The federal shutdown revealed some of the ways that the government needlessly shackles the economy through subsidies and regulations.

Can’t anyone do anything in this country without federal subsidies?

With the backdrop of the shutdown and federal workers going unpaid, the New York Times published a backgrounder last week on federal compensation.

We are in the fourth week of the partial federal shutdown, which is starting to disrupt the broader economy because the government exerts control over many major industries.

As the government shutdown drags on, it is starting to damage activities across the economy because federal tentacles are in everything.

Political battles would not impact important activities if they were separated from the federal government.

Libertarians believe in smaller government. How much smaller? Roughly back to its size and scope in the 90s — that is, the 1790s.

Part of the federal government is closed today because the two parties cannot agree on a discretionary spending plan for the balance of fiscal 2018.

The Washington Post’s David Fahrenthold recently took a look at the $38 billion in spending cuts that Republicans and Democrats agreed to in 2011 in order to avoid a government shutdown. Fahrenthold estimates that $17 billion of those “cuts” were little more than budgetary gimmicks. For instance, $6 billion in authorized spending for the previous year’s decennial census were merely wiped off the books and counted as a “cut.”