Opinion
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Unions Drive Growth of Government
Opinion -David Denholm, president of the Public Service Research Foundation (PSRF) in Vienna, Virginia, has spent almost 40 years studying the impact of unionism in government on government. -
Hospitality Industry Ignored by Tax Relief Bill
Opinion -Congress awarded businesses that suffered losses because of Hurricane Katrina tax breaks worth nearly $8 billion in the closing days of 2005, but the breaks exclude hospitality industry businesses such as liquor stores, casinos, and golf courses. -
IRS Gets Record Funding to Prosecute Taxpayers
Opinion -On November 30, 2005, President George W. Bush signed into law the largest appropriation for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the history of the agency. A remarkable share of the $10.7 billion IRS checkbook is going to law enforcement activities. -
San Francisco Solar Initiative Too Costly
Opinion -A $100 million solar power initiative approved by San Francisco voters in 2001 has yet to produce any solar power, San Francisco's Public Utilities Commission reports. -
Senate Minority Blocks ANWR
Opinion -In a tense December 21, 2005 vote, 43 U.S. senators prevented opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to drilling for oil and natural gas, by voting to sustain a filibuster. -
Pennsylvania Senate Passes Eminent Domain Reform
Opinion -The Pennsylvania Senate on December 7 passed eminent domain reform legislation significantly curtailing the ability of state and local government to condemn private property for non-public uses. The bill, S.B. -
California Voters Defy Activist Groups, Approve New Home Construction
Opinion -Voters in the San Francisco suburbs of Pittsburg and Antioch, reflecting support from key Democratic elected officials, defied the Sierra Club and other activist groups by approving on November 8 two proposed housing developments. -
Lake County, Ohio Scraps Flagship Recycling Program
Opinion -Lake County, Ohio, which has long subsidized the state's flagship recycling program, has decided to scrap curbside recycling. County commissioners announced the decision December 1, blaming escalating and unjustified costs for the program. -
Mass., R.I. Reject Regional Greenhouse Pact
Opinion -The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) of Northeastern states limped into existence in December 2005 with only seven of nine anticipated members actually signing the pact. -
California Utilities Commission Approves Costly Solar Plan
Opinion -California citizens will pay at least $3.2 billion over the next 11 years to finance a costly solar energy initiative rejected by the state's legislature in fall 2005 but implemented by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on December 13. -
Half-Million Texas Children Are Eligible for School Choice
Opinion -In mid-December, the Texas Education Agency identified 821 campuses as academically unacceptable--twice as many as in 2004--making some 538,000 students eligible for transfer to a better-performing public school of their choice. -
Intense Battle Looms over NCLB
Opinion -No Child Left Behind (NCLB), which marked its fourth birthday January 8, is likely to provoke increasingly intense debate on Capitol Hill throughout 2006. Amid ever-shifting political dynamics, it will be up for congressional reauthorization in 2007. -
Innovation: It’s Not Just a Paper Saver
Opinion -Swiping a card or key tag to access medical records or refill a prescription is not just "emergent" technology--it's happening now, with directives in Congress and incentives in the private sector encouraging it to grow nationwide and even -
Breast Cancer Drug Approved
Opinion -The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new drug for fighting recurrence of breast cancer. The approval came as results of a study of the drug, Femara, were reported in the December 29, 2005 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. -
Common-Sense Legislation for the Broadband Era
Opinion -Telecommunications reform will be heating up at the federal and state levels in 2006. Last year saw the introduction of three major telecom reform bills in the Senate: the Community Broadband Act of 2005 (S. 1294), sponsored by Sens. -
Union Demands Wash. Workers Be Fired
Opinion -On November 2, 2005, the Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE), Washington state's largest public employee union, delivered a list of 800 workers' names to the state Labor Relations Office. -
States Have Recovered from Budget Crisis, Report Says
Opinion -The outlook for state budgets is the best in five years, according to a report of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), a bipartisan organization serving state legislators and staff. -
Federal Labor Reforms Could Be Models for States
Opinion -The past several years have seen the United States make great strides toward a freer labor market. -
Americans Eager to Know about Economics, Study Says
Opinion -Americans may not have articulated it to themselves, but they have been considering complex economic issues and forming opinions about them, according to Princeton University economist Alan Blinder, one of several experts who participated in a panel -
Democrats Lead Fight against West Virginia Wind Farms
Opinion -U.S. Reps. Alan Mollohan and Nick Rahall, both West Virginia Democrats, are leading a high-profile fight against industrial wind farms on the state's mountaintop ridges. -
Are the Ethanol Wars Over?
Opinion -Ethanol--the gasoline substitute made by distilling corn or other vegetation--has long been the subject of intense debate. -
Changing the Character of the Health Care Revolution
Opinion -In July 2005, America Online (AOL) co-founder Steve Case announced the creation of a new company, Revolution LLC, committed to consumer-directed health care. -
Consumer Group Rejects California Auto Standards
Opinion -In a commentary published in the December 9 State College Centre Daily and other Pennsylvania newspapers, AAA, the nation's oldest organization of automobile owners, has come out in staunch opposition to the effort to impose California automobile -
County Supervisors Endorse Transportation Fairy Tales
Opinion -This article originally appeared in the Ventura County Star "The growing congestion problems on County roads and highways cannot be solved solely by building our way out of it by adding and widening roads …" stated a resolution passed by the Ventura
