Op-Eds

If you want a preview of Democrats’ agenda should they gain more political power this fall, look no further than coronavirus legislation that Nancy Pelosi released last month. That bill includes an array of liberal spending provisions out of sync with the American people’s priorities — including taxpayer funding of plans that cover abortion.

One costly provision in Democrats’ 1,404-page monstrosity would significantly expand the Obamacare insurance subsidy system. These provisions, which Pelosi wants to enact under the guise of the coronavirus emergency, would raise federal spending on these insurance subsidies in perpetuity — without attempting to pay for this new spending.

Unless Congress comes to an agreement by the end of this week, three provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) will expire. Some may recall that last December, Inspector General Michael Horowitz identified numerous abuses of the surveillance law that the FBI famously used to monitor a member of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016. Today, it seems that Congress is about to settle for an underwhelming deal that pays lip service to reform while upholding a broken status quo.

The start of the year is a time when millions of Americans make promises to improve their lives by changing habits or adopting new ones. Some of the most common resolutions revolve around improving our health: quitting smoking, eating healthier, or exercising more regularly.

A well-intended, zealously pursued, quest often has negative consequences. Such is currently the case with the Corporate Transparency Act, which is being pushed by some of my colleagues on the House Financial Services Committee. In their quest to reduce corruption and weed out bad actors in the business world, their work is jeopardizing the privacy of millions of Americans and strangling a key engine of American economic growth—small businesses.