Referring to a possible cutoff of Mideast oil, Merrill Matthews, resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation in Dallas, Texas, said the good news is that the United States has the resources and the ability to fill the gap, and rising crude oil prices could serve as the catalyst to do so.

As word of a tentative new trade pact between the U.S. and Mexico surfaced Monday, several associations urged the White House to keep Canada in the agreement too.

The Institute for Policy Innovation has said it is "critical" that "any revision of NAFTA includes strong, updated protections for IP goods and services."

If the new North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) doesn’t improve intellectual property protections, then it’s not a better deal, according to the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI).

In more recent years federal environmental authorities have worked to keep the proportion of ethanol to gasoline in U.S. supplies at 10%. Generally, the auto and boating industries alike have resisted the use of ethanol, but the Trump administration may be poised to reverse that, according to a commentary on the Institute for Policy Innovation blog by Merrill Mathews, who equates the administration's interest to providing pork barrel offsets to Iowa farmers.

"The primary purpose of the Trump tariffs isn’t necessarily to raise tax revenue, as in centuries past, but to make something more expensive to U.S. consumers so that they will buy less of that item and buy more from domestic manufacturers, who, incidentally, typically raise their domestic prices," says IPI.

Dr. Merrill Matthews discusses the concerns of those in the heartland who are being hit the hardest by the tariffs.

Conservatives in Texas are applauding their attorney general for efforts involving plastic bag bans.

In his presentation, titled “Trumponomics: How and Why It’s Working,” Moore said that the heart of “Trumponomics” is growing the economy as rapidly as possible and that many of the major issues facing our country today — including poverty, the national debt, income inequality and education — will be easier to solve if the economy is growing faster.

It’s unclear how the new ruling will effect smaller sellers, but Institute for Policy Innovation president Tom Giovanetti is in the camp of those that sees it as a big problem for them.