Benjamin Franklin said that the only two certainties in life are death and taxes. But why do we have taxes in the first place? What are they for, and why must they be so certain?

Lois Lerner really doesn't want to answer questions about her role in the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative and Tea Party organizations. The former head of the powerful tax agency's Exempt Organization Division refused to testify in front of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in May 2013, invoking her Fifth Amendment rights.

The Senate is expected to vote on the Marketplace Fairness Act during the upcoming lame duck session after the November elections. Now, don’t be fooled by the innocent sounding bill name.

What happens when people and business flee the government regulations that burden them? In a somewhat shocking recent announcement, classic American company Burger King has said that they plan to move their corporate headquarters to Canada in order to escape the United States’ punitive corporate taxes, the highest such tax rates in the world.

If Republicans ever want to govern again, they are going to have to take back the tax issue, which they have completely and inexcusably lost to the Democrats since 2008.

The White House is touting something called "Promise Zones" as a model to spur economic growth. These areas feature federal spending with the usual strings attached, attempting to spur economic growth and civic renewal. What the country needs is not set of federally micromanaged zones, but to restore the original American promise for all of the us: here we can be free.

While tonight is New Year’s Eve for the rest of the country, inside the Beltway over the last few years December 31st has been akin to the Night of the Living Dead. Not because worn out Capitol Hill staff and interns wander the streets in a drunken stupor (though this is an accurate assessment), but because dozens of tax extenders set to expire at year’s end are usually reauthorized in bulk by Congress.

Recently, I attended a speech that attempted to lay out a case that Ronald Reagan would not have been a Tea Party President. The speaker, a conservative not terribly familiar with the Tea Party movement, made an interesting case.

We all know that communism is evil, socialism is bad, big government reduces personal liberty and central planners can't plan their way out of a wet paper bag. But we don't often examine why.