Cato Institute

The Cato Institute is a research organization focused on public policy, often referred to as a think tank. Its mission is to champion individual freedom, limited government, free markets, and peace. The institute's researchers and experts engage in impartial and independent studies on a variety of policy topics. Established in 1977, the Cato Institute draws its name from Cato's Letters, a collection of essays from 18th-century England that advocated for a society with minimal government interference. These writings were influential to the founders of the American Revolution. The core principles of that era—individual freedom, limited government, and free markets—remain relevant today, especially in our age of global commerce and vast information access. Promoting social and economic liberty is not just beneficial for a free society; it is essential for shaping a brighter future.

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To Protect Taiwan, Don't Prepare to Defend It

1 week ago | cato.org | Doug Bandow

The Russo-Ukrainian War may be the world’s most urgent crisis. However, the world’s greatest danger is a U.S.-China conflict over Taiwan. Moscow, despite possessing nuclear weapons, is a declining power. Moreover, Washington has no cause for war with Russia. Ukraine has never been a military ally nor even security interest of America, and Moscow has carefully avoided clashing with NATO. No one in the nation’s capital, other than wildly reckless hawks like Mississippi Sen.
Friday Feature: LUMIN Schools

2 weeks ago | cato.org | Colleen Hroncich

Generated with ElevenLabs AI technology. At first glance, LUMIN Schools might look like other traditional schools. But when you dig a little deeper, you find unique ways they’re working to help their students overcome challenges and get on track for successful futures. And the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program is at the heart of it all.
Tariffs on Imports from China Are Still Too High

2 weeks ago | cato.org | Clark Packard

Generated with ElevenLabs AI technology. Relative to the so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs and subsequent retaliatory increases, the recent trade “truce” announced by Washington and Beijing is certainly an improvement.
Congress Should Repeal the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, Not Expand It

2 weeks ago | cato.org | Adam Michel

Generated with ElevenLabs AI technology. The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) awards roughly $14 billion in tax credits annually to private apartment building developers in exchange for keeping rents capped for lower-income tenants. But far from being an effective solution to housing affordability, the LIHTC is a complex and costly form of corporate welfare.
Four Things the Senate Can Do to Improve the House Tax Bill

2 weeks ago | cato.org | Adam Michel

Generated with ElevenLabs AI technology. The House of Representatives recently passed its One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which, among many other things, extends the expiring 2017 Trump tax cuts. Now the bill heads to the Senate, where lawmakers have the opportunity to improve a bill that currently falls short of delivering serious pro-growth tax reform. Here are four ways the Senate can improve the House-passed tax bill.
SCOTUS Decision Against Religious Charter Is Right, But We Must Address Discrimination Against Religion

2 weeks ago | cato.org | Neal McCluskey

Generated with ElevenLabs AI technology. In a decision that surprised me in its rapidity, but not its outcome, the Supreme Court deadlocked four to four, leaving in place an Oklahoma Supreme Court decision against the creation of a Roman Catholic cyber charter school.
An Ominous Quiet on the Law Firm Revenge Decrees

2 weeks ago | cato.org | Walter Olson

Generated with ElevenLabs AI technology. The battles over President Trump’s revenge orders against big law firms seem, on the surface, to have entered a quiet period. It has been weeks since Trump has entered any new decrees of this sort, and the list of firms settling with him by agreeing to donate pro bono services to causes he finds agreeable has been stable since April 11, at nine (most of which he never actually targeted in decrees).
Is the New Right Embracing Degrowth Economics?

2 weeks ago | cato.org | Ryan Bourne

There was a time, not so long ago, when the concept of “degrowth” belonged strictly to the eco-left. A luxury ideology for environmental activists and sandal-wearing dreamers, the basic idea was that pursuing economic growth was a destructive obsession. Rising GDP didn’t improve ordinary people’s lives, but fuelled economic inequality and ecological ruin. Degrowthers thus wanted policymakers to deprioritise growing GDP, with the public accepting a simpler, less abundant life.
The Case for Repealing IRA Clean Energy Subsidies

2 weeks ago | cato.org | David B. Kemp |Philip Rossetti

House Republicans have recently unveiled their proposed modifications to energy subsidies, which would substantially pare them back and raise $515 billion dollars of revenue. This is causing considerable heartburn among subsidy defendants, but the truth is that the subsidies are largely high cost, inefficient, and transfer wealth from taxpayers to the richest Americans.
The Trump Administration Likely Sent Scores of Legal Immigrants to a Foreign Prison

2 weeks ago | cato.org | David Bier

Two months ago this week, the U.S. government flew hundreds of Venezuelans to a Salvadoran prison notorious for torture. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says their imprisonment relays “a clear message to criminal illegal aliens: LEAVE NOW.” But new research shows that dozens came legally and never violated any U.S. immigration laws.