Commentary
California
High-Speed Rail is Now California’s Runaway Train
If it wasn’t before, California’s high-speed rail project is now a runaway train. Officials announced Friday that the project will cost $77.3 billion, roughly $13 billion more than the most recent forecast. Someone with political clout needs to hit the brakes. But it seems this is a project that has ...
Business & Economics
Strike The Right Regulatory Balance To Promote Generic Medicines And Future Innovation
Striking the right regulatory balance for pharmaceuticals is no easy task. On the one hand, policy should promote drug affordability by encouraging robust competition. On the other hand, policy should encourage future innovations by granting these drugs temporary market exclusivity. While these goals appear contradictory, the federal government’s drug approval ...
Commentary
The Constitution May Finally Catch Up With Obamacare
Obamacare’s future is once again in jeopardy, thanks to one of the law’s most stubborn opponents — the U.S. Constitution. Twenty states are suing the federal government in Texas on the grounds that, since Congress zeroed-out the penalty for the individual mandate, the law is no longer constitutional. They’re right. ...
Commentary
If You Like Waiting Hours For An Ambulance, You Might Like Single-Payer Health Care
“Hello, 911? I think I’m having a heart attack.” “We’ll send an ambulance to your address right away. It’ll be there in four hours. Good luck.” That’s the present reality for patients captive to the United Kingdom’s government-run, single-payer health care system. And it’s apparently what the progressives who have ...
Commentary
Medicare Drug Benefit is Weakened by Congressional Budget Deal
Congress has undermined the Medicare drug benefit that millions of older Americans depend on – one of the few federal health care programs that’s working well. The two-year federal budget deal passed recently shifts more of the program’s costs onto drug manufacturers starting in 2020. In the process, the change ...
Commentary
Subsidies for Electric Vehicles Favor the Wealthy
Electric vehicles are heavily subsidized by the federal, state, and local governments. Based on a study I just completed, the federal subsidies are worth over $42.7 billion to their recipients over the lifetime of the programs. They include the federal grant and loan programs for manufacturers, and the consumer tax credits worth $7,500 per ...
Business & Economics
Reading The Gorsuch Tea Leaves In Key Union Case
Lawyers recently finished arguing a potentially historic workers’ free speech case before the U.S. Supreme Court and pundits are buzzing about Justice Neil Gorsuch’s silence during the proceedings. However, Gorsuch’s views on individual liberty are clear and that’s not good news for the public employee unions. The case, Janus v. ...
Commentary
Insurers Get Healthy
The Senate budget deal contains a health care provision that many are touting as a victory for American seniors. The reform aims to shift more of the Medicare Part D drug by costs to drug companies. But that provision is a gift to insurers — not to patients. The policy ...
California
Feinstein Foreshadowing
What a difference a few decades make: in 1990, Dianne Feinstein was apparently too far left for California voters, losing a gubernatorial race to Republican Pete Wilson. Nearly 30 years later, she’s not left enough—at least for the state Democratic Party, which has refused to endorse her for a fifth ...
California
Are California’s Poor Losing Out In State’s Drive For Clean Energy Future?
California policymakers have been on overdrive in recent years pursuing a clean energy future for the Golden State. State policymakers have enacted scores of government mandates and programs to push employers and individuals to reduce emissions, including unrealistic renewable energy mandates, cap-and-trade, and its embrace of high-speed rail. Many of ...
High-Speed Rail is Now California’s Runaway Train
If it wasn’t before, California’s high-speed rail project is now a runaway train. Officials announced Friday that the project will cost $77.3 billion, roughly $13 billion more than the most recent forecast. Someone with political clout needs to hit the brakes. But it seems this is a project that has ...
Strike The Right Regulatory Balance To Promote Generic Medicines And Future Innovation
Striking the right regulatory balance for pharmaceuticals is no easy task. On the one hand, policy should promote drug affordability by encouraging robust competition. On the other hand, policy should encourage future innovations by granting these drugs temporary market exclusivity. While these goals appear contradictory, the federal government’s drug approval ...
The Constitution May Finally Catch Up With Obamacare
Obamacare’s future is once again in jeopardy, thanks to one of the law’s most stubborn opponents — the U.S. Constitution. Twenty states are suing the federal government in Texas on the grounds that, since Congress zeroed-out the penalty for the individual mandate, the law is no longer constitutional. They’re right. ...
If You Like Waiting Hours For An Ambulance, You Might Like Single-Payer Health Care
“Hello, 911? I think I’m having a heart attack.” “We’ll send an ambulance to your address right away. It’ll be there in four hours. Good luck.” That’s the present reality for patients captive to the United Kingdom’s government-run, single-payer health care system. And it’s apparently what the progressives who have ...
Medicare Drug Benefit is Weakened by Congressional Budget Deal
Congress has undermined the Medicare drug benefit that millions of older Americans depend on – one of the few federal health care programs that’s working well. The two-year federal budget deal passed recently shifts more of the program’s costs onto drug manufacturers starting in 2020. In the process, the change ...
Subsidies for Electric Vehicles Favor the Wealthy
Electric vehicles are heavily subsidized by the federal, state, and local governments. Based on a study I just completed, the federal subsidies are worth over $42.7 billion to their recipients over the lifetime of the programs. They include the federal grant and loan programs for manufacturers, and the consumer tax credits worth $7,500 per ...
Reading The Gorsuch Tea Leaves In Key Union Case
Lawyers recently finished arguing a potentially historic workers’ free speech case before the U.S. Supreme Court and pundits are buzzing about Justice Neil Gorsuch’s silence during the proceedings. However, Gorsuch’s views on individual liberty are clear and that’s not good news for the public employee unions. The case, Janus v. ...
Insurers Get Healthy
The Senate budget deal contains a health care provision that many are touting as a victory for American seniors. The reform aims to shift more of the Medicare Part D drug by costs to drug companies. But that provision is a gift to insurers — not to patients. The policy ...
Feinstein Foreshadowing
What a difference a few decades make: in 1990, Dianne Feinstein was apparently too far left for California voters, losing a gubernatorial race to Republican Pete Wilson. Nearly 30 years later, she’s not left enough—at least for the state Democratic Party, which has refused to endorse her for a fifth ...
Are California’s Poor Losing Out In State’s Drive For Clean Energy Future?
California policymakers have been on overdrive in recent years pursuing a clean energy future for the Golden State. State policymakers have enacted scores of government mandates and programs to push employers and individuals to reduce emissions, including unrealistic renewable energy mandates, cap-and-trade, and its embrace of high-speed rail. Many of ...
