Frequently Searched

Week in Review: Ordinary Americans Will Pay the Price for 'Build Back Better'

December 18, 2021

December 18, 2021

Democrats in D.C. are proposing a nearly $2 trillion tax hike that would spell doom for the economy by lowering wages and raising prices for ordinary, hard-working Americans. Goldwater President and CEO Victor Riches and Americans for Tax Reform CEO Grover Norquist, a Goldwater Board Member, write about the devastating tax increase in The Arizona Republic.

Proponents of the plan say it would only raise taxes on the rich—but they’re not telling the whole story. American workers end up paying for tax hikes on businesses in the form of lower pay and higher prices, Riches and Norquist write.

“Fortunately, none of this has to happen,” they add. Instead of voting for this harmful legislation, Riches and Norquist say, Arizona senators Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema should look to the example of their home state, where the Goldwater Institute passed legislation this year to reduce the state income tax to 2.5 percent—the lowest flat tax rate in the country.

“Our U.S. senators have the opportunity to emulate that success in Washington, D.C. They can stop the drive to impose the highest personal income tax rates in the developed world and the highest capital gains taxes since the 1970s,” Riches and Norquist continue.

Read the rest in The Arizona Republic.

Goldwater Battles Nashville Bullies in Defense of Home-Based Business

The government should not stand in the way of people’s right to run their businesses from the privacy of their own home by imposing costly and needless regulations. But the City of Nashville did just that, shutting down Lij Shaw, a single parent who started working from home so he could care for his daughter, and Pat Raynor, who repurposed her garage into a nail salon after her husband passed away. That’s why Goldwater filed a brief with the Tennessee Supreme Court this week in support Shaw and Raynor’s right to earn a living.

Neither business owner “had harmed the surrounding neighborhood or violated any traffic, noise, or health and safety standards,” Goldwater Executive Vice President Christina Sandefur writes. But in Nashville, it’s against the law to run a home-based business that serves clients on-site, no matter what.

Americans have a right to work from home, so long as they aren’t disturbing their neighbors or causing any disruptions in the area where they live. Goldwater is defending this right by advocating for the Home-Based Business Fairness Act—a policy that protects this right and forces cities to target actual nuisances, not hard-working business owners like Shaw and Raynor.

Read more about the Nashville case and Goldwater’s Home-Based Business Fairness Act at In Defense of Liberty.

To Innovate?…Or to Regulate?

Fluke mistake or a sign of things to come?

“In what may end up being the most colossal bureaucratic red tape blunder this year, President Biden’s nomination for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner is now delayed due to a reported missed paperwork deadline that occurred last month,” Goldwater Director of Healthcare Policy Naomi Lopez writes in The Orange County Register.

Meanwhile, many Americans are probably unaware that the FDA is demanding “55 years to fully respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from medical researchers for COVID-19 vaccine data,” she adds. Is that the sort of bureaucratic foot-dragging that Biden’s pick to lead the FDA, Dr. Robert Califf, will encourage? Or will his tenure shake things up for the better at the FDA and ensure Americans can benefit from medical innovation?

The FDA “has the power to let anxious parents rest easier knowing that their precious baby is sleeping safely, reject a leading specialist’s recommended treatment for their terminally ill patient, or keep secret, in violation of federal law, how it uses its authority to make life-or-death decisions,” Lopez says.

That’s why we need to know where he stands on these issues—it’s literally a matter of life and death.

Read Lopez’s full op-ed in The Orange County Register.

 

 

 

More on this issue

Donate Now

Help all Americans live freer, happier lives. Join the Goldwater Institute as we defend and strengthen freedom in all 50 states.

Donate Now

Since 1988, the Goldwater Institute has been in the liberty business — defending and promoting freedom, and achieving more than 400 victories in all 50 states. Donate today to help support our mission.

We Protect Your Rights

Our attorneys defend individual rights and protect those who cannot protect themselves.

Need Help? Submit a case.

Get Connected to Goldwater

Sign up for the latest news, event updates, and more.