Opinion
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Consumer Power Report #36
Opinion -Consumer Power Report, written by Greg Scandlen, director of Consumers for Health Care Choices at The Heartland Institute, is a weekly report summarizing recent developments on consumer-directed health care in the media, legislative, and regulatory -
Parents’ Anger Misplaced
Opinion -The Chicago Public Schools system and basically the inner-city has taken center stage in the media again with reports that students continue to receive passing grades while flunking tests and their futures. -
Confab: Blacks Must Embrace Booker T. Washington’s View of Self Reliance
Opinion -Scholars Tuesday explored what Booker T. Washington might think of today's Black America During panel discussions at Northwestern University Law School's Arthur Rubloff Building. The third and final day of the Booker T. -
National Booker T. Washington Symposium Begins Sunday
Opinion -(Chicago, IL -- June 2, 2006) On Sunday, June 4, The New Coalition for Economic and Social Change and The Heartland Institute kick off a two-and-a-half-day symposium on the life and legacy of Booker T. Washington. -
The Green Counter-Establishment: How it Holds Power
Opinion -The Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, and the National Wildlife Federation are examples of traditional conservation organizations that underwent a radical transformation during the rise of modern environmentalism. -
Anti-Trust or Anti-Americanism?
Opinion -The European Court of First Instance (CFI) buzzed with energy in late April as Microsoft and the European Commission (EC) squared off over a 2004 ruling that, along with a fine of €497 million ($613 million), creates a new Microsoft product and exposes -
Platforms, Interoperability, and IPR
Opinion -There once was a time when industrial organizations relied heavily on producing their own innovations. One thinks of Bell Labs and the pre-divestiture AT&T telephone network, or of the automobile manufacturers. -
California Goes Too Easy on Real ID Act
Opinion -Last year, Congress passed the Real ID Act, a law that calls for standardization of drivers’ licenses across the country by 2008. -
Senate Offers Sweeping Telecom Bill
Opinion -A draft of a new Senate bill to overhaul U.S. telecommunications regulation received a mixed reception from advocates of a free-market approach to telecom policy. -
Is There a Case for Cell Phone Jamming?
Opinion -Pop quiz: You own a movie theater, and your ticket sales have been heading south. What should you do? (a) Show better movies. (b) Use real butter on the popcorn. -
Terrorists Profit from Smuggling
Opinion -A multimillion-dollar cigarette smuggling operation based in Michigan allegedly helped fund the Hizballah terrorist organization (also known as Hezbollah), according to a federal indictment of 19 men that was announced March 29. -
Illinois Taxes Hurting Airline Industry
Opinion -O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, perennially one of the nation's busiest airports, has the dubious distinction of charging the nation's highest jet fuel taxes. -
Wyoming Has Best Tax Climate, New York Worst: Report
Opinion -Anyone thinking about starting a new business or relocating an existing business might want to consider Wyoming, which has the nation's most business-friendly tax climate, according to the third edition of the Tax Foundation's State Business Tax Climate -
Michigan Citizens Hope to Limit State’s Spending
Opinion -Voters in Michigan may get a chance this November to make big changes in state policy and how the state manages its tax revenues. Petitioners across the state are gathering signatures to put the Stop OverSpending (SOS) initiative on the 2006 ballot. -
Commentary: Blowing Up a ‘Damnable Tax’
Opinion -During his 2006 State of the County address, Oakland County (Michigan) Executive L. Brooks Patterson called for a petition drive and ballot initiative to eliminate the state's economically destructive Single Business Tax. -
New Mexico Vetoes Denounced as Political Payback
Opinion -New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) recently used his line-item veto powers to cut $269 million in spending out of the state's FY 2007 budget. Richardson issued his vetoes on March 8 in what he called "an effort to restore fiscal responsibility. -
Cities, States Welcome Private Firms into Public Transportation Projects
Opinion -With highway transportation networks in dire need of investment, either to keep from crumbling or address congestion, promising developments that offer fresh thinking to address the challenges recently have appeared. -
Road to Reform: Medicaid Management Makeover
Opinion -A recent study, "Medicaid Makeover: Six Tough (and Unavoidable) Choices on the Road to Reform," contends Medicaid would best serve the nation if state lawmakers reformed how the program is managed rather than implementing new policies. -
Mixed Reviews for Reform
Opinion -Critics of market-based Medicaid reform claim the plans are "untested" and would result in higher costs and worse health outcomes. "These plans make many false assumptions about Medicaid. -
NY Legislature Cuts Gov’s Medicaid Cost Reductions
Opinion -In his 2006/2007 Executive Budget, Gov. George Pataki (R) proposed to cut the cost of the state's Medicaid program by about $1.3 billion. -
Cigarette Trafficking Grows as Taxes Climb
Opinion -As cigarette taxes in many states have climbed, so has the illicit cigarette trade. -
Wisc. Passes HSA Bill, But Veto Expected
Opinion -Wisconsin state legislators say it will take a change in governorship before consumers can deduct from state taxes their contributions to health savings accounts (HSAs), after Gov. Jim Doyle (D) promised in May to veto a bill proposing to do so. -
Asheville Project Succeeds Against Chronic Disease
Opinion -When 43-year-old Brenda Mills of North Carolina was diagnosed with adult-onset diabetes late last year, she was devastated. Her mother was diagnosed with it in her 60s, and Mills knew people who had lost their legs and gone blind from it. -
California Pushes Government Takeover of Health Care System
Opinion -On April 11, I had the privilege of participating in a public forum sponsored by the Mendocino County Health Planning Council.
