The following statements from public policy experts at The Heartland Institute – a free-market think tank – may be used for attribution. For more comments, refer to the contact information below. To book a Heartland guest on your program, please contact New Media Specialist Billy Aouste at [email protected] and 312/377-4000 or (cell) 847/877-9100.
“The key policy implications of the Trump victory last night are in tax reform, energy deregulation, and repealing and replacing Obamacare. Key guideposts on those issues come from House Speaker Paul Ryan’s ‘A Better Way‘ task forces he appointed earlier this year. The Task Force on Tax Reform was headed up by House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) and was the model for Trump’s tax reform plan. So the Republicans are already hitting the ground running on that issue. Ditto that on repealing and replacing Obamacare. Ryan’s Health Care Task Force issued a report on June 22 with a very detailed comprehensive plan to repeal and replace Obamacare.”
Peter Ferrara
Senior Fellow for Entitlement and Budget Policy
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
Mr. Ferrara is author of Power to the People: The New Road to Freedom and Prosperity for the Poor, Seniors, and Those Most in Need of the World’s Best Health Care (2015), and The Obamacare Disaster (2010).
“Donald Trump’s win is a referendum on the Affordable Care Act. Americans have decisively rejected Obamacare’s broken promises, obscene premiums, illegal bailouts, unconstitutional spending, and Medicaid expansion bribery. If Trump and a Republican-led Congress fulfill their promise to block-grant Medicaid to the states, they will have given the poor of this country the greatest health care reform in the past 100 years.
“Colorado’s rejection of a single-payer health care system shows people distrust government to make their families’ health care and spending decisions. Colorado voters’ defeat of single-payer highlights their lack of confidence in a centrally planned health care system.
“California’s approval of Proposition 56 is a triumph of smoke and mirrors. Contrary to most voters’ beliefs, taxing e-cigarettes the same as cigarettes removes a financial incentive for smokers to quit tobacco. It removes an incentive for children never to start using tobacco. Californians can do better for their children and should reverse Proposition 56 the first chance they get.”
Michael Hamilton
Managing Editor, Health Care News
Research Fellow,The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“Liberals who cheered President Obama’s comment that his phone and pen granted him sweeping executive power over everyday Americans’ lives will hopefully comprehend the threat posed by a powerful executive branch and a powerful federal government. On the other hand, conservatives who spent nearly a decade warning of Obama’s growing power should continue to work to return government power to the states, fighting peer pressure and internal urges to cheer for Washington DC because a team wearing red jerseys has defeated the team wearing blue.
“Although President-elect Trump has promised to make some conservative reforms, such as tax relief and lifting of regulatory burdens, the past 18 months have shown him to be fickle, when convenient. Other promised changes to U.S. policy are less beneficial to everyday Americans. For example, increasing government barriers to free trade between American consumers and overseas producers will have a ripple effect on consumers, increasing prices and increasing the government’s already out-sized interference in otherwise voluntary transactions between consumers and producers.”
Jesse Hathaway
Managing Editor, Budget & Tax News
Research Fellow, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“The Sword of Damocles debt still hovers over American prosperity but with a few more threads than if the other candidate had won.”
Donald J. Devine
Senior Scholar,
The Fund for American Studies
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“Proponents of education choice won convincingly around the country last night in multiple states, giving more students hope for better education choices in 2017. Unfortunately for students in Massachusetts and Georgia, referendum defeats will continue to keep students in failing schools. However, opponents of the one-size-fits all Common Core State Standards and excessive testing gained ground, bringing hope of more repeals.
“At the federal level, the hope remains the current federal policies of education intervention will end and control will be returned to the states.”
Lennie Jarratt
Project Manager, Education
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“With the election of Donald Trump, we have the opportunity to change course – to support sound science over a science seeking power and government largesse, and to shape energy and environmental laws and regulations that work to promote the welfare of the American people rather then constrain free choices and the American dream. We have a chance to recognize the limits placed on the federal government by the constitution, and that economic growth and environmental protection are not just compatible but go hand in hand.
“We can perhaps acknowledge the legitimate interests people have in continuing to produce and use abundant, affordable, reliable energy – which means, primarily, fossil fuels. President-elect Trump’s views on climate change, the Environmental Protection Agency, and America’s energy security give me hope for a brighter future.”
H. Sterling Burnett
Research Fellow, Environment & Energy Policy
The Heartland Institute
Managing Editor, Environment & Climate News
[email protected]
“It is safe to say Tuesday night was a ‘yuge, and I mean yuge’ night for proponents of sane, realistic free-market energy policies. At the very least there will be a much-needed and massive brake applied to the Obama administration’s reckless, radical, cronyist green agenda. Voters in Washington State also need to be commended for voting against a job-killing, recessive carbon tax ballot initiative.
“Education choice advocates also had a very good night, with victories up and down the ballot. Voters have long been signaling their overwhelming support for more school choice options, and the politicians promising to help bring these programs forward were rewarded. We will see quite a bit of activity, and hopefully many victories, on this front in 2017.”
Tim Benson
Policy Analyst
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“This should be a teachable moment for Democrats. It is one thing to ‘believe in global warming.’ It is quite another to engage in economic sabotage, like launching a ‘war on coal’ and blocking the Keystone XL pipeline.
“Hillary Clinton won no states that Obama lost in 2012. But here is the complete list of states that Donald Trump won but that she lost: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Florida. Observe that five of the six are in the industrial Midwest – in fact almost the entire industrial Midwest, a region that has been the core of the Democratic coalition since FDR. Furthermore, not only did Clinton lose Ohio, she lost it by double digits. That is by more than she lost Georgia or Texas!
“The Democrats need to wake up! They should have won the election by 20 percent. Instead they lost it because they lost the labor vote, and with it a 1,000 mile long section of their ‘blue wall’ stretching from Pennsylvania to Iowa. If the Democrats want the votes of the working class, they need to stop pandering to anti human ‘environmentalism.’ For what profiteth a candidate if she gains the donation of Tom Steyer but loses the voters of the UAW.”
Robert Zubrin
Founder and President, Pioneer Energy
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“America’s energy policy is about to get a massive overhaul as President-elect Trump’s so-called ‘America First’ energy policy seeks to undo the damage that resulted from President Obama’s quest to ‘Keep it [oil, natural gas, and coal] in the Ground.’ Under the Trump administration, hydraulic fracturing and other sources of environmentally responsible natural resource development will take center stage.
“Trump’s first 100 days in office will likely consist of approving the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines. Other policies likely to be enacted during his term are lifting a moratorium on coal leasing on federal land, scrapping costly and unnecessary regulations on methane emissions from oil and natural gas production, opening offshore oil and gas reserves to development, and undoing costly EPA Clean Power Plan regulations that impose a serious burden on our economy for no tangible environmental benefit.
“If Trump follows through on his campaign promises, the United States is further positioned to become a global energy superpower which will have tremendous geopolitical and economic benefits.”
Isaac Orr
Research Fellow, Energy and Environment Policy
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“Tuesday night’s elections were a win for constitutional reform advocates. Victories in the Colorado Senate, Iowa Senate, Kentucky House, and Wisconsin Senate show state legislators are now given a clear mandate from the voters to fix our country. With Republicans leading more state legislative chambers than at any point in history, there is no excuse for elected officials to do nothing. Advocates for an Article V convention must be relentless heading into 2017.”
Kyle Maichle
Project Manager, Constitutional Reform
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“If Donald Trump proves true to his word, his administration’s education policy will be about advancing individual choice rather than pushing nationalized curricula of the Common Core ilk. His choice of a Secretary of Education will be critical. A leader like former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who listened to the people and rejected Common Core while expanding parental choice, could be a perfect fit for translating Trump populism to public policy.”
Robert G. Holland
Senior Fellow, Education
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“Towards the end of his campaign, Trump or his supporters would hit on key words and phrases that sound promising to GOP and Libertarian voters, including school choice. Until Trump appoints staff and policy work actually begins, I don’t think anyone can say for certain what Trump will mean for education policy. It will be interesting to see if his presidency means a teacher like Rebecca Friedrichs may actually be able to stand up and change things that are wrong in this country.
“All we know now is that Trump said a lot of the things people wanted to hear and that was enough to win him this election and keep us from a Clinton presidency, which would have been beholden to teachers unions.”
Heather Kays
Policy Advisor, Education
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“The Paris climate treaty will be repudiated and sent to the Senate for appropriate and assured rejection under the Constitution’s Article II Advice and Consent requirements. The junk science behind EPA’s war on fossil fuels will be reviewed carefully – and found to be flawed, phony, fraudulent, and unworthy of continued funding.
“America will again unleash its energy, innovation, and job-creation capabilities – by reducing taxes and regulations and appointing agency directors who can and will review, revise, and reject the economy- and job-killing regulatory edicts that ignored real-world science and the enormous costs the rules themselves inflicted on the health and welfare of millions of Americans.
“We will again produce and utilize the fossil fuel blessings that lifted billions out of poverty, disease, and early death – and created jobs, prosperity, health, living standards, and life spans unimaginable barely a century ago. We will also encourage other nations to do likewise.”
Paul Driessen
Senior Policy Advisor,Committee For a Constructive Tomorrow
Policy Advisor, Energy and Environment Policy
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“No constituency lost more in Tuesday’s election than the media. Print, broadcast, and online, liberal and conservative talkers alike – from Rachel Maddow and Stephanie Miller to Glenn Beck and Michael Medved – failed to report the breadth of voters’ support for Trump, the depth of their disillusionment, and the height of their indignation. Simply, the media today doesn’t know the American public.”
Dan Miller
Co-founder, Chicago Innovation Awards
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“Although much of Trump’s economic rhetoric is troubling (trade protectionism, taxing employers who fire workers), he’s been spot-on regarding regulation. This may reflect Trump’s construction experience in New York City, where he witnessed the growth-inhibiting effects of excessive regulation first-hand. Scaling back regulation is easier said than done, but Trump just may be better-positioned and more motivated to undertake this Herculean task than any previous president. Doing so would please both the populist and entrepreneurial wings of the Republican Party, since the administrative state is rife with cronyism, largely unaccountable to the public, and the real source of power in DC.”
Larry Kaufmann
Senior Advisor, Pacific Economics Group
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“While this election will reverberate across several areas, not the least of which will be the Supreme Court, it will have an especially important effect on environmental and energy issues. The ill-founded and intrusive actions of the EPA regarding climate change, and the EPA’s use of regulations to affect the development and use of energy, will be repudiated.
“Other branches of government, such as the Department of Interior and the Department of Energy, will once again be honest when reporting on energy issues, be objective in their use of grant money, and favor the interests of all Americans, not the favored and radical few, when managing federal lands for the development of energy.”
Donn Dears
Energy expert and General Electric executive (retired)
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“Yes, there is a just God, and He did listen to the heart of America, those Obama described as ‘bitter, they cling to guns or religion.’ God bless America!”
Charles Battig
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
chas2rm2.va@embarqmail.com
“A pessimistic reading of the policy consequences of Trump’s election as president is that Ugly Americans have elected an Ugly American to represent them and the policies will be correspondingly ugly: protectionism in trade, xenophobia in immigration, and a volatile mix of unilateralism, imperialism, and isolationism in foreign policy, to suggest a few.
“A more optimistic reading of the policy consequences of Trump’s election is that overlooked Americans have elected Trump to deliver the message that they want to participate more fully in the economic recovery and to be protected from international threats, leaving policymakers the task of crafting trade, immigration, and foreign policies that maintain economic and political openness, competitiveness, and security.”
Brendon Swedlow
Associate Professor of Political Science
Northern Illinois University
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“A miracle has occurred. Americans defeated the Democrat machine including its media arm.
“The triumph of an elite ruling class whose policies are destroying America has at least been delayed. There’s a chance for a CLEXIT from the climate accords that spell energy starvation; for escape from the deadly grip of Obamacare and for the preservation of private medicine; for a restoration of integrity to our corrupt agencies, courts, and law enforcement; for avoiding a confrontation with Russia and other nuclear powers; for maintaining domestic peace by stemming a massive influx of migrants, many hostile to Americans; for averting the destruction of constitutional protection for the rights to live according to one’s conscience, to speak and think freely, and to defend one’s life and property.
“There is no way to avert the collapse of the financial house of cards created by decades of reckless spending, but we can hope that the Trump administration will adopt sound policies that will lead to recovery instead of to Venezuela.”
Jane M. Orient, M.D.
Executive Director
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons
[email protected]
“This election emphasized our pending leadership crisis. As we know, our system of government is not held together by a single individual, but rather by all citizens showing respect for our Constitution and its established institutions managed by wise and virtuous leaders. “The day after a tumultuous 24-month presidential election cycle, the sun came up and Facebook notifications dinged from my iPhone. As I met and connected with people from across this country, a sense of despair and hopelessness underlined election conversations, maybe from a realization that there is no perfect person to lead the way in restoring the American Dream, maybe a recognition that there is another way – a road less traveled.
“Maybe that road is an idea within our Constitution that tells us how to adapt in changing times to better manage our complex system with leaders who care more about their country than themselves: Article V, the ability of our states to reorder the bonds between the states and the federal government they created.
“Check it out, do your civic homework and return our country to the stature envied around the world. The best place to start is The Heartland Institute’s Center for Constitutional Reform and Campaign Constitution.”
Neal Schuerer
Executive Director, Campaign Constitution
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“The big news for free speech is that the Supreme Court is likely to retain a pro-speech majority. Throughout this campaign, Ms. Clinton repeatedly, and rather amazingly, vowed to appoint justices who would make sure that the government could prohibit movies critical of her. We don’t know who President Trump will nominate and appoint, but it is likely that campaign speech restrictions will continue to face a lot of scrutiny at the court. And that’s one very good result of last night.”
Bradley A. Smith
Professor, Capital University Law School
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]ital.edu
“Donald Trump has said he wants to repeal Obamacare, and we hope that wasn’t an empty campaign promise. It will take more than a promise to make American health care great again and to restore health care freedom to patients and doctors. Republicans need to advance visionary ideas for health care – ideas that are bigger than buying across state lines and ideas that put patients and doctors back together again without the costly interference and intrusions of profiteering outsiders. The high cost of health care comes primarily from the middlemen, including managed care and government.”
Twila Brase
President, Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“The populist revolt that seems to have elected Trump has not given Americans, nor the world watching, any idea of foreign policy shifts. Those can dominate a presidency in unexpected ways. In spite of campaign promises, we do not know what to expect from domestic economic stimulus (tax cuts) and international contraction (trade barriers). Elections may be domestic, but consequences are worldwide.
“We might hope President Trump would adopt the House Republicans’ ‘Better Path,’ but nobody can expect that, unless the new president himself realizes he did not bring a coherent economic strategy to office. If the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar starts to fall like the British pound, we will see some adverse macroeconomic effects that might swamp a Trump presidency. The trade contractions alone would assure that outcome over the next four years.”
Joe Cobb
Policy Advisor, Economics
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“Donald Trump’s decisive win gives America a chance to fix our economy with pro-growth policies. It may get worse before it gets better because Trump, like Ronald Reagan, inherits a faltering economy driven by counterproductive progressive policies like Obamacare, pro-union labor regulations, and too-low interest rates. With Trump’s respect for competitive federalism, states will have greater flexibility to innovate and provide pathways to prosperity for all Americans.”
Matt A. Mayer
President, Opportunity Ohio
Chief Operating Officer, The Liberty Foundation of America
[email protected]
“As there is little difference between the current president and both major-party candidates on such matters as government intervention in markets, government impositions on civil liberties, embrace of Keynesian economic policy, disinterest in fiscal responsibility, or rationalizing entitlements, or I don’t see the election as having much positive effect.”
Thomas A. Firey
Senior Fellow, Maryland Public Policy Institute
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“A Trump presidency, along with a Republican majority in the Congress, should be good news for the domestic energy industry. After eight years of ‘regulatory overreach’ designed to kill the coal industry and make it more expensive to produce U.S. oil and natural gas, we can expect more accommodating policies from the incoming president, who understands the links between energy and economic growth. That’s not to say we’ll see a rollback of all energy and environmental legislation and regulation. But I believe the new administration will rely more on technology and competition, as opposed to regulatory fiat, to achieve the nation’s environmental goals.”
Bernard L. “Bud” Weinstein
Associate Director, Maguire Energy Institute
Adjunct Professor of Business Economics
Cox School of Business, Southern Methodist University
[email protected]
“Donald Trump’s victory for president can be said, ‘Make Energy In America Great Again.’ The contrast between Trump and Clinton on energy policies may have been the greatest ever shown in American elections. On May 27, Trump called for energy independence and later said he will restore construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.
“The new Trump administration will enable the nation to create millions of job producing coal, oil, and natural gas; add possibly a trillion dollars annually to our gross national product; and enhance our nation’s global prestige by using energy to threaten aggressive nations.”
James H. Rust
Professor of nuclear engineering (Ret.), Georgia Tech
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“With this election we get a clean slate. We get to go back and redesign our health care system – based on free-market principles and individual choice, and move away from the command economy principles that have so harmed us.”
Dr. Chad Savage, M.D.
YourChoice Direct Care
Policy Advisor, Health Care Policy
The Heartland Institute
“The Trump victory was a referendum on the failings of the Obama policies and the repudiation of a third term under Hillary Clinton. Specifically, the disaster known as Obamacare has continued to fuel the emotion of the electorate to reject central control of their health care. The failed health care policies have led to higher costs and fewer options for patients. Americans are tired of this and have spoken at the ballot box hoping that Trump fulfills his campaign promise to repeal Obamacare and return to patient-centric health care.
“Note also that Coloradans overwhelmingly voted to reject a single-payer system by a four-to-one margin. They did not succumb to the rhetoric of a small minority that hoped to push its progressive agenda on everyone. Colorado was a firewall for this ill-conceived concept that is failing throughout the world. American health care is the best despite its problems and Coloradans agreed yesterday.”
Hal Scherz, M.D.
Secretary, Docs 4 Patient Care Foundation
[email protected]
“Trump lost Colorado, but its voters rejected government-controlled health care in the form of Amendment 69 by a margin of four to one (1,848,698 no votes to 470,991 yes votes). This suggests that when voters are well informed, they conclude that more government control of health care is a problem, not a solution.
“Obamacare was a takeover of the individual health insurance market. Compared to other states, Colorado had a higher fraction of people who purchased health insurance in that market. As a result, proportionately more people in Colorado have had first-hand experience with the harm that Obamacare has caused.
“Immediate Obamacare repeal will provide breathing room for the family budgets that have been savaged by the individual mandate. It will lower health care costs by reducing taxes collected from those who supply health care. It will eliminate wasteful spending. It will let people decide how to finance their health care with products designed by markets rather than bureaucrats.”
Linda Gorman
Director, Health Care Policy Center
Independence Institute
[email protected]
303/279-6536
“Hillary Clinton promised to accelerate the government juggernaut of global warming spending – policies that have wreaked enormous economic and social havoc. The media and elites said this totalitarian vision was unstoppable. They said those who question the wisdom of out-of-control environmentalist regulations and edicts are ‘science deniers,’ ‘climate deniers,’ and deplorable ‘climate criminals.’ The term ‘global warming realist’ seems better; there still is no climate crisis. Climate always changes.
“The change in U.S. political fortunes gives us a spark of hope that the utopian visions of a Clinton or Obama are not inevitable. America need not, after all, be cast in the garbage can of history, ground down by grandiose green ideology. Policies to fight global warming not only waste trillions of dollars, but also prevent poor countries from using hydrocarbon fuels to rise out of poverty. If President Trump delivers on his promises of a realistic, common-sense environmental policy, it spells hope to not only Americans but to billions of beautiful people trapped in a cycle of hunger, disease, and death.”
James Wanliss
Professor of Physics
Presbyterian College
[email protected]
“President-elect Donald Trump now has the opportunity – and the obligation – to repeal Obamacare and replace it with meaningful health reform. Voters turned out for Trump for a variety of reasons. The fact that Obamacare is failing and individual premiums are skyrocketing is one of the many reasons that drove people to the polls to vote against Clinton. The biggest victory for health reform was blocking the plethora of bad ideas Clinton championed. Clinton wanted to expand Medicaid, expand Medicare, and expand Obamacare. She also wanted to enact Soviet-style price controls on drugs and make drug makers justify their prices.”
Devon Herrick
Senior Fellow, National Center for Policy Analysis
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
“Despite a red wave nationwide, Democrats took control of the Nevada legislature. Unfortunately, although educational choice has bipartisan support in several states, Nevada is not one of them. Democrats in the Silver State have vociferously opposed expanding educational options to Nevada’s children. The Nevada Supreme Court recently upheld the constitutionality of the state’s trailblazing education savings account (ESA) program, which was the first nationwide to have nearly universal eligibility. However, the court also ruled that the legislature had not appropriately funded the ESAs.
“Sadly for Nevada’s children, the change in the makeup of the state legislature means it is now highly unlikely that it will fix the funding issue this term. Kids trapped in schools that aren’t meeting their needs will have to wait.”
Jason Bedrick
Policy Analyst, Center for Educational Freedom
Cato Institute
[email protected]
“Trump’s success is a symptom of radical leftist ‘useful idiot’ overreach in service of what Wikileaks exposed as a corrupt and collusive elite interested only in the perpetuation of its own wealth and power. While the elites publicly sided with culture and policy wars led by radicals trying to impose ever more bizarre, disruptive, and burdensome demands on mainstream America, they privately promised preservation of the status quo to their ever growing national and international network of cronies.
“The free press revealed itself as nothing more than a PAC for that network; one that had no compunction coordinating messaging and sharing political intelligence. Devastated by an unfortunate policy of free trade abroad and terrible tax and regulatory policy at home, the faith community – rural and blue collar America – had enough of it. Trump was their vessel of outrage. Trump’s absolute and often ridiculous consistency over a nearly two-year campaign heartened them that his public and private selves were real and identical. And they did not just vote. They revolted. And it is done.
“For the freedom movement, what comes next is tabula rasa. We must seize this opportunity to deliver what we have so long promised – the policies that actually free Americans to create economic growth and jobs in abundance. It is time to put talk into action. And it starts with supporting the ProsperityStates.org movement.”
Nick Dranias
Policy Advisor and Research Fellow
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“In October, Trump said that the Fed was ‘keeping interest rates so low that the next guy or person who takes over as president could have a real problem.’ He said elsewhere that artificially low rates were creating a ‘very false economy.’ Here Trump appeared to have recognized that overly low interest rates can misdirect investments and create unsustainable asset bubbles. He might then be favorable to congressional proposals made in recent years, particularly by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, for fastening a monetary policy rule on the Federal Reserve.”
Lawrence H. White
Professor of Economics, George Mason University
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“Trump occasionally lambasted the Federal Reserve in his campaign, fitting with his populist-outsider image. But his critiques were vague. We don’t really know what Trump thinks about monetary policy and central banking. “Perhaps the biggest worry is that a Trump administration would further politicize the Fed. While the central bank is officially independent, unofficially there are many ways for elected officials to put pressure on an uncooperative Fed chair. As George Selgin argues, it’s conceivable that the Trump administration will put so much pressure on whoever ends up running the Fed next year that the chair will have to accommodate the president, just to retain a shred of autonomy. “We don’t know what Trump will do with respect to the Fed, and we probably won’t know until he does it. Given the importance of expectations in helping the market adjust to new monetary policy, that’s more than a little worrying.”
Alexander William Salter
Assistant Professor of Economic
Texas Tech University, Rawls College of Business
Comparative Economics Research Fellow, Free Market Institute
“The Trump victory puts economic growth and prosperity on the front burner of national policy. That means economy-killing policies of radical environmentalists are now politically right up there with the flat-earthers. With leaders who support solid, pro-growth, incentive-based economic policy, we will also see fewer wealth-destroying regulations. We will see good legislation and a rapidly growing GDP.”
Howard Segermark
VP, American Business Defense Council
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“Because of the presidential and congressional election results, I believe there will be real reforms in the leadership and regulatory policies of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) starting in 2017. In particular, I believe there will be a serious effort to re-examine and update the Clean Air Act. Also, I believe there will be a serious effort to re-examine the scientific and public health justifications for the current EPA National Ambient Air Quality Standards, particularly for fine particulate matter and ozone. Finally, I believe it may be possible to suspend or delay the further implementation of EPA air pollution regulations until these re-examinations are completed.”
James E. Enstrom
Research Professor, UCLA School of Public Health
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“It’s not just politicians who stopped listening to We the People. Every industry group in America’s most important sector, farming, wasted the past 16 years trying to compromise with a special-interest group that has no respect for science. This will hopefully end on January 20th when a businessman takes the helm.”
Mischa Popoff
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“President-elect Trump can with the stroke of a pen void a long list of executive orders on Day 1. Working with Congress through the budget process, which by the Budget Act is not subject to filibuster, he can address much of the agenda described in the Republican platform and incorporated into past House budgets. We will see to what extent the Democrats in the Senate will use the filibuster to stymie legislation and presidential appointments.
“Trump can begin right away by repealing and replacing Obamacare – and for immediate relief, give everybody a waiver. He can also block-grant Medicaid to the states, flatten the tax code, replace the payroll tax with a value-added tax, approve bilateral free trade agreements, develop U.S. natural resources, reduce the regulatory burden on industry, and support vocational education and choice in education.”
Clifford Thies
Eldon R. Lindsey Chair of Free Enterprise
Professor of Economics and Finance
Shenandoah University
[email protected]
“The election of Donald Trump will have ramifications on North American shale production, and therefore on the frac sand industry. Given the strong leadership on Trump’s transition teams focused on energy and the environment, we are optimistic that a Trump administration will follow through on his commitments to roll back EPA regulation and executive orders, rein in environmental over-reach, and open up federal lands for expanded responsible oil and gas development – all of which promote domestic energy production and will have a positive impact on the frac sand industry.”
Peter R. Cook
President, The Petroleum Connection
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“An important thing to watch, then, will be the extent to which Trump and the Republican Congress promote market-based energy versus picking winners through subsidy programs. But whatever the mix, it is very likely to be more market-based than would have occurred under a Clinton administration, with a more rational regulatory regime. This suggests, all else equal, greater energy supplies and more economic growth.”
Charles N. Steele, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Economics, Hillsdale College
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“Please empower our hard-working middle class with Health Financing Accounts (HFAs), not Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). Only a Health Financing Account will create the market competition needed to moderate cost. The economic advantages of a Health Financing Account are described in the Heartland Institute article titled: ‘Try Real Reform With The Common Sense Health Care Tax Policy.'”
Roger G. Beauchamp, D.D.S.
Policy Advisor, Health Care
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“I feel like we just pulled back from the abyss of complete government takeover of health care. Actually, it’s more like a reprieve. With a Trump win and control of both the House and Senate, there is a reasonable chance for repeal of Obamacare and the initiation of free-market changes to our health care system. While this is no guarantee that we will move away from government control of our health care, it is the first and biggest step in that direction.”
Gerard Gianoli, M.D.
The Ear and Balance Institute
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“The results of this election will have a profound effect on health policy and on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as it is currently constructed. There were signs that aspects of the ACA were not working as intended, and that many patients were feeling more of an economic pinch for their health care costs including rising premiums. However, now it is likely that there will be significant modifications to the law and the policies that have resulted from it.
“While a complete repeal of the ACA is unlikely due to those that already have benefitted from certain positive aspects such as eliminating pre-existing conditions, a change in the structure and implementation of the law is somewhat certain. Hopefully, the parts of the ACA that have not worked will be surgically replaced with those that are beneficial.
“In my estimation, Direct Primary Care arrangements that foster private medicine without the interference of government or insurance companies in the Physician/Patient Relationship, will be looked to as part of a free market solution to our health care crisis.”
Brian R. Forrest, M.D.
CEO and Network Manager, Access Healthcare Direct
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“Trump’s environmental impact will come more from what he won’t do than what he will. This fits neatly with his role in the Republican Party and even the liberty movement as a heavy, blunt object with which to pummel both the left and the Republican establishment. Trump will never be known as savior of imperiled trout populations, defender of wetlands, or the Teddy Roosevelt of our day, but he will say ‘no’ to bureaucratic totalitarianism in the guise of environmental protection.
“‘Totalitarianism in the guise of environmental protection’ stems foremost today from the EPA and particularly from late movement toward the regulation of carbon in response to the ever-spurious global warming lobby. We don’t know a lot about Donald Trump’s ruminations on the environment, but we do know that among his campaign promises came a vow to stop sending billions of U.S. dollars to the U.N. for global warming abatement. As a business executive, he knows when he’s being conned.”
Cedric Keith
Policy Advisor, Environment
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
Cedric Keith is author of the book The Dying Fish about his adventures observing brook trout in the eastern U.S.
“For the first time in a decade, we see a real opportunity for Washington DC to roll back its influence over the American economy. But, there remain significant challenges.
“What Americans need to remember is that elections are about personalities, governments are about policies. Pushing sound policy and remaining engaged beyond the reality-TV hype of election season is the real challenge for Americans who are tired of centralized solutions from Washington DC.
“If Republicans are, in fact, dedicated to the small-government solutions they have espoused on the campaign trail, we will see a great opportunity for citizens and individuals that hope to take back control over their own lives. From education to the economy, there is the opportunity to return government to the peripheral role it should take – empowering the market to once again grow without the heavy-handed influence of government mandates and regulations.”
Michael Schaus
Communications Director, Nevada Policy Research Institute
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“There’s ‘hope’ and ‘change’ coming after eight years of the Obama administration’s agenda on energy, transportation, and environmental policy. ‘Hope’ that the opportunity to pick constitutionalist justices will rein in regulatory overreach, and ‘change’ that is long overdue for agency bureaucracies that have tended to rubber-stamp environmental zealotry and social engineering approaches to energy, transportation and the environment.”
Benita M. Dodd
Vice President, Georgia Public Policy Foundation
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“The November election is a clear indication that Americans want a new direction for the country. Obamacare has never been popular with Americans. With Republicans now in control of Congress and the White House, there is an excellent chance that Obamacare will be repealed and replaced by a patient-oriented health care system.”
Roger Stark
Health Care Policy Analyst, Washington Policy Center
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“President-elect Trump made regulations a campaign issue, telling one audience he would cut 70 to 80 percent of the nation’s federal rules. Before dismissing as campaign hyperbole, it’s worth noting the president has enough tools at his disposal to at least try. Especially since we’re following an eight-year presidency that wielded a pen and phone with enough reckless abandon to add $100 million in regulatory burdens per year, with devastating consequences to things like our access to credit, fewer health care freedoms at higher costs, and squelched internet investment and innovation.”
Kathy Hoekstra
Regulatory Policy Reporter, Watchdog.org
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“The music industry and its artists must innovate new business models to survive and prosper. Required is a climate free from regulation in not only its core activities, but in distribution and technology. Any such efforts, however, will be impeded without more effective law enforcement, meaningful copyright reform that reflects contemporary technology and an entitlement culture, and support from legislators promoting and protecting the ownership of content by shareholders and creators.
“Most of all, there must be clear and compelling leadership from within our industry. It is unclear at this point what the priorities and positions of the new presidential administration are in this matter; we welcome the opportunity to restore and improve American global leadership, economically and creatively, in commercial music.”
Bill Evans, Ph.D.
Voting member, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“I hope that the new president will begin the long process of reducing the regulations and paperwork that the U.S. Department of Education (USED) has imposed on state and local educators as part of its drive to centralize educational decision-making. Even if it could be shown that the bureaucrats in the USED know more about the local schools than state and local educators do, we still need strong parent input at the only level that can respond to them – the local level.”
Sandra Stotsky
Professor of Education Emerita, University of Arkansas
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
The Heartland Institute is a 32-year-old national nonprofit organization headquartered in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our Web site or call 312/377-4000.
Peter Ferrara, J.D., is a senior fellow at The Heartland Institute and an advisor for entitlement reform and budget policy at the National Tax Limitation Foundation.
Michael Hamilton writes and edits for the liberty-minded clients of Good Comma Editing, LLC, a freelance writing and editing company.
Jesse Hathaway is a policy advisor for budget and tax issues at The Heartland Institute.
Donald J. Devine was the Director of the United States Office of Personnel Management and President Reagan’s chief advisor on Federal civil service personnel matters.
Lennie Jarratt is the former director of the Center for Education Opportunities at The Heartland Institute
H. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D., is the Director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy and the managing editor of Environment & Climate News.
Tim Benson joined The Heartland Institute in September 2015 as a policy analyst in the Government Relations Department.
Dr. Robert Zubrin is the founder and president of Pioneer Energy. Dr. Zubrin has a B.A. in applied mathematics from the University of Rochester, an M.S in aeronautics and astronautics and a Ph.D.
Robert Holland, a journalist and author who has championed school choice throughout his career, is a Heartland Institute Senior Fellow addressing education policy.
Heather Kays is a policy advisor to The Heartland Institute and former managing editor of School Reform News, a national monthly publication.
Paul Driessen is a senior policy advisor with the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) and the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise.
Dan Miller is a policy advisor for The Heartland Institute and cofounder of the Chicago Innovation Awards, a nonprofit organization devoted to recognizing innovation and entrepreneurship in the Chicago area.
Larry Kaufmann is senior advisor at Pacific Economics Group in Madison, Wis. and a policy advisor to The Heartland Institute.
Dr. Charles Battig, is a retired physician and electrical engineer. In the 1960s he served as “principal scientist in bio-medical monitoring systems” at North American Aviation Los Angeles in support of the Apollo Moon Mission.
Jane M. Orient, M.D. is executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons and president of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness.
Bradley A. Smith holds the Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault Designated Professor of Law position at Capital University Law School.
Twila Brase is the president of the Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom.
Matt A. Mayer serves as President of Opportunity Ohio and as the Chief Operating Officer with The Liberty Foundation of America.
Thomas A. Firey is managing editor of the Cato Institute’s magazine, Regulation. He also is a senior fellow of the Maryland Public Policy Institute.
Bernard L. Weinstein is Associate Director of the Maguire Energy Institute and an Adjunct Professor of Business Economics in the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
Professor of Nuclear Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology (ret.), Climate Change and Energy
Linda Gorman is Director of the Health Care Policy Center at the Independence Institute, a state-based free market think tank in Denver, Colorado.
Devon Herrick, Ph.D., worked for the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) until it ceased operations in July 2017. He is a policy advisor to The Heartland Institute.
Jason Bedrick is director of policy at EdChoice, and a policy advisor to The Heartland Institute.
Nick Dranias is a policy advisor and research fellow for The Heartland Institute.
Lawrence H. White is Professor of Economics at George Mason University. He specializes in the theory and history of banking and money, and is best known for his work on free banking. He received his A.B. from Harvard and his M. A. and Ph.D.
Howard’s experience and influence as a seasoned policy professional have landed him on the pages of The National Review and the Wall Street Journal, among other publications.
Dr. James E. Enstrom is Research Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Public Health and Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Mischa Popoff is the author of the critically-acclaimed book, Is it Organic? He earned a B.A. from the University of Saskatchewan where he specialized in the history of nitrogen for fertilizer and warfare.
Clifford F. Thies is the Eldon R. Lindsay Professor of Economics and Finance at Shenandoah University. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Boston College.
Peter R. Cook founded Petroleum Connection to oversee oil & gas related conferences.
Charles N. Steele is an associate professor at Hillsdale College, where he holds the Herman and Suzanne Dettwiler Chair in Economics.
Dr. Gerard J. Gianoli specializes in Neuro-otology and Skull Base Surgery and is a Policy Advisor to The Heartland Institute.
Dr. Forrest is Founder and CEO of Access Healthcare Direct, a national network of Direct Primary Care Practices.
Cedric Keith is an environmental activist who serves as a policy advisor for the Heartland Institute.
Michael Schaus is communications director at the Nevada Policy Research Institute and is responsible for managing the organization’s messaging with the public, the media and NPRI’s membership.
Benita Dodd is a journalism graduate of Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, who immigrated to the United States in 1986.
Dr. Roger Stark is a health care policy analyst at Washington Policy Center and a retired physician, and policy advisor for The Heartland Institute.
Kathy Hoekstra is the Regulatory Policy Reporter for Watchdog.org, writing about national and state regulatory issues.
Sandra Stotsky is professor of education emerita at the University of Arkansas, where she held the 21st Century Chair in Teacher Quality.
