Congress remains gridlocked on many important issues but not every politician is afraid to challenge the unsustainable growth of Medicaid. Consider S. 1031, by U.S. Senator Tom Coburn. This measure would increase local control over Medicaid spending and improve the incentives that have led politicians to trap ever more low-income citizens in poverty and the poor access to care that characterizes this top-heavy system. Read more
The Social Networking Privacy Act (SB 242), authored by state senator Ellen Corbett‚ a San Leandro Democrat‚ would force any social networking site to make new users choose their privacy settings when they register and make the default settings private except for the user’s name and city of residence. Read more
Last week teacher union activists descended upon the Capitol but education reform was not on their agenda. The priority was lobbying legislators to vote in favor of Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax extensions‚ and avoid a vote of the people on the tax increases. Read more
Last month The Economist ran a cover story: “Where it all went wrong: A special report on California’s dysfunctional democracy.” The report blames “direct democracy,” the initiative process, for the state’s woes. The ruling class loves the report, but Californians have good reason to be wary. Read more
California legislators are considering a bill, AB 52, that would give the executive branch the power to decide whether health plans should be allowed to increase their premiums at rates that keep pace with medical costs. Health plans may be a politically attractive target, but giving politicians the power to approve premiums causes other problems — and doesn’t even hold down rate increases. Read more
California Governor Jerry Brown recently signed SB 2x by Joe Simitian, mandating that 33 percent of the state’s energy come from renewable sources by 2020, an increase of 13 percent from the previous mandate of 20 percent. This signals bad news for California but reveals a key dynamic of our ruling class. Read more
Last week Assembly Speaker John Perez suspended the public notice rule for legislative hearings, allowing an Assembly committee to conduct a surprise hearing on a “card check” bill, and voted to pass it to the next committee. That is not the only sleight of hand going on in the quest to eliminate the secret ballot for union representation. Read more
Last month Jerry Nickelsburg, senior economist with the UCLA Anderson Project, held forth at the University of California Sacramento Center on key themes involving recession and recovery. Read more
Rhode Island, the smallest state, is wielding big influence against federal control of health care. Other states would do well to take notice. Read more
Today the U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote on the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results (SOAR) Act. Last month a strong bi-partisan coalition in Congress introduced the act reauthorizing the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program, which bolsters a burgeoning movement for education choice nationwide. Powerful opponents of school choice, unfortunately, don’t want embattled students in the nation’s capital to SOAR. Read more
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