Tag: government

  • Economic Conundrum: Historic Case Study

    When Warren Harding took office in 1921, America was drowning in debt. World War I had pushed the top income tax rate from 7 percent to a staggering 77 percent, and both parties agreed the system was unsustainable (Republican Platform, 1920). Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon proposed a solution called “Scientific Taxation” based on the simple…

  • Constitutional Restraint

    When the Mississippi River flooded the South in 1927, the nation expected President Coolidge to mobilize federal resources and rush to the scene. Coolidge did neither. As I dug into his speeches and policies, I began to see that his apparent indifference was actually discipline rooted in a lifelong commitment to constitutional limits and civic…