Commentary

Commentary

Our Healthcare System Is Hemorrhaging

Patients concerns about access to physicians showed a significant increase according to polls1. Access difficulty is directly related to the overall shortage of doctors in the specialty of Primary Care (Internal Medicine, Family Practice and Pediatrics). As older doctors are retiring, there are few young Primary Physicians coming out of ...
Business & Economics

Sacramento Sell-Out: Even the Laws Have a Price

Only two weeks after lawmakers in Sacramento passed a budget, the state is already in the red. As Governor Schwarzenegger and the legislature debate more spending cuts and accounting tricks, another solution may be right in front of them: more laws. In California, government owns the laws and forces people ...
Business & Economics

Riding the Revenue Rollercoaster

After a record impasse, the sages of Sacramento have finally agreed on a budget for California, a $144-billion bonanza with unprecedented general fund spending but without structural reform in the state’s finances. The boom-bust revenue rollercoaster is still in place, and Californians can expect a bigger budget crisis in a ...
Business & Economics

Federal Reserve Employs Tools to Ease Credit Fears

JIM LEHRER: This day in the financial crisis began with the Federal Reserve. It took the unprecedented move to buy short-term debt to thaw out frozen credit markets. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke laid out just how bad those conditions are during a speech today. BEN BERNANKE, Federal Reserve Chairman: Even ...
Business & Economics

Whether McCain or Obama, Tech Policy Is Bound to Change

Technology policy is not center stage in this year’s presidential campaign, much as the competitive community might wish otherwise. Each candidate – Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Barack Obama, D-Ill. — is consumed with weightier subjects, namely the economy and Iraq, analysts and industry insiders say. That’s not to say ...
Business & Economics

A Strike Against Labor

If one were looking to make a statement about fiscal prudence in the $3.3 billion budget for the University of California system, wiping out a single $5.4 million research program probably wouldn’t be how you’d do it. Which suggests that, despite his remarks to the contrary, there was probably another ...
Commentary

Pacific Research Institute Releases Voters’ Guide on the Health Care Proposals of the Presidential Candidates

Senator McCain proposes positive change, Senator Obama prefers business as usual—only more of it San Francisco – The Pacific Research Institute (PRI) today released a voters’ guide to the health policies proposed by presidential candidates Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama. Presidential Prescriptions: Diagnosing the Candidates’ Health Reforms concludes ...
Commentary

The Longest Match

Not all readers of the Contrarian are aware that I have been known to play a game of tennis. I have defeated many of my peers and even, like Billy Jean King, defeated men, some of whom did not take the loss well. Unlike Billy Jean and her celebrity feminist ...
Business & Economics

A Lesson both Modern and Ancient for the Tax Commission

Now that the legislative session is over and Speaker Karen Bass is contemplating her commission on taxation, I want to recommend a piece in the September 25th Sacramento Bee by Jason Clemens of the Pacific Research Institute. Clemens, a Canadian, tells the tale of how Canada’s left leaning political party ...
California

Federal Appeals Court OKs San Francisco’s Tax-Mad Healthy Access Plan

I have written a lot about San Francisco’s Healthy Access Plan. SF HAP taxes small businesses, which cannot afford to provide health benefits, to fund the city’s public health bureaucracy. It’s a job-killer, gives no evidence of improving access to health care, and shakes down hospitals, too. The Golden Gate ...
Commentary

Our Healthcare System Is Hemorrhaging

Patients concerns about access to physicians showed a significant increase according to polls1. Access difficulty is directly related to the overall shortage of doctors in the specialty of Primary Care (Internal Medicine, Family Practice and Pediatrics). As older doctors are retiring, there are few young Primary Physicians coming out of ...
Business & Economics

Sacramento Sell-Out: Even the Laws Have a Price

Only two weeks after lawmakers in Sacramento passed a budget, the state is already in the red. As Governor Schwarzenegger and the legislature debate more spending cuts and accounting tricks, another solution may be right in front of them: more laws. In California, government owns the laws and forces people ...
Business & Economics

Riding the Revenue Rollercoaster

After a record impasse, the sages of Sacramento have finally agreed on a budget for California, a $144-billion bonanza with unprecedented general fund spending but without structural reform in the state’s finances. The boom-bust revenue rollercoaster is still in place, and Californians can expect a bigger budget crisis in a ...
Business & Economics

Federal Reserve Employs Tools to Ease Credit Fears

JIM LEHRER: This day in the financial crisis began with the Federal Reserve. It took the unprecedented move to buy short-term debt to thaw out frozen credit markets. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke laid out just how bad those conditions are during a speech today. BEN BERNANKE, Federal Reserve Chairman: Even ...
Business & Economics

Whether McCain or Obama, Tech Policy Is Bound to Change

Technology policy is not center stage in this year’s presidential campaign, much as the competitive community might wish otherwise. Each candidate – Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Barack Obama, D-Ill. — is consumed with weightier subjects, namely the economy and Iraq, analysts and industry insiders say. That’s not to say ...
Business & Economics

A Strike Against Labor

If one were looking to make a statement about fiscal prudence in the $3.3 billion budget for the University of California system, wiping out a single $5.4 million research program probably wouldn’t be how you’d do it. Which suggests that, despite his remarks to the contrary, there was probably another ...
Commentary

Pacific Research Institute Releases Voters’ Guide on the Health Care Proposals of the Presidential Candidates

Senator McCain proposes positive change, Senator Obama prefers business as usual—only more of it San Francisco – The Pacific Research Institute (PRI) today released a voters’ guide to the health policies proposed by presidential candidates Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama. Presidential Prescriptions: Diagnosing the Candidates’ Health Reforms concludes ...
Commentary

The Longest Match

Not all readers of the Contrarian are aware that I have been known to play a game of tennis. I have defeated many of my peers and even, like Billy Jean King, defeated men, some of whom did not take the loss well. Unlike Billy Jean and her celebrity feminist ...
Business & Economics

A Lesson both Modern and Ancient for the Tax Commission

Now that the legislative session is over and Speaker Karen Bass is contemplating her commission on taxation, I want to recommend a piece in the September 25th Sacramento Bee by Jason Clemens of the Pacific Research Institute. Clemens, a Canadian, tells the tale of how Canada’s left leaning political party ...
California

Federal Appeals Court OKs San Francisco’s Tax-Mad Healthy Access Plan

I have written a lot about San Francisco’s Healthy Access Plan. SF HAP taxes small businesses, which cannot afford to provide health benefits, to fund the city’s public health bureaucracy. It’s a job-killer, gives no evidence of improving access to health care, and shakes down hospitals, too. The Golden Gate ...
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