Articles by Ryan Jaroncyk

The Afghanistan War has hit the half-a-trillion dollar mark today.  Launched under President Bush and intensified under President Obama, the war has lasted over eleven years.  Just last month, 26 US soldiers died in this war theater, and 3 have died so far this month. Overall, since the war's inception, 1,893 US soldiers have been killed and over 14,000 have been wounded. Financially speaking, it should be noted that under both President Bush and President Obama, the Afghanistan War has been fi...

In January, the official unemployment rate dropped from 8.5% to 8.3%, beating experts' expectations.  243,000 jobs were gained, also comfortably beating consensus expectations.  The stock market (DOW) rose by approximately 1.9%.  Unfortunately, not all the news was good.  Digging a bit deeper, several of these gains were negated by the effects of inflation. For example, while a significant number of jobs were added to the US economy, average hourly earnings increased by a mere 0.2%.  At the sam...

Critics often claim that the libertarian worldview is nice in theory, but won't really work in the real world.  This Christmas, Dr. Ron Paul's army of libertarian-minded supporters put this criticism to the test.  Based on an official press release, grassroots volunteers collected over 12,000 pounds of food to donate to charity in thirty-six different cities. Danielle Davis, Ron Paul supporter and volunteer said: ...We would like to show people- as Ron Paul believes- that grassroots efforts of...

Based on the latest RealClearPolitics poll, which measures an average of multiple polls, Dr. Ron Paul is running third place in the GOP presidential primary.  He's even running a close second in Iowa, based on a recent Public Policy Poll.  And while charges of 'extremist', 'kook', and 'fringe' are once again being thrown his way, the public would do well to consider the following three key credentials of his increasingly competitive campaign. First, based on a recent Public Policy poll, Congres...

As Democrats and Republicans continue to fight over record budget deficits, the Catholic Church has exhorted politicians to protect the poor and vulnerable as spending cuts are slowly enacted.  While this is a noble goal, the Church's refusal to tackle the current budget-busting U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, and Libya undermines its most prized objectives. The Catholic Church, home to over 1 billion members worldwide and over 68 million members in the United States alone, is ...

Dear Gallup, Seven months ago, you ran a poll which revealed that 58% of Americans and 74% of Independents supported the prospect of a third major political party.  However, despite subsequent polls demonstrating near or actual record low approval ratings for Republicans and Democrats in Congress, your esteemed organization has not run another third party survey. As the fastest growing segment of the national electorate, and in some polls, now the largest segment of the national electorate, we...

The California Independent Voter Project (CAIVP) has issued a formal letter urging the Citizens Redistricting Commission to adhere to the precepts of Proposition 11, which forbids consideration of political party membership from being a factor in the redrawing of legislative, constitutional, and congressional districts. Author of Proposition 14, the recently passed top two open primary initiative, CAIVP is concerned that members of the commission are already utilizing partisan political data in...

According to Gallup, President Obama has been one of the most polarizing Presidents since 1953.  In his first year, 88% of Democrats and 23% of Republicans approved of his performance, representing a 65 point partisan gap.  This easily outranked the previous record of 52 points during President Bill Clinton's first year.  But, in President Obama's second year, the gap grew to 68 points, with 81% of Democrats and 13% of Republicans approving of his performance.  This easily defeated the 56 point ...

Last month, 31 U.S. troops died in the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars. 25 were killed in Afghanistan, making it the second bloodiest January since the war began in 2001, and 6 were killed in Iraq, despite President Obama having declared an end to "combat operations" in this ongoing 8-year war. According to the latest running tally at CostofWar.com, the U.S. has now spent $772 billion on the Iraq War and $374 billion on the Afghanistan War.  An additional $117 billion more for both wars is expected i...