The Knowlership Blog

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) made waves April 11 when he announced he will not run for reelection in 2018. A reluctant participant in recent Trump-dominated party politics, Ryan was known to embrace a Jack Kemp-esque “big tent” conservatism, characterized by tolerance, opportunity, and inclusiveness. His departure has left many political commentators concerned that the Republican party is further doomed to disarray. While this high-profile retirement does illuminate how Trump’s presidency is dividing the Republican party, it does not spell the end of the GOP as we know it. In fact, it is a sign that some political leaders are committed to preserving conservatism in the political arena. Although GOP Congressmen seem to believe loyalty to the current president is necessary for maintaining their own electoral support, some, like Senators Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) have decided retirement is a better outcome than embracing such a platform. Recent moves from the GOP e...

Three months after declaring the opioid crisis a national emergency , President Trump declared during his first State of the Union that the United States would beat the epidemic by getting “much tougher on drug dealers and pushers.” Such combative rhetoric draws attention away from the real narrative behind America’s biggest drug epidemic: bad government policy catering to special interests. The Rise and Fall of OxyContin Prior to the 1990s, doctors generally viewed opioids as a last resort due to their addictive properties . Two medical perspectives shifted . First, a 1992 federal report concluded that fear of opioid addiction prevented too many patients from receiving the pain relief they needed. Around the same time, medical professionals began to accept chronic pain as a legitimate reason for treatment, with or without the presence of other symptoms. The resulting medical paradigm shift led to a spike in the demand for painkillers, and pharmaceutical companies raced to ...

As part of the deal ending January’s government shutdown, Congress has until February 8th to strike a deal on immigration. Hanging in the balance are the fates of nearly 700,000 young people now at risk of deportation after the Trump administration announced the phasing out of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) last fall. In his State of the Union Address on January 30, Donald Trump reiterated his plan to grant assistance if his long-promised border wall receives funding. Democrats insist on unconditional relief. Known as “Dreamers,” these immigrants are too important for Congress to relegate them to political pawns. Instead, they should regain legal status with a path to citizenship. The Obama administration created DACA in 2012 to buy time for some undocumented immigrants while Congress developed comprehensive immigration reform. Under certain conditions, DACA allowed people who illegally entered the country as children to receive official documentation...

Both houses of the Republican-controlled Congress passed sweeping tax reform legislation on December 20. Despite the GOP’s longstanding push to repeal of the alternative minimum tax (AMT), it remains in the tax code, albeit in a tamer form . By backing off its repeal efforts yet again, Congress missed an opportunity to restore some transparency to the tax code. Given the aura of elitism surrounding the original GOP tax reform measures, many observers assume that repealing or reducing the power of the AMT only benefits the privileged . Critics of the measure are right to consider it a tax on the rich, but its story is more complicated than that. Since its enactment, it has engulfed more and more taxpayers while most of the richest Americans remain unscathed. In 1969, Congress passed the alternative minimum tax in an attempt to target 155 wealthy individuals who were able to take advantage of so many deductions, credits, and other loopholes in the tax code that they did not pay...