RealClearInvestigations Articles

From 1964 to 1984, the Urban Mass Transit Administration (now the Federal Transit Administration) spent $30 billion – over $86 billion in 2023 dollars – to finance costly and unsustainable mass transit systems. Sen. William Proxmire, a Democrat from Wisconsin, awarded the transit agency his Golden Fleece Award in 1985 for this massive expenditure. It all started in 1964, when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Urban Mass Transportation Act into law. According to Proxmire, it started reasonably enough, with smaller appropriations of about $51 million to help mass transit...

Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government., says he may subpoena documents about the IRS’ unexpected visit to journalist Matt Taibbi’s home while he testified before Congress about his research on Twitter’s past censorship. ... Jordan noted that the timing of the IRS's visit to Taibbi's home is an obvious red flag. "No one thinks it's [the IRS visit] chance [circumstance]," Jordan said. "No one thinks it's a coincidence. Everyone thinks this was done for intimidation reasons. This was done as some kind...

By James Varney, RealClearInvestigationsMarch 30, 2023 It’s almost an understatement to say that Republican candidates campaigned hawkishly on border control in the runup to the 2022 midterms: As they decried the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs from Mexico, many vowed to impeach the man they largely blamed for the mess, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.  Alejandro Mayorkas: “You claim you care, Mr. Secretary --– that is a lie,” Sen. Ted Cruz told him. AP Republicans have continued hammering Mayorkas since taking control of the...

As the Federal Reserve grapples with inflation and unemployment concerns, there is another economic issue that needs its attention: its renovation costs. Originally estimated at $1.9 billion, the project is now estimated to cost $2.5 billion, and it’s still in its early stages, according to The Wall Street Journal. The U.S. central bank is gutting and renovating two of its three adjacent office buildings just off the National Mall in Washington, D.C. to consolidate office space. Their iconic headquarters and the recently acquired “FRB-East” building both began renovations...

By John Murawski, RealClearInvestigationsMarch 29, 2023 A group of intellectual mavericks made splashy headlines in 2021 when they announced plans to launch a new university in Texas called the University of Austin.    Backed by a gallery of celebrity intellectuals – its trustees and directors include former Harvard president Larry Summers, Brown University economist Glenn Loury, former ACLU President Nadine Strossen, civil rights leader and former congressman Andrew Young, and the journalists Bari Weiss and Andrew Sullivan – the startup would be dedicated to the...

The fight over academic freedom on campus increasingly comes down to a fight over three letters – DEI – which goes a long way to explaining the fissures now tearing higher education apart.   For progressives committed to social justice advocacy, academic freedom must shield the prevailing academic consensus on race and gender from outside political pressure. Nowhere is that academic consensus better represented in the modern university than in the campus Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) bureaucracy, which exists to advocate for students and faculty who identify...

The trauma of mass gun violence is compounded today by the perfunctory ritual through which the arbiters of American discourse drag the rest of the country. There are the reflexive calls for stricter gun-control laws without any understanding of whether those proposals would have had any effect on the course of the events that inspired them (and sometimes in the face of evidence that they would have no effect). ...At least, that’s the routine when the shooter fits a demographic profile with which we’ve become woefully familiar: white and...

A Department of Homeland Security spokesman issued this statement today in response to a request for comment from RealClearInvestigations about criticism of Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and the department: Secretary Mayorkas is proud to advance the noble mission of this Department, support its extraordinary workforce, and serve the American people.  The Department will continue to enforce our laws and secure our border, protect the nation from terrorism, improve our cybersecurity, all while building a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system. Instead of pointing fingers and...

When a new outfit called Hamilton 68 claimed to have discovered hundreds of Russian-affiliated accounts on Twitter to sow chaos and help Donald Trump win the election, what ensued was a nearly shot-for-shot remake of Sen. Joseph McCarthy's red-smearing in the 1950s, with one important difference: McCarthy faced some resistance from leading journalists as well as from the U.S. intelligence agencies and his fellow members of Congress. In our time, those same groups lined up to support the new secret lists and attack anyone who questioned them. When proof emerged earlier this year that...

As part of the various appropriations given to help House members do their jobs, U.S. Representatives receive a Members’ Representational Allowance, which is adjusted each year to match inflation. A recent report from Legistorm found that 38% of offices didn’t touch a penny of the additional adjustment in 2022, calling into question just how much money members need to run their offices. According to the House’s website, the MRA is an appropriation given to each House member for “support of the conduct of official and representational duties to the district from which...

New York City is planning to spend $5.3 million to install high-tech toilets in public parks in each of the five boroughs. Those five toilets, however, cost less than $1 million to purchase, according to The New York Post. Each toilet from Portland Loo only cost about $185,000, putting the total price tag at $925,000. The other $4 million in costs comes from high infrastructure costs and navigating the complex and bureaucratic installation process. An NYC Parks Department representative told The New York Post that part of the reason for the steep costs is because the program intentionally...

Green campaigners are not ‘following the science’ – they are promoting a Biblical fantasy. Apocalypticism may have developed hand-in-hand with religion and Christianity in particular. But it has persisted as a mode of thinking among certain sections of society, even as Christianity’s influence has waned. Indeed, as societies have become more secular, so apocalyptic thinking has become more secular, too.  We see this today, above all, in the case of environmentalism. For it’s there that apocalyptic projections and predictions are now most at home. Greenism...

RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week March 19 to March 25, 2023   Featured Investigation: Biden's EPA Is Lowering the 'Environmental Justice' Boom on Louisiana's Disputed 'Cancer Alley'  In what Louisiana officials are calling a stunning overreach, the Biden Environmental Protection Agency is trying to take control over development in the state's disputed "Cancer Alley" using a new tack: exploiting civil rights law to achieve "equity" and “environmental justice," James Varney reports for RealClearInvestigations.  The EPA is trying to block...

Current and former Post employees say the paper is in a 'rut' and are pointing fingers at leadership. Fox News Digital spoke with five current and former Post employees, many echoing a similar theme that The Post took a turn for the worse when its executive editor Marty Baron stepped down in February 2021 and his successor Sally Buzbee [below right] took over that June. ... Perhaps Buzbee's most high-profile recruit so far was Taylor Lorenz [left], who made a name for herself as the controversial technology reporter at The Times. Her tearful appearance on...

As more government agencies conclude that Covid-19 may have leaked from a Chinese lab, the National Institutes of Health should be an agency to watch, especially the funds it gives to foreign countries. In fact, its funding hasn’t been effectively monitored, a Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General report found, leading to $89,171 in unallowable costs. The report concluded that “The National Institutes of Health and EcoHealth Alliance did not effectively monitor awards and subawards, resulting in missed opportunities to oversee research and other...

By James Varney, RealClearInvestigationsMarch 23, 2023 LAPLACE, La.―Along Interstate 10 where the Mississippi River threads from Baton Rouge to New Orleans, ever-expanding petrochemical and other industrial projects have long been fought by environmental activists, who have saddled the stretch with the disputed moniker “Cancer Alley.”     Now the Biden administration is opening a new front in the war -- against a proposed expansion of the sector in St. John the Baptist and St. James parishes known to Louisianians as the River Parishes. Under its stated aims of...

In 1981, the Small Business Administration guaranteed two loans totaling almost $1 million – about $3.2 million in 2023 dollars – to a waterpark to build a giant water slide and start on other construction projects. Sen. William Proxmire, a Democrat from Wisconsin, awarded the SBA his Golden Fleece Award for this ridiculous loan guarantee at taxpayers’ expense. According to Proxmire, the SBA approved two loan guarantees for Waterworld USA in the Sacramento, California area. Two local private banks loaned them $560,000 each, and the SBA agreed to guarantee 89 percent of...

New Jersey is enlisting public-school teachers and librarians to show children how to combat what it calls the grave threat of disinformation.  “Our democracy remains under sustained attack through the proliferation of disinformation,” Gov. Phil Murphy said in signing the nation’s first law mandating “information literacy” instruction for all K-12 students. The law, which aims to provide students with the “critical thinking” skills necessary to differentiate between “facts, points of view, and opinions” will, Murphy proclaimed,...

In the Windy City, Chicago Aldermen make handsome salaries, up to $143,000. Unfortunately, a recent investigation from the Better Government Association found that one-third of their meetings are spent on non-binding honorary matters instead of legislating for their constituents. The investigation tracked speaking time at Chicago City Council Meetings and divided it into two categories: honorary resolutions and regular business. According to the Better Government Association, since November 2019, “one-third of the active meeting time – from the commencement of regular business...