Government Spending
Business & Economics
’08 election lesson: Live free or die off
In the 2008 election, key swing states included Colorado, Nevada, and Virginia, all growing rapidly and on track for even more political clout after the 2010 census. A big reason for the demographic growth in all three states has been their expansion of economic freedom. Colorado , Nevada, and Virginia ...
Business & Economics
Tort reform can help states’ fiscal crises
The Wall Street meltdown, with the Dow hovering near its lowest level in years, has obscured a troubling reality. Economic growth in the northeast region has been stunted for a long time, for a simple reason. Four states in particular — New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island — ...
Business & Economics
Growth is the only solution to state’s crisis
Most of the proposed solutions for California’s budget problems – spending cuts, tax increases, infrastructure spending – attempt to patch a Band-Aid on a festering wound but do not address the underlying causes of the infection – an economy weakened by improper nutrition and the wrong medications. We cannot cut, ...
Business & Economics
Ohio taxes and spends too much
What’s the biggest political myth in Ohio? Maybe it’s the idea that our state government is a model of responsibility because it “lives within its means” – that is, it pays for its spending in the present, through taxes, rather than in the future, through debt. It’s true that our ...
Business & Economics
Getting California on track
As President-elect Obama assembles his team, back here in California, the new legislature prepares to convene in less than 30 days and the governor stews about a several-billion-dollar deficit only a few weeks after the state’s supposedly balanced budget was approved. Recently, Gov. Schwarzenegger announced the formation of a task ...
Business & Economics
Where have Silicon Valley’s Republicans gone?
Calling venture capitalist Tim Draper an ardent Republican is something of an understatement. In 1999, he was enough of a fan of then-candidate George W. Bush that he chaired three fundraisers over a year before the actual election. Salon once dubbed him “George W.’s point man in Silicon Valley.” The ...
Business & Economics
Alaska ranks near bottom of economic freedom index
FAIRBANKS — High levels of welfare spending per capita and a large number of people receiving help are keeping Alaska near the bottom of an index measuring economic freedom in each of the 50 states. The bottom isn’t a good place to be, especially as companies look for competitive, solid ...
Commentary
Questions on healthcare reform
Healthcare reform will be front-and-center in the presidential debates. It’s a topic that’s full of complicated issues, so it can be hard to cut through all the rhetoric and figure out exactly what each candidate is proposing. So here’s the skinny on five questions that you’ll likely hear many times ...
Agriculture
Why McCain needs to read Goldwater
Those who aspire to elected office, and all those who hold office, would do well to heed the advice of Barry Goldwater, former Arizona senator and presidential candidate. None would benefit more than presidential nominee John McCain, Goldwater’s Arizona successor in the U.S. Senate. Goldwater’s ideas, and the principles upon ...
Commentary
New York Times’ Funny Math on Massachusetts Health Care
Only in government-run health care, or in the editorial offices of the New York Times, would it be considered a “success” to spend over $3 to solve a $1 problem. Dazzled by the lure of so-called “universal” health care, the NY Times editorial board enthuses that two thirds of the ...
’08 election lesson: Live free or die off
In the 2008 election, key swing states included Colorado, Nevada, and Virginia, all growing rapidly and on track for even more political clout after the 2010 census. A big reason for the demographic growth in all three states has been their expansion of economic freedom. Colorado , Nevada, and Virginia ...
Tort reform can help states’ fiscal crises
The Wall Street meltdown, with the Dow hovering near its lowest level in years, has obscured a troubling reality. Economic growth in the northeast region has been stunted for a long time, for a simple reason. Four states in particular — New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island — ...
Growth is the only solution to state’s crisis
Most of the proposed solutions for California’s budget problems – spending cuts, tax increases, infrastructure spending – attempt to patch a Band-Aid on a festering wound but do not address the underlying causes of the infection – an economy weakened by improper nutrition and the wrong medications. We cannot cut, ...
Ohio taxes and spends too much
What’s the biggest political myth in Ohio? Maybe it’s the idea that our state government is a model of responsibility because it “lives within its means” – that is, it pays for its spending in the present, through taxes, rather than in the future, through debt. It’s true that our ...
Getting California on track
As President-elect Obama assembles his team, back here in California, the new legislature prepares to convene in less than 30 days and the governor stews about a several-billion-dollar deficit only a few weeks after the state’s supposedly balanced budget was approved. Recently, Gov. Schwarzenegger announced the formation of a task ...
Where have Silicon Valley’s Republicans gone?
Calling venture capitalist Tim Draper an ardent Republican is something of an understatement. In 1999, he was enough of a fan of then-candidate George W. Bush that he chaired three fundraisers over a year before the actual election. Salon once dubbed him “George W.’s point man in Silicon Valley.” The ...
Alaska ranks near bottom of economic freedom index
FAIRBANKS — High levels of welfare spending per capita and a large number of people receiving help are keeping Alaska near the bottom of an index measuring economic freedom in each of the 50 states. The bottom isn’t a good place to be, especially as companies look for competitive, solid ...
Questions on healthcare reform
Healthcare reform will be front-and-center in the presidential debates. It’s a topic that’s full of complicated issues, so it can be hard to cut through all the rhetoric and figure out exactly what each candidate is proposing. So here’s the skinny on five questions that you’ll likely hear many times ...
Why McCain needs to read Goldwater
Those who aspire to elected office, and all those who hold office, would do well to heed the advice of Barry Goldwater, former Arizona senator and presidential candidate. None would benefit more than presidential nominee John McCain, Goldwater’s Arizona successor in the U.S. Senate. Goldwater’s ideas, and the principles upon ...
New York Times’ Funny Math on Massachusetts Health Care
Only in government-run health care, or in the editorial offices of the New York Times, would it be considered a “success” to spend over $3 to solve a $1 problem. Dazzled by the lure of so-called “universal” health care, the NY Times editorial board enthuses that two thirds of the ...
