Commentary
Commentary
California Passes Laws to Remove Questionable Teachers from Classrooms
California classrooms may soon be safer thanks to a pair of new laws signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R). The bills are designed to close loopholes that allowed teachers accused or even convicted of sexual misconduct or drug crimes to work in public school classrooms. The measures were spurred by ...
Aricka Flowers
December 1, 2008
Commentary
Bush’s Final Medicaid Reform Increases Patient Responsibility
The Bush Administration’s (or the Bush “regime’s”, if you prefer) theme in Medicaid reform has been to give states more flexibility in how they operate their Medicaid programs, despite the federal government paying over half the cost. In its (likely) final hurrah, the Administration recently published Medicaid rules allowing states ...
John R. Graham
December 1, 2008
California
House Committee Considers Tax Breaks for Individual Health Insurance
Health Care News (Heartland Institute), December 1, 2008 Members of the U.S. House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee are debating the merits of enacting tax breaks for individuals who buy private insurance, which would put them on equal tax footing with employers who purchase insurance for their employees. The committee ...
Dr. Sanjit Bagchi
December 1, 2008
Business & Economics
Piracy: Yet 1 more reason for drilling
Somali pirates recently seized the Sirius Star, a supertanker headed for North America with 2 million barrels of oil. In the process, the pirates unwittingly strengthened the case for more domestic oil production in this country. Shipping oil across vast oceans is a dangerous business. Tankers run aground and spill ...
K. Lloyd Billingsley
November 30, 2008
Business & Economics
Impact – November 2008
PRI Ideas in Action – November 2008 Policy Update and Monthly Impact Report PRI continues to impact public policy in California, the nation, and abroad. Click below to view PRI’s recent contributions. Read PDF
Pacific Research Institute
November 30, 2008
Business & Economics
Letter: Litigation costs hurt Bay State doctors, hospitals
To the editor: Kudos for your Nov. 20 editorial on the devastating impact of rising malpractice insurance premiums and defensive medicine costs on the North Shore Birth Center and other medical facilities in Massachusetts. (“Birth Center’s problems highlight need for tort reform”). Defensive medicine is not just a problem in ...
Lawrence J. McQuillan
November 28, 2008
Business & Economics
Decision against Wyeth would clog courts
Regarding “Wyeth should win/Otherwise, a bad case will make bad law” (Editorial, Nov. 17): Your editorial on the ramifications of a ruling against Wyeth Pharmaceuticals for the U.S. health care system was right on the money, particularly regarding the potential for a torrent of frivolous and wasteful lawsuits. A decision ...
Lawrence J. McQuillan
November 26, 2008
Business & Economics
Will Electric Cars Jolt California’s Economy?
With the support of Governor Schwarzenegger, the mayors of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose last week announced a $1-billion joint plan to make the Bay Area “the electric-vehicle capital of the world.” The announcement follows President-elect Obama’s pledge to reinvigorate the nation’s economy with millions of “green collar” jobs. ...
Daniel R. Ballon
November 26, 2008
Business & Economics
Is The Big Three Crisis Obama’s PATCO?
President-elect Obama faces serious economic challenges, including demands for a bailout of the Big Three automakers. America’s new president can find lessons in the way Ronald Reagan, the last president to assume office amidst such turmoil, handled a similar labor-dominated crisis. Ronald Reagan, the first union leader to be president ...
Robert P. Murphy
November 26, 2008
Business & Economics
San Francisco Tax Hike Cannot Help Public Health Bureaucracy
Don’t get me wrong: of all the various byzantine agencies that comprise the massive (and growing) government intervention in American health care, counties’ public-health agencies are probably my favorite (or, perhaps to assuage the arch-libertarian readers, “the least harmful”). They do things like inspecting restaurants for cleanliness, watching out for ...
John R. Graham
November 26, 2008
California Passes Laws to Remove Questionable Teachers from Classrooms
California classrooms may soon be safer thanks to a pair of new laws signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R). The bills are designed to close loopholes that allowed teachers accused or even convicted of sexual misconduct or drug crimes to work in public school classrooms. The measures were spurred by ...
Bush’s Final Medicaid Reform Increases Patient Responsibility
The Bush Administration’s (or the Bush “regime’s”, if you prefer) theme in Medicaid reform has been to give states more flexibility in how they operate their Medicaid programs, despite the federal government paying over half the cost. In its (likely) final hurrah, the Administration recently published Medicaid rules allowing states ...
House Committee Considers Tax Breaks for Individual Health Insurance
Health Care News (Heartland Institute), December 1, 2008 Members of the U.S. House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee are debating the merits of enacting tax breaks for individuals who buy private insurance, which would put them on equal tax footing with employers who purchase insurance for their employees. The committee ...
Piracy: Yet 1 more reason for drilling
Somali pirates recently seized the Sirius Star, a supertanker headed for North America with 2 million barrels of oil. In the process, the pirates unwittingly strengthened the case for more domestic oil production in this country. Shipping oil across vast oceans is a dangerous business. Tankers run aground and spill ...
Impact – November 2008
PRI Ideas in Action – November 2008 Policy Update and Monthly Impact Report PRI continues to impact public policy in California, the nation, and abroad. Click below to view PRI’s recent contributions. Read PDF
Letter: Litigation costs hurt Bay State doctors, hospitals
To the editor: Kudos for your Nov. 20 editorial on the devastating impact of rising malpractice insurance premiums and defensive medicine costs on the North Shore Birth Center and other medical facilities in Massachusetts. (“Birth Center’s problems highlight need for tort reform”). Defensive medicine is not just a problem in ...
Decision against Wyeth would clog courts
Regarding “Wyeth should win/Otherwise, a bad case will make bad law” (Editorial, Nov. 17): Your editorial on the ramifications of a ruling against Wyeth Pharmaceuticals for the U.S. health care system was right on the money, particularly regarding the potential for a torrent of frivolous and wasteful lawsuits. A decision ...
Will Electric Cars Jolt California’s Economy?
With the support of Governor Schwarzenegger, the mayors of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose last week announced a $1-billion joint plan to make the Bay Area “the electric-vehicle capital of the world.” The announcement follows President-elect Obama’s pledge to reinvigorate the nation’s economy with millions of “green collar” jobs. ...
Is The Big Three Crisis Obama’s PATCO?
President-elect Obama faces serious economic challenges, including demands for a bailout of the Big Three automakers. America’s new president can find lessons in the way Ronald Reagan, the last president to assume office amidst such turmoil, handled a similar labor-dominated crisis. Ronald Reagan, the first union leader to be president ...
San Francisco Tax Hike Cannot Help Public Health Bureaucracy
Don’t get me wrong: of all the various byzantine agencies that comprise the massive (and growing) government intervention in American health care, counties’ public-health agencies are probably my favorite (or, perhaps to assuage the arch-libertarian readers, “the least harmful”). They do things like inspecting restaurants for cleanliness, watching out for ...