The Issues

Economic Freedom

USMCA: Good For Virginia’s Economy

International trade is now a regular topic of conversation across the Commonwealth and the U.S.   Last year, Virginia manufacturers exported $15.11 billion in goods.    In particular, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) will accomplish...

Jefferson Forum
June 11, 2019

Housing’s Supply-Side Revolution

IndieDwell converts shipping containers into affordable housing. The Idaho-based business has taken an idea championed locally by entrepreneurs Sheila and Sidney Gunst (see “Thinking Outside the Container“) and turned it...

Jefferson Forum
May 30, 2019

Meet the GOP Carbon Tax Advocate Bob Inglis

There is a hotbed of carbon tax advocacy at George Mason University, led by a former GOP congressman sent packing by South Carolina voters because he’s ready to tax them...

Stephen D. Haner
May 30, 2019

Is the Goal Cutting CO2 or Imposing a Tax?

While it would have been a popular step with his political base, and one he was expected to take, Governor Ralph Northam may have been smart to pass on seeking...

Stephen D. Haner
May 14, 2019

New Report Calls for Top-Down Mileage Fee Program

My Reason colleagues and I have long argued that per-gallon fuel taxes should be replaced by mileage-based user fees (MBUFs). I served on the Transportation Research Board committee that alerted...

Jefferson Forum
May 14, 2019

April’s Unemployment Rate Means Good News for Graduates Seeking Jobs

With the U.S. unemployment rate at a nearly 50-year low of 3.6 percent in April, this year’s graduates should have an easier time finding jobs than their predecessors. And even...

Jefferson Forum
May 14, 2019

Virginia’s Unaffordable Approach to Affordable Housing

If the public policy debate over affordable dwellings is as impoverished as that described in The Virginia Mercury recently, poor Virginians are doomed to lives of housing misery. Here’s how reporter Ned...

Jefferson Forum
April 30, 2019

Economic Impact: Time will tell how dangerous this simple curve is

Talk of recession has picked up again. The reason might sound complicated, but the principle is fairly basic. In financial parlance, we’re talking about the inversion of the yield curve....

Jefferson Forum
April 30, 2019

How Government Creates Poverty

Government is much better at creating poverty than at curing it. On April 3 the General Assembly voted to end the practice of suspending driving licenses for non-payment of fines...

Stephen D. Haner
April 18, 2019

Jefferson Forum concentrates on policies that affect everyday life in Virginia

Economic Freedom

Lower taxes and fewer regulations

Education Freedom

More choices for Virginia families

Energy Freedom

Reliable, affordable energy

Worker Freedom

Protecting Virginia’s right-to-work tradition

These are the building blocks of a more competitive and prosperous Virginia.