1) Charlie Kirk Had Economics Right All Along: Krugman, No; Laffer, Yes

We just ran across what we believe to be Charlie Kirk's first article (brought to our attention by Elizabeth Ames in Real Clear Markets). The article was published by Breitbart in 2012 when Charlie was 18, and proves Charlie understood economics better than a Nobel prize-winner:

All across the country, students are studying for Advanced Placement exams coming in the middle of May. Students in AP Economics are taught with Krugman's Economics...

Throughout the entire textbook, there are historical, factual, and statistical distortions...

I find it troubling Krugman's Economics for AP concludes that Reagan's "supply-side economics is generally dismissed by economic researchers. The main reason for this dismissal is lack of evidence." Referring to economic growth and output, our textbook goes on to state there was "no sign of an acceleration in growth after the Reagan tax cuts." ...

An objective textbook would have pointed out that there are many economists who support supply-side theory. For instance, the influences of Robert Mundell and Arthur Laffer are represented in economic theories all across the world...

Students are being pushed toward an education that demonizes free enterprise while advocating top-down government, deficit spending and class warfare. The continuation of this propaganda will create a youth so misinformed and clueless that they will have no choice but to turn to the government. And that is exactly what the liberals want.

And still do.

2) Trump Set to Score Huge Wins on Lower Prescription Drug Prices

Our Unleash Prosperity Now (UP’s 501 (c)(4) sister organization) initiative to back Trump's health care reforms, but steer them away from price-controls toward ideas that can deliver more cures at lower prices is reshaping the debate.

Newt Gingrich highlighted our recent study and emphasized our win-win solution to the vexing problem of other rich countries using price controls to free-ride off of the medical innovation driven by the US market:

Unleash Prosperity recently released a comprehensive analysis of drug prices in the public programs of the United States, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Japan. Unlike previous studies that focused only on brand-name drugs, this analysis also included generics and accounted for the volume of prescriptions in each country. This distinction is critical for understanding how a drug-pricing system works in practice rather than in theory.

The results are striking. Medicare and Medicaid pay on average 18 percent less per prescription than public programs in the other five countries. The reason is simple. Generic drugs in the United States are between 44 percent and 66 percent cheaper, and they account for 93 percent of all prescriptions. In peer countries, generics account for only 70 percent to 80 percent of prescriptions and cost substantially more....

By contrast, other developed nations suppress brand prices and protect generics from robust competition. The result is a system in which patients pay too much for everyday medicines, and manufacturers face limited returns for developing breakthrough therapies.

You can follow the progress on our Unleash Prosperity Now health care project on our Most Favored Patient website:

3) China Bidding To Snatch the Best and Brightest From USA

Just a few days after the Trump administration announced a new $100,000 fee to recruit computer specialists, engineers, and tech experts, China announced a major expansion of visas for this highly-talented group of brainiacs.

The new “K Visa” is modeled after our H-1B program. It is aimed at “attracting young and talented professionals, particularly in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) from all over the world,” according to an official statement out of Beijing.

The good news is that almost all the highly-sought after immigrants want to come to the U.S., not China. But if the H-1B visas aren't greatly expanded, China is ready to swarm in and make its tech companies the new home to the next generation of scientists.

Drop the punitive $100k fee for the visas and continue our commanding heights in importing human talent.

4) There’s One Thing Voters Hate More than Republicans: Democrats

A flurry of polls show President Trump's approval is underwater and voters are nervous about the GOP agenda.

But that's not the whole story. CNN polling guru and analyst Harry Enten points out the continuing problems that Democrats have in the Washington Post poll and others in convincing voters to trust them on key issues.  

Who leads on the economy? Republicans by seven. Immigration? Republicans by 13. How about crime? A big issue for Donald Trump and the Republicans. Look at that, lead by 22 points! So the bottom line is, at this particular point, the ball may be on the ground, but the Democrats have not picked up the ball and running with it. If anything, at this particular point, it's the Republicans who are running with the ball on the top issues, the economy, immigration and crime.

Among the key group of independents, Republicans lead Democrats by one point on the economy, by 10 on immigration and a whopping 21 points on crime.

Enten says that even if voters don't particularly like what Donald Trump is doing, "At this particular point, Democrats are not able to beat Republicans."

A big reason for that in the Washington Post survey is that Americans see Democrats as more ideologically out of step: 54% say they think the political views of Democrats are "too liberal," compared with 49% who say the views of the GOP are "too conservative."

5) League of Women Voters and Common Cause Show Their True Partisan Colors

Common Cause and the League of Women Voters have long insisted they are fiercely nonpartisan and just want good government.  Right!

Both groups have blown that cover.  They are standing aside while California Governor Gavin Newsom pushes a brazen gerrymander attempt to elect more Democrats to Congress and override the voter-approved law requiring an independent commission to draw the lines in the Golden State.

Politico reports that in August the executive director of Common Cause laid out plans to fight Newsom's gerrymander effort in California as well as a similar GOP move in Texas. He pledged to fund a "full-scale campaign to defeat a gerrymandering ballot initiative."

But Common Cause's national leadership has now announced they won't oppose the ballot measure, even though its local staff in California found the Newsom plan was a naked political power play.

Former state Sen. Sam Blakeslee, a former member of the California Common Cause board, complains that the group was "co-opted by a political machine" and this "would damage its reputation and credibility for the long-term, which in itself is a threat to democracy."  

The sad lesson from all of this is that "good government" groups like Common Cause and the League of Women Voters aren't friends of political reform. They consistently oppose popular ideas such as term limits and requiring voter ID at the polls.  And when enough pressure from the Progressive Industrial Complex is applied, even the good ideas they support can be subverted.

6) Friends Again

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