Commentary
Commentary
Responsible Resistance to Obamacare: Has Mitch Daniels Shown the Way?
My friend Tevi Troy cheers Daniels’s approach, noting that if the president had considered bipartisan reform he might have avoided the hostile backlash that Obamacare has created. But he didn’t. Surely it can’t be Governor Daniels’s responsibility to show the president how to find the way to real health-care reform, ...
Business & Economics
Union rally exposes Republicans’ weak links
After Gov. Jerry Brown’s State of the State address pushing for the Legislature to place a series of tax-extension measures on the ballot, Republicans countered by emphasizing their continuing opposition to higher taxes. For instance, Assemblyman Brian Nestande of Palm Desert, the Assembly minority leader’s top lieutenant, said, “I stand ...
Commentary
Enabling The Next Biomedical Revolution
In his State of the Union address President Obama singled out biomedical innovation as a key driver of America’s future prosperity. This sector has indeed generated tens of thousands of jobs, attracted billions in investment and created advanced medical treatments for Americans. A promising new area of biomedicine, called biologics, ...
Business & Economics
Balancing California’s unwieldy budget
Gov. Jerry Brown’s State of the State speech Monday night was pretty much what anyone should have expected, as the new governor championed his “tough choices” budget and pushed hard for its centerpiece: a public vote on controversial tax extensions. Since his inauguration, Brown has made it clear that he ...
Commentary
Red Tape and Special Interets Short Circuit Education Innovation
Californias budget meltdown is an opportunity, not to raise taxes, but to explore innovative ways to deliver services more efficiently and effectively. With the revolution in online technology, education is a perfect area to re-think obsolete delivery systems. However, according to a new book by the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), ...
Business & Economics
Bankruptcy one of state’s few options
SACRAMENTO – Congressional Republicans “should be ashamed of themselves for even suggesting” bankruptcy as an option for California and other debt-plagued states, according to Sacramento Bee Capitol columnist Dan Walters. Unlike municipalities, states aren’t allowed to go bankrupt, but some conservatives have talked openly about changing the law. Walters, reflecting ...
Commentary
Crowdsourcing, Price Formation, and Health IT
Last year, a non-profit called Costs of Care sponsored a national essay contest, inviting people to submit anecdotes “illustrating the importance of cost awareness in medicine.” One of the winning entries concerned a billing error for inserting an IUD. Before the procedure, the patient learned (via “a few keystrokes”) that ...
Commentary
Obamacare Is Already Falling Apart
Last week, the House of Representatives voted by a wide margin — 245 to 189 — to repeal the president’s landmark health reform package. It’s unclear whether Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will bring the measure up in the upper body. But even if he doesn’t, the law is ...
Commentary
Sustaining Environmental Quality and Economic Growth
A few weeks ago, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revoked a permit for one of the largest mountain-top coal mining projects in the United States. That left West Virginia’s politicians up in arms over what they consider major regulatory overreach by the federal government. The action also highlighted key issues ...
California
A School Choice Week lesson for Gov. Brown
Gov. Jerry Brown eliminated the office of the state secretary of education, but aside from that symbolic and inconsequential act, his proposed education budget for 2011-12 contains no real reform ideas. California’s new chief executive should use National School Choice Week, the last week in January, to consider innovative ways ...
Responsible Resistance to Obamacare: Has Mitch Daniels Shown the Way?
My friend Tevi Troy cheers Daniels’s approach, noting that if the president had considered bipartisan reform he might have avoided the hostile backlash that Obamacare has created. But he didn’t. Surely it can’t be Governor Daniels’s responsibility to show the president how to find the way to real health-care reform, ...
Union rally exposes Republicans’ weak links
After Gov. Jerry Brown’s State of the State address pushing for the Legislature to place a series of tax-extension measures on the ballot, Republicans countered by emphasizing their continuing opposition to higher taxes. For instance, Assemblyman Brian Nestande of Palm Desert, the Assembly minority leader’s top lieutenant, said, “I stand ...
Enabling The Next Biomedical Revolution
In his State of the Union address President Obama singled out biomedical innovation as a key driver of America’s future prosperity. This sector has indeed generated tens of thousands of jobs, attracted billions in investment and created advanced medical treatments for Americans. A promising new area of biomedicine, called biologics, ...
Balancing California’s unwieldy budget
Gov. Jerry Brown’s State of the State speech Monday night was pretty much what anyone should have expected, as the new governor championed his “tough choices” budget and pushed hard for its centerpiece: a public vote on controversial tax extensions. Since his inauguration, Brown has made it clear that he ...
Red Tape and Special Interets Short Circuit Education Innovation
Californias budget meltdown is an opportunity, not to raise taxes, but to explore innovative ways to deliver services more efficiently and effectively. With the revolution in online technology, education is a perfect area to re-think obsolete delivery systems. However, according to a new book by the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), ...
Bankruptcy one of state’s few options
SACRAMENTO – Congressional Republicans “should be ashamed of themselves for even suggesting” bankruptcy as an option for California and other debt-plagued states, according to Sacramento Bee Capitol columnist Dan Walters. Unlike municipalities, states aren’t allowed to go bankrupt, but some conservatives have talked openly about changing the law. Walters, reflecting ...
Crowdsourcing, Price Formation, and Health IT
Last year, a non-profit called Costs of Care sponsored a national essay contest, inviting people to submit anecdotes “illustrating the importance of cost awareness in medicine.” One of the winning entries concerned a billing error for inserting an IUD. Before the procedure, the patient learned (via “a few keystrokes”) that ...
Obamacare Is Already Falling Apart
Last week, the House of Representatives voted by a wide margin — 245 to 189 — to repeal the president’s landmark health reform package. It’s unclear whether Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will bring the measure up in the upper body. But even if he doesn’t, the law is ...
Sustaining Environmental Quality and Economic Growth
A few weeks ago, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revoked a permit for one of the largest mountain-top coal mining projects in the United States. That left West Virginia’s politicians up in arms over what they consider major regulatory overreach by the federal government. The action also highlighted key issues ...
A School Choice Week lesson for Gov. Brown
Gov. Jerry Brown eliminated the office of the state secretary of education, but aside from that symbolic and inconsequential act, his proposed education budget for 2011-12 contains no real reform ideas. California’s new chief executive should use National School Choice Week, the last week in January, to consider innovative ways ...
