Weekly Writers Round-Up: Fixing the DMV, Withdrawing from Afghanistan, and Tax Policy Cronyism

Each week, we’ll be featuring opinion pieces from the alumni and current participants of AF’s Writing Fellows Program. A few highlights from the past week are below. Do you dream of having bylines like these? See here for details on the program!

It’s time to overhaul the MVA by Carolyn Bolton (Fall 2019) in the Daily Record
Little did I know an appointment I made online with the Largo-area Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration would lead to such a frustrating and unfortunate series of events—a series of events that make me believe Republican Gov. Larry Hogan should scrap the MVA and start from scratch.

My original appointment with the MVA, scheduled for Christmas Eve of last year, was unceremoniously canceled and the branch closed with no prior notice. During a follow-up visit, I waited nearly seven hours to obtain a driver’s license and transfer my vehicle registration from Virginia to Maryland — a day of vacation down the drain for what should’ve been a simple housekeeping errand…

Withdraw from Afghanistan, ceasefire or not by Natalie Dowzicky (Summer 2019) in the Washington Examiner
About 14,000 American soldiers were absent from their family Christmas dinner tables this holiday season. But they could be back with their families next December — if our leaders would bring them home from our failed war in Afghanistan, that is.

The current state of affairs is not promising. On Dec. 29, the Taliban council agreed to a temporary ceasefire in Afghanistan to pave the way for peace talks, but the Taliban chief has yet to agree to the measure. It doesn’t seem he’s too interested in peace. Just the evening before, the Taliban had claimed responsibility for an attack in Northern Afghanistan that killed 17 local Afghan fighters…

Christmas Came Early For Well-Connected Industries by Andrew Wilford (Spring 2017) in RealClearMarkets
With Christmas over and done with, it was a bountiful season of gifts for politically well-connected industries, courtesy of a Congress willing to give special hand-outs. In 2019, the year-end budget package included provisions for green energy, wealthy hobbyism, auto manufacturing and more. A 2020 resolution should be to write off Congress’s addiction to special-interest policy handouts.

The primary culprit in this year’s budget deal were “tax extenders” – special tax breaks that are initially passed as temporary but get renewed almost indefinitely…