Poverty
Blog
Left vs. Left Round 2: Teach for America and the Unions
When Right by the Bay heard that Assemblyman Kevin Kiley’s vigorous defense of Teach for America (TFA) landed him in the “dog house” (the smallest office at the Capitol), we couldn’t help but be intrigued, for nothing in politics is worse than being caught eating one’s own. But we don’t ...
Business & Economics
To reduce inequality, lawmakers must end government-created burdens to entrepreneurship
Many Sacramento lawmakers have named reducing poverty and economic inequality among their top priorities this session. They have unveiled a variety of proposals to address these issues, most center around new government programs, increased state spending, and new mandates. As history has shown, bigger government usually doesn’t solve the problem. ...
Agriculture
Does California Have a Future?
Republican California State Assemblyman Vince Fong recently tweeted about California’s 19 percent poverty rate, which he said “is driven by the extreme high cost of living here.” “Yet,” said Fong, “Sacramento continues to pass policies that make it even more expensive.” In a story illustrated by an artist’s rendering of a family in ...
Commentary
Blocking Medicaid Work Requirements Is Unwise
Medicaid expansion in Kentucky and Arkansas could be on life support. Late last month, Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia blocked the two states’ attempts to require able-bodied adults to work as a condition of receiving Medicaid coverage. Last week, the federal Department of ...
California
How Non-Profits and Private Charities Can More Effectively Lift People Out of Poverty
There are many well-intentioned programs serving the homeless in California, but private charities and non-profits are just as effective – if not more so – in getting people back on their feet. PRI’s Kerry Jackson and Damon Dunn, Michele Steeb of Saint John’s Program for Real Change, and Deacon Jim ...
Commentary
Failed federal housing policy undermines Trump’s opioid reforms
By Lance Izumi and Michele Steeb Over the past two years, President Trump has promoted bold reforms designed to address the opioid crisis. Congress, in a rare bipartisan effort, wholeheartedly supported Trump’s significant reforms, but these initiatives are being undermined by the failures of federal housing policy. In October 2018, ...
California
Legislating Energy Poverty
Public opinion polls show that most Californians see climate change as a threat to the state’s economy and quality of life, yet the state’s approach is hurting poor, rural, inland, and minority communities. PRI’s Wayne Winegarden, Nick Loris of the Heritage Foundation, and John C. Gamboa of California Community Builders ...
Business & Economics
Universal Income Isn’t the Utopia It’s Made Out to Be
The long-standing failures of the American welfare state have left politicians and policy wonks searching desperately for answers, including a willingness to consider radical changes to how we as a nation care for the poor. With little to show from billions in spending for traditional social programs, we do need ...
Blog
Estate Tax Bill Will Do Nothing to Reduce California’s Wealth Gap
You would think that California’s current $21.4 billion budget surplus would be plenty of money to fund the spending wish list of those thwarted over the past 8 years by former Gov. Jerry Brown’s adherence to the principle of subsidiarity. Think again. In fact, much of the talk in Sacramento ...
Commentary
Medicare for All Won’t Result in Better Health Outcomes
New Jersey Senator Cory Booker claims Medicare for All would “save lives.” Vermont’s own Senator Bernie Sanders promises it would end “the disgrace of tens of thousands of Americans dying every year from preventable deaths.” But a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research finds little evidence to support those assertions. The authors examined ...
Left vs. Left Round 2: Teach for America and the Unions
When Right by the Bay heard that Assemblyman Kevin Kiley’s vigorous defense of Teach for America (TFA) landed him in the “dog house” (the smallest office at the Capitol), we couldn’t help but be intrigued, for nothing in politics is worse than being caught eating one’s own. But we don’t ...
To reduce inequality, lawmakers must end government-created burdens to entrepreneurship
Many Sacramento lawmakers have named reducing poverty and economic inequality among their top priorities this session. They have unveiled a variety of proposals to address these issues, most center around new government programs, increased state spending, and new mandates. As history has shown, bigger government usually doesn’t solve the problem. ...
Does California Have a Future?
Republican California State Assemblyman Vince Fong recently tweeted about California’s 19 percent poverty rate, which he said “is driven by the extreme high cost of living here.” “Yet,” said Fong, “Sacramento continues to pass policies that make it even more expensive.” In a story illustrated by an artist’s rendering of a family in ...
Blocking Medicaid Work Requirements Is Unwise
Medicaid expansion in Kentucky and Arkansas could be on life support. Late last month, Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia blocked the two states’ attempts to require able-bodied adults to work as a condition of receiving Medicaid coverage. Last week, the federal Department of ...
How Non-Profits and Private Charities Can More Effectively Lift People Out of Poverty
There are many well-intentioned programs serving the homeless in California, but private charities and non-profits are just as effective – if not more so – in getting people back on their feet. PRI’s Kerry Jackson and Damon Dunn, Michele Steeb of Saint John’s Program for Real Change, and Deacon Jim ...
Failed federal housing policy undermines Trump’s opioid reforms
By Lance Izumi and Michele Steeb Over the past two years, President Trump has promoted bold reforms designed to address the opioid crisis. Congress, in a rare bipartisan effort, wholeheartedly supported Trump’s significant reforms, but these initiatives are being undermined by the failures of federal housing policy. In October 2018, ...
Legislating Energy Poverty
Public opinion polls show that most Californians see climate change as a threat to the state’s economy and quality of life, yet the state’s approach is hurting poor, rural, inland, and minority communities. PRI’s Wayne Winegarden, Nick Loris of the Heritage Foundation, and John C. Gamboa of California Community Builders ...
Universal Income Isn’t the Utopia It’s Made Out to Be
The long-standing failures of the American welfare state have left politicians and policy wonks searching desperately for answers, including a willingness to consider radical changes to how we as a nation care for the poor. With little to show from billions in spending for traditional social programs, we do need ...
Estate Tax Bill Will Do Nothing to Reduce California’s Wealth Gap
You would think that California’s current $21.4 billion budget surplus would be plenty of money to fund the spending wish list of those thwarted over the past 8 years by former Gov. Jerry Brown’s adherence to the principle of subsidiarity. Think again. In fact, much of the talk in Sacramento ...
Medicare for All Won’t Result in Better Health Outcomes
New Jersey Senator Cory Booker claims Medicare for All would “save lives.” Vermont’s own Senator Bernie Sanders promises it would end “the disgrace of tens of thousands of Americans dying every year from preventable deaths.” But a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research finds little evidence to support those assertions. The authors examined ...
