capitals across the country. This includes major income tax reduction proposals in Idaho and Montana. Read More…
“The more absolute the hush, the more shocking the thunderclap. Our masters have not heard the people’s voice for generations, and it is much, much louder than they can remember.” – Alan Moore The term “silent majority” has been used for centuries, referring to an unspecified large group of people or group who do not Read More…