On the campaign trail in 2016, Donald Trump railed against the federal government’s almost $20 trillion of debt, and he boldly promised to eliminate it “over a period of eight years.”

Former Starbucks head Howard Schultz announced that he may run for president as a fiscally responsible independent.

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?

Policymakers often enact programs for the needy but the benefits go mainly to businesses and special interests.

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

Ninety years ago, two-thirds of government spending in America was state-local and one-third was federal. Today, it is the reverse with about two-thirds federal and one-third state-local.

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.

The National Endowment for the Arts has given hundreds of thousands of dollars in subsidies to the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering over the years.

Deregulation and profits are unpopular ideas in some quarters these days.