Commentary
Commentary
Government Mandates Don’t Lower Health Care Costs
Free lunches are often the most expensive meals. And yet, when it comes to the nations health care system, the federal government blindly offers free lunch buffets in lieu of policies that would actually address the core problems of the nations health care system. An example of this free lunch ...
Commentary
Medicaid proven to be a failure
State legislators across the country are wrestling with whether to expand Medicaid, with the bulk of the funding to come from the federal government, thanks to Obamacare. Thus far, a substantial number of states have rebuffed the feds’ offer – or are leaning that way. They’re right to do so. ...
Agriculture
Today’s Energy Crisis: Too Much, Not Too Little, Fossil Fuel
Back in April 1977, President Carter warned that “the oil and natural gas we rely on for 75% of our energy are running out.” In response to the perceived energy supply shortages, he wanted to limit the annual growth in overall U.S. energy usage, force American consumers to lower their ...
Commentary
Bend The Healthcare Cost Curve Downward By Letting Healthcare Costs Rise
Earlier this year, a team of researchers in Europe decided to examine the relationship between cutting-edge technology and healthcare costs. Some wonks complain that expensive new medical technologies and therapies some of which deliver only marginal improvements to patient health are key drivers of health spending. But when ...
Business & Economics
Uncle Sam’s Phantom Loan Revenues
You may have heard that lawmakers in Washington struck a deal last week to preserve the current low student-loan rates for at least another year. You may not have heard that for fiscal year 2013 the federal government booked $32 million in revenuesprofits, if it were a private entityfor every ...
California
Bay Area growth: Why not spread out into rural land instead of building in cities?
The last two centuries have brought unprecedented urbanization around the world. Large cities have become the norm by meeting the aspirations of new residents. Cities are primarily economic organisms and are justified only by improving the lives of their residents, by facilitating higher discretionary incomes and reducing poverty. However, in ...
Commentary
If no changes, no Medicare
Medicare has two more years to live than previously thought. The program’s trustees recently estimated that the “depletion date for the trust fund is 2026, two years later than was shown in last year’s report.” But that conclusion is less a vote of confidence than a two-year stay of execution. ...
Commentary
Still time to repeal Obamacare
On July 2, the Obama administration announced that it would delay implementation of the Affordable Care Act’s “employer mandate” until 2015. This much-bemoaned provision will require businesses with at least 50 employees who work 30 hours or more a week to provide health insurance to all full-timers. Employers that fail ...
Commentary
For Small Business Owners, The Obamacare Reality Bites
More than 40 percent of small businesses have frozen hiring because of Obamacare, according to a new poll from Gallup. A fifth have actually cut their workforces as a direct result of the healthcare reform law. Thats not exactly the future President Obama forecast in 2009, when he told an ...
Commentary
Organized Labor And Business: The Latest Strange Bedfellows To Unite Against Obamacare
Obamacare is proving the old axiom that politics makes strange bedfellows. Organized labor and the business community are the latest unlikely pair to unite in opposition to the healthcare reform law. Both groups are discovering that Obamacare will substantially increase the cost of providing health benefits to the detriment ...
Government Mandates Don’t Lower Health Care Costs
Free lunches are often the most expensive meals. And yet, when it comes to the nations health care system, the federal government blindly offers free lunch buffets in lieu of policies that would actually address the core problems of the nations health care system. An example of this free lunch ...
Medicaid proven to be a failure
State legislators across the country are wrestling with whether to expand Medicaid, with the bulk of the funding to come from the federal government, thanks to Obamacare. Thus far, a substantial number of states have rebuffed the feds’ offer – or are leaning that way. They’re right to do so. ...
Today’s Energy Crisis: Too Much, Not Too Little, Fossil Fuel
Back in April 1977, President Carter warned that “the oil and natural gas we rely on for 75% of our energy are running out.” In response to the perceived energy supply shortages, he wanted to limit the annual growth in overall U.S. energy usage, force American consumers to lower their ...
Bend The Healthcare Cost Curve Downward By Letting Healthcare Costs Rise
Earlier this year, a team of researchers in Europe decided to examine the relationship between cutting-edge technology and healthcare costs. Some wonks complain that expensive new medical technologies and therapies some of which deliver only marginal improvements to patient health are key drivers of health spending. But when ...
Uncle Sam’s Phantom Loan Revenues
You may have heard that lawmakers in Washington struck a deal last week to preserve the current low student-loan rates for at least another year. You may not have heard that for fiscal year 2013 the federal government booked $32 million in revenuesprofits, if it were a private entityfor every ...
Bay Area growth: Why not spread out into rural land instead of building in cities?
The last two centuries have brought unprecedented urbanization around the world. Large cities have become the norm by meeting the aspirations of new residents. Cities are primarily economic organisms and are justified only by improving the lives of their residents, by facilitating higher discretionary incomes and reducing poverty. However, in ...
If no changes, no Medicare
Medicare has two more years to live than previously thought. The program’s trustees recently estimated that the “depletion date for the trust fund is 2026, two years later than was shown in last year’s report.” But that conclusion is less a vote of confidence than a two-year stay of execution. ...
Still time to repeal Obamacare
On July 2, the Obama administration announced that it would delay implementation of the Affordable Care Act’s “employer mandate” until 2015. This much-bemoaned provision will require businesses with at least 50 employees who work 30 hours or more a week to provide health insurance to all full-timers. Employers that fail ...
For Small Business Owners, The Obamacare Reality Bites
More than 40 percent of small businesses have frozen hiring because of Obamacare, according to a new poll from Gallup. A fifth have actually cut their workforces as a direct result of the healthcare reform law. Thats not exactly the future President Obama forecast in 2009, when he told an ...
Organized Labor And Business: The Latest Strange Bedfellows To Unite Against Obamacare
Obamacare is proving the old axiom that politics makes strange bedfellows. Organized labor and the business community are the latest unlikely pair to unite in opposition to the healthcare reform law. Both groups are discovering that Obamacare will substantially increase the cost of providing health benefits to the detriment ...
