Commentary
Business & Economics
Pension Calculus Draws New Scrutiny
A California dustup over large pension payments is shining a spotlight on the practice of spiking — increasing a salary just before retirement and boosting the lifelong payout. Pete Nowicki had been making $186,000 shortly before he retired in January as chief for a fire department shared by the municipalities ...
Business & Economics
Staggering Statistics Scream for Dramatic Policy Changes
New unemployment statistics are the latest in a seemingly endless series of reminders of Michigan’s economic woes and policy miscalculations. The state’s unemployment rate leapt to 15.2 percent in June, the 40th consecutive month Michigan has had the highest unemployment rate in the nation. To put things in even greater ...
Commentary
‘Reform’ Will Cost Us More For Less
New York Post, July 20, 2009 State Policy Network, July 22, 2009 Health care reform is turning into the ultimate bait and switch. Candidate Barack Obama promised Americans savings of $2,500, expanded coverage and no generalized tax increase in the form of an individual mandate. Yet President Obama is endorsing ...
Climate Change
Waxman-Markey: An Exercise in Unreality
“Waxman-Markey … seeks a first in economic history: rationing without scarcity or price inflation. [It] allows generous ‘offsets’ so that carbon-based energy does not, in fact, become scarce. The bill does, however, contain a multitude of new regulations, product-efficiency mandates, and spending programs that will require extensive managerial attention from ...
Commentary
Why not try ownership?
Reform bill too ambitious for real problem America does not face a health care crisis. America faces a manageable challenge — how to help a relatively small share of the population purchase health insurance. ObamaCare is too big a solution chasing too small a problem — like hunting quail with ...
Commentary
Government Care Costs More
The testimony by Congressional Budget Office chief Douglas Elmendorf that the health-care legislation in Congress “significantly expands” costs shocked Capitol Hill. Yet the evidence shows that government-run care has always been more costly than private-sector care. In claiming that the solution to skyrocketing health costs is more government-run care, President ...
Commentary
Reformers’ Claims Just Don’t Add Up
Health Reform: Many extravagant claims have been made on behalf of the various health care “reforms” now emerging from Congress and the White House. But on closer inspection, virtually all prove to be false. Yet even as many Americans start to have second thoughts about our government’s possible takeover of ...
Business & Economics
Obama fast becoming Canada’s best friend
Canada has a new secret weapon. His name is Barack Obama. At least, that’s one interpretation of negative fiscal consequences likely to flow from the Democratic president’s ambitious, big-ticket government agenda and not a far-fetched one at that. According to an analysis offered last week by economist Jason Clemens, research ...
Commentary
Rep. Tom McClintock and “California’s Meltdown”
CEI and the Pacific Research Institute recently co-hosted a Capitol Hill briefing on “California’s Meltdown” – the unprecedented combination of flawed economic, energy and environmental policies that have left the state with a massive budget deficit and facing even tougher times ahead. Our keynote speaker was Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA), ...
Commentary
The Canadian Healthcare Experience
The Cato Institute – Cato Daily Podcast , July 16, 2009 The Canadian experience with national healthcare has produced waiting lines, rationed care, and it has not produced the preventive and patient focused care that just about everyone wants. Caleb Brown of the Cato Institute presents a podcast with Sally ...
Pension Calculus Draws New Scrutiny
A California dustup over large pension payments is shining a spotlight on the practice of spiking — increasing a salary just before retirement and boosting the lifelong payout. Pete Nowicki had been making $186,000 shortly before he retired in January as chief for a fire department shared by the municipalities ...
Staggering Statistics Scream for Dramatic Policy Changes
New unemployment statistics are the latest in a seemingly endless series of reminders of Michigan’s economic woes and policy miscalculations. The state’s unemployment rate leapt to 15.2 percent in June, the 40th consecutive month Michigan has had the highest unemployment rate in the nation. To put things in even greater ...
‘Reform’ Will Cost Us More For Less
New York Post, July 20, 2009 State Policy Network, July 22, 2009 Health care reform is turning into the ultimate bait and switch. Candidate Barack Obama promised Americans savings of $2,500, expanded coverage and no generalized tax increase in the form of an individual mandate. Yet President Obama is endorsing ...
Waxman-Markey: An Exercise in Unreality
“Waxman-Markey … seeks a first in economic history: rationing without scarcity or price inflation. [It] allows generous ‘offsets’ so that carbon-based energy does not, in fact, become scarce. The bill does, however, contain a multitude of new regulations, product-efficiency mandates, and spending programs that will require extensive managerial attention from ...
Why not try ownership?
Reform bill too ambitious for real problem America does not face a health care crisis. America faces a manageable challenge — how to help a relatively small share of the population purchase health insurance. ObamaCare is too big a solution chasing too small a problem — like hunting quail with ...
Government Care Costs More
The testimony by Congressional Budget Office chief Douglas Elmendorf that the health-care legislation in Congress “significantly expands” costs shocked Capitol Hill. Yet the evidence shows that government-run care has always been more costly than private-sector care. In claiming that the solution to skyrocketing health costs is more government-run care, President ...
Reformers’ Claims Just Don’t Add Up
Health Reform: Many extravagant claims have been made on behalf of the various health care “reforms” now emerging from Congress and the White House. But on closer inspection, virtually all prove to be false. Yet even as many Americans start to have second thoughts about our government’s possible takeover of ...
Obama fast becoming Canada’s best friend
Canada has a new secret weapon. His name is Barack Obama. At least, that’s one interpretation of negative fiscal consequences likely to flow from the Democratic president’s ambitious, big-ticket government agenda and not a far-fetched one at that. According to an analysis offered last week by economist Jason Clemens, research ...
Rep. Tom McClintock and “California’s Meltdown”
CEI and the Pacific Research Institute recently co-hosted a Capitol Hill briefing on “California’s Meltdown” – the unprecedented combination of flawed economic, energy and environmental policies that have left the state with a massive budget deficit and facing even tougher times ahead. Our keynote speaker was Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA), ...
The Canadian Healthcare Experience
The Cato Institute – Cato Daily Podcast , July 16, 2009 The Canadian experience with national healthcare has produced waiting lines, rationed care, and it has not produced the preventive and patient focused care that just about everyone wants. Caleb Brown of the Cato Institute presents a podcast with Sally ...
