Recent Policy Studies

• Education
  

  The Beautiful Tree: A Personal Journey into How the World’s Poorest People Are Educating Themselves

  By James Tooley, Cato Institute
  
  Book, 04/24/2009
  

  An inspiring journey into the lives of families and teachers in the poorest communities of India, Africa, and China who have successfully created their own private schools in response to failed public education.

  
  
  
• Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, & Science
  

  Climate Policy: Free Trade Promotes a Cleaner Environment

  By Daniella Markheim, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 04/24/2009
  

  Regardless of the shape of any final climate change bill, lawmakers should maintain the integrity and freedom of global markets as a means to transfer clean technologies, keep international investment flowing, and promote economic growth and prosperity in the U.S. and around the world.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  How Washington Pushes Americans into Low-Quality Health Care

  By Jeet Guram, John S. O’Shea, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Backgrounder, 04/24/2009
  

  President Obama favors an expansion of government health insurance programs as a key component of his health care reform agenda. Because of the “crowd out” of private insurance that routinely follows such expansion, millions of Americans, regardless of their personal preferences, will find themselves in these programs—willingly or unwillingly. Serious health care reform should include efforts to move individuals out of, not into, Medicaid.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  The Real Price of a Public Health Plan: Less Innovation and Lower Quality

  By Dennis G. Smith, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Backgrounder, 04/24/2009
  

  Most Americans value their current private health insurance, desire choices in health coverage, and are wary of government plans. Key supporters of a new government plan do not intend to compete with the private sector on a level playing field, but to overwhelm it through a series of benefit designs, mandates, and special federal subsidies provided by higher taxes.

  
  
  
• Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, & Science
  

  Five Reasons the EPA Should Not Attempt to Deal with Global Warming

  By Ben Lieberman, Nicolas D. Loris, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 04/24/2009
  

  Using the Clean Air Act to regulate CO2 would harm everyone who uses energy, especially the poor—all for a change in the Earth’s temperature too small to ever notice.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  The Role of Health Care Spending in Projecting Federal Elderly Entitlement Spending

  By Andrew J. Rettenmaier, Zijun Wang, National Center for Policy Analysis
  
  Report, 04/24/2009
  

  Spending on Medicare and Social Security is expected to grow considerably in coming years, commanding an increasing share of the nation’s output. This study begins by comparing the long-run forecasts for Medicare and Social Security made by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the forecasts presented in the respective trustees' reports.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  10 Ways to Keep Health Coverage If You Lose Your Job

  By Devon Herrick, National Center for Policy Analysis
  
  Brief Analysis, 04/24/2009
  

  A layoff does not have to involve losing your health coverage. Although there is no need to panic, you should not put off taking action. Here are 10 options to consider as soon as possible after getting pink-slipped.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  Health Care Spending Forecasts

  By Andrew J. Rettenmaier, National Center for Policy Analysis
  
  Brief Analysis, 04/24/2009
  

  If health care spending and personal consumption continue to grow as they have in the past, investment will decline, and economic growth will slow and maybe even grind to a halt. We can instead move to a more rational system in which people make their own choices. It is critical that the realignment of the health care system be based on market-driven incentives.

  
  
  
• Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, & Science
  

  Energy & the Environment: Myths & Facts

  By Drew Thornley, Manhattan Institute
  
  Report, 04/24/2009
  

  At least since the energy crisis of the early 1970s, the United States has wrestled with the difficult question of how best to ensure an adequate energy supply while protecting the environment. Today, this question continues to play a role in our political debates. Whether and how public policy might reduce reliance on imported oil, encourage lower-emission vehicles, and spur the development of new or cleaner sources of power are all regular matters of public discussion and concern. Believing that prudent policies require a well-informed citizenry—one well versed in the facts—we sought, with the help of survey research conducted by Zogby Associates, to determine what Americans believe about energy and environmental issues and the extent of their knowledge. Building on similar research from 2006, we report here on the January 2009 responses of 1,000 Americans, chosen to be representative of public opinion generally, on matters such as the sources of U.S. energy, the extent of the oil supply, the rate of global warming, the safety of nuclear power, and the promise of renewable energy sources.

  
  
  
• Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, & Science
  

  Bound to Burn

  By Peter W. Huber, Manhattan Institute
  
  City Journal, 04/24/2009
  

  If we do need to do something serious about carbon, the sequestration of carbon after it’s burned is the one approach that accepts the growth of carbon emissions as an inescapable fact of the twenty-first century. And it’s the one approach that the rest of the world can embrace, too, here and now, because it begins with improving land use, which can lead directly and quickly to greater prosperity. If, on the other hand, we persist in building green bridges to nowhere, we will make things worse, not better. Good intentions aren’t enough. Turned into ineffectual action, they can cost the earth and accelerate its ruin at the same time.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  KIPP vs. the Teachers’ Unions

  By Marcus A. Winters, Manhattan Institute
  
  City Journal, 04/24/2009
  

  For KIPP, the fundamental question is one at the heart of much modern education reform: do schools operate for the kids who attend them or the adults who staff them? Charter schools benefit kids because they’re free from many of the stultifying restrictions that teachers’ unions have imposed on our public schools. Everyone interested in real education reform should root for KIPP to stand firm—and win.

  
  
  
• Labor
  

  School Pension Boost Proposal Exposes Political System’s Dysfunctions

  By Jack P. McHugh, Mackinac Center for Public Policy
  
  Education Report, 04/24/2009
  

  In an apparent bid to boost membership under the guise of “helping” school districts to save money, the Michigan Education Association union has proposed a 33 percent pension boost for school employees who retire before June 30, 2010. This self-serving measure does not save money, and should be summarily dismissed.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  City and County Issue Guide 2009

  By The Center for Local Innovation, John Locke Foundation
  
  Policy Report, 04/24/2009
  

  Policymakers in the many local governments of North Carolina face a host of important challenges. This issue guide offers solutions to problems that confront North Carolinians at municipal and county levels. The common thread in these recommendations is freedom. By increasing individual freedom, local governments can foster the prosperity of all North Carolinians and keep open avenues to innovative solutions from enterprising citizens.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  Tax Reform in North Carolina

  By Roy Cordato, John Locke Foundation
  
  Policy Report, 04/24/2009
  

  North Carolina’s system of taxation aggressively interferes with individual liberty and retards economic growth. It does this by using the tax system to reward some activities and penalize others; by placing multiple layers of taxation on saving, investment, and entrepreneurship; and by promoting forms of taxation, the best example being the corporate income tax, that are completely hidden from those who pay. Because taxation inherently interferes with both personal freedom and economic decision-making, policymakers need to be vigilant about not only how much revenue is being generated but also how those revenues are collected. Some types of taxation are more damaging to freedom and prosperity than others. It is quite clear that our current system has been developed without any attention to this fact and without an understanding of how socially damaging a poorly designed tax system can be.

  
  
  
• Economic and Political Thought
  

  A Free and Just Society

  By Kevin Andrews, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Heritage Lecture, 04/23/2009
  

  The institutions of civil society are important because they are neither created nor controlled by the state. While public funding requires accountability and some services require training, skills, and a professional approach, this is entirely within the capability of the voluntary sector. Government should not be allowed to seduce community groups into becoming its mouthpiece or an extension of itself.

  
  
  
• National Security
  

  Set the Record Straight: Publish All Key Memos on CIA Interrogations

  By James Jay Carafano, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 04/23/2009
  

  U.S. government officials have a solemn obligation to resist those who want to play political “lawfare” with counterterrorism policies to advance constituent agendas at the expense of the security and freedom of Americans.

  
  
  
• Monetary Policy/Financial Regulation
  

  Credit Derivatives: Market Solutions to the Market Crisis

  By David M. Mason, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Backgrounder, 04/23/2009
  

  Credit default swaps play a productive role in U.S. and international financial markets. The Administration and Congress should encourage continued market improvements rather than imposing restrictions or significant new regulations. To the extent that new regulation is deemed necessary, policy should focus on rationalizing the regulatory framework, not on imposing new rules or creating new agencies on top of the existing ineffective structure.

  
  
  
• Immigration
  

  Section 287(g): State and Local Immigration Enforcement Efforts Are Working

  By Jena Baker McNeill, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 04/23/2009
  

  Congress should recognize the valuable role that state and local law enforcement can and do play in keeping America safe, combating illegal immigration, and protecting our borders – and encourage the growth and expansion of 287(g) and other similar programs.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  A Chronology of School Choice in the U.S.

  By Krista Kafer, Independence Institute
  
  Issue Paper, 04/23/2009
  

  Research on school choice programs shows parental choice in education benefits the individual, the community, and the school system. Students reap academic benefits while choice acts as an incentive for system-wide improvement. The chronology of choice is the struggle to give every child the chance to attend a good school.

  
  
  
• Economic Growth
  

  Hudson Institute Economic Report

  By Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Irwin Stelzer, John Weicher, Hudson Institute
  
  Report, 04/23/2009
  

  Although the Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment rose to 62 from 57 in March, the economy is by no means out of the woods. Indices of consumer sentiment are notoriously unreliable, since they are based on feelings about the economy, and February data showed a brighter picture of the economy than we see this week.

  
  
  
• National Security
  

  Security and Data Sharing

  By Mark Richard, Leslie S. Lebl, Hoover Institution
  
  Policy Review, 04/23/2009
  

  In Europe, the role of the EU as an institutional entity in combating terrorism and organized transnational crime has expanded during the past decade as Europeans seek to devise a common response to these transnational threats. However, the way in which this process has occurred has often caused serious problems among the 27 EU member states and is beginning to do the same for the United States.

  
  
  
• Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, & Science
  

  The Human Cost of Anti-Science Activism

  By Henry I. Miller, Hoover Institution
  
  Policy Review, 04/23/2009
  

  Activism has long been part of the fabric of American life. It is often positive, as when it pushes for constraints on undue government intrusion into our lives. Sometimes, however, activism can be destructive. For instance, activists from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and the media, as well as some within the government, have targeted a panoply of products, technologies, and industries that they dislike — pesticides, food additives, chemicals in general, pharmaceuticals, nuclear power, and biotechnology, among others — for opprobrium, over-regulation, and even extinction. And it seems that no stratagem, no misrepresentation, no outright lie is too outrageous for them.

  
  
  
• National Security
  

  Diverting the Radicalization Track

  By Jared A. Cohen, Hoover Institution
  
  Policy Review, 04/23/2009
  

  The struggle against violent extremism is the most significant national-security challenge of the 21st century. It is the challenge that makes all the threats we face — e.g., nuclear proliferation, chemical and biological weapons — that much more dangerous. The ungoverned spaces, urban slums, and impoverished regions of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, along with the poorly integrated immigrant communities in Western Europe, are the epicenters of vulnerability around the world that al Qaeda and other terrorist groups actively exploit. There has been a great deal of debate about how we address these vulnerable populations and effectively challenge the threat posed by violent extremists; it is an argument fueled by the larger question of how we “win hearts and minds.” This continuing discussion notwithstanding, most can agree that the end goal is to create a world in which the use of terrorist tactics to achieve political or other objectives is no longer acceptable or personally lucrative; in which extremists’ efforts to radicalize and recruit new members are no longer successful; and in which the perpetrators of violent, extremist acts are isolated and marginalized by society at large.

  
  
  
• Monetary Policy/Financial Regulation
  

  Why Florida Should Not Receive a Pre-Funded Federal Bailout

  By Eli Lehrer, Competitive Enterprise Institute
  
  WebMemo, 04/23/2009
  

  Providing loans or loan guarantees to Florida would support a broken insurance system. It would make the state less safe and harm the environment. When Florida politicians come begging to Washington, Congress and Treasury should answer with a polite, firm, “No.”

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  The Case for Compensating Live Organ Donors

  By Jennifer Monti, Competitive Enterprise Institute
  
  Issue Analysis, 04/23/2009
  

  The establishment of a transparent, public market to permit the sale of organs from live donors will transform organ procurement from a lengthy, stressful, medically damaging waiting game into a safer, more efficient, routine, life-saving process. Such a market would have both economic and moral merit; it would deliver more and better organs at less cost than alternative options, and will result in more lives saved.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  A Tale of Three Cities: Pennsylvania’s Retiree and Medical Liability Challenges

  By Richard C. Dreyfuss, Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives
  
  Policy Brief, 04/23/2009
  

  Pennsylvania maintains over 3,000 public pension plans at the state, city and municipal levels, the most of any state and approximately 25% of all such plans in America. Over 2,200 of these plans are of the often financially and politically problematic “defined-benefit” genre. According to the Pennsylvania Public Employee Retirement Commission (PERC), over 67 percent of these plans have fewer than 10 members. Needless to say, there is vast opportunity for pension reform.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  Preparing for an Even More Demanding Future: American Experiment’s 2010-11 Budget Recommendations

  By Peter J. Nelson, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Policy in Detail, 04/23/2009
  

  Lawmakers’ top priority for this session is erasing the $4.6 billion shortfall forecast for the 2010-11 biennium. In doing so, they must also work to create permanent solutions that not only erase the present shortfall but also avert future shortfalls. Due to certain demographic realities—led by the swelling numbers of baby boomers entering retirement—government spending is projected to outpace tax revenues for the next 25 years. Under these trends, business as usual cannot continue. Consequently, big changes to state programs and possibly the tax code will be necessary.

  
  
  
• Economic and Political Thought
  

  A Dozen Dangerous Presumptions of Crisis Policymaking

  By Robert Higgs, Mercatus Center
  
  Mercatus on Policy, 04/22/2009
  

  Throughout U.S. history, Congress and the president have adopted many critically important policies in great haste during brief periods of perceived national emergency. Any government policymaking on an important matter entails serious risks, but crisis policymaking stands apart from the more deliberate process in which new legislation or regulation is usually adopted. Because formal institutional changes—however hastily they might have been made—have a strong tendency to become entrenched, remaining in effect for many years and sometimes for many decades, crisis policymaking has played an important part in generating long-term growth of government through a ratchet effect in which “temporary” emergency measures have expanded the government’s size, scope, or power permanently.

  
  
  
• Monetary Policy/Financial Regulation
  

  The Value of Institutions for Financial Markets: Evidence from Emerging Markets

  By Thomas Stratmann, Mercatus Center
  
  Working Paper, 04/22/2009
  

  This paper investigates the value of political institutions for financial markets, using panel data from emerging market countries. We test the hypothesis that changes in political institutions, such as improvements in democratic rights and increased government accountability, have a direct effect on sovereign interest-rate spreads. We find that financial markets value institutions over and above the economic and fiscal outcomes these institutions shape. Democracy and accountability generally lower sovereign spreads, political risk tends to increase them, and financial markets view election years negatively.

  
  
  
• National Security
  

  Julian Simon and the ‘Limits to Growth’ Neo-Malthusianism

  By Paul Dragos Aligica, Mercatus Center
  
  Working Paper, 04/22/2009
  

  By the time of his death in 1998 at age 65, Julian Simon had already established for himself the reputation of “doomslayer,” “one of those people who took on the thankless task of talking sense on a subject where nonsense is all the rage” and of a man “set out to explain what happened in the real world, not what happens in abstract models or popular hysteria. His crusade against the conventional wisdom was featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Boston Globe and he was considered the man who “thoroughly and often single-handedly capsized the prevailing Malthusian orthodoxy” by routing “nearly every prominent environmental scaremonger of our time” and by reframing “the central debate of our time: whether people are good for our planet or not.” Whether one agrees with his views or not, an overview of his key arguments is an important step towards a clearer understanding of the intellectual history and significance of one of the most salient and sensitive themes emerging on the public agenda during the second half of the 20th century.

  
  
  
• Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, & Science
  

  ‘Doing My Part’ to Save the Global Commons?

  By Bentley Coffey, Patrick A. McLaughlin, Mercatus Center
  
  Working Paper, 04/22/2009
  

  Information about collectively created problems, such as air pollution, may elicit voluntary changes to consumer behavior that at least partially offset the cause of the problem. We show that increases in information about climate change are associated with statistically and economically significant decreases in expenditure on gasoline, controlling for gasoline prices and income. We simultaneously provide updated estimates of the short-run price and income elasticities of demand for gasoline in the United States, utilizing recent weekly gasoline consumption and price data and spatially-delineated supply side disruptions due to hurricanes as an instrument for price.

  
  
  
• National Security
  

  Gates Goals Undercut Air Force Capabilities and Leaders

  By Loren B. Thompson, Lexington Institute
  
  Issue Brief, 04/22/2009
  

  Air Force chief of staff Norton Schwartz faced biting criticism from his service’s senior leaders in a video teleconference last week. They accused him of betraying the service’s requirements process by siding with defense secretary Robert Gates in terminating key air power programs without rigorous analysis, and signaled that Schwartz’s credibility is at risk among his Air Force peers. Doubts about Schwartz have been rife since Gates selected him to replace the less pliable T. Michael Moseley last summer, after Moseley clashed with Gates over the F-22 fighter and management of nuclear weapons. A look at Gates’ plans for Air Force programs shows why Schwartz’s tenure could resemble a controlled flight into terrain.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  Options for Engagement: A Resource Guide for Reforming U.S. Policy toward Cuba

  By Anya Landau French, Lexington Institute
  
  Research Study, 04/22/2009
  

  Whichever options the President and the Congress may choose to exercise, suggested herein or elsewhere, each should avoid embracing a condition-based policy on Cuba. The government of Cuba has indicated that it is not moved by U.S. “offers” in exchange for internal political changes. U.S. efforts are likely to see greater success if they center on protecting and advancing American security and economic interests, nurturing a constructive bilateral dialogue on difficult issues, and broadly contributing to greater economic and political openness and opportunity on the island.

  
  
  
• The Constitution/Civil Liberties
  

  Voting Rights and the Beneficiaries of Selma

  By Edward Blum, American Enterprise Institute
  
  The American, 04/22/2009
  

  By the end of the 2008–2009 Supreme Court term, the justices will have decided the scope and constitutionality of two key provisions of the Voting Rights Act. The decisions will effect how thousands of election districts are redrawn after the 2010 census and invariably shape any future legislation that seeks to expand Congress’s constitutional enforcement power over state and local jurisdictions. Furthermore, the significance of these cases goes beyond their core redistricting and federalism issues. In the wake of President Obama’s historic election, the high court’s acceptance of both cases reflects how the judiciary appears to be following the nation’s growing sentiment that race and ethnicity should play an ever smaller role in our public policies.

  
  
  
• National Security
  

  People and Platforms: An Agenda for Balanced Defense Forces

  By Mackenzie M. Eaglen, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Special Report, 04/22/2009
  

  After eight years of warfare, the U.S. military requires considerable recapitalization. Predictable levels of robust defense spending will allow the military to reset and rebuild while modernizing arsenals and training forces for all types of warfare. The debate on “hard choices” should focus on replacing the military’s archaic compensation system, implementing realistic acquisition reform, and reigning in the runaway domestic entitlement spending.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  Coming to Grips with an Expanding Extremist Threat in Pakistan

  By Lisa Curtis, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 04/22/2009
  

  The Pakistani people have a deep culture of pluralist traditions dating back centuries. In order to stabilize and develop their country, Pakistanis need to nurture this pluralist, tolerant tradition.

  
  
  
• National Security
  

  Conservatives Should Have Done More to Increase Long-Term Defense Spending During Budget Resolution Debates

  By Mackenzie M. Eaglen, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 04/22/2009
  

  The annual congressional budget debate is over, and the House and Senate have passed one-party budget resolutions. A flat—or, worse, a declining—defense budget will come at the expense of modernization and the critical upgrade of next-generation equipment, which the military needs yesterday.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  The Fifth Summit of the Americas: Return of the Good Neighbor Policy?

  By Ray Walser, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 04/22/2009
  

  The Fifth Summit of the America’s was characterized by feel-good rhetoric and the resurrection of FDR’s Good Neighbor Policy. However, the real impact of the summit-if there is to be one-will not be clear until the administration addresses basic challenges.

  
  
  
• National Security
  

  Incompatible Pronouncements on the Future of the U.S. Nuclear Force

  By Baker Spring, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 04/22/2009
  

  In an April 5 speech in Prague, President Barack Obama reiterated his campaign commitment to “seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.” Unfortunately, he also made two completely incompatible pronouncements regarding the future of the U.S. nuclear force.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  College Rankings: History, Criticism and Reform

  By Luke Myers, Jonathan Robe, Center for College Affordability and Productivity
  
  Report, 04/21/2009
  

  Many professors and administrators alike wistfully dream of returning to the “golden days” before college rankings allegedly ruined higher education. Such pre-ranking days, however, are now a century past. The continued development of new domestic and international ranking systems makes the chance of their demise more and more remote. The call for the abolition of ranking is not only futile, given the course of their history; it is also illegitimate in light of academic quality rankings’ important contributions. Regardless of their flaws—and they have many—college rankings satisfy an immense demand for information from students, parents, and the general public about institutions that traditionally lack transparency about their internal workings and quality of product. A call for the abolition of college rankings represents a disregard for accountability that should be strongly rejected in light of the large investments that consumers and the public make in higher education.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  Financial Aid in Theory and Practice

  By Andrew Gillen, Center for College Affordability and Productivity
  
  Report, 04/21/2009
  

  Financial aid programs are supposed to improve access and affordability in higher education. The effectiveness of these programs is increasingly being questioned as college attainment figures stagnate and the financial burden on students and families continues to climb year after year. This report identifies the main culprit for this unsatisfactory state of affairs as a misunderstanding of the effect of financial aid on schools.

  
  
  
• Monetary Policy/Financial Regulation
  

  Restoring the Private Property-Insurance Market to Reduce Florida’s Risk of Financial Insolvency

  By Randall Holcombe, James Madison Institute
  
  Backgrounder, 04/21/2009
  

  Florida’s government-dominated insurance system cannot survive in its current form. It makes the state less safe and increases the long-term costs to the state’s taxpayers. Both Citizens and the Cat Fund face severe problems and cannot survive in their current forms. Efforts to attract new out-of-state companies to write homeowners’ insurance, likewise, have proven dismal failures. Florida’s taxpayers, not insurance companies, have assumed massive liabilities on behalf of coastal residents. The problems with Florida’s insurance environment, however, will never find a single magical solution. The state, instead, must embark on a program of incremental reform that makes sweeping change to Citizens, significantly reduces the Cat Fund’s potential liabilities, encourages mitigation, and protects the environment.

  
  
  
• Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, & Science
  

  The Skeptics Handbook

  By Joanne Nova, JoanneNova.com.au
  
  Report, 04/20/2009
  

  Don’t fall for the ‘complexity’ argument, or accept vague answers. The climate is complex, but the only thing that matters here is whether adding more CO2 to the atmosphere will make the world much warmer. Everything hinges on this one question. If carbon dioxide is not a significant cause, then carbon sequestration, cap ‘n trade, emissions trading, and the Kyoto agreement are a waste of time and money. All of them divert resources away from things that matter—like finding a cure for cancer, or feeding Somali babies. Having a real debate IS the best thing for the environment.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  A Prescription for American Health Care

  By John C. Goodman, Hillsdale College
  
  Imprimis, 04/20/2009
  

  Liberating the medical market by freeing doctors and patients is the only way to bring health care costs under control without sacrificing quality. Continuing on our current path—allowing health care costs to rise at twice the rate of income under the aegis of an unworkable government Ponzi scheme—is by comparison unreasonable.

  
  
  
• Elections, Transparency, & Accountability
  

  The Promise That Keeps on Breaking

  By Jim Harper, Cato Institute
  
  Techknowledge, 04/20/2009
  

  President Obama promised on the campaign trail that he would have the most transparent administration in history. As part of this commitment, he said that the public would have five days to look online and find out what was in the bills that came to his desk before he signed them. It was his first broken promise, and it’s the promise that keeps on breaking. He has now signed 11 bills into law and gone, at best, 1 for 11 on his five-day posting promise. The Obama administration should deliver on the Web-enabled transparency he promised and post bills for five days before signing.

  
  
  
• Monetary Policy/Financial Regulation
  

  Bright Lines and Bailouts: To Bail or Not To Bail, That Is the Question

  By Vern McKinley, Gary Gegenheimer, Cato Institute
  
  Policy Analysis, 04/20/2009
  

  This present crisis has demonstrated that undertaking bailouts of troubled institutions, which involves structuring transactions that attempt to transform the institution into a viable one, while simultaneously projecting the reaction of investors and markets, is a process for which government is ill-suited. These bailout powers should be revoked. Financial angst still hangs over the system as the underlying imbalances that led to the crisis have not been reconciled. The ultimate answer is to place troubled institutions into receivership or the relevant form of bankruptcy—including many of the institutions that have already been bailed out.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  Pakistan and the Future of U.S. Policy

  By Malou Innocent, Cato Institute
  
  Policy Analysis, 04/20/2009
  

  America’s actions are not passively accepted by the majority of Pakistan’s population, and officials in Islamabad cannot afford to be perceived as putting America’s interests above those of their own people. Because the long-term success of this nuclear-armed Muslim-majority country depends on the public’s repudiation of extremism, and our continued presence in Afghanistan is adding more fuel to violent religious radicalism, our mission in the region, as well as our tactics, our objectives, and our interests, must all be reexamined.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  2009 Congressional Pig Book

  By David E. Williams, Sean Kennedy, Kerrie Rushton, Citizens Against Government Waste
  
  Report, 04/20/2009
  

  The outrage of millions of taxpayers following the $700 billion bank bailout and the $787 billion stimulus bill did not stop Congress from passing and President Obama from signing a bloated $410 billion Omnibus Appropriations Act in March. With the subsequent approval of the President’s budget, the national debt will triple over the next 10 years. That leaves plenty of opportunities for pork to remain pervasive in the nation’s capital.

  
  
  
• Crime, Justice & the Law
  

  The Creeping ‘Authenticity’ of Europe’s Intrusive Civil Law System

  By Lawrence A. Kogan, Institute for Trade, Standards and Sustainable Development
  
  Article, 04/20/2009
  

  International organizations and comparative law specialists have increasingly recognized that the attenuation of private property rights through denial of due process can be an unfortunate byproduct and/or feature of preventive justice. Consequently, they have suggested that policymakers and industry leaders devote more time and energy to reviewing the provisions of civil law country national constitutions. An examination of the French Constitution, for example, would reveal the adoption of the civil law precautionary principle. Also, the most recent draft of the Constitution of the European Union incorporates it as well. Hopefully, such efforts will help to reduce the growing number of international public policy disputes that have arisen between common law and civil law jurisdictions with respect to what may best be characterized as creeping public interests.

  
  
  
• Crime, Justice & the Law
  

  A Chill Wind for Precaution?: Broader Ramifications of Supreme Court’s Winter Decision

  By Lawrence A. Kogan, Washington Legal Foundation
  
  Working Paper, 04/20/2009
  

  This Working Paper describes in detail how the environmental and academic communities have surreptitiously worked to steer the U.S. Supreme Court in the direction of incorporating one of three different applications of Europe’s Precautionary Principle within U.S. jurisprudence. As the pleadings and surrounding literature reveal, Respondents and amici urged the court to embrace as a general rule the Ninth Circuit’s presumption of irreparable environmental injury, its presumption in favor of issuing preliminary injunctions in environmental matters, and/or its presumption against issuing a military exemption in NEPA cases. These efforts were unsuccessful, as the Court was seemingly cognizant of the Respondents’ deeper objectives. Yet, activists are likely to continue testing the proverbial waters in future legal challenges. Indeed, environmentalists have already interpreted the NRDC v. Winter decision as narrowly as possible given the Court’s refusal to address their non-‘science’ claims. As the environmentalist report referenced in the introduction above indicates, this is only the opening play of a very detailed and well thought out theatre production targeted at enshrining Europe’s Precautionary Principle as U.S. law.

  
  
  
• Regulation & Deregulation
  

  Basic Good Governance: Regulatory Transparency

  By Kathleen Hartnett White, Texas Public Policy Foundation
  
  Policy Brief, 04/20/2009
  

  Texans equally deserve regulatory transparency—full disclosure of the costs and benefits of regulation established by state rules. Regulatory transparency is particularly needed in environmental regulations, the most rapidly expanding area of federal and state regulation.

  
  
  
• Information Technology
  

  Telecommunications Taxes in Texas

  By Bill Peacock, Chris Robertson, Texas Public Policy Foundation
  
  Policy Perspective, 04/20/2009
  

  The explosion of Internet and wireless-based technologies has revolutionized the telecommunications market. Future regulatory and tax policies should reflect these changes to promote a competitive telecommunications industry, reduce high taxes and fees, and encourage future economic growth within the state.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  Higher Education Cost Drivers

  By Elizabeth Young, Texas Public Policy Foundation
  
  Policy Perspective, 04/20/2009
  

  Tuition prices are increasing due to high university operating costs, not a lack of state funding. There must be measures in place that provide incentives for universities to keep these costs as low as possible. The only way to achieve this is to infuse free-market principles into a higher education system that severely lacks fiscal discipline.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  How Members of the 111th Congress Practice Private School Choice

  By Lindsey Burke, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Backgrounder, 04/20/2009
  

  A Heritage survey of the Members of the 111th Congress revealed that 44 percent of Senators and 36 percent of Representatives had sent their children to private schools. A failed amendment on behalf of the popular and successful D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program would have passed if Members of Congress who exercised school choice for their own children had voted in favor of the amendment.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  The U.S. Is Right to Boycott the U.N. Durban II Conference on Racism

  By Brett D. Schaefer, Steven Groves, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 04/20/2009
  

  On April 18, the U.S officially announced that it would not attend Durban II. The U.S. was right to ignore outside pressure and refuse to grant Durban II the legitimacy that U.S. participation would provide.