Commentary
Commentary
Medicare Drug Benefit is Weakened by Congressional Budget Deal
Congress has undermined the Medicare drug benefit that millions of older Americans depend on – one of the few federal health care programs that’s working well. The two-year federal budget deal passed recently shifts more of the program’s costs onto drug manufacturers starting in 2020. In the process, the change ...
Commentary
Subsidies for Electric Vehicles Favor the Wealthy
Electric vehicles are heavily subsidized by the federal, state, and local governments. Based on a study I just completed, the federal subsidies are worth over $42.7 billion to their recipients over the lifetime of the programs. They include the federal grant and loan programs for manufacturers, and the consumer tax credits worth $7,500 per ...
Business & Economics
Reading The Gorsuch Tea Leaves In Key Union Case
Lawyers recently finished arguing a potentially historic workers’ free speech case before the U.S. Supreme Court and pundits are buzzing about Justice Neil Gorsuch’s silence during the proceedings. However, Gorsuch’s views on individual liberty are clear and that’s not good news for the public employee unions. The case, Janus v. ...
Commentary
Insurers Get Healthy
The Senate budget deal contains a health care provision that many are touting as a victory for American seniors. The reform aims to shift more of the Medicare Part D drug by costs to drug companies. But that provision is a gift to insurers — not to patients. The policy ...
California
Feinstein Foreshadowing
What a difference a few decades make: in 1990, Dianne Feinstein was apparently too far left for California voters, losing a gubernatorial race to Republican Pete Wilson. Nearly 30 years later, she’s not left enough—at least for the state Democratic Party, which has refused to endorse her for a fifth ...
California
Are California’s Poor Losing Out In State’s Drive For Clean Energy Future?
California policymakers have been on overdrive in recent years pursuing a clean energy future for the Golden State. State policymakers have enacted scores of government mandates and programs to push employers and individuals to reduce emissions, including unrealistic renewable energy mandates, cap-and-trade, and its embrace of high-speed rail. Many of ...
Commentary
What ‘United States of Care’ Truly Cares About
There’s a new kid on the health policy block. A deep-pocketed, nominally bipartisan advocacy group called United States of Care — which counts former governors, senators, and top health policy officials among its members — launched earlier this month to great media acclaim. Since its debut, the group hasn’t said much. Its ...
Commentary
Trump’s Short-Term Health Plans Will Legalize Affordable Care
The Trump administration is preparing to offer Americans an affordable alternative to the high-cost coverage on Obamacare’s exchanges by overturning one of the previous administration’s most burdensome regulations. On February 20, the Department of Health and Human Services released a proposed rule based on President Trump’s October 12, 2017, Executive ...
Charter Schools
Trump’s Education Budget Puts Students Ahead Of Special Interests
President Trump’s proposed 2019 education budget, with its elimination of 29 ineffective or duplicative programs, drew howls from special-interest groups. Despite their hyperventilation, the president rightly focuses his spending priorities on the needs of students rather than on what the Washington spending lobby wants. Trump proposes a 5 percent reduction ...
Commentary
Bernie Sanders’ Single-Payer Message Won’t Fly
Government-run health care is back on the front burner of American politics. Last week, President Trump took a shot at Democrats for pushing for British-style single-payer health care. The United Kingdom’s “system is going broke and not working,” he wrote on Twitter. The president’s tweet followed an online town-hall meeting ...
Medicare Drug Benefit is Weakened by Congressional Budget Deal
Congress has undermined the Medicare drug benefit that millions of older Americans depend on – one of the few federal health care programs that’s working well. The two-year federal budget deal passed recently shifts more of the program’s costs onto drug manufacturers starting in 2020. In the process, the change ...
Subsidies for Electric Vehicles Favor the Wealthy
Electric vehicles are heavily subsidized by the federal, state, and local governments. Based on a study I just completed, the federal subsidies are worth over $42.7 billion to their recipients over the lifetime of the programs. They include the federal grant and loan programs for manufacturers, and the consumer tax credits worth $7,500 per ...
Reading The Gorsuch Tea Leaves In Key Union Case
Lawyers recently finished arguing a potentially historic workers’ free speech case before the U.S. Supreme Court and pundits are buzzing about Justice Neil Gorsuch’s silence during the proceedings. However, Gorsuch’s views on individual liberty are clear and that’s not good news for the public employee unions. The case, Janus v. ...
Insurers Get Healthy
The Senate budget deal contains a health care provision that many are touting as a victory for American seniors. The reform aims to shift more of the Medicare Part D drug by costs to drug companies. But that provision is a gift to insurers — not to patients. The policy ...
Feinstein Foreshadowing
What a difference a few decades make: in 1990, Dianne Feinstein was apparently too far left for California voters, losing a gubernatorial race to Republican Pete Wilson. Nearly 30 years later, she’s not left enough—at least for the state Democratic Party, which has refused to endorse her for a fifth ...
Are California’s Poor Losing Out In State’s Drive For Clean Energy Future?
California policymakers have been on overdrive in recent years pursuing a clean energy future for the Golden State. State policymakers have enacted scores of government mandates and programs to push employers and individuals to reduce emissions, including unrealistic renewable energy mandates, cap-and-trade, and its embrace of high-speed rail. Many of ...
What ‘United States of Care’ Truly Cares About
There’s a new kid on the health policy block. A deep-pocketed, nominally bipartisan advocacy group called United States of Care — which counts former governors, senators, and top health policy officials among its members — launched earlier this month to great media acclaim. Since its debut, the group hasn’t said much. Its ...
Trump’s Short-Term Health Plans Will Legalize Affordable Care
The Trump administration is preparing to offer Americans an affordable alternative to the high-cost coverage on Obamacare’s exchanges by overturning one of the previous administration’s most burdensome regulations. On February 20, the Department of Health and Human Services released a proposed rule based on President Trump’s October 12, 2017, Executive ...
Trump’s Education Budget Puts Students Ahead Of Special Interests
President Trump’s proposed 2019 education budget, with its elimination of 29 ineffective or duplicative programs, drew howls from special-interest groups. Despite their hyperventilation, the president rightly focuses his spending priorities on the needs of students rather than on what the Washington spending lobby wants. Trump proposes a 5 percent reduction ...
Bernie Sanders’ Single-Payer Message Won’t Fly
Government-run health care is back on the front burner of American politics. Last week, President Trump took a shot at Democrats for pushing for British-style single-payer health care. The United Kingdom’s “system is going broke and not working,” he wrote on Twitter. The president’s tweet followed an online town-hall meeting ...
