By: Bill Osmulski

Gas tax, vehicle registration, and railroad collections are up, giving the DOT an extra $13 million this year and putting it on track to collect an extra $25 million over the next two years. Although this increase was unexpected, revenues to the transportation fund have consistently increased annually since the last time the gas tax was increased in 2006. Full Story....Here

By David Byler

But (despite winning the popular vote) Clinton lost. If Trump or some other Republican can improve on his showing in some future election, he or she could win the popular vote as well as the Electoral College. So it’s worth asking: What happened? How did Donald J. Trump build a winning coalition in the face of demographic headwinds? How did the Democratic coalition change in this election? What do changes in both coalitions mean for the future of American politics? I used a data-driven approach to tackle these questions.

Full Story....Here

By Bryce Buchanan

The moral sentiments of the population determine what political leaders are willing to do. The moral sentiments of a country may be consistent with reality or may be based on Utopian fantasies, but, either way, they control public policy.

In America today, a corrupted concept of “deserve” has replaced the concept of “earn”. In its original usage, deserve meant to do things or show qualities worthy of reward or punishment. So, if you did all the things necessary to grow a crop, you earned the resulting harvest. Today, “deserve” is completely divorced from that meaning.

Full Story....Here

by KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON

Capitalism is unpopular for four reasons: banks, health-insurance companies, cable providers, and airlines. These all have something in common.

Airlines are like banks, health-insurance companies, and cable providers in that they work in very heavily regulated industries with relatively low profit margins, which creates enormous pressure for consolidation. Full Story....Here

By Terence P. Jeffrey

The United States added 11,000 jobs in manufacturing in March reaching a total of 12,392,000 people employed in the manufacturing sector, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That is the greatest number of people employed in manufacturing in the United States since January 2009—the month that President Barack Obama was inaugurated—when there were 12,561,000 people employed in manufacturing.    Full Story....Here

BY J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS

The development and use of Catalist by the left has serious political consequences for Republicans in Congress, consequences I fear consultants, candidates, and strategists haven’t even begun to contemplate. Consider the course charted by some GOP leaders: while they have sought to steer a middle course between Democrats and the Tea Party, Catalist is rendering moderation obsolete. Full Story....Here

By:

Collin Roth, Research Fellow Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty

Elena Ramlow Policy Intern Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty

This report details the dramatic growth in occupational licensing in Wisconsin and how it serves to fence out opportunity for thousands of workers. As a “government permission slip” to work, occupational licensing is arguably one of the most substantial barriers to opportunity in America today. While some credentialing serves to protect public health and safety, much is rank protectionism – a device to “fence in” those who already have permission to work and “fence out” those who do not. Full Story....Here

by DAVID FRENCH
While conservatives need to wait and see what the administration means when it talks about national security and sovereignty and should oppose Bernie Sanders–like efforts to restrict the free market, we should fully embrace the administration’s expressed goal of dismantling the administrative state. Done correctly, it could be Trump’s most lasting (and valuable) legacy. Full Story....Here