Environment
Commentary
Do We Still Need the EPA?
Many large bureaucratic organizations are inefficient, but the EPA is in a class by itself. The EPA is incompetent and wasteful, and it often does more harm than good. It’s time for it to go. The EPA’s ever-expanding regulations impose huge costs—about $350 billion annually, according to the Competitive Enterprise ...
California
How Gavin Newsom Could Earn the Title of Best Governor in California History
Edmund G. “Pat” Brown was the best governor California has ever had, many would argue. Free-market economist Art Laffer says Pat’s son Jerry was “one of the best.” Still others would name Earl Warren as the greatest. New Gov. Gavin Newsom would surpass them all, though, if he would complete ...
Commentary
Wasteful Medicaid spending prevents government from fulfilling core responsibilities
Few states can waste public healthcare dollars like California. According to a recent state audit, Medi-Cal — the Golden State’s Medicaid program, which covers about 13 million people — improperly spent more than $4 billion on thousands of ineligible enrollees from 2014 to 2017. At least one of those ineligible enrollees had been dead ...
Agriculture
The Shape of Water Tax
California’s rural residents and coastal elites have at least one thing in common: they’re both drinking bottled water. A McClatchy analysis of data compiled from the State Water Resource Control Board estimates that 360,000 Californians – mostly in inland areas — are served water from unsafe water systems. These include ...
California
California’s Doomsday Clock Getting Closer to Midnight
In 1947 a group of scientists unveiled the Doomsday Clock to show how near civilization was to a man-made catastrophic end. Maybe California should have its own doomsday clock, since it seems headed for a wreck. Today’s official Doomsday Clock reads 11:58 pm, two minutes before disaster. The Bulletin of ...
Blog
Newsom’s Budget Plan Shows You Can Have Your Cake and Eat It Too
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first budget plan proves the old English proverb is wrong. Turns out you can have your cake and eat it too, especially when the state has a $21.4 billion budget surplus. Continuing with the clichés – state budgets are usually feast or famine. Over the years, governors ...
Agriculture
GMO crops are key to sustainable farming—why are some scientists afraid to talk about them?
By Henry I. Miller, M.S, M.D. and Colin A. Carter Molecular genetic engineering has spawned a strange new allergy. No, not the kind of allergy that causes hives or wheezing; rather, an aversion to mentioning the role of genetic engineering in agriculture. In analyses, reports, and supposedly scholarly articles on ...
Agriculture
CAPITAL IDEAS: California’s Recent History of Manipulative Taxation
Download the PDF The rest of the country wasn’t surprised when California recently considered becoming the first state in the country to tax text messages. It almost seems as if there is a group of unelected bureaucrats that does nothing but cloister itself behind closed doors and dream up new ...
Blog
2019’s Best Staged Press Conference Masks Legislation’s Silliness
Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, wins the award for the best staged press conference of 2019. Not since Governor Schwarzenegger brought out the infamous “Count Cartaxula” (played by my good friend Walter von Huene) have we seen anything like a tall staffer wearing a giant, mock grocery store receipt around ...
Environment
Wall Street Journal Cites PRI’s Wayne Winegarden in Electric Car Subsidy Editorial
The Electric Kool-Aid Subsidy Test Tax credits for electric cars are a classic income transfer to the rich. Time to end them. President Trump’s recent blowup over General Motors layoffs was largely misdirected, though it may spur at least one good policy result. Killing subsidies for electric cars and trucks ...
Do We Still Need the EPA?
Many large bureaucratic organizations are inefficient, but the EPA is in a class by itself. The EPA is incompetent and wasteful, and it often does more harm than good. It’s time for it to go. The EPA’s ever-expanding regulations impose huge costs—about $350 billion annually, according to the Competitive Enterprise ...
How Gavin Newsom Could Earn the Title of Best Governor in California History
Edmund G. “Pat” Brown was the best governor California has ever had, many would argue. Free-market economist Art Laffer says Pat’s son Jerry was “one of the best.” Still others would name Earl Warren as the greatest. New Gov. Gavin Newsom would surpass them all, though, if he would complete ...
Wasteful Medicaid spending prevents government from fulfilling core responsibilities
Few states can waste public healthcare dollars like California. According to a recent state audit, Medi-Cal — the Golden State’s Medicaid program, which covers about 13 million people — improperly spent more than $4 billion on thousands of ineligible enrollees from 2014 to 2017. At least one of those ineligible enrollees had been dead ...
The Shape of Water Tax
California’s rural residents and coastal elites have at least one thing in common: they’re both drinking bottled water. A McClatchy analysis of data compiled from the State Water Resource Control Board estimates that 360,000 Californians – mostly in inland areas — are served water from unsafe water systems. These include ...
California’s Doomsday Clock Getting Closer to Midnight
In 1947 a group of scientists unveiled the Doomsday Clock to show how near civilization was to a man-made catastrophic end. Maybe California should have its own doomsday clock, since it seems headed for a wreck. Today’s official Doomsday Clock reads 11:58 pm, two minutes before disaster. The Bulletin of ...
Newsom’s Budget Plan Shows You Can Have Your Cake and Eat It Too
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first budget plan proves the old English proverb is wrong. Turns out you can have your cake and eat it too, especially when the state has a $21.4 billion budget surplus. Continuing with the clichés – state budgets are usually feast or famine. Over the years, governors ...
GMO crops are key to sustainable farming—why are some scientists afraid to talk about them?
By Henry I. Miller, M.S, M.D. and Colin A. Carter Molecular genetic engineering has spawned a strange new allergy. No, not the kind of allergy that causes hives or wheezing; rather, an aversion to mentioning the role of genetic engineering in agriculture. In analyses, reports, and supposedly scholarly articles on ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: California’s Recent History of Manipulative Taxation
Download the PDF The rest of the country wasn’t surprised when California recently considered becoming the first state in the country to tax text messages. It almost seems as if there is a group of unelected bureaucrats that does nothing but cloister itself behind closed doors and dream up new ...
2019’s Best Staged Press Conference Masks Legislation’s Silliness
Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, wins the award for the best staged press conference of 2019. Not since Governor Schwarzenegger brought out the infamous “Count Cartaxula” (played by my good friend Walter von Huene) have we seen anything like a tall staffer wearing a giant, mock grocery store receipt around ...
Wall Street Journal Cites PRI’s Wayne Winegarden in Electric Car Subsidy Editorial
The Electric Kool-Aid Subsidy Test Tax credits for electric cars are a classic income transfer to the rich. Time to end them. President Trump’s recent blowup over General Motors layoffs was largely misdirected, though it may spur at least one good policy result. Killing subsidies for electric cars and trucks ...
