With the first real votes being cast in the presidential race on Monday, this is an opportune moment to do some last-minute comparison shopping on the candidate tax reform plans. On this issue there’s a lot to cheer about. All the Republican candidates have crafted plans that would slash tax rates for everyone and most would vastly simplify the thousands of pages of IRS tax code too.

Everyone’s blaming the oil price collapse and China’s sliding economy, for the rout of the stock market these first two weeks of 2016. That’s part of the story, but there may also be a policy explanation for the bearish sell-off.

The big fall off your chair moment during President Obama’s State of the Union address came when he proclaimed:

The great Jack Kemp used to say about politicians that “voters don’t care what you know until they know that you care.” Republicans say they care about the poor and minorities, but do they really?

The stock market closed down for 2015 reversing one of the few positive accomplishments under the Barack Obama presidency. This has been a pretty prosperous time for the top two percent. For most Americans though — not so much.

It would be hard to find anyone in all of America who has been more wrong on the American energy story than Barack Obama.

How’s this for an early Christmas gift?

It’s hard to find a self-respecting liberal these days who doesn’t denounce Donald Trump as “a fascist.” if you Google “fascist” the first thing that pops on the screen is a photo of Mr. Trump.

Hillary Clinton seems to be in a race with Bernie Sanders to see who can spend and borrow the most taxpayer money. These days that’s how you win the Democratic nomination for president. So far Hillary’s losing the spendfest. But she’s catching up.