Author: Scott Rasmussen

I am an optimist. I believe that America’s best days are still to come and today’s children will live a life far better than their parents and grandparents. The vast majority of Americans are more pessimistic, and it’s easy to understand why. Looking at the behavior and performance of our political leaders, there’s little reason […]

It was passed by Congress, signed by the president and upheld by the Supreme Court. But the individual mandate — a requirement that every American buy the kind of insurance deemed appropriate by the federal government — is being repealed by the American people. From day one, the Obama administration has been handing out exemptions […]

The political community is abuzz about the growing possibility that Republicans might win control of the Senate this November. But little attention has been paid to a larger and more significant trend. Like former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, President Barack Obama saw his party lose control of Congress during his time in […]

From its inception, everything about President Barack Obama’s health care law has been controversial. The latest controversy came with the government release of new numbers. Through February, 4.2 million Americans had signed up for health insurance on the government exchanges. Supporters believe that while the numbers are lower than they’d hoped, the problem was simply […]

The standard media coverage of President Barack Obama’s new budget claimed the proposals included $600 billion of budget cuts over the next decade. It was just about impossible, though, to find any media story mentioning some basic numbers that belong in any story about a new federal budget. How much money is the federal government […]

In the 1980s, a couple of ambitious young economists thought ski lift operators weren’t very smart. The economists assumed that if the business owners charged more on busy days, they could make more money. As recounted in “Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations” by David Warsh, the economists saw long lines on busy days as […]

The big story about the federal budget this week was the Republican Party’s struggle to deal with raising the debt ceiling. Last year’s big budget story was President Barack Obama and the Democrats coming to grips with the so-called sequester, a policy gimmick that modestly slowed the growth of federal spending. Neither of these storylines […]

The biggest threat to President Barack Obama’s health care law doesn’t come from Republicans in Congress but from people like Stacie Brown. As reported in The New York Times, Brown owns a pottery shop in Georgia and is eligible for some federal health insurance subsidies. However, she has consciously decided not to purchase health care […]

A theoretical listing of the best states put together by a publication for Washington insiders rates New Hampshire as the best state in the union, and finds that nine of the 10 worst states are in the American South. However, if you look at Census Bureau data showing where Americans move to and from, five […]

The conventional wisdom in Washington was succinctly expressed in a recent Washington Post article, “The GOP’s Uphill Path to 270 in 2016.” The Electoral College, claims Dan Balz, now gives the Democrats a decided advantage that will be hard for the GOP to overcome. He correctly noted that many formerly Republican-leaning states have shifted to […]

Like toddlers who believe they are the center of the universe, many in official Washington whine about the fact the American people don’t devote more time to studying politics and talking about the things that matter in our capital city. This view has it backwards. Instead, Washington needs to deal with the things that matter […]

Before President Barack Obama’s health care law was passed, Americans were frustrated that insurance companies had too much control over the medical care they received. Now, Americans are frustrated that the government has too much control. The vast majority of Americans don’t want insurance companies and government making health-related decisions for them; they want to […]

During the holiday season, many reflect on finding the right balance in their lives. As a nation, we’re in a season of searching for the right balance between individual freedoms and the role of government. The clearest indication that things are out of balance nationally is that the median household income in our capital city […]

Journalist Michael Kinsley once defined a political gaffe as when someone “accidentally reveals something truthful about what is going on in his or her head.” In other words, a gaffe is when a political player accidentally tells the truth. This appears to be what happened in a recent Washington Post story. Tens of millions of […]

Entering the world of official Washington is a bit like the mythical trip Alice took through the looking glass. Everything is upside-down and nonsensical. This was highlighted most recently in a Wall Street Journal article about how the American people have “a deepening distaste for all Washington institutions” and “angst over Washington dysfunction.” At the […]

For all the confusion it is causing, President Barack Obama’s signature legislative accomplishment did not fundamentally change the health care industry. Both before and after the law passed, the business of providing medical care in America could best be described as a conspiracy by government, insurance companies and medical care providers to keep prices high. […]

The health care rollout is an enormous political gift that may lead the Republican Party to win control of the Senate in 2014. But as President Barack Obama’s health care law collapses, the GOP should avoid the temptation to promote its own top-down solution as an alternative. A better approach would be for both Republicans […]

Americans are pragmatic, not ideological. That simple fact explains the growth of federal power following World War II. It also explains why President Obama’s health care law will spur a reversal of that trend. The growth in federal power got started in the New Deal era, but the decisive event took place on the morning […]

Washington’s political class fundamentally misunderstands the role of politics and government in American society. They act as if government is the central force in American life and that its decisions guide the course of the nation. In historical reality, societal trends embrace new technology and the deep currents of public opinion lead the way. Government […]

Many news stories have noted the importance of getting young, healthy people to sign up for insurance on the exchanges created by President Obama’s health care law. The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein reported that the White House considers this the single most important factor in making the law work. Klein is a huge fan of […]

Many reporters caught up in the bizarre world of official Washington have written extensively on political tactics and implications of the so-called government shutdown and disastrous launch of HealthCare.gov. Typical was a New York Times headline that blared “Republicans, Sensing Weakness in Health Law Rollout, Switch Tactics.” But there’s been precious little analysis about the […]

Shortly after the end of World War II, a pair of allergists gave some medication to a patient suffering from hives. Surprisingly, the patient reported her lifelong battle with carsickness had disappeared. After follow-up testing, Dramamine quickly became standard issue for fighting motion sickness. This is one of many unexpected discoveries highlighted in “Happy Accidents,” […]

Not long ago, the conventional wisdom in official Washington held that the so-called sequester spending cuts would be a disaster for the Republican Party. They were expected to rise up in vehement protest once the “cuts” went into effect. Instead, nobody outside of Washington noticed. Today, the conventional wisdom suggests that the so-called government shutdown […]

The political stalemate leading to the so-called shutdown of the federal government has shown with devastating clarity how official Washington is consumed with symbolism over substance. The symbolism begins with the word shutdown itself. Despite the noise and fury in Washington, the vast majority of Americans haven’t noticed any change in their daily lives because […]

It’s become common over the past year or two to note how well Wall Street is doing while Main Street is still struggling. Sadly, that tale of two economies has resulted from a conscious choice by those at the very top levels of our nation’s financial and political elites. The choice was inadvertently highlighted in […]

2013 has been a tough year for the political class. The most recent evidence comes from Colorado. Earlier in the year, the political elites in Washington were certain gun control would be enacted following the horrific massacre at a Connecticut elementary school. When nothing passed, they expected politicians who refused to support more gun restrictions […]

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines an enabler as “one who enables another to persist in self-destructive behavior.” They do so “by providing excuses or by making it possible to avoid the consequences of such behavior.” In popular culture, the term is often associated with a family covering for a drunk or drug addict. Their motives for […]

Official Washington is always a decade or two behind the American people. That was true in 1963 when Martin Luther King, Jr. shared his dream for a better America and it’s true today. The 1963 March on Washington came 16 years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball. Robinson did more […]

You might expect a story about wine, The Washington Post, Twitter and polling to be about the lifestyle of the nation’s political elite. But this one is about the digital threat to America’s Political Class. Let’s start with the wine. A recent story on Marketwatch.com noted that apps are now available to scan the label […]