Commentary
Business & Economics
Obama should abandon energy fables and deal with facts
After a bruising battle over cap and trade last year, President Obama has set his sights on another target — oil and natural gas companies. Vilifying “big oil” might be good politics, but it’s bad policy. If we’re going to get serious about energy solutions, we first need to separate ...
Business & Economics
Could Wisconsin happen in California?
SACRAMENTO – If a real battle over union reform can take place in Wisconsin and spread to other liberal rust-belt, union-dominated states, then it could perhaps happen in California – although it might take some time, given the political dynamic here and the “marches to its own drummer” ethic of ...
Commentary
ObamaCare Is Starting To Bleed Insurers Dry
Nearly three weeks after U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson ruled the president’s health care overhaul unconstitutional in a lawsuit brought by 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Business, confusion is plaguing the American health care system. Some states are preparing to enforce the law while others have adopted ...
Commentary
Let Education Choice SOAR Coast to Coast
Last month a strong bi-partisan coalition in Congress introduced the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results (SOAR) Act. The program would reauthorize the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program and adds to a burgeoning movement for education choice across the country. Congress launched the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program in 2004. In spite of ...
Commentary
Obama misrepresents the state of U.S. health care
In his recent State of the Union speech, the president didn’t spend much time defending his controversial health reform law. But he did relate the stories of two individuals who have supposedly benefited from his overhaul of American health care. They might be the only ones, as both profited from ...
Business & Economics
Cities go on wild spending sprees
SACRAMENTO – Gov. Jerry Brown has been caught flat-footed in his plan to shutter the state’s redevelopment agencies as cities across California continue to squander their redevelopment cash, tying up hundreds of millions of dollars in long-term spending on half-baked projects simply to keep the money away from the state. ...
Commentary
The Fight for Health Freedom Loses a Champion: Jack Calfee, RIP
When I got into health policy in 2000, my first projects focused on government intervention in prescription drugs: Patent law, the regulatory bureaucracy, restrictions on free speech (Direct-to-Consumer advertising, detailing physicians, et cetera). Jack Calfee was the giant in this field: His thorough, accurate, and diligent research demolished any legitimate ...
Commentary
Obamacare Will Destroy Utah’s Health Exchange
None of this is surprising. What is surprising is that many people continue to believe that the Utah Health Exchange, launched in 2009 to increase small businesses’ health-insurance choices, can morph into some kind of foundation upon which a consumer-driven Obamacare can be built. Like many conservative health-policy analysts, I ...
Business & Economics
Californians need to suffer more
People increasingly want answers for how California can solve its fiscal problems, but I rarely have good news to offer. Last week, I wrote about three Assembly Republicans who attended a “no more cuts” rally sponsored by the Service Employees International Union – those always-agitated, purple-shirted, bullhorn-toting activists who are ...
Commentary
Don’t start a state health exchange
Last December, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli struck a significant blow against the federal government’s attempted takeover of our access to medical care. Virginians should be pleased, but the state needs to follow through or Cuccinelli’s effort will be wasted. Federal Judge Henry Hudson accepted Cuccinelli’s argument that the so-called ...
Obama should abandon energy fables and deal with facts
After a bruising battle over cap and trade last year, President Obama has set his sights on another target — oil and natural gas companies. Vilifying “big oil” might be good politics, but it’s bad policy. If we’re going to get serious about energy solutions, we first need to separate ...
Could Wisconsin happen in California?
SACRAMENTO – If a real battle over union reform can take place in Wisconsin and spread to other liberal rust-belt, union-dominated states, then it could perhaps happen in California – although it might take some time, given the political dynamic here and the “marches to its own drummer” ethic of ...
ObamaCare Is Starting To Bleed Insurers Dry
Nearly three weeks after U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson ruled the president’s health care overhaul unconstitutional in a lawsuit brought by 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Business, confusion is plaguing the American health care system. Some states are preparing to enforce the law while others have adopted ...
Let Education Choice SOAR Coast to Coast
Last month a strong bi-partisan coalition in Congress introduced the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results (SOAR) Act. The program would reauthorize the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program and adds to a burgeoning movement for education choice across the country. Congress launched the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program in 2004. In spite of ...
Obama misrepresents the state of U.S. health care
In his recent State of the Union speech, the president didn’t spend much time defending his controversial health reform law. But he did relate the stories of two individuals who have supposedly benefited from his overhaul of American health care. They might be the only ones, as both profited from ...
Cities go on wild spending sprees
SACRAMENTO – Gov. Jerry Brown has been caught flat-footed in his plan to shutter the state’s redevelopment agencies as cities across California continue to squander their redevelopment cash, tying up hundreds of millions of dollars in long-term spending on half-baked projects simply to keep the money away from the state. ...
The Fight for Health Freedom Loses a Champion: Jack Calfee, RIP
When I got into health policy in 2000, my first projects focused on government intervention in prescription drugs: Patent law, the regulatory bureaucracy, restrictions on free speech (Direct-to-Consumer advertising, detailing physicians, et cetera). Jack Calfee was the giant in this field: His thorough, accurate, and diligent research demolished any legitimate ...
Obamacare Will Destroy Utah’s Health Exchange
None of this is surprising. What is surprising is that many people continue to believe that the Utah Health Exchange, launched in 2009 to increase small businesses’ health-insurance choices, can morph into some kind of foundation upon which a consumer-driven Obamacare can be built. Like many conservative health-policy analysts, I ...
Californians need to suffer more
People increasingly want answers for how California can solve its fiscal problems, but I rarely have good news to offer. Last week, I wrote about three Assembly Republicans who attended a “no more cuts” rally sponsored by the Service Employees International Union – those always-agitated, purple-shirted, bullhorn-toting activists who are ...
Don’t start a state health exchange
Last December, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli struck a significant blow against the federal government’s attempted takeover of our access to medical care. Virginians should be pleased, but the state needs to follow through or Cuccinelli’s effort will be wasted. Federal Judge Henry Hudson accepted Cuccinelli’s argument that the so-called ...
