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Even 'SNL' is on to government unions
Orange County Register
By: Steven Greenhut
4.30.2010
As government employee unions were negotiating their lucrative retirement deals during the rising economic tide of the past decade, they promised cities and counties that the deals would pay for themselves, citing fanciful rates of return on investment income. Now that the economic tide is no longer rising, and investment returns are being reconfigured to match the real world, those boats are crashing on the shore.
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Putting the Security Back in Social Security
AOL News
4.27.2010
Social Security needs fixing, most analysts agree, but supposedly we had a few more years to work out the details. Now the crisis is upon us. This year, Social Security will pay out more in benefits than it collects in employer and employee contributions, but the problems don't stop there.
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The Most Tax-Burdened States
Forbes
By: Jason Clemens
4.26.2010
As the pain of April 15 fades, most Americans are bluntly aware that taxes matter. Too many politicians and bureaucrats, unfortunately, ignore this. They have forgotten that taxes change the incentives for people to work hard, save, invest and be entrepreneurial, the bedrock of a prosperous society. As the nation struggles with a sluggish recovery and deficits, it's worth noting the tax differences across the states.
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No sunny outlook for Florida’s insurance market
Sun Sentinel (FL)
By: Benjamin Zycher, Ph.D
4.25.2010
The sun doesn't always shine in the Sunshine State. But for many career public officials, maybe the sun will come out tomorrow, and every day until the next election; and after that, the weather will be someone else's problem. That mindset explains the willingness of Gov. Charlie Crist to veto legislation to undo the wreckage wrought by years of price controls on property insurance and by his 2007 "reforms."
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Get in line, and take a number
Orange County Register
By: Steven Greenhut
4.23.2010
SACRAMENTO – I've experienced several months where, for one reason or another, I've been stuck wrestling with various bureaucracies, of the governmental and corporate variety. It's a frustrating, time-consuming and, ultimately, dehumanizing process.
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Dump Doomsday Dogma
FrontPage Magazine
4.22.2010
Earth Day turns 40 today, a good time for scientists, politicians, journalists and the public to dump climate-change orthodoxy.
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The Energy Policy Morass
The Weekly Standard
By: Steven F. Hayward, Ph.D
4.21.2010
If you think the health care debate is a tangled mess, try wading into the thickets of the energy sector, which is high on the Obama administration’s list of targets to subjugate. Few areas of national policy offer as bad a ratio of blather to substance as energy.
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Poison pill could be among drug imports
The Boston Herald
By: Sally C. Pipes
4.16.2010
In recent testimony before Congress, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg reiterated the agency’s opposition to the importation of prescription drugs from foreign shores. “There are genuine safety concerns,” she explained.
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The Left's pension dilemma
Orange County Register
By: Steven Greenhut
4.16.2010
You know the pension tsunami is getting close to shore when the mainstream media are filled with hard-hitting stories about the coming crisis, such as the front-page article April 11 in the Sacramento Bee and Fresno Bee, documenting the manner in which huge pension costs for retired public employees "threaten California cities [and] counties."
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Grading California's Tax System
Flash Report
By: Jason Clemens, K. Lloyd Billingsley
4.15.2010
Every April California workers square up with the federal and state governments. This April deadline is a good time to grade the Golden State on its tax policy, which not only takes a lot of money from workers but manages to do so in a relatively counterproductive way.
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HOW OBAMA-ED HURTS CALIFORNIA
FlashReport
By: Lance T. Izumi, J.D.
4.13.2010
California’s rigorous academic content standards are one of the few bright spots on the state’s otherwise dismal education landscape. Now, however, President Obama’s drive to nationalize education could doom the standards.
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First ObamaCare, now ObamaEd
The Daily Caller
By: Lance T. Izumi, J.D.
4.12.2010
President Obama has extended federal control over health care and is now trying to centralize education policy by imposing Washington’s dictates on states and local jurisdictions. Though aimed at improvement, the president’s agenda will weaken strong state standards, set in motion a domino effect of education nationalization, and marginalize ordinary Americans.
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Lobbying needs cleansing effect of transparency
Birmingham News (AL)
By: Jason Clemens
4.11.2010
Recent scandals, runaway spending and ongoing fiscal crises have all heightened the public's interest in lobbying. Most of the new interest, however, is focused on Washington, D.C. Not much has trickled down to the states that need it, such as Alabama.
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Uncle Sam, MD?
AOL News
By: Sally C. Pipes
4.10.2010
(April 10) -- Now that health care reform is the law of the land, state governments will have to start looking for serious ways to control health costs. And one tempting target will be prescription drugs, which account for an increasing share of the nation's health tab.
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Pension crater much deeper
Orange County Register
By: Steven Greenhut
4.9.2010
SACRAMENTO – A new report from Stanford University's well-respected economic policy institute has revealed that those of us who have been warning about California's severely underfunded public employee retirement systems have, quite frankly, been wrong.
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Life’s certainties: Death and health reform’s taxes
The Daily Caller
By: Sally C. Pipes
4.6.2010
President Obama’s health care reform package was just a week old when it started to cost taxpayers more money. By signing the reconciliation bill last Tuesday—the last step in his legislative two-step—the president raised the price of the original health care reform measure by $65 billion, to $940 billion over the next decade.
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What do we get in return for our taxes?
Times Union (Albany, NY)
4.5.2010
As Tax Day approaches, Americans rummage for misplaced receipts and dread any letters from the Internal Revenue Service. Most Americans remain unaware that for almost a century America got along just fine with no federal income tax at all.
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Where's superman for the middle class?
San Francisco Chronicle
By: Lance T. Izumi, J.D.
4.4.2010
A recent study by the Pacific Research Institute found hundreds of California public schools in middle-class and affluent neighborhoods where significant proportions of students failed to achieve grade-level proficiency in core subjects. Many parents at these schools don't realize how bad things are.
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New Study: High-Standards States Far Exceed National Standards
Study
4.2.2010
Boston/San Francisco — A new study by two nationally known curricular experts evaluates and critiques the proposed draft national standards in math and English. The new study, Fair to Middling: A National Standards Progress Report, is the second in-depth analysis of the standards, and is jointly published by the Pioneer Institute in Massachusetts and the Pacific Research Institute (PRI) in California.
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Jerry Brown: older, not wiser
Orange County Register
By: Steven Greenhut
4.2.2010
Now that California Attorney General Jerry Brown is an official candidate for governor, we're getting to relive some California political history as pundits and reporters think back to Brown's first stint as governor (1975-83) along with some of the entertaining facets of his long and bizarre political career.
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Trial lawyers love Obamacare
Washington Times
4.1.2010
President Obama made a big show about being open to some Republican reform ideas to rein in lawsuit abuse. Those pledges - which Mr. Obama made twice in major public forums - were worthless. The final version of Obamacare, as signed into law, is a dream come true for big-money plaintiffs' lawyers.
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