Commentary
Agriculture
Feckless Feds Freeze Out Frost Fix
“That morning I squeezed every orange and it felt like a wet sponge – I knew I lost the whole crop,” said Natalia Derevianko, a small farmer in the tiny Florida town of Archer, somewhere in the void between Orlando and Tallahassee. Florida’s peninsular climate offers farmers an opportunity to grow ...
Henry Miller, M.S., M.D.
March 2, 2022
Business & Economics
The Expanding Broadband Infrastructure Is A Private Sector Success Story
Recent data on prices provides important perspective regarding the $65 billion that Congress and President Biden will now spend on broadband infrastructure over the next ten years. According to the White House, the purpose of these expenditures is to help ensure that every American has access to reliable high-speed internet through ...
Wayne Winegarden
March 2, 2022
Commentary
COVID-19’s ‘Unknown Unknowns’ Are What Should Worry Us
By Henry Miller and Melissa Hart We’re learning more every day about the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but it will likely present surprises. The best strategy is still to prevent new infections. Donald Rumsfeld, the two-time secretary of defense (Gerald Ford and George W. Bush administrations), is perhaps best remembered for a ...
Pacific Research Institute
March 1, 2022
Commentary
Violating Manufacturer’s Property Rights Does Not Promote Healthy Competition
Too often, regulations undermine the competitive process in the name of promoting competition. The ill-conceived Right to Repair legislation exemplify the problems and risks. Under the pretense of promoting competition, states as diverse as Texas and California, Arkansas and Hawaii have all considered bills that would violate medical device companies’ intellectual property rights. While many have been defeated, ...
Wayne Winegarden
February 28, 2022
Commentary
Don’t Dam the Telehealth Flood
To say that Americans are anxiously awaiting the end of the COVID-19 pandemic would be an understatement. But for patients who have enjoyed the ease of attending doctor’s appointments virtually, a return to the way things were pre-pandemic might be bittersweet. That’s because onerous restrictions on telemedicine, which lawmakers relaxed ...
Sally C. Pipes
February 28, 2022
California
CEQA: The high cost of good intentions
By Chris Carr and Ken Broad California is in a quagmire due in no small part to the weaponization of CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act. We are not providing the physical infrastructure befitting the world’s 5th-largest economy and leading crucible of innovation. Too often, critical projects don’t get built, ...
Pacific Research Institute
February 27, 2022
Commentary
High Healthcare Spending Doesn’t Bolster Case for Single-Payer
Does the United States spend too much on healthcare? A look at the lower levels of healthcare spending in peer countries like Canada and the United Kingdom would seem to indicate as much. But a closer look at those numbers reveals a far more complex story. Take the matter of ...
Sally C. Pipes
February 24, 2022
Commentary
PRI Lance Izumi Discusses SF School Board Recall in Northern California Record
Sarah Downey With last week’s overwhelming vote to recall three San Francisco school board members, it’s raising questions about how the referendum could impact public education and politics across California as parents go to the polls in year three of the COVID-19 pandemic. The recall results (72 percent to 79 percent in ...
Pacific Research Institute
February 24, 2022
Commentary
Plan to Expand Medi-Cal is a Costly Step Towards Single-Payer
It’s budget season in Sacramento. Governor Gavin Newsom’s spending proposal is the largest in the Golden State’s history. There’s no shortage of expensive and misguided policies in his budget. Chief among them is his push to expand Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, to cover all undocumented immigrants. Doing so would ...
Sally C. Pipes
February 22, 2022
Commentary
COVID-19 tests come too late
Last week, the Biden administration announced that 67 million U.S. households ordered at-home COVID-19 tests through a government website in January. Ten million have yet to receive their tests — more than a month after the site launched. In many parts of the country, the omicron wave has already receded. Daily cases ...
Sally C. Pipes
February 21, 2022
Feckless Feds Freeze Out Frost Fix
“That morning I squeezed every orange and it felt like a wet sponge – I knew I lost the whole crop,” said Natalia Derevianko, a small farmer in the tiny Florida town of Archer, somewhere in the void between Orlando and Tallahassee. Florida’s peninsular climate offers farmers an opportunity to grow ...
The Expanding Broadband Infrastructure Is A Private Sector Success Story
Recent data on prices provides important perspective regarding the $65 billion that Congress and President Biden will now spend on broadband infrastructure over the next ten years. According to the White House, the purpose of these expenditures is to help ensure that every American has access to reliable high-speed internet through ...
COVID-19’s ‘Unknown Unknowns’ Are What Should Worry Us
By Henry Miller and Melissa Hart We’re learning more every day about the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but it will likely present surprises. The best strategy is still to prevent new infections. Donald Rumsfeld, the two-time secretary of defense (Gerald Ford and George W. Bush administrations), is perhaps best remembered for a ...
Violating Manufacturer’s Property Rights Does Not Promote Healthy Competition
Too often, regulations undermine the competitive process in the name of promoting competition. The ill-conceived Right to Repair legislation exemplify the problems and risks. Under the pretense of promoting competition, states as diverse as Texas and California, Arkansas and Hawaii have all considered bills that would violate medical device companies’ intellectual property rights. While many have been defeated, ...
Don’t Dam the Telehealth Flood
To say that Americans are anxiously awaiting the end of the COVID-19 pandemic would be an understatement. But for patients who have enjoyed the ease of attending doctor’s appointments virtually, a return to the way things were pre-pandemic might be bittersweet. That’s because onerous restrictions on telemedicine, which lawmakers relaxed ...
CEQA: The high cost of good intentions
By Chris Carr and Ken Broad California is in a quagmire due in no small part to the weaponization of CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act. We are not providing the physical infrastructure befitting the world’s 5th-largest economy and leading crucible of innovation. Too often, critical projects don’t get built, ...
High Healthcare Spending Doesn’t Bolster Case for Single-Payer
Does the United States spend too much on healthcare? A look at the lower levels of healthcare spending in peer countries like Canada and the United Kingdom would seem to indicate as much. But a closer look at those numbers reveals a far more complex story. Take the matter of ...
PRI Lance Izumi Discusses SF School Board Recall in Northern California Record
Sarah Downey With last week’s overwhelming vote to recall three San Francisco school board members, it’s raising questions about how the referendum could impact public education and politics across California as parents go to the polls in year three of the COVID-19 pandemic. The recall results (72 percent to 79 percent in ...
Plan to Expand Medi-Cal is a Costly Step Towards Single-Payer
It’s budget season in Sacramento. Governor Gavin Newsom’s spending proposal is the largest in the Golden State’s history. There’s no shortage of expensive and misguided policies in his budget. Chief among them is his push to expand Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, to cover all undocumented immigrants. Doing so would ...
COVID-19 tests come too late
Last week, the Biden administration announced that 67 million U.S. households ordered at-home COVID-19 tests through a government website in January. Ten million have yet to receive their tests — more than a month after the site launched. In many parts of the country, the omicron wave has already receded. Daily cases ...