Commentary

Commentary

Understanding the Tax Implications of Single-Payer Health Care

Many studies have examined the costs and benefits of replacing the current health care financing model with a single-payer system fully funded by taxpayers. Most of these studies, including the most prominent, ignore a key component: the significant economic costs of taxes, which would be necessary to pay for government- ...
Business & Economics

Fitzgerald named Illinois chief justice

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (Legal Newsline) – Illinois Supreme Court Justice Thomas Fitzgerald is the state’s new chief justice, becoming the high court’s 115th leader. Fitzgerald, a Chicago Democrat, will serve as the chief courts officer for a state that is ranked as having one of the worst legal climates in the ...
Commentary

The Rantings of a P.T.A. Mom

Sandra Tsing Loh, a writer and a performer, is the author most recently of “Mother on Fire,” a comic memoir of her struggle to find a school in Los Angeles for her child to attend. (Full biography.) As usual, Bruce Fuller and Lance Izumi , my fellow Education Watch contributors, ...
Commentary

Will law impress fast-food junkies? Fat chance.

The latest deployment in the war on obesity is upon us. SB 1420, sponsored by state Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles, will require California fast-food restaurants to post the amount of calories in every item on their menu boards. SB 1420’s backers believe that when we’re forced to see the ...
Commentary

On the Republican Convention: McCain Is Right About School Vouchers

In this installment of Education Watch, Bruce Fuller and Lance T. Izumi discuss John McCain’s view on education, particularly school vouchers. Go to Mr. Fuller’s post. Lance T. Izumi, a senior fellow in California studies and the senior director of education studies at the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, ...
Commentary

Unnecessary scrutiny of doctors hurts valuable research

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — John Roberts’ assertion that nurse practitioners play a “key role … throughout the health care system” is spot-on (“Physicians not the only avenue for primary care,” Aug. 26). Unfortunately, the bill he lauds – the Act to Promote Cost Containment, Transparency and Efficiency in the Delivery ...
Business & Economics

Order and the Court

NJ Business Matters, September 5, 2008 New Jersey’s tort system is increasingly hostile to business. The Pacific Research Institute ranked our tort climate 49th in the nation, Atlantic County was named a Judicial Hellhole, and companies have responded by increasing costs for consumer goods. Last year, CIANJ joined the New ...
Commentary

Medi-Cal’s Fee Cutbacks are the Symptom; Medi-Cal is the Disease

Last week, I wrote about the malformation of health care financing that allows a federal judge to roll back Medi-Cal (Medicaid) fee reductions, which the governor and legislature had agreed to in order to buy some breathing room while they negotiate a budget to cover California’s out-of-control deficit. I don’t ...
Business & Economics

Why Cracking Down on Oil Speculators Will Hurt Consumers

California drivers are relieved that oil prices have retreated from record highs in July but all Americans should be concerned that the government is still scrambling to “do something” about oil prices. Proposals to curb “excessive speculation” in commodity futures enjoy bipartisan support. Yet cracking down on oil speculators will ...
Agriculture

Why McCain needs to read Goldwater

Those who aspire to elected office, and all those who hold office, would do well to heed the advice of Barry Goldwater, former Arizona senator and presidential candidate. None would benefit more than presidential nominee John McCain, Goldwater’s Arizona successor in the U.S. Senate. Goldwater’s ideas, and the principles upon ...
Commentary

Understanding the Tax Implications of Single-Payer Health Care

Many studies have examined the costs and benefits of replacing the current health care financing model with a single-payer system fully funded by taxpayers. Most of these studies, including the most prominent, ignore a key component: the significant economic costs of taxes, which would be necessary to pay for government- ...
Business & Economics

Fitzgerald named Illinois chief justice

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (Legal Newsline) – Illinois Supreme Court Justice Thomas Fitzgerald is the state’s new chief justice, becoming the high court’s 115th leader. Fitzgerald, a Chicago Democrat, will serve as the chief courts officer for a state that is ranked as having one of the worst legal climates in the ...
Commentary

The Rantings of a P.T.A. Mom

Sandra Tsing Loh, a writer and a performer, is the author most recently of “Mother on Fire,” a comic memoir of her struggle to find a school in Los Angeles for her child to attend. (Full biography.) As usual, Bruce Fuller and Lance Izumi , my fellow Education Watch contributors, ...
Commentary

Will law impress fast-food junkies? Fat chance.

The latest deployment in the war on obesity is upon us. SB 1420, sponsored by state Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles, will require California fast-food restaurants to post the amount of calories in every item on their menu boards. SB 1420’s backers believe that when we’re forced to see the ...
Commentary

On the Republican Convention: McCain Is Right About School Vouchers

In this installment of Education Watch, Bruce Fuller and Lance T. Izumi discuss John McCain’s view on education, particularly school vouchers. Go to Mr. Fuller’s post. Lance T. Izumi, a senior fellow in California studies and the senior director of education studies at the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, ...
Commentary

Unnecessary scrutiny of doctors hurts valuable research

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — John Roberts’ assertion that nurse practitioners play a “key role … throughout the health care system” is spot-on (“Physicians not the only avenue for primary care,” Aug. 26). Unfortunately, the bill he lauds – the Act to Promote Cost Containment, Transparency and Efficiency in the Delivery ...
Business & Economics

Order and the Court

NJ Business Matters, September 5, 2008 New Jersey’s tort system is increasingly hostile to business. The Pacific Research Institute ranked our tort climate 49th in the nation, Atlantic County was named a Judicial Hellhole, and companies have responded by increasing costs for consumer goods. Last year, CIANJ joined the New ...
Commentary

Medi-Cal’s Fee Cutbacks are the Symptom; Medi-Cal is the Disease

Last week, I wrote about the malformation of health care financing that allows a federal judge to roll back Medi-Cal (Medicaid) fee reductions, which the governor and legislature had agreed to in order to buy some breathing room while they negotiate a budget to cover California’s out-of-control deficit. I don’t ...
Business & Economics

Why Cracking Down on Oil Speculators Will Hurt Consumers

California drivers are relieved that oil prices have retreated from record highs in July but all Americans should be concerned that the government is still scrambling to “do something” about oil prices. Proposals to curb “excessive speculation” in commodity futures enjoy bipartisan support. Yet cracking down on oil speculators will ...
Agriculture

Why McCain needs to read Goldwater

Those who aspire to elected office, and all those who hold office, would do well to heed the advice of Barry Goldwater, former Arizona senator and presidential candidate. None would benefit more than presidential nominee John McCain, Goldwater’s Arizona successor in the U.S. Senate. Goldwater’s ideas, and the principles upon ...
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