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Lawyers are bad medicine
Health Care Op-Ed
By: Sally C. Pipes
12.30.2004
If told that Congress could pass a bill that would reduce health care costs by 9 percent, more than $100 billion a year, without canceling a single doctor's appointment, shutting one facility or cutting anyone actually working in the medical profession, most Americans would react with three rapid-fire questions: "What is it?" "What are they waiting for?" and "What gives?"
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Trekking Seeks Better Place for All
Technology Op-Ed
12.30.2004
Last weekend, hundreds of die-hard fans gathered at the Star Trek convention in Las Vegas to see the stars and mingle with other sci-fi-minded folks. Costumes and attitudes aptly demonstrated their commitment to the Star Trek philosophy, which has many similarities to American ideals.
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Fantasy’s End. Back to reality for supporters of drug importation.
Health Care Op-Ed
By: Sally C. Pipes
12.30.2004
The Health and Human Services Task Force on Drug Importation, which delivered its report to Congress four days before Christmas, ought to move the debate over importing foreign sourced drugs into the United States from fantasyland back to reality. As the report makes clear, the issue isn’t about free trade or re-importing drugs produced in the United States. It centers on public safety, property rights, price controls, and pharmaceutical progress.
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Economic Freedom Index Report 2004: Ranking Revisited
Business and Economics Op-Ed
By: Lawrence J. McQuillan, Ph.D, Robert E. McCormick, Ying Huang
12.29.2004
The letter "Economic ranking seems out of line" (Nov. 27 Reader Views) was riddled with inaccuracies. Our U.S. Economic Freedom Index was never designed to "measure the business climate," as the writer claimed. It measures the policy environment of each state as it relates to free enterprise and consumer choice -- period.
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The Bogus Protests of Biotechnology
Technology Op-Ed
12.24.2004
It's not clear why the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) chose San Francisco, home of "Protesters R Us" and "Rent-a-Mob," for its annual convention this week. But one thing is for sure, the byproduct has been a measure of enlightenment, particularly concerning the protesters.
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A Prescription for Health
PRI in the News
By: David Gratzer
12.21.2004
After sealing his win, President George W. Bush outlined an ambitious domestic agenda for the second term: Social Security reform, tax simplification, higher academic standards for public education, and a ban on same-sex marriage. Absent from the list was any mention of health care.
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Intervention on pensions
Business and Economics Op-Ed
By: Anthony P. Archie
12.20.2004
With a looming budget deficit of $7.3 billion, California needs to adopt more cost-saving measures. Changing the state's pension system would be an excellent place to start.
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Healthy Choice
Health Care Op-Ed
By: Sally C. Pipes
12.20.2004
With 45 million Americans lacking health insurance, improving affordability should be at the top of any politician's to-do list. After all, nearly one in three Americans without insurance lives in a household with at least $50,000 in annual earnings. If health insurance were more affordable, millions more Americans would purchase it.
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Just Another Day in FCC Land
Technology Op-Ed
12.17.2004
This week, federal regulators unleashed yet another telecommunications decision that will slow down progress, costing American jobs and economic growth. Technology's mantra of "faster, better, smaller and cheaper" is constantly running up against a bureaucratic mantra of "slower, mediocre, fumbling and expensive."
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California's Climate Change Litigation Heralded at International Conference
Media Alert
12.17.2004
SAN FRANCISCO – Yesterday in Buenos Aires, at a side event to the latest round of climate change talks, a representative of the California Attorney General’s office spoke about how litigation can be used to force cuts in CO2 emissions. The event was hosted by Friends of the Earth International, the World Wildlife Fund, and Greenpeace.
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How Whole Foods Can Help Wal-Mart Beat Scrooge Rap
Health Care Op-Ed
By: Sally C. Pipes
12.17.2004
Despite its enormous popularity with consumers, Wal-Mart is under attack for paying nonunion wages and shorting employees on health care coverage. The massive discounter recently dodged an electoral bullet aimed at it by union and other left-wing activists in California that would have forced it to offer a government-approved health care plan or ante up millions in additional taxes. Although victorious this time around, Wal-Mart's status quo is anything but stable.
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Consumers' loss
PRI in the News
By: K. Lloyd Billingsley
12.15.2004
A problem long fermenting in the U.S. wine market finally is out of the vat. Twenty-six states allow their residents to buy wine from out-of-state wineries and have it shipped directly to their homes.
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President Pataki?
PRI in the News
By: Deroy Murdock
12.14.2004
NEW YORK - With 2008 just four years away, it's not too early to rule New York governor George Elmer Pataki unfit for the GOP nomination. Republicans should study his record and keep him as far from their party's ticket as Albany is from Albuquerque.
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Unhappily misguided holidays
PRI in the News
By: Jill Stewart
12.10.2004
CALIFORNIA jumped into the yearly fray over why Christmas symbols and carols get banned from schools and other public places when that well- known religious radical, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, pointedly called the state's official "holiday" tree its "Christmas" tree.
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Done with Death?
Technology Op-Ed
12.10.2004
The holiday season has arrived, and with it will come higher mortality rates. For a number of reasons, including stress and cold weather, more people die around this time of year. While many accept death as a natural certainty, there is a growing movement that aims to do away with it.
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'Greatest Canadian'? Think again
Health Care Op-Ed
By: Sally C. Pipes
12.9.2004
It's no surprise that Tommy Douglas has been dubbed the "Greatest Canadian" by the CBC and its viewers. The single-payer health-care system he helped pioneer has, in the words of a 2001 Senate report, "achieved iconic status." Indeed it is a testament to the power of the myths surrounding medicare that Douglas could be exalted in this way while no fewer than 815,000 Canadians are waiting for health services, many in considerable pain.
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Leading Think Tank Issues Plan to "Reclaim California"
Press Release
12.8.2004
As California struggles to regain its economic health, the Pacific Research Institute (PRI) released three policy agendas that provide Governor Schwarzenegger and the legislature with immediate, practical reforms in business, education, and technology.
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Supreme Court should end legacy of Prohibition
Business and Economics Op-Ed
By: K. Lloyd Billingsley
12.7.2004
With the holiday season underway, many will be stocking up on their favorite libations. But if it's fine wine you fancy, choices may be more limited than you realize. In nearly half of the 50 states, it is illegal to call your favorite out-of-state winery or order from its Web site. You can get wine from France, Australia or Lebanon. But you can't order it from California.
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How to Beat the Trial Bar
Business and Economics Op-Ed
By: Steven B. Hantler
12.7.2004
Why do so many financially strong, well-managed American companies get creamed by huge lawsuits that turn into media circuses, government-agency investigations and multimillion (or billion) dollar settlements? Because when it comes to litigation strategy, Corporate America is playing checkers while the trial lawyers play chess.
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Nationalizing Compassion: The Canadian Free Lunch
Health Care Op-Ed
By: Sally C. Pipes, Benjamin Zycher
12.6.2004
There are, sadly, no free lunches. That eternal truth is the beginning of wisdom with respect to the view of some that a Canadian-style system of national (read: bureaucratized) health insurance is the answer for the problems and growing costs of the U.S. health care market.
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Spirited battle over wine
PRI in the News
By: Chris O'Brien, Jim Puzzanghera
12.4.2004
Every day Rob Jensen delivers the same bad news to a few customers who want to buy a bottle from his Testarossa Vineyards in Los Gatos: He can't sell it to them because they live in one of the 24 states that prohibit direct shipments of wine.
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Let the Wine Flow
Business and Economics Op-Ed
By: K. Lloyd Billingsley
12.3.2004
With the holiday season underway, many will be stocking up on their favorite libations. But if it's fine wine you fancy, choices may be more limited than you realize. In nearly half of the 50 states it is illegal to call your favorite out-of-state winery or order from its website. You can get wine from France, Australia, or Lebanon, but you can't order it from California.
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Why 'Socialized' Broadband Won't Work
Technology Op-Ed
12.3.2004
The issue of government-provided broadband was in the news again this week as Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell signed a bill restricting the ability of cities to offer telecommunications services. This was a good move for a number of reasons.
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The Economic-Freedom Vote
PRI in the News
By: Thomas E. Nugent
12.2.2004
The Monday-morning quarterbacks have been hard at it since the day after the election, purporting to know what caused the Bush win or the Kerry loss. As we all know, there have been way too many reasons given for the election outcome.
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The Economic-Freedom Vote
PRI in the News
By: Thomas E. Nugent
12.2.2004
The Monday-morning quarterbacks have been hard at it since the day after the election, purporting to know what caused the Bush win or the Kerry loss. As we all know, there have been way too many reasons given for the election outcome. It would be helpful if there were some information that tied the outcome of the election to a specific set of indisputable facts. At the very least, such information would allow the political parties to better tune their plans for the next big election.
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Market debate over flu vaccine
PRI in the News
By: Dale Kasler
12.1.2004
John Grubbs was an Antelope Valley high school student with a brand-new driver's license when the 1973-74 Mideast oil embargo led the federal government to cap the price of fuel. The result: long lines to buy scarce, but affordable, gasoline. "I'd hate to see that come back again," Grubbs said.
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