Cato Institute
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The Cato Institute is a public policy research organization — a think tank — dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peace. Its scholars and analysts conduct independent, nonpartisan research on a wide range of policy issues.
Founded in 1977, Cato owes its name to Cato’s Letters, a series of essays published in 18th- century England that presented a vision of society free from excessive government power. Those essays inspired the architects of the American Revolution. And the simple, timeless principles of that revolution — individual liberty, limited government, and free markets — turn out to be even more powerful in today’s world of global markets and unprecedented access to information than Jefferson or Madison could have imagined. Social and economic freedom is not just the best policy for a free people, it is the indispensable framework for the future. Source
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| Scope | National |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Country | United States of America |
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Recent Articles
Search ArticlesThe White House’s Secret AI Testing Framework Threatens Trust and Innovation
Generated with ElevenLabs AI technology. (Getty Images) On August 4, Axios reported that the highly anticipated update of the White House framework for voluntary testing of frontier AI models will not be released to the public. In other words, and as others have put it, the White House is essentially putting the AI testing regime in a black box.
CBO: New Highway Bill Has More Spending, Taxes, and Deficits
Generated with ElevenLabs AI technology. (Getty Images) Congress is preparing to bail out the federal highway program once again without paying for it. According to a July 9 score by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the House Transportation Committee’s BUILD America 250 Act (BUILD) would add more than $147 billion (about $1,100 per household) to the already unsustainable national debt over five years, while violating the user-pays principle.
Programs Fail in Many Ways
Generated with ElevenLabs AI technology. Congress is vastly overspending, and federal debt is rising by $2 trillion a year. Without major spending reforms, the government is headed toward a financial crisis. But it is also true that even if the federal budget were balanced, many spending programs would continue undermining the economy because their costs outweigh their benefits. Such negative-value spending is the focus of my recent “Leaky Bucket” study with Ryan Bourne.
More on the New Jersey Voter Registration Fiasco
Generated with ElevenLabs AI technology. My colleague Stephen Richer has already weighed in with observations on the New Jersey voter registration fiasco, in which a software error mistakenly registered roughly 6,600 persons to vote between June 12, 2023, and June 25, 2024, even though they had affirmed they were not US citizens. Of these, somewhat fewer than 400 later voted.
How to Fix Social Security, in Six Words: Kathryn Anne Edwards in Bloomberg
Generated with ElevenLabs AI technology. Re: Opinion, “How to Fix Social Security, in Six Words” (July 22) Kathryn Anne Edwards promises the best of both worlds in her plan to fix Social Security—higher taxes to satisfy liberals and government investment in the stock market to appeal to conservatives.
Trump Administration’s Proposed Changes to Federal Grants Highlight Problems of Big Government
Generated with ElevenLabs AI technology. (Getty Images) Federal regulations can cause significant changes for governance or sectors of the economy. Yet it is quite striking for a proposed rule to overhaul more than $1 trillion of annual spending. On May 29, 2026, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) put forward a proposed rule that would overhaul grantmaking across the federal government.
Burrito-Gate Reflects Inflation’s Toxic Legacy
Generated with ElevenLabs AI technology. Burritos are at the center of an affordability debate. Podcaster Matt Walsh took to X on Monday to emphasize that grocery prices should be “The number one priority of every elected leader.” Turning Point USA’s Andrew Kolvet added one college student’s take on affordability: “A burrito shouldn’t cost $20.” Podcast producer Joel Berry disagreed in the now-viral post that kicked off the debate.
Senate Social Media Bills Aim to Protect Kids But Attack Free Speech
Generated with ElevenLabs AI technology. (Getty Images) The Senate Commerce Committee this week advanced several bills that would radically restrict free expression, innovation, and privacy online. Most policymakers sincerely believe these bills will keep kids safe online, but the bills are dangerous attacks on online speech.
Friday Feature: The Treehouse Agile Learning Community
Generated with ElevenLabs AI technology. In most areas of life, if something isn’t working, we look for another option. But not in K–12 education. The current system assigns kids to public schools based on where they live, not what they need. When it’s not working, the default is to assume there’s a problem with the child instead of asking if the school is the best fit. Of course, sometimes kids just need to work through challenges. But often, a different environment is what’s needed.
Redistributing Wealth Means Redistributing Power to the State
Generated with ElevenLabs AI technology. The redistribution of wealth has once again become a central demand of American progressivism. Figures such as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren argue that extreme concentrations of wealth should not merely be taxed to finance government programs but actively reduced through policies such as annual wealth taxes.