Commentary

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.  ...
Business & Economics

Regulatory Burden Threatens California’s Entrepreneurial Roots

California has been a red-hot destination, and comfortable home, for entrepreneurs at least as far back as the mid-19th Century, when 300,000 fortune hunters swarmed West during the Gold Rush. In 2019, it is still attracting business pioneers. But at the same time, Sacramento operates one of the most obstructionist ...
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 ...
Business & Economics

Reinvigorating Entrepreneurship Is Key to America’s Economic Future

Even during times of strong job and economic growth, as we’re experiencing today, economists are looking for warning signs about future economic distress – after all, it is called the “dismal science”. The fact that entrepreneurship is declining in the United States, and has been for some time, is one ...
Commentary

Medicare ‘buy-in’ proposals would lead to single-payer system, long waits, care rationing

Many Democratic politicians, including those seeking the party’s presidential nomination, believe bigger government is the solution to America’s health care woes. But a handful of centrist Democrats worry full-fledged “Medicare for all” will spook independents. So they have unveiled several seemingly moderate plans that would allow people to buy into Medicare ...
California

California, Blinded By Plastic

California, the Los Angeles Times recently reported, is building a “non-plastic future.” The state has outlawed or restricted single-use plastic bags, plastic drinking straws, and plastic cutlery. Future targets: plastic detergent bottles, unattached caps on plastic bottles, and polystyrene containers (typically used to hold restaurant takeout orders), which more than 100 California cities ...
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 ...
Commentary

Bernie Sanders took his terrible ‘Medicare for all’ idea and made it a disaster

On Wednesday, 2020 candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., released his updated “Medicare for all” bill. The plan is even more disastrous than its original 2017 iteration. The new bill is not all that different from the one he introduced two years ago. It would still force virtually every person to swap ...
California

Private Rail is a Promising Alternative to California’s High-Speed Train Wreck

Two years ago, the Trump administration rated infrastructure improvement as one of its key goals. While not much has happened since then, the president did raise the issue again in his State of the Union address. This prompted Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to write, “to keep pace with the ...
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, ...
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.  ...
Business & Economics

Regulatory Burden Threatens California’s Entrepreneurial Roots

California has been a red-hot destination, and comfortable home, for entrepreneurs at least as far back as the mid-19th Century, when 300,000 fortune hunters swarmed West during the Gold Rush. In 2019, it is still attracting business pioneers. But at the same time, Sacramento operates one of the most obstructionist ...
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 ...
Business & Economics

Reinvigorating Entrepreneurship Is Key to America’s Economic Future

Even during times of strong job and economic growth, as we’re experiencing today, economists are looking for warning signs about future economic distress – after all, it is called the “dismal science”. The fact that entrepreneurship is declining in the United States, and has been for some time, is one ...
Commentary

Medicare ‘buy-in’ proposals would lead to single-payer system, long waits, care rationing

Many Democratic politicians, including those seeking the party’s presidential nomination, believe bigger government is the solution to America’s health care woes. But a handful of centrist Democrats worry full-fledged “Medicare for all” will spook independents. So they have unveiled several seemingly moderate plans that would allow people to buy into Medicare ...
California

California, Blinded By Plastic

California, the Los Angeles Times recently reported, is building a “non-plastic future.” The state has outlawed or restricted single-use plastic bags, plastic drinking straws, and plastic cutlery. Future targets: plastic detergent bottles, unattached caps on plastic bottles, and polystyrene containers (typically used to hold restaurant takeout orders), which more than 100 California cities ...
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 ...
Commentary

Bernie Sanders took his terrible ‘Medicare for all’ idea and made it a disaster

On Wednesday, 2020 candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., released his updated “Medicare for all” bill. The plan is even more disastrous than its original 2017 iteration. The new bill is not all that different from the one he introduced two years ago. It would still force virtually every person to swap ...
California

Private Rail is a Promising Alternative to California’s High-Speed Train Wreck

Two years ago, the Trump administration rated infrastructure improvement as one of its key goals. While not much has happened since then, the president did raise the issue again in his State of the Union address. This prompted Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to write, “to keep pace with the ...
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, ...
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