By Adam Bitely — Republicans in Congress have a real chance to show that they are serious about cutting spending with the upcoming sequestration cuts. If they hold firm on this, this will be the first example that they are willing to actually make cuts instead of negotiate deals with Democrats that only increase the spending and the debt. There [...]

NRD Editor’s Note: This is the most current information as of 8:49 AM Eastern on January 4. By John Vinci — (Updated 1/4/2012 8:49am) Governors and other state officials, across the states, are deciding whether their state will establish a Health Insurance Exchange. The Department of Health and Human Services has given States until Friday, December 14, 2012 to decide. [...]

By Rebekah Rast — Nine gas stations in the nation now have pumps with E15 gasoline. E15 is a blend of regular gasoline mixed with 15 percent ethanol.  The pumps are recognized by their black and orange labels. And that label is not something you want to ignore. In an effort to curb U.S. dependency on gasoline and oil — [...]

By Frank McCaffrey — Web sites such as Wikipedia blacked themselves out this year. It was in reaction to legislation to over-regulate the Internet. Our tenth biggest bust of 2012 is the government’s attempt to sink its claws into the online world.

Cartoon by A.F. Branco NRD Editor’s Note: As always, you may reprint this cartoon anywhere you please, but we ask that you provide a link back to this source. To see more cartoons, click here.

By Bill Wilson — “[T]he only thing that’s worse than cutting national defense is not having any scheduled cuts at all take place.” That’s how Rep. Jim  Jordan, chairman of the House Republican Study Committee, put it recently, in defense of $109 billion of reductions to budget authority that are set to take place at year’s end — much of [...]

By Rebekah Rast — Hard times can fall on anyone. Joe Kerekes, 56, and his wife, Anita, live in the southern part of West Virginia—once the heart of America’s coal producing region.  But now this area that heavily depended upon a single industry for jobs is not offering the economic opportunities it once was.  MSN Money tells the story of [...]

The policies of Bob Casey and Barack Obama come at a high cost: Pennsylvania jobs. In fact, the costs of regulations have risen to $1.75 trillion under the Obama Administration and companies would rather not deal with it, instead relocating to China: Chinese workers earn one-thirtieth of what their counterparts earn here. American workers are 10 times more productive, not 30. [...]

By Rick Manning — President Ronald Reagan famously said, “Personnel is policy,” and not surprisingly, he was 100 percent right. That’s why Americans for Limited Government urged Senators Jon Tester to oppose the nomination of Patricia Smith to the office of Solicitor of the Department of Labor. As the Solicitor Patricia Smith approves every single regulation that goes through the [...]