The U.S. Needs New Nukes? Really?: New at Reason

Last week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) and Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash) introduced the No First Use Act, designed to prevent the U.S. from using nuclear weapons in a first strike without congressional approval. What should be the lowest possible standard of sanity—that the Oval Office shouldn’t be able to drop the big one without any oversight—has been introduced before, but it didn’t make progress.

Rep. Ted Lieu (D–Calif.), whose similar Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017 stagnated, but was re-introduced last week as well, makes no secret of the fact that Donald Trump makes him particularly nervous here, but the broader idea of not letting any president have the uncontested power to start global thermonuclear war is something libertarians and Ted should share, writes Lucy Steigerwald in her latest at Reason.

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