July 16, 2025

Now, on to the news…

Some progressives are pointing to “social housing” as a solution to New York City’s high cost of living, arguing that Vienna, Austria has seen great success with its government-led housing.

Not so, Tobias Peter writes. Despite the city’s efforts to portray social housing as a global success story, Peter explains that it’s “expensive, unfair, and increasingly unsustainable,” adding that the policy is “not a model to emulate.”

Indeed, a 10 percent tax on rent, a $38,000 entry fee, no private bathrooms or central heating: these aren’t the features of a functional housing system.

You can read more about Peter’s research here.

In 2020, Austin voters approved Proposition A, which created a permanent tax hike to launch Project Connect. Proponents hailed the project as an ambitious plan to upgrade the city’s public transit system, but five years on, there’s little to show for it. As Charles Blain observes, “critics of the project see it as a cautionary tale about the lengths to which local officials and jurisdictions will go, the legislative and regulatory loopholes they will find, and the legal fights they will wage to achieve what they define as success.”

Read more about the project here.

In passing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Congress has “done little more than perpetuate the status quo,” Chris Pope argues. Its revenue reductions largely come from continuing existing policy—including what is essentially a renewal of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The bill “maintains that law’s reductions to personal income tax rates, much higher standard deduction, increased Child Tax Credit, and corporate deductions for investments in new equipment,” he writes in his analysis. Read it here.

John Hirschauer joins Brian Anderson to discuss the recently passed legislation in New York that—pending Governor Kathy Hochul’s signature—would legalize Medical Aid in Dying. 

“Perhaps the need for massive, new sources of electricity driven by AI and other computing advances will also encourage private-sector development of the leadership talent to advance necessary reform and growth of the nuclear industry.”

—

Craig Rolwood, commenting on nuclear power in America

Photo credits: JOE KLAMAR / Contributor / AFP via Getty Images