Commentary
California
Shocking! Why California Policymakers Are So Often Caught by Surprise
California is always in the national news and too often for not-so-good reasons. A couple of recent events has left much of the rest of the country wondering how this ever-swaggering state is continually caught off guard. There’s really no mystery here. The answer is obvious. When it was announced ...
Commentary
Canadian Leaders Finally Waking Up To The Horrors Of Single-Payer Health Care
In my last column, I wrote that Canada’s healthcare system was no model for the United States. Perhaps Canadian officials were listening. Earlier this month, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced that Canada’s largest province would take a page from the U.S. playbook—and expand private care in order to provide some relief to the ...
Business & Economics
Neither The Department Of Defense Nor NASA Should Be Setting U.S. Climate Policy
It should be self-evident that the Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) don’t have the authority to set the nation’s climate policy. Yet, this is precisely what these agencies are trying to do. The DOD, GSA, and NASA have issued a joint ...
Commentary
State nowhere near meeting unrealistic energy goals, and that’s a good thing
California is barreling toward its 2030 greenhouse gas emissions target. Will it make it? The Legislative Analyst’s Office doesn’t seem to think so. By statute, emissions are to be at 40 percent of 1990 levels by 2030, then 85 percent below by 2045. The California Air Resources Board recently set ...
Commentary
How one bad law drives hospital consolidation and high health care costs
Americans are getting squeezed by rising health care costs. The latest numbers from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services show that patient out-of-pocket spending increased by 10.4% in 2021, a rate not seen for more than three decades. The cost of monthly health insurance premiums also leapt, by 6.5%. ...
Business & Economics
Latest State Minimum Wage Hike Will Hurt Workers Far More Than It Helps
2023 might be the year that California businesses, especially small ones outside of the larger cities, wish they could skip. On top of a likely economic downturn, they have also been hit with higher employee costs, as another increase in the minimum wage arrived on Jan. 1. The state minimum ...
Business & Economics
The Gender Pay Gap Isn’t Caused by Sexism. It’s the Result of Women’s Choices
Last week, U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh traveled to the annual gathering of elites in Davos, Switzerland, to call for American businesses to add women to their leadership teams in order to close the gender pay gap. Get more girlbosses into the C-suite, the thinking goes, and they’ll ensure women’s work ...
Commentary
Don’t Fall for Biden’s Obamacare Boosterism
The open enrollment period for HealthCare.gov came to a close last week. And at the end of this month, open enrollment in many of the states that run their own marketplaces will close. As of Jan. 11, the most recent date for which the government has data, roughly 15.9 million people have purchased ...
California
Cali’s Climate Change Budget Cuts Show Programs Are More About Politics Than Cutting Emissions
Sobered by the reality of a budget deficit, the governor has proposed cutting money for climate programs. It was surely a hard choice, but practical. Something has to go and there’s no better place to show spending discipline than by holding back funds dedicated to a political fantasy. After years ...
Commentary
Bernie Sanders wants universal health care. Canada shows why that’s a bad idea.
Sen. Bernie Sanders would do well to look at what’s happening across our northern border before he tries to advance legislation that would import Canada’s single-payer health care system, where the government is the only insurer. The new chairman of the influential Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, he’s made clear ...
Shocking! Why California Policymakers Are So Often Caught by Surprise
California is always in the national news and too often for not-so-good reasons. A couple of recent events has left much of the rest of the country wondering how this ever-swaggering state is continually caught off guard. There’s really no mystery here. The answer is obvious. When it was announced ...
Canadian Leaders Finally Waking Up To The Horrors Of Single-Payer Health Care
In my last column, I wrote that Canada’s healthcare system was no model for the United States. Perhaps Canadian officials were listening. Earlier this month, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced that Canada’s largest province would take a page from the U.S. playbook—and expand private care in order to provide some relief to the ...
Neither The Department Of Defense Nor NASA Should Be Setting U.S. Climate Policy
It should be self-evident that the Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) don’t have the authority to set the nation’s climate policy. Yet, this is precisely what these agencies are trying to do. The DOD, GSA, and NASA have issued a joint ...
State nowhere near meeting unrealistic energy goals, and that’s a good thing
California is barreling toward its 2030 greenhouse gas emissions target. Will it make it? The Legislative Analyst’s Office doesn’t seem to think so. By statute, emissions are to be at 40 percent of 1990 levels by 2030, then 85 percent below by 2045. The California Air Resources Board recently set ...
How one bad law drives hospital consolidation and high health care costs
Americans are getting squeezed by rising health care costs. The latest numbers from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services show that patient out-of-pocket spending increased by 10.4% in 2021, a rate not seen for more than three decades. The cost of monthly health insurance premiums also leapt, by 6.5%. ...
Latest State Minimum Wage Hike Will Hurt Workers Far More Than It Helps
2023 might be the year that California businesses, especially small ones outside of the larger cities, wish they could skip. On top of a likely economic downturn, they have also been hit with higher employee costs, as another increase in the minimum wage arrived on Jan. 1. The state minimum ...
The Gender Pay Gap Isn’t Caused by Sexism. It’s the Result of Women’s Choices
Last week, U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh traveled to the annual gathering of elites in Davos, Switzerland, to call for American businesses to add women to their leadership teams in order to close the gender pay gap. Get more girlbosses into the C-suite, the thinking goes, and they’ll ensure women’s work ...
Don’t Fall for Biden’s Obamacare Boosterism
The open enrollment period for HealthCare.gov came to a close last week. And at the end of this month, open enrollment in many of the states that run their own marketplaces will close. As of Jan. 11, the most recent date for which the government has data, roughly 15.9 million people have purchased ...
Cali’s Climate Change Budget Cuts Show Programs Are More About Politics Than Cutting Emissions
Sobered by the reality of a budget deficit, the governor has proposed cutting money for climate programs. It was surely a hard choice, but practical. Something has to go and there’s no better place to show spending discipline than by holding back funds dedicated to a political fantasy. After years ...
Bernie Sanders wants universal health care. Canada shows why that’s a bad idea.
Sen. Bernie Sanders would do well to look at what’s happening across our northern border before he tries to advance legislation that would import Canada’s single-payer health care system, where the government is the only insurer. The new chairman of the influential Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, he’s made clear ...
