Wayne Winegarden
Blog
Spending Watch
Spending Watch: Californians Will Pay a High Price for Tom Steyer’s “Split-Role” Proposal
Californians Will Pay a High Price for Tom Steyer’s “Split-Role” Proposal Wayne Winegarden March 2026 Gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer supports “a special election to raise corporate taxes in his first year as governor.” Specifically, he favors removing the Proposition 13 tax limitations for commercial properties – an idea referred to ...
Blog
We Should Call February 20th Tariff Liberation Day
This decision will limit one of the Administration’s major anti-growth policies. The immediate benefits will be muted because, also as expected, President Trump is pushing alternate ways to try and raise tariffs. He has announced, under another statute, that he has imposed an across-the-board 15 percent global tariff. The catch ...
Health Care
ISSUE BRIEF: Government Policy Is Consolidating the Practice of Medicine
A new issue brief released today by the Pacific Research Institute—the California-based, nonpartisan, free market think tank—finds that certain states’ efforts to tighten corporate practice of medicine laws hurt independent physicians, empower hospitals to consolidate local provider markets, and raise healthcare costs. “Competition is a prerequisite for affordable, high-quality care,” ...
Blog
Spending Watch
Spending Watch: The Taxing Wealth Tax
The Taxing Wealth Tax Wayne Winegarden February 2026 To his credit, Governor Newsom is vowing to stop the wealth tax. As we noted in our response to Governor Newsom’s January budget, just the possibility that a 5 percent wealth tax will appear on the November ballot is having a chilling ...
Blog
Spending Watch
Spending Watch: California’s Budget Delusion
Spending Watch: California’s Budget Delusion Wayne Winegarden January 2026 Governor Newsom has released his final state budget and for the fourth year in a row, the state is facing a large budget deficit that it must close. This prolonged period of persistent budget deficits was entirely predictable. For the upcoming ...
Blog
Forget the Trade Deficit, Growing Imports Are a Bullish Sign for the Economy
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) just released its monthly report on international trade in goods and services for August 2025. Based on the news coverage, it would seem that the 23.8 percent decline in the trade deficit was the most important takeaway. And this decline is surely viewed as ...
Blog
Spending Watch
Spending Watch: The Unpleasant Arithmetic of a California Wealth Tax
Spending Watch: The Unpleasant Arithmetic of a California Wealth Tax Wayne Winegarden October 2025 A just proposed initiative to impose a one-time wealth tax on billionaires summarizes why California has fallen from the fourth to the fifth largest economy in the world. State policymakers continually view the private sector as ...
Blog
Ronald Reagan Opposed Tariffs – And For Good Reason
Having worked with Dr. Laffer for several years, I heard him explain the tenets of supply-side economics, or “the five pillars of prosperity” many times. These policies are (1) a low-rate broad-based flat tax; (2) a moderate level of government spending to ensure that the benefits from the government program ...
Blog
Learn How Drug Price Controls Hurt Patients
Big Pharma Is Not Gouging Americans nor Driving Up Healthcare Costs
Whether it is Sanders vilifying pharmaceutical companies or Trump’s emphasis on imposing price controls, they both allege that drug spending is a primary driver of the nation’s rising healthcare costs. Even a cursory look at the data demonstrates their focus is misplaced. Let’s start with the national health expenditure data ...
Blog
Spending Watch
California’s FY2025-26 Budget Failed to Address the State’s Long-term Financial Risks
California’s FY2025-26 Budget Failed to Address the State’s Long-term Financial Risks Wayne Winegarden October 2025 Politicians too often assume that California’s fiscal health is synonymous with the state of its annual budget. When revenue growth is strong, the state is allegedly in a sound fiscal position. It is only when ...
Spending Watch
Spending Watch: Californians Will Pay a High Price for Tom Steyer’s “Split-Role” Proposal
Californians Will Pay a High Price for Tom Steyer’s “Split-Role” Proposal Wayne Winegarden March 2026 Gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer supports “a special election to raise corporate taxes in his first year as governor.” Specifically, he favors removing the Proposition 13 tax limitations for commercial properties – an idea referred to ...
We Should Call February 20th Tariff Liberation Day
This decision will limit one of the Administration’s major anti-growth policies. The immediate benefits will be muted because, also as expected, President Trump is pushing alternate ways to try and raise tariffs. He has announced, under another statute, that he has imposed an across-the-board 15 percent global tariff. The catch ...
ISSUE BRIEF: Government Policy Is Consolidating the Practice of Medicine
A new issue brief released today by the Pacific Research Institute—the California-based, nonpartisan, free market think tank—finds that certain states’ efforts to tighten corporate practice of medicine laws hurt independent physicians, empower hospitals to consolidate local provider markets, and raise healthcare costs. “Competition is a prerequisite for affordable, high-quality care,” ...
Spending Watch
Spending Watch: The Taxing Wealth Tax
The Taxing Wealth Tax Wayne Winegarden February 2026 To his credit, Governor Newsom is vowing to stop the wealth tax. As we noted in our response to Governor Newsom’s January budget, just the possibility that a 5 percent wealth tax will appear on the November ballot is having a chilling ...
Spending Watch
Spending Watch: California’s Budget Delusion
Spending Watch: California’s Budget Delusion Wayne Winegarden January 2026 Governor Newsom has released his final state budget and for the fourth year in a row, the state is facing a large budget deficit that it must close. This prolonged period of persistent budget deficits was entirely predictable. For the upcoming ...
Forget the Trade Deficit, Growing Imports Are a Bullish Sign for the Economy
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) just released its monthly report on international trade in goods and services for August 2025. Based on the news coverage, it would seem that the 23.8 percent decline in the trade deficit was the most important takeaway. And this decline is surely viewed as ...
Spending Watch
Spending Watch: The Unpleasant Arithmetic of a California Wealth Tax
Spending Watch: The Unpleasant Arithmetic of a California Wealth Tax Wayne Winegarden October 2025 A just proposed initiative to impose a one-time wealth tax on billionaires summarizes why California has fallen from the fourth to the fifth largest economy in the world. State policymakers continually view the private sector as ...
Ronald Reagan Opposed Tariffs – And For Good Reason
Having worked with Dr. Laffer for several years, I heard him explain the tenets of supply-side economics, or “the five pillars of prosperity” many times. These policies are (1) a low-rate broad-based flat tax; (2) a moderate level of government spending to ensure that the benefits from the government program ...
Learn How Drug Price Controls Hurt Patients
Big Pharma Is Not Gouging Americans nor Driving Up Healthcare Costs
Whether it is Sanders vilifying pharmaceutical companies or Trump’s emphasis on imposing price controls, they both allege that drug spending is a primary driver of the nation’s rising healthcare costs. Even a cursory look at the data demonstrates their focus is misplaced. Let’s start with the national health expenditure data ...
Spending Watch
California’s FY2025-26 Budget Failed to Address the State’s Long-term Financial Risks
California’s FY2025-26 Budget Failed to Address the State’s Long-term Financial Risks Wayne Winegarden October 2025 Politicians too often assume that California’s fiscal health is synonymous with the state of its annual budget. When revenue growth is strong, the state is allegedly in a sound fiscal position. It is only when ...
