Q: Higher energy prices? Yes. Q: Any goods not rise in price? Unlikely. Q: Drag on economy that reduces income and payroll receipts by 25%? Yes. Washington D.C. – The Ways & Means Committee held a hearing today on addressing price volatility in climate change legislation.  Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI) and Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director Dr. Douglas Elmendorf engaged… Read more

By Terry Kivlan Union and business group officials on Tuesday warned a House panel against approving a cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gases that could further undermine the international competitiveness of the recession-damaged manufacturing sector in the U.S. "We have to make sure we do not put another nail in the coffin of American manufacturing," United Steelworkers… Read more

Editorial President Obama has been warning that tit-for-tat protectionism could drive the world into an even worse economic slump than it is already in. He is right. Unfortunately, Congress doesn’t seem to be listening. The $410 billion spending bill that Mr. Obama signed into law last week cuts off financing for a pilot program that allows Mexican trucks to deliver goods across… Read more

Editorial When the U.S. closed the southern border to Mexican trucking last week -- in violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement -- Mexico promised to retaliate. Yesterday it did, releasing a list of 89 U.S. products that will face new tariffs of 10% to 45%. Mexico's decision wasn't taken lightly. Since 1995, three successive Mexican administrations have worked to get… Read more

Colombia FTA Would Help Caterpillar, American Workers Despite the President’s media tour of Caterpillar this year to tout the stimulus bill that passed in mid-February, the company announced another 2,500 layoffs today.  Adding to Caterpillar’s woes is Speaker Pelosi’s continued refusal to act on the U.S.-Colombia trade agreement.  Colombia is a major market for Caterpillar, and… Read more

Editorial Big Government: Even many liberals thought the 1996 reform ended the welfare debate forever. That Congress' stimulus unravels that landmark law proves again the mindlessness of its unprecedented spending spree. The Monica Lewinsky scandal didn't spur prominent Clinton administration staffers to resign on principle. It was President Clinton's embrace of the Republican… Read more

By Kevin Sack BOSTON — Three years ago, Massachusetts enacted perhaps the boldest state health care experiment in American history, bringing near-universal coverage to the commonwealth with Paul Revere speed. To make it happen, Democratic lawmakers and Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, made an expedient choice, deferring until another day any serious effort to control the state’s… Read more

Editorial We don't mind an intellectual fight, and in a nearby letter, two economists at Resources for the Future take aim at our Monday editorial on how the costs of cap and trade will be distributed across regions and income groups. Dallas Burtraw and Richard Sweeney call it "a bait-and-switch argument." Mr. Sweeney added on his blog that "The Wall Street Journal is an… Read more

Editorial In tough times, there is a strong temptation to turn inward. With so many Americans already out of work, why shouldn’t the country raise trade barriers to protect its workers from foreign competition? The answer is clear: Trade will play an important role in the world’s eventual recovery, transmitting economic growth from one country to the next. Protectionism leads to… Read more

Editorial Cap and trade is the tax that dare not speak its name, and Democrats are hoping in particular that no one notices who would pay for their climate ambitions. With President Obama depending on vast new carbon revenues in his budget and Congress promising a bill by May, perhaps Americans would like to know the deeply unequal ways that climate costs would be distributed across… Read more