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The Government's Scapegoats
Townhall.com Op-Ed
5.31.2008
With food and energy prices soaring, housing prices collapsing, and the economy sinking into what could be a deep recession, the government has been searching around for villains. The latest scapegoats are speculators, OPEC, and of course, the big bad oil companies. As usual, our government ignores its own role in our current economic mess. To add insult to injury, most of the politicians’ proposed “solutions” would only make things worse.
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Genetic Info Law: A Civil Rights Victory?
Tech News World Op-Ed
5.30.2008
Last week, President Bush signed into law the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), which will protect individuals from employer and insurance discrimination based on the results of high-tech gene tests. Fighting discrimination is a good idea, but the lack of opposition to GINA points to some potentially serious problems.
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Questions for McCain
Townhall News Clipping
By: Gregg Jackson
5.29.2008
Senator McCain, as an across-the-board conservative, I plan to vote for you in November—unless a more authentically conservative ticket emerges or you choose a liberal running mate, such as Mitt Romney.
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Will Romneycare Hurt Mitt’s VP Bid?
Race 4 2008 Blog Clipping
By: Tommy Oliver
5.28.2008
Mitt Romney's presidential run is history, but it looks as if the taxpayers of Massachusetts will be paying for it for years to come. The former Governor had hoped to ride his grand state "universal" health-care reform of 2006 to the White House, but his state's residents are now having to live with what he and the state's Democratic Legislature passed. As the Boston press likes to say, it's "the new Big Dig."
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Cleaner Environment Not Necessarily in the Bag
California Republic Op-Ed
By: K. Lloyd Billingsley
5.27.2008
Yesterday the Assembly Appropriations Committee was scheduled to consider AB 2058, “Reducing Plastic Bags,” by Lloyd E. Levine, a Sherman Oaks Democrat, which imposes on consumers a recycling “fee” of $.25 per bag. The committee, and all Californians, should also consider some facts about plastic bags and their alternatives.
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School-choice successes grow
Orange County Register Op-Ed
By: Vicki E. Murray, Ph.D
5.27.2008
Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue signed into law last week a universal school-choice program that uses corporate and individual tax credits to create $50 million in scholarships to private schools.
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Don't make me pay for others' frivolous lawsuits
The Daily Aztec News Clipping
By: Holly Foxen Wells
5.27.2008
Most people would rather listen to the buzzing of their alarm clocks than talk about tort reform. The tort system refers to the overall legal system for compensating victims who suffer from accidental injuries. Lawsuits are filed most often for personal injury through class action lawsuits and personal claims.
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Massachusetts proves the folly of universal health insurance
The Eagle-Tribune (MA) Op-Ed
By: Sally C. Pipes
5.25.2008
Universal health care recently celebrated its second — and perhaps final — birthday in Massachusetts. There's not a lot of cause for celebration. Although a success in the media and a blueprint for other politicians seeking solutions to health care — including Democratic presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton — it's proven a failure in its home state.
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How Misguided Energy Policy Eats Up the Economic Stimulus
Sacramento Union Op-Ed
By: Thomas Tanton
5.22.2008
This month, checks are going out to federal taxpayers in the form of an “economic stimulus” package. Economists are divided over how those dollars will be spent—new spending, paying off bills, savings? Unfortunately, other federal and state policies, including energy policy, will eliminate any stimulation.
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How Good is Your Public School?
Kansas Education News Clipping
5.22.2008
Richard John Neuhaus writes that school choice is a moral issue, but that many middle-class families, with some justification, fear that vouchers would harm their own children’s schools. We certainly think those fears are misplaced, but the question got us thinking: How good are those schools, anyway?
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How a flat income tax can help California
The Eureka Reporter Op-Ed
5.22.2008
Californians may have paid their federal and state taxes last month, but the Golden State remains in a fiscal crisis, with a projected 2008-2009 fiscal year budget deficit as high as $20.2 billion, according to the governor’s estimate on April 29. Such budget crunches hit California because of its highly punitive tax code. A flat income tax would free California from this revenue roller coaster and spur both economic growth and job creation.
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Health Care Reform Begins With Tort Reform
Politicker NJ.com News Clipping
By: Kate Whitman
5.21.2008
(Peapack, NJ)… Fiscal Conservative Kate Whitman, Republican for Congress today shared details of her plan to reform our nation’s broken health care system in an effort to make health insurance affordable for all families. Whitman stated, “The unfortunate and unnecessary rapid rise in healthcare costs to individuals and employers is due to an unchecked medical tort system.”
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Independent explores new perspective
The Columbian (Clark Co., WA) News Clipping
By: Tom Koenninger
5.21.2008
A whole new world of political thought opened to Vancouver’s Ceci Ryan Smith last month at a well-known ranch in California. She was guest at a conservative women’s conference at the Reagan Ranch Center.
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CNN - The Glenn Beck Show
TV interview
5.21.2008
Sally Pipes, Pacific Research Institute’s President and CEO, was interviewed on the Massachusetts health care plan for CNN’s Glenn Beck: Headline News show on May 21, 2008.
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Prosperity improves the environment
Yuma Sun (AZ) News Clipping
5.20.2008
Here's good news that may have escaped attention. The environment worldwide is getting better and better, largely because of economic growth, efficiency and innovation.
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Fitzgerald to become Illinois chief justice
Legal News Online News Clipping
By: Chris Rizo
5.19.2008
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (Legal Newsline)-Thomas Fitzgerald will serve as the next chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court, but will have little effect on the state's so-called judicial hellholes, a leading tort reformer told Legal Newsline.
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How Net Neutrality Could Sabotage Healthcare Tech
Tech News World Op-Ed
5.16.2008
At last week's UCLA Technology & Aging Conference, representatives from Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) , Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) , Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) , Toyota and other big-name firms discussed how technology is reshaping lifestyles for older individuals. However, important policy implications directly connected to these new tools went unspoken.
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Investigate Grand Theft Education
California Republic Op-Ed
By: K. Lloyd Billingsley
5.15.2008
SACRAMENTO – Last month the California Department of Education (CDE) paid out $4.6 million to settle the longstanding case of CDE employee James Lindberg. Though previously addressed in this column, the case remains rich in lessons for legislators, educators, taxpayers, and even law enforcement.
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Lotto i rettssalen - Jackpot Justice
VIMENN (Norway) News Clipping
By: Ragnar Askeland
5.14.2008
Det amerikanske rettssystemet har spilt fallitt, hevder professor Lawrance McQuillan fra Pacific Research Institute, og forfatter av boken ”Jackpot Justice: The True Cost of America’s Tort System”.
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WBYS 1560-AM News for 5/13/2008
WBYS 1560-AM News Clipping
5.13.2008
A new report by the Pacific Research Institute -- a California think tank -- compares the legal climates of all 50 states. According to this year's U.S. Tort Liability Index, Florida ranked the worst in terms of tort costs, while North Dakota ranked the best. But the big question for local listeners is, how did Illinois compare?
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New speaker's agenda
San Diego Union Tribune News Clipping
5.12.2008
Assembly Speaker-elect Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, sounds as if she wants to continue the good working relationship with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger forged by outgoing Speaker Fabian Nunez, also a Los Angeles Democrat.
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Flat state income tax shows promise
Letters to the Editor - SJ Mercury News,
5.12.2008
How can anyone disagree with the Pacific Research Institute's report (Opinion, May 9) that a flat state income tax (3 percent) would be simpler, more fair and much less subject to cheating than our current, complicated system?
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Designing the Market's Mechanisms
Barron's Op-Ed
5.12.2008
LAST YEAR, THREE AMERICANS WON THE NOBEL MEMORIAL PRIZE in Economics for laying the foundations of "mechanism design" theory. The work of Leonid Hurwicz, Roger Myerson and Eric Maskin was cited for its help in implementing efficient voting, trading and regulatory schemes.
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Mississippi's Tort Reform Triumph
Wall Street Journal News Clipping
5.10.2008
For most of the past 30 years, Mississippi has ranked as one of the poorest as well as one of the most litigious states. The two statistics are related.
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Conservative flat tax idea could serve liberal ends
Sacramento Bee News Clipping
By: Daniel Weintraub
5.8.2008
Facing a shortfall that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has estimated at $20 billion, Democratic lawmakers in the Capitol are looking for a way to raise tax revenue. They might want to adopt and modify an idea advocated by a conservative think tank – and increase tax revenue while lowering tax rates.
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Grow green to go green
Orange County Register News Clipping
5.8.2008
Here's good news that may have escaped attention. The environment worldwide is getting better and better, largely because of economic growth, efficiency and innovation.
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Thinking green
Lima News Clipping
5.7.2008
The environment worldwide is getting better and better, largely because of economic growth, efficiency and innovation. So says the 2008 Index of Leading Environmental Indicators, an annual report on worldwide air and water quality and climate change by the Pacific Research Institute, a San Francisco free-market think tank.
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Actions Speak Louder than Words
California Republic Op-Ed
By: Sally C. Pipes
5.7.2008
A Contrarian column, as readers have come to know, is a relatively simple matter of refuting the latest foolishness from militant feminists and socialists, who are often the same people. In that cause, however, I have never attempted anything on the scale of Adam Shepard, author of Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream. So let me bring his story to your attention.
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Health care lessons from Down Under
The Eureka Reporter
By: Diana M. Ernst
5.6.2008
Health care reform is still on the table in California, which should consider carefully the achievements and failings of foreign systems. Canada is the usual candidate, but Australia’s health care strategies deserve a closer look.
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Florida Legislature needed to act to stop lawsuit abuse
Sun-Sentinel (FL) News Clipping
By: Carlos Muhletaler
5.6.2008
I realize that our legislators have been working in an uncomfortable climate as they allocate a very limited budget and try to give Floridians a helping hand during this economic slump. Unfortunately, the one thing Floridians can count on is that the "lawsuit tax" — the $880 each Floridian pays because of lawsuit abuse — remains intact.
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PRI Introduces a 3% Flat Income Tax Rate Plan for Californians
Press Release
5.6.2008
The Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a free-market think tank based in California, today released the results of a study to determine a revenue-neutral flat income tax rate for California. The report found that a 3 percent flat income tax for all Californians would help smooth the revenue rollercoaster from economic booms and busts – a factor that is largely responsible for California’s budget deficit, which could grow to $20 billion in the next fiscal year, according to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
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Free Market Solutions to Health Care
Audio Clip
By: Sally C. Pipes
5.5.2008
Sally Pipes President of Pacific Research Institute discusses the failures of Canada’s government-run health care system and offers free market solutions for America’s system. This speech took place at Young America's Foundation’s Reagan Ranch High School Conference.
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A more primitive life might be required
Rocky Mountain News Clipping
By: Vincent Carroll
5.2.2008
Some readers recoiled at my depiction last year of Gov. Bill Ritter's Climate Action Plan as a "faith-based document" that barely hints at the "grueling acrobatics" needed to reach its goals of a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050. How dare I suggest that the path to whopping reductions in greenhouse emissions might be anything other than painless and smooth?
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Longevity as a Commodity
Tech News World Op-Ed
5.2.2008
Last week, GlaxoSmithKline announced it will buy Sirtris Pharmaceuticals for US$720 million, giving weight to the claim that anti-aging biotech firms can be a good bet. This is good news for Americans, given that a recent Harvard-affiliated study showed that some parts of the country have seen declines in expected longevity.
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Circuit Court Backs San Francisco's Draconian Health Care Mandate
Health Care News (The Heartland Institute)
By: Greg Scandlen
5.1.2008
Businesses and employees in San Francisco are facing higher health costs and likely job losses after a three-judge panel from the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overruled a federal district court judge's finding that San Francisco's new health care ordinance violated the 1974 federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).
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Wireless Silicon Valley Plan Revived
Info Tech & Telecom News Clipping
By: Steven Titch
5.1.2008
In an effort to revive a failed municipal wireless project originally envisioned to cover most of Silicon Valley, Covad Communications has launched a technology trial of a WiFi overlay network in San Carlos, California.
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Ridiculously Unrealistic = Not Serious
Southchild Blog Clipping
5.1.2008
The usual chorus of environmentalists and editorial writers has chimed in to attack President Bush’s recent speech on climate change. In his address of April 23, he put forth a goal of stopping the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2025.
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Homelessness: The New Low-Carbon Lifestyle?
Reason News Clipping
By: Ronald Bailey
5.1.2008
A nifty new study by some Massachusetts Institute of Technology students finds that even the average American homeless person uses about double the amount of greenhouse gas emitting energy than is the world average.
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Mass. Coalition Wants Controls on Drug Marketing
Health Care News - The Heartland Institute
By: Dr. Sanjit Bagchi
5.1.2008
A coalition of Massachusetts community organizations, nonprofits, insurers, and health care providers is asking the state government to regulate the marketing practices of pharmaceutical companies, claiming it will help ensure more affordable prescription drugs for everyone.
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Five myths of health care
Washington Times Op-Ed
By: Sally C. Pipes
5.1.2008
Fictions don't become facts through repetition. Keep that in mind next time you hear a politician breathlessly decry the horrors of the American health-care system and then explain how he intends to fix it.
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Ohio Bank Offers Health Savings Accounts
Health Care News (The Heartland Institute)
By: Dr. Sanjit Bagchi
5.1.2008
Huntington Bancshares, Inc., a $54 billion regional bank holding company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, is moving into consumer-driven health care.
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