The Jefferson Journal

Commentary

Jefferson Forum
July 11, 2018

USA Today published a major story on the growth of express toll lanes across the country. Reporter Bart Jansen included a table of 40 projects then in operation, with 13 in Texas, 9 in California, and mostly 1s, 2s, or 3s in the other nine states. But Jansen’s total is...

Jefferson Forum
July 11, 2018
Do we take calculus in high school because we need this skill in our future career, or is it what we historically needed to get into prestigious colleges?...
Jefferson Forum
July 11, 2018

On the classic game show, “Let’s Make a Deal,” the host Monte Hall walked down the aisle offering ridiculous amounts of cash for people to produce obscure items from their pockets – $500 for a skeleton key, for example. Cash is a powerful incentive, so people always showed up with...

Jefferson Forum
June 27, 2018

As of right now all the signs indicate that the Virginia General Assembly and the Northam Administration are going to allow the federal tax reform to generate additional tax revenue for the Commonwealth. Some of what the Congress gave back will flow not to Virginia taxpayers, but to the state...

Jefferson Forum
June 27, 2018

(Editor’s Note: Given the events of last weekend in Lexington and the predominance of Administration – any Administration — appointed officials living in Virginia, this column in National Review struck us as particularly timely. Our nation is heading down the dangerous road of intolerance by all sides. The time to...

Jefferson Forum
June 27, 2018

The plan, called the Health Care Choices Proposal, takes a federalist approach in moving power and control of the health sector away from Washington, through the states, and ultimately to consumers. The recommendations were developed by the Health Policy Consensus Group, including state and national health policy experts and members...

Jefferson Forum
June 27, 2018

The 2017 hurricane season wrought immense destruction to the electricity grid across the West Indies, most visibly in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Barbuda. Not only did high winds knock down power lines, they tore away solar panels that otherwise could have provided power after the storm clouds...

Jefferson Forum
June 27, 2018

Last week I wrote about Canada’s 270% tariff on certain U.S. dairy products. During the week, many of you saw Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attempting to blame the entire tariff issue on President Trump. He said his job was to stand up for Canadians, as he should. The media, of...

Jefferson Forum
June 13, 2018

Virginia’s dependence on defense contracts puts it in both an enviable and awkward position. It is enviable because firms in the state received more revenue from defense contracts performed than any other state in the nation in the federal fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2017, except for California. It’s...

Jefferson Forum
June 13, 2018

The Washington Post had what could have been an interesting idea: Map more than 52,000 homicides and arrests in major American cities over the past decade. Sadly, the newspaper floundered with the data, unable to identify any meaningful trends other than the entirely predictable finding that some cities do a...