Why is the federal government incapable of spending restraint? Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist joins the Overton Window Podcast to discuss why soaring tax revenues seem to make no difference in closing the national deficit or paying down the debt.
Michigan voters will have the opportunity next month to call for a new state constitutional convention. If voters approve, delegates to the convention would have a big job ahead of them. They should start with the basic question of “How is the state constitution doing?” For some portions, the answer is clearly, “Not well.”
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News August 25, 2026.
The United States and Canada have both wrestled with an important question about public policy. Which branch of government should make law — the legislative body or the courts?
Tim Haggstrom is a constitutional lawyer from Calgary, Alberta. Haggstrom spent three days in Michigan this month, where he and I discussed economic relations between our countries, differences in our legal systems and the overlapping history of our judicial philosophies.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News August 11, 2026.
On Aug. 4, local government entities in Michigan sent 900 tax proposals to their local voters, and 842 passed. Policymakers who are concerned about affordability issues may want to focus on the cost of local government.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News July 28, 2026.
Change is coming to public education in the United States, brought on by cultural shifts, legal decisions and technological advances. Michigan policymakers would do well to anticipate the revolution, or our schools will be left behind.
This article originally appeared in the Washington Post August 5, 2026.
Anne Davis is a psychotherapist who spent two decades counseling homeless people and patients with mental illness in Colorado. But when she moved home to Michigan — which has a severe shortage of counselors, social workers and therapists — it took more than a year for the state to allow her to get back to work.
This article originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal July 31, 2026.
The next battle between socialists and conventional Democrats will be fought in Michigan on Aug. 4, in a primary election for the U.S. Senate. Many Michiganders will vote that same day on tax hikes and other critical local questions—all in off-cycle elections in which low turnout makes them likelier to pass. This isn’t unique to the Great Lakes State and deserves more attention nationwide.
Michigan set itself on a path toward unreliable and expensive electricity a few years ago, but a recent decision by a federal regulatory agency should bring some good news to the state.
Various laws, including Public Act 235 of 2023, require that least 60% of all electricity supplied to Michigan residents and businesses be met from solar or wind power by 2023. (Last year 13% came from those sources.) But wind and solar are unreliable, and the net-zero laws, enacted in the name of eliminating carbon-dioxide emissions from power plants, ignored nuclear power, which is emissions-free and reliable.
Michigan’s policymakers cannot do much to change the world price for petroleum, but they can take two steps to help lower gasoline prices. They could reduce the state gasoline tax, which is almost 40% higher than Ohio’s comparable tax. Doing this could save up to $650 million per year. A second step would be to work with federal officials to enact a federal law that could save Detroit-area residents $95 million per year by helping them avoid a mandate that requires a high-priced summer blend of gasoline.
The new state budget that takes effect Oct. 1 will likely be the final piece of fiscal policy Gov. Gretchen Whitmer authorizes before she leaves office. It’s a good time to review her policy accomplishments in office — specifically, in fiscal matters, dollars and cents. Her ability to veto legislation and line items in the budget makes her the chief policymaker, and a big part of the state’s business is determining how much to tax and where to spend. So how is state tax and spending policy different now compared to eight years ago, before the governor took office?
“Political risk,” a concept from international investing, could be coming to the United States, Richard Shinder warns, starting with the state that was once the national byword for sound and forward-looking government. As California and other states move toward policies favored by the Democratic Socialists of America, they risk falling into a category once reserved for foreign kleptocracies and failed states.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News July 21, 2026.
The next major labor dispute in Michigan won’t be over safety or wages. It will be about whether state and local governments need union permission before using artificial intelligence.
Some Ann Arborites will tell you the city’s changed a lot, and that it’s a bad thing. Some longtime Detroiters long for the days when there were more people around to create a real neighborhood. And someone from my hometown, Monroe, might wax about how bad it is for a city to stagnate.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News July 14, 2026.
America looks inevitable today, 250 years after the Declaration of Independence. But in the 15 years leading up to the Revolution, independence was anything but inevitable. In fact, our founders had worked hard to maintain a good relationship with the crown. The idea of a break with England developed quickly.
This article originally appeared in Real Clear Politics June 20, 2026.
President Trump has put states on the hook for waste, fraud, and abuse in the nation’s food stamps, known officially as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Landmark legislation signed by the president last year requires the states to pay a share of the program’s costs if more than 6% of their food-stamp outlays are spent in error. States controlled by Democrats are, by and large, the worst offenders. For anyone who has followed the burgeoning and massive welfare fraud scandals in Minnesota and California, this trend is no surprise. And if my home state of Michigan is any indication, these deep blue states aren’t nearly as serious as they should be about rooting out fraud and protecting taxpayers.
This article originally appeared in the Lansing State Journal June 17, 2026.
A recent move by the Michigan Court of Claims could spell relief for Michigan taxpayers who have spent billions of dollars on constitutionally unsound pork projects. But the extent of the reform will depend on many factors.
There is good news and bad news for the people who think that Michigan’s path to prosperity is to attract and retain people with college degrees. The good news is that Michigan has the lowest outbound migration rate of adults with college degrees. Michigan retains its stock of people with degrees better than any other state. The bad news is that the Great Lakes State has the lowest inbound migration rate of adults with college degrees. That is, it’s the least attractive state for people who have earned college degrees. Taking these two measures together, we find Michigan in the middle of states.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News July 7, 2026.
As we celebrate America’s 250 years, consider the story of William Quincy Atwood, who was born into slavery but died as one of Saginaw’s wealthiest businessmen.
Atwood was born in Alabama in 1839, the son of an enslaved mother and the plantation master. Atwood’s father died in 1851, and in his will he emancipated William, his mother and his siblings.
Michigan’s 2023 Clean and Renewable Energy and Energy Waste Reduction Act defines nuclear power as a “clean energy system,” but it does not include nuclear in its “renewable energy resource” category, leaving only solar and wind electricity generating projects eligible to meet the state’s ambitious 2040 clean energy goals.
A recent tax court ruling in Maryland pours cold water on a tax proposal championed in Michigan by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The Maryland Tax Court struck down that state’s first-in-the-nation digital advertising tax, ruling that it violated the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act, as well as the interstate commerce and due process clauses of the U.S. Constitution. Lawsuits have also been filed in Utah and Illinois, which adopted their own digital advertising taxes earlier this year.
America’s economic crisis is hitting hard in Minnesota, a one-time model of a progressive and well run state that has lately become a byword for cultural and fiscal dysfunction. John Phelan, an economist at the Center for the American Experiment, joins the Overton Window Podcast to explain what is going wrong with the dollar and how Gopher State leaders are making the problem worse.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News June 11, 2026.
Michigan lawmakers are considering a spending hike for a program that subsidizes developers to build and tear down buildings. It’s an expansion of a program that began in 2017. As they consider the legislation, they should review whether the program has achieved what lawmakers said it would.
This article originally appeared in the Washington Examiner May 7, 2026.
It’s no secret that labor unions are struggling. Even though federal law tilts decidedly in their favor, unions have seen their share of the workforce steadily decline. Membership has been dropping, both in total numbers and as a percentage of the workforce, for many decades. Only 1 in 10 American workers is now unionized, and in the private sector, the unionization rate is less than 6%.
This article originally appeared in The Center Square June 23, 2026.
In 2018, the Supreme Court settled a fundamental question of constitutional law in Janus v. AFSCME. The Court held, with clarity and conviction, that public employees cannot be compelled to pay union dues as a condition of their employment. This ruling was a massive victory for the First Amendment, affirming that no public servant should be forced to subsidize a private organization’s political agenda against their own will.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News June 30, 2026
“Do you think America 250 is worth celebrating?”
I and other attendees were asked that question two weeks ago while speaking at the National Civil Rights Conference, held this year in Detroit.
