Commentary
Commentary
State nowhere near meeting unrealistic energy goals, and that’s a good thing
California is barreling toward its 2030 greenhouse gas emissions target. Will it make it? The Legislative Analyst’s Office doesn’t seem to think so. By statute, emissions are to be at 40 percent of 1990 levels by 2030, then 85 percent below by 2045. The California Air Resources Board recently set ...
Commentary
How one bad law drives hospital consolidation and high health care costs
Americans are getting squeezed by rising health care costs. The latest numbers from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services show that patient out-of-pocket spending increased by 10.4% in 2021, a rate not seen for more than three decades. The cost of monthly health insurance premiums also leapt, by 6.5%. ...
Business & Economics
Latest State Minimum Wage Hike Will Hurt Workers Far More Than It Helps
2023 might be the year that California businesses, especially small ones outside of the larger cities, wish they could skip. On top of a likely economic downturn, they have also been hit with higher employee costs, as another increase in the minimum wage arrived on Jan. 1. The state minimum ...
Business & Economics
The Gender Pay Gap Isn’t Caused by Sexism. It’s the Result of Women’s Choices
Last week, U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh traveled to the annual gathering of elites in Davos, Switzerland, to call for American businesses to add women to their leadership teams in order to close the gender pay gap. Get more girlbosses into the C-suite, the thinking goes, and they’ll ensure women’s work ...
Commentary
Don’t Fall for Biden’s Obamacare Boosterism
The open enrollment period for HealthCare.gov came to a close last week. And at the end of this month, open enrollment in many of the states that run their own marketplaces will close. As of Jan. 11, the most recent date for which the government has data, roughly 15.9 million people have purchased ...
California
Cali’s Climate Change Budget Cuts Show Programs Are More About Politics Than Cutting Emissions
Sobered by the reality of a budget deficit, the governor has proposed cutting money for climate programs. It was surely a hard choice, but practical. Something has to go and there’s no better place to show spending discipline than by holding back funds dedicated to a political fantasy. After years ...
Commentary
Bernie Sanders wants universal health care. Canada shows why that’s a bad idea.
Sen. Bernie Sanders would do well to look at what’s happening across our northern border before he tries to advance legislation that would import Canada’s single-payer health care system, where the government is the only insurer. The new chairman of the influential Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, he’s made clear ...
Commentary
Sorry, we have to raise Medicare’s eligibility age
The United States hit its debt ceiling of $31.4 trillion Thursday. As a result, Republicans and Democrats are jousting over how to raise the federal government’s borrowing limit. Democrats have insisted on raising the debt ceiling without any conditions. Republicans, meanwhile, are looking to cut federal spending in exchange for any increase in the ...
Classroom Ideology
Parents revolted against critical race theory. Here’s how they won
The recent action by a California school board to ban the use of critical race theory in instruction highlights the uprising of parents over political indoctrination in the classroom. As in many school districts, a pro-parent slate of candidates recently won a majority on the school board in Temecula in ...
Commentary
Transparency Is A Necessary First Step Toward A Better Healthcare System
The U.S. Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services has issued a new joint federal rule. Another federal mandate is hardly newsworthy, but one devised under the Trump Administration and eagerly implemented by the Biden Administration is certainly unique. Beyond the politics, the Transparency in Coverage rule, while not ...
State nowhere near meeting unrealistic energy goals, and that’s a good thing
California is barreling toward its 2030 greenhouse gas emissions target. Will it make it? The Legislative Analyst’s Office doesn’t seem to think so. By statute, emissions are to be at 40 percent of 1990 levels by 2030, then 85 percent below by 2045. The California Air Resources Board recently set ...
How one bad law drives hospital consolidation and high health care costs
Americans are getting squeezed by rising health care costs. The latest numbers from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services show that patient out-of-pocket spending increased by 10.4% in 2021, a rate not seen for more than three decades. The cost of monthly health insurance premiums also leapt, by 6.5%. ...
Latest State Minimum Wage Hike Will Hurt Workers Far More Than It Helps
2023 might be the year that California businesses, especially small ones outside of the larger cities, wish they could skip. On top of a likely economic downturn, they have also been hit with higher employee costs, as another increase in the minimum wage arrived on Jan. 1. The state minimum ...
The Gender Pay Gap Isn’t Caused by Sexism. It’s the Result of Women’s Choices
Last week, U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh traveled to the annual gathering of elites in Davos, Switzerland, to call for American businesses to add women to their leadership teams in order to close the gender pay gap. Get more girlbosses into the C-suite, the thinking goes, and they’ll ensure women’s work ...
Don’t Fall for Biden’s Obamacare Boosterism
The open enrollment period for HealthCare.gov came to a close last week. And at the end of this month, open enrollment in many of the states that run their own marketplaces will close. As of Jan. 11, the most recent date for which the government has data, roughly 15.9 million people have purchased ...
Cali’s Climate Change Budget Cuts Show Programs Are More About Politics Than Cutting Emissions
Sobered by the reality of a budget deficit, the governor has proposed cutting money for climate programs. It was surely a hard choice, but practical. Something has to go and there’s no better place to show spending discipline than by holding back funds dedicated to a political fantasy. After years ...
Bernie Sanders wants universal health care. Canada shows why that’s a bad idea.
Sen. Bernie Sanders would do well to look at what’s happening across our northern border before he tries to advance legislation that would import Canada’s single-payer health care system, where the government is the only insurer. The new chairman of the influential Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, he’s made clear ...
Sorry, we have to raise Medicare’s eligibility age
The United States hit its debt ceiling of $31.4 trillion Thursday. As a result, Republicans and Democrats are jousting over how to raise the federal government’s borrowing limit. Democrats have insisted on raising the debt ceiling without any conditions. Republicans, meanwhile, are looking to cut federal spending in exchange for any increase in the ...
Parents revolted against critical race theory. Here’s how they won
The recent action by a California school board to ban the use of critical race theory in instruction highlights the uprising of parents over political indoctrination in the classroom. As in many school districts, a pro-parent slate of candidates recently won a majority on the school board in Temecula in ...
Transparency Is A Necessary First Step Toward A Better Healthcare System
The U.S. Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services has issued a new joint federal rule. Another federal mandate is hardly newsworthy, but one devised under the Trump Administration and eagerly implemented by the Biden Administration is certainly unique. Beyond the politics, the Transparency in Coverage rule, while not ...
