In the name of ending white supremacy and systemic racism, school districts are indoctrinating students with a radical new vision of American society.
Somebody should watch how they’re spending our money. Somebody is.
American Experiment President John Hinderaker interviews the popular Fox News host about the Trump legacy, the future of conservative politics, and fishing in Minnesota. Laura Ingraham has been the host of The Ingraham Angle on Fox News Channel since October 2017. She hosted the nationally syndicated radio program The Laura Ingraham Show for nearly two...
By wide margins, Minnesotans reject higher taxes either to pay down the deficit or to fund new spending programs. As members of the Minnesota legislature prepare to wrestle with a COVID-related budget deficit, Minnesotans by wide margins are telling them to deal with it through spending cuts not tax increases, according to the January edition...
Minnesota’s legislature needs to balance the demands of COVID with improving the prospects of our economy.
Don’t be fooled by the Minnesota ‘Conservative’ Energy Forum. Ronald Reagan once quipped, “It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.” The Gipper wasn’t talking about the Minnesota Conservative Energy Forum (MnCEF), a group that takes money from liberal foundations to...
In the name of public safety and ensuring high quality, Minnesota’s licensing boards have created unchecked bureaucracies that limit competition. Adam Smith, the 18th-century Scottish economist, warned against how trade-based cartels and monopolies can lead to “a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.” And even though a government’s action prohibiting...
Congressional Candidate Kendall Qualls reflects on how influencing black communities doesn’t necessarily have to come from an office in the U.S. Capital It was maybe 9 p.m. on election night when a campaign consultant came into our war room at the Bloomington Hilton to tell me that the Associated Press was about to declare incumbent...
Orr’s new report analyzes how mining will bring even greater benefits to Minnesota—and the obstacles that could thwart them. American Experiment’s Isaac Orr in November released a new report that analyzes how updated public resource estimates show that the economic benefits of mining in Minnesota would be even greater than previously estimated. His report is...
State government spending is already historically high. Minnesota Management and Budget in December forecasted a state budget surplus of $641 million for FY 2020-21, which ends next June. But attending to a looming deficit of $1.273 billion for FY 2022-23 will be the primary job of the upcoming 2021 legislative session. As Minnesota’s constitution requires...
The mammoth energy monopoly is proposing a 20 percent increase in rates. And that’s only the beginning. Xcel Energy intends to fund a $597 million spending spree by raising electricity prices by 20 percent in coming years, according to a report in the Star Tribune. The huge increase in electricity prices comes at the worst...
Parents should have alternatives to public education. American Experiment’s August Thinking Minnesota Poll revealed that one in four parents say they have looked outside public schools to find the inperson learning experience they want for their kids. As Minnesota’s school districts shift to less in-person instruction, families should have access to alternative learning options. The...
Suburbs enact bans on neighborhood protests. So-called protests by leftist agitators, anarchists and activists have left a devastating mark on the Twin Cities that will likely take decades to erase. But that’s not good enough for some hardcore demagogues who have taken their mantra of “the personal is political” to a potentially dangerous new level...
Minnesota’s policymakers should abolish our estate tax. Minnesota is one of 12 states and the District of Columbia to impose estate taxes and further impose inheritance taxes. According to the Tax Foundation, estate taxes “disincentivize business investment and can drive high-net-worth individuals out-of-state. … The handful of states that still impose them should consider eliminating...
Higher taxes on cigarettes encourage smuggling. At 35.77 percent, Minnesota has the nation’s fifth highest level of cigarettes smuggled in from out of state, according to the Tax Foundation. Between 2006 and 2018 that number has grown by 52 percent. The reason? Excise tax rates. During that same period, our state’s excise tax rates on...
COVID might be showing people how easy it is to telecommute from a lower-tax state (or country). Recently, I undertook a short tour of Minnesota’s borders to present the findings of our new report “Minnesota’s Border Battles: How state policy affects economies at the margin,” (available at AmericanExperiment.org). The conclusion? States’ economic policies impact their...
Possibly: 26 out of 30 Minnesota jobs in demand right now don’t require a four-year degree. With COVID-19 magnifying the workforce challenges that existed before the virus, many Minnesota employers are still in need of people to fill jobs in top demand. The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) recently published a list...
The New York Times’ columnist shows why he is one of the most consistently uninsightful pundits in America. The second Star Wars trilogy (those released from 1999 to 2005) tells how a young Jedi named Anakin Skywalker becomes the evil Darth Vader. “When that happened, he betrayed everything and everyone that he had ever believed...
Minneapolis is too important to leave in the hands of its own elected officials. I received an extraordinary amount of positive feedback from my column in the fall issue of Thinking Minnesota, which suggested that Minnesota’s business community—particularly members of the Minnesota Business Partnership— should move beyond political pandering to rioters, looters and thugs and...
Taxpayers will get efficient government only to the extent that they demand it at the ballot box. Does Minnesota’s government waste a lot of money? Minnesotans certainly believe so. The Thinking Minnesota Poll has twice asked Minnesotans to estimate the percentage of state government spending that is wasted, and the median response is around 29 percent. Of...