Recent Policy Studies

• Health Care
  

  The Massachusetts Health Plan: Much Pain, Little Gain

  By Aaron Yelowitz, Michael F. Cannon, Cato Institute
  
  Policy Analysis, 01/19/2010
  

  In 2006, Massachusetts enacted a sweeping health insurance law that mirrors the legislation currently before Congress. The law appears to have compressed self-reported health outcomes, without necessarily improving overall health. Our results suggest that more than 60 percent fewer young adults are relocating to Massachusetts as a result of the law. As in Massachusetts, there has been no effort to estimate the cost of the private health insurance mandates that legislation would impose on individuals and employers. The costs may therefore be far greater than legislators and voters believe, while the benefits may be smaller than the conventional wisdom about Massachusetts suggests.

  
  
  
• Labor
  

  Toward a Free-Market Union Law

  By Charles W. Baird, Cato Institute
  
  Cato Journal, 01/19/2010
  

  It is politically impossible, at this time in America, to repeal the Norris-LaGuardia Act and the National Labor Relations Act and replace them with any sort of free-market union law. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to prepare the ground now for doing so in some future, more enlightened time. W. H. Hutt once wrote, “The Norris-LaGuardia and Wagner Acts will, I predict, come to be regarded by future historians as economic blunders of the first magnitude.”

  
  
  
• Labor
  

  Unions, the High-Wage Doctrine, and Employment

  By Lowell E. Gallaway, Cato Institute
  
  Cato Journal, 01/19/2010
  

  The high-wage doctrine still lives. The belief that unemployment is the result of less spending and by raising the wages of employees the shortfalls of unemployment will be alleviated. In all probability, this persistent adherence to an incorrect doctrine once again will prove to be detrimental to the U.S. economy, just as it was in the 1930s.

  
  
  
• Labor
  

  Unions, Protectionism, and U.S. Competitiveness

  By Daniel Griswold, Cato Institute
  
  Cato Journal, 01/19/2010
  

  A return to the era of more closed and regulated markets should be strongly resisted. Although labor leaders may have seen that period as a golden era, it extracted a heavy price on Americans in the form of lost consumer welfare, product innovation, and freedom. The preferable policy alternative is to allow competition to work in labor markets just as it has been allowed to work more fully in product markets.

  
  
  
• Labor
  

  Right-to-Work Laws: Liberty, Prosperity, and Quality of Life

  By Richard Vedder, Cato Institute
  
  Cato Journal, 01/19/2010
  

  The proportion of Americans living in right-to-work states has risen noticeably over the years, and only a small part of that is driven by new states adopting such laws. People move in extraordinary numbers to right-to-work states from states where union pressure has prevented the adoption of such laws. Moreover, the greater flexibility for workers and employers offered where right-to-work exists has contributed to higher rates of economic growth rates in the right-to-work environment. Although the United States seems to have been in roughly a stable political equilibrium regarding these laws in recent decades, if the past trends toward the right-to-work population growing in a relative sense persists while union membership continues to fall as a proportion of the labor force, a threshold point should be passed where the political equilibrium should tip toward making right-to-work laws universal for the entire American population.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  The Effects of Teachers Unions on American Education

  By Andrew J. Coulson, Cato Institute
  
  Cato Journal, 01/19/2010
  

  Since both U.S. and international research indicates that achievement and efficiency are generally higher in private sector— and particularly competitive market—education systems, the public school monopoly imposes an enormous cost on American children and taxpayers (Coulson 2009). We are paying dearly for the union label, but mainly due to union lobbying to preserve the government school monopoly rather than to collective bargaining.

  
  
  
• Labor
  

  Prevailing Wage Laws: Public Interest or Special Interest Legislation?

  By George C. Leef, Cato Institute
  
  Cato Journal, 01/19/2010
  

  The purpose and effect of prevailing wage laws is to eliminate competition on labor costs on government construction projects. Bidders may search for the least-cost combination of other factors, but labor costs are fixed by decree. This suppression of competition is a substantial benefit to a small segment of the population, chiefly construction unions and workers, at the expense of the rest of society, which must pay more than would otherwise be necessary for projects subject to prevailing wage mandates.

  
  
  
• Economic Growth
  

  Unions and the Decline of U.S. Cities

  By Stephen J. K. Walters, Cato Institute
  
  Cato Journal, 01/19/2010
  

  It is easy to be pessimistic about the future of the American city. Much of Detroit is in ruins; its median household income, once 29 percent above the national figure, is now 44 percent below it; its poverty and crime rates are over three times the nations. All told, about 5.5 million people exited America’s largest cities in the second half of the 20th century, and many of those who remained experienced declining economic and social well-being on many dimensions. The good news is that there are some policies that have demonstrably improved the environment for investment in the kind of physical capital that can fuel growth and enhance employment opportunities in cities. The lesson is that increased capital-friendliness is a necessary condition for a successful, enduring, and organic urban redevelopment strategy.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  Public Sector Unions and the Rising Costs of Employee Compensation

  By Chris Edwards, Cato Institute
  
  Cato Journal, 01/19/2010
  

  Public sector unions are some of the most powerful special interest groups in the nation. The problem with public sector unions is not just that they block compensation reforms, but that they use their privileged status to control broader policy debates. Americans need higher-quality government services at lower cost to avert a fiscal crisis in state and local governments. Public sector compensation—and benefit plans in particular—need to be overhauled to ensure financial sustainability. And the whole area of public sector unionism needs to be reexamined given the need for greater flexibility and more restraint in public finances.

  
  
  
• Labor
  

  Unions and Discrimination

  By Paul Moreno, Cato Institute
  
  Cato Journal, 01/19/2010
  

  The problem of racial discrimination in organized labor in America was less solved than it was outgrown. The story of racial discrimination in the American labor movement confirms the view that unions act as cartels that attempt to limit the supply of labor and raise its price. An easily identified and culturally disfavored minority group provided a convenient category for exclusion. But most unions were unable to succeed without state power, and by the time that they acquired such power, blacks had already fought their way into the industrial workforce. Discrimination within, rather than exclusion from, unions then became the chief problem—one that spawned the policy of “affirmative action.” Finally, the macroeconomic costs of unions decimated the ranks of private sector unions. The syndicalist phase of American unionism appeared to have come to an end, and organized labor turned its attention to the public sector, where different economic and historical factors obtained.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  Why Project Labor Agreements Are Not in the Public Interest

  By David G. Tuerck, Cato Institute
  
  Cato Journal, 01/19/2010
  

  By one estimate, Public Labor Agreements add 12–18 percent to the cost of public projects. They are motivated by a desire on the part of the construction unions to shore up the declining union wage premium against technological changes and other changes that make traditional union work rules and job designations obsolescent. The public has no interest in an arrangement that forces taxpayers to accept an uncompetitive bidding process for the sake of getting a project done.

  
  
  
• Labor
  

  Unions, the Rule of Law, and Political Rent Seeking

  By Armand Thieblot, Cato Institute
  
  Cato Journal, 01/19/2010
  

  The influence and involvement of trade unions in government policy decisions has surged to unprecedented levels. If unions are successful in perfecting political rent seeking to the degree that they formerly perfected economic rent sharing they will be in the position of being able to alter the rule of law and write their own rewards without restraint by competition or economics. The first section of this article covers the relationship between unions, the rule of law, and economic rents from the origin of the union movement through the changing patterns of the three phases of its growth cycle as measured by membership. The second section discusses this more recent, self-substituting union movement that grew from the change in union orientation away from private industries and away from dependency on traditional organizing and financing measures towards a unionism wholly interrelated with government and politics.

  
  
  
• Economic Growth
  

  Unions, Economic Freedom, and Growth

  By Randall G. Holcombe, James D. Gwartney, Cato Institute
  
  Cato Journal, 01/19/2010
  

  The concept of collective bargaining is consistent with economic freedom, but the developments of 20th century labor law have compromised economic freedom, and the powers given to unions have limited the rights of workers and employers. In the future, the largest impact of unionization in the United States will come from public sector unionization. The burden of generous retirement benefits will crowd out other government expenditures, will be a force for higher taxes, and will impose an increasing burden on the private sector of the economy that pays those taxes.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  Choosing the Nation’s Fiscal Future

  By Joseph Antos, et al., National Academies Press
  
  Paper, 01/19/2010
  

  Choosing the Nation’s Fiscal Future describes the United States’ fiscal outlook, asserting that the present budgetary path is unsustainable. If today’s policies, particularly those regarding entitlement programs, are left unchanged, Americans will face either substantial erosion in their standard of living or an extremely severe crisis. The authors propose a choice of four policy paths that the United States could and should pursue to get itself back on track.

  
  
  
• Elections, Transparency, & Accountability
  

  Reform in an Age of Networked Campaigns

  By Norman J. Ornstein, Anthony J. Corrado, Michael J. Malbin, Thomas E. Mann, American Enterprise Institute
  
  Studies, 01/19/2010
  

  The political world has been arguing about campaign finance policy for decades. A once rich conversation has become a stale two-sided battleground. One side sees contribution or spending limits as essential to restraining corruption, the appearance of corruption, or the “undue influence” of wealthy donors. The other resists any such limits in the name of free speech. This report seeks to change the ongoing conversation. Put simply, instead of focusing on attempts to further restrict the wealthy few, it seeks to focus on activating the many. The first half surveys current conditions; the second contains detailed recommendations for moving forward. They aim to promote equality and civic engagement by enlarging the participatory pie instead of shrinking it.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  Liberating Learning: Technology, Politics, and the Future

  By Terry M. Moe, John E. Chubb, Center of the American Experiment
  
  Studies, 01/19/2010
  

  At the risk of making technological marvels sound like magic potions, a very good case can be made —or more precisely, Terry Moe and John Chubb have made it in their very good book—that the most potent force for fundamentally changing such patterns of mediocrity and worse is higher and higher technology, as it can accomplish what politics and bureaucracies are encoded to block. It’s not just about technology transforming what happens in the classroom. It’s about technology freeing the schools from the iron grip of special interests and making it possible for the nation—for the first time in modern history, really—to do what’s best for children, for schools, and for quality education.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  Concierge Medicine: Convenient and Affordable Care

  By Devon Herrick, National Center for Policy Analysis
  
  Brief Analysis, 01/19/2010
  

  Concierge physician practices come in many forms–all designed to meet different patient needs. Some medical societies and states discourage doctors from having practices that offer exclusive access in return for an annual fee. However, these models offer convenient and affordable services for the uninsured, as well as supplementary care for the insured. Physicians should be free to experiment and create innovative practices that better meets the needs of patients.

  
  
  
• Labor
  

  FMLA Benefits for Part-Time Workers Would Hurt Those They Are Supposed to Help

  By Carrie L. Lukas, Independent Women's Forum
  
  Policy Brief, 01/15/2010
  

  Part-time workers typically receive fewer benefits than full-time workers, and are not covered by some labor laws that apply to full-time workers. Some suggest that this is unfair to part-time workers, and urge the federal government to extend federal laws, such as the Family and Medical Leave Act, so that part-time workers receive the same benefits as others.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  Russia’s Iran Policy: A Curveball for Obama

  By Ariel Cohen, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Backgrounder, 01/15/2010
  

  Russia’s interests in Iran fundamentally diverge from those of the U.S. Russia considers Iran a partner and de facto ally in its plans to reshape the power balance in the Middle East and dilute U.S. influence in the region. The U.S. should expect only token assistance from Russia in countering the Iranian nuclear threat. Instead, the U.S. needs to develop a broader policy that convincingly argues that Iran will lose—even if it obtains nuclear weapons and that clearly demonstrates to the Russians that the risks of betting on Iran outweigh the potential rewards.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  An Israeli Preventive Attack on Iran’s Nuclear Sites: Implications for the U.S.

  By James Phillips, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Backgrounder, 01/15/2010
  

  Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions are ominous in light of its hostile foreign policy and longstanding support for terrorism. But Iran’s repeated threats to annihilate the state of Israel while it develops the world’s most dangerous weapons have created an even more explosive situation. If diplomatic efforts to defuse the situation fail, Israel may see no other choice than to launch a preventive strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. This paper maps out the likely results of an Israeli attack, outlines Iran’s probable reaction, and explains why it is now crucial that the Obama Administration take action to mitigate and defend against Iran’s response to an Israeli strike.

  
  
  
• Labor
  

  The RESPECT Act: The Heritage Foundation 2010 Labor Boot Camp

  By James Sherk, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 01/15/2010
  

  Bringing internal union politics into business by decisions including supervisors in bargaining units would impede business competitiveness. This can cost jobs.

  
  
  
• Labor
  

  The Employee Free Choice Act: The Heritage Foundation 2010 Labor Boot Camp

  By James Sherk, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 01/15/2010
  

  Passing EFCA means fewer jobs and less economic growth.

  
  
  
• Labor
  

  Unemployment: The Heritage Foundation 2010 Labor Boot Camp

  By James Sherk, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 01/15/2010
  

  Congress should not pass legislation such as the health care bill, cap and trade, card-check, or tax increases that will raise business costs and make enterprises more likely to fail.

  
  
  
• Labor
  

  Public Safety Employer Employee Cooperation Act: The Heritage Foundation 2010 Labor Boot Camp

  By James Sherk, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 01/15/2010
  

  Different states and local governments have different needs and should be free to fit their policies to their individual needs. Collective bargaining does not work everywhere.

  
  
  
• Labor
  

  The Paycheck Fairness Act: The Heritage Foundation 2010 Labor Boot Camp

  By James Sherk, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 01/15/2010
  

  Under the Paycheck Fairness Act, government and the courts dictate business practices to employers.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  Expanding Medicaid: The Real Costs to the States

  By Edmund F. Haislmaier, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 01/15/2010
  

  The Medicaid expansion provisions in the health care bills would impose significant costs on state government budgets and state taxpayers.

  
  
  
• Labor
  

  Mandatory Paid Sick Leave: The Heritage Foundation 2010 Labor Boot Camp

  By James Sherk, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 01/15/2010
  

  Abuse of the leave granted by Healthy Families Act would reduce productivity, thus increasing the cost of business while decreasing incentive for capital investment. This would cost jobs.

  
  
  
• Labor
  

  Extended Unemployment Insurance Benefits: The Heritage Foundation 2010 Labor Boot Camp

  By James Sherk, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 01/15/2010
  

  By reducing the need to look for new work, extended unemployment insurance benefits cause unemployed workers to take longer to find new work.

  
  
  
• Labor
  

  Davis-Bacon Act Extensions: The Heritage Foundation 2010 Labor Boot Camp

  By James Sherk, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 01/15/2010
  

  Despite the proven flaws in Davis-Bacon, proponents of the act continue to call for its expansion to private-sector construction projects.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  The Real Budgetary Impact of the House and Senate Health Bills

  By James C. Capretta, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 01/15/2010
  

  A closer look at the health care bills indicates that both spending and the federal debt will go up much more than advertised the bills’ supporters.

  
  
  
• The Constitution/Civil Liberties
  

  When the Government Takes Your Home: Eminent Domain Abuse and Washington’s Community Renewal Law

  By Jeanette M. Petersen, Washington Policy Center
  
  Policy Brief, 01/15/2010
  

  The Community Renewal Law, also known as eminent domain, gives state and local governments the authority to label land as “blighted” and force homeowners to sell against their wishes. Often the land is then transferred to private corporations as part of mandatory economic development plans. The study finds that since 2000, officials have tried to use the Community Renewal Law to impact the private property rights of more than 71,000 Washington citizens. Of these, the homes, businesses and properties of more than 48,000 Washington residents have been subject to official action that involved the threat or use of eminent domain power to transfer land to private developers. In almost all cases, the result of using the Community Renewal Law was to generate profits for developers, while increasing tax revenues for local officials.

  
  
  
• Economic and Political Thought
  

  A Reflection on Economic Personalism in the Thought of Luigi Sturzo

  By Flavio Felice, American Enterprise Institute
  
  Paper, 01/14/2010
  

  In his article on the economic personalism of Luigi Sturzo, AEI adjunct fellow Flavio Felice insists that the Sicilian priest and founder of the Italian Popular Party developed an intriguing synthesis of classical liberalism, the market economy, and Catholic social thought. Felice contends that Sturzo should be considered among the historical antecedents of economic personalism. This article was presented at the international congress of European Popular Party in Bonn (Germany) in December 2009.

  
  
  
• Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, & Science
  

  The Green Con Job

  By Dustin Chambers, Dan Ervin, American Enterprise Institute
  
  The American, 01/14/2010
  

  America is at an energy crossroads. The paths before us are well trodden. One path represents what we call the German Model, which relies on expensive and heavily subsidized wind and solar power (7.7 to 12.7 cents per kWh for wind, and 64 to 87.4 cents per kWh for solar). The other, less-traveled path represents what we call the French Model, which can produce vast, reliable quantities of cheap energy (6.5 cents per kWh) safely while creating very little radioactive waste. Adopting the German Model will reduce employment and economic growth in the United States by forcing Americans to depend upon expensive and inherently unreliable sources of energy. Embracing the French Model will do the opposite.

  
  
  
• Economic and Political Thought
  

  Recovering the Case for Capitalism

  By Yuval Levin, American Enterprise Institute
  
  Bradley Lecture, 01/14/2010
  

  After decades of defending one tree or another, many friends of capitalism have lost sight of the forest—of what democratic capitalism is, of its virtues and vices, its strengths and weaknesses, its political and moral as well as its economic justifications. Our first task now is therefore a recovery of that understanding, which will clarify both our objections to the policy direction of the moment and our prescription for a better way. I hope to offer here one brief sketch of what such a recovery might involve, and where it might direct us.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  Medicaid Everyone Can Count On: Public Choices for Equity and Efficiency

  By Mark V. Pauly, Thomas W. Grannemann, American Enterprise Institute
  
  Book, 01/14/2010
  

  A comprehensive policymaker’s guide to the Medicaid program, Medicaid Everyone Can Count On offers unique insights into the complex interactions among stakeholders in America’s state-based public health care programs. In an era of national health care reform, this volume is an invaluable resource for federal and state lawmakers and program analysts tasked with crafting policies that balance the distinct needs of taxpayers, providers, and the poor.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  Should Millionaires Pay for Health Care Reform?

  By Alan D. Viard, American Enterprise Institute
  
  Tax Policy Outlook, 01/14/2010
  

  By increasing marginal tax rates at high income levels, the millionaire surtax in the House health care reform bill would promote tax avoidance and impede saving and investment, reducing wages throughout the economy. Taxing a mere 0.3 percent of the population is not a sustainable way to pay for health care reform.

  
  
  
• Monetary Policy/Financial Regulation
  

  A Middle Ground on Insider Trading

  By Thomas A. Lambert, Cato Institute
  
  Regulation, 01/14/2010
  

  An asymmetric insider trading policy that permits some form of price decreasing insider trading, while generally banning price increasing insider trading, is the policy that investors and managers would likely bargain for were they able (practically and legally) to do so. Accordingly, the law should liberalize price-decreasing insider trading (subject only to contractual restraints imposed by corporations themselves), while continuing to regulate price-increasing insider trading.

  
  
  
• Monetary Policy/Financial Regulation
  

  How Private Is Private Equity?

  By James C. Spindler, Cato Institute
  
  Regulation, 01/14/2010
  

  The rights that limited partners forgo in order to preserve exemptions from federal securities laws create a situation in which there is little accountability of managers. Disclosure is largely at the discretion of the general partner. And even if they receive disclosure, there is not much that limited partners can do with that information: they can neither control the fund nor, inmost cases, achieve any sort of practicable exit.

  
  
  
• Monetary Policy/Financial Regulation
  

  Lessons from the Financial Crisis

  By John H. Cochrane, Cato Institute
  
  Regulation, 01/14/2010
  

  We cannot pin the stability of the financial system on the idea that nobody should ever lose money. Doing this would strangle the economy and crush financial innovation. It would also require an impossible level of wisdom on the part of regulators. Keep in mind that they did not see any of this coming, any more than the rest of us. They’re only human.

  
  
  
• Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, & Science
  

  The Clean Water Land Grab

  By Jonathan H. Adler, Cato Institute
  
  Regulation, 01/14/2010
  

  Enhancing protection of waters and wetlands is a worthy policy goal. Further expansion of regulatory authority is not necessary to achieve that goal, and could even be counterproductive. Regulated entities and the conservation community both stand to benefit from greater clarity about the scope of federal jurisdiction. Yet the CWRA will not provide such certainty. To the contrary, enactment of the CWRA would ensure years of litigation and regulatory conflict, neither of which will enhance federal conservation efforts.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  Tontines for the Young Invincibles

  By Tom Baker, Peter Siegelman, Cato Institute
  
  Regulation, 01/14/2010
  

  Our positive thesis is that there is a significant and identifiable group of individuals — the young invincibles — who do not buy health insurance they can afford and “should” want. They wrongly believe that the insurance is not worthwhile because they optimistically believe that nothing bad will happen to them. Our normative recommendation is that health insurance should be reformulated so as to make it more attractive to the invincibles by taking advantage of their optimism. By bundling health insurance with a deferred dividend or “prize,” insurers should be able to entice this group to buy coverage they would not otherwise choose to purchase. Prizes have historically been used to sell life insurance in much the same way, with great success.

  
  
  
• Economic Growth
  

  In Defense of Monopoly

  By Richard B. McKenzie, Cato Institute
  
  Regulation, 01/14/2010
  

  The prospect (and the necessary reality) of monopoly power and profits at some level is a necessary and crucial market force driving so much creativity and competitiveness and, thus, long-term maximization of resource efficiency and consumer welfare. Particular products might be protected by barriers to entry from replicators of the product, but new ideas incorporated in new and improved products cannot be denied. Or as Schumpeter observed, “The fundamental impulse that sets and keeps the capitalist engine in motion comes from the new consumers’ goods, the new methods of production or transportation, and the new markets, the new forms of industrial organization that capitalist enterprises create.” It does not come from simple price competition, as so many conventional microeconomics courses wrongly stress.

  
  
  
• The Constitution/Civil Liberties
  

  Federal Crime and the Destruction of Law

  By William L. Anderson, Cato Institute
  
  Regulation, 01/14/2010
  

  The great English jurist William Blackstone declared that law was to be “a shield for the innocent” and a mechanism to protect people from the predations of others, as well as the predations of the government itself—the very meaning of limited government. This is no longer the case. Ironically, as laws proliferate in Congress, the rule of law is disappearing. The law has become the plaything of federal prosecutors who advance their careers by convicting others.

  
  
  
• The Constitution/Civil Liberties
  

  Takings Law Made Hard

  By Richard A. Epstein, Cato Institute
  
  Regulation, 01/14/2010
  

  We now know why current takings law is “hard.” It abandons every coherent conception of private property in its misguided effort to allow governments and their planning commissions to run roughshod over discrete and insular minorities within their communities. If the multiple technical deficiencies in Judge Bybee’s Guggenheim opinion forces the Supreme Court to confront the poverty of its own takings jurisprudence, his errors will not have been made in vain.

  
  
  
• Economic and Political Thought
  

  A New American Tea Party: The Counterrevolution Against Bailouts, Handouts, Reckless Spending, and More Taxes

  By John M. O'Hara, Wiley
  
  Book, 01/14/2010
  

  What has driven hundreds of thousands of people to take to the streets in protest since late February, 2009? A cry of “enough” government expansion and interference and reassertion of individual liberty: a first principle that became a rallying cry behind a movement. A New American Tea Party presents the voices behind the growing discontent among every day citizens with increased government taxation, spending, and intervention. A New American Tea Party explains how these protests evolved and were organized, and distills the results of the movement, the philosophy behind the movement, and the road ahead. Written by one of the leading organizers behind the protests, this book shows you how the costs of bailouts and other excessive government interference today is philosophically incompatible with the founding principles of our nation and simply unsustainable for future generations.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  The Worst Aspects of the Current Health Reform Proposals: More Taxes, HigherCosts, More Government Control, and More Individual Freedom

  By Nicole Kurokawa, Independent Women's Forum
  
  Policy Brief, 01/14/2010
  

  There are better ways to address the nation's health care woes without a wholesale government takeover. In the long-term, the only way to truly bend the cost curve is by providing consumers with ownership and control over their health care dollars so that they will make smart, conscious choices. These bills, and their many provisions, are not in the best interest of the nation's health, nor long-term fiscal outlook. Should legislators truly be interested in addressing the nation's health care woes, they will scrap these bills entirely and begin anew.

  
  
  
• Economic and Political Thought
  

  Intellectuals and Society

  By Thomas Sowell, Basic Books
  
  Book, 01/14/2010
  

  The influence of intellectuals is not only greater than in previous eras but also takes a very different form from that envisioned by those like Machiavelli and others who have wanted to directly influence rulers. It has not been by shaping the opinions or directing the actions of the holders of power that modern intellectuals have most influenced the course of events, but by shaping public opinion in ways that affect the actions of power holders in democratic societies, whether or not those power holders accept the general vision or the particular policies favored by intellectuals. Even government leaders with disdain or contempt for intellectuals have had to bend to the climate of opinion shaped by those intellectuals.

  
  
  
• Economic Growth
  

  White House Report Claims Stimulus Success—Despite 3.5 Million Job Losses

  By Brian Riedl, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 01/14/2010
  

  One wonders just how many jobs must disappear before the White House would concede that the stimulus has failed.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  American Leadership Necessary to Assist Haiti After Devastating Earthquake

  By James M. Roberts, Ray Walser, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 01/14/2010
  

  President Obama should initiate a rapid response to the earthquake in Haiti.

  
  
  
• National Security
  

  The Cargo-Screening Clog: Why the Maritime Mandate Needs to Be Re-examined

  By Jena Baker McNeill, Jessica Zuckerman, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Backgrounder, 01/14/2010
  

  Cargo must be screened – but it is impossible to screen 11.6 million containers every year without bringing the global economy to its knees. How to avoid the paralyzing cargo clog of the Department of Homeland Security’s mandate for 100 percent cargo screening? Heritage Foundation homeland security policy analysts lay out a smart plan for risk-based screening which can keep the country safe and prosperous at the same time.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  Conrad-Gregg Commission Bill Is Wrong Approach to Fiscal Crisis

  By Stuart Butler, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Backgrounder, 01/14/2010
  

  The federal budget of the United States is on a disastrous course. Entitlement spending threatens to drive up federal spending in the next decades to an unprecedented proportion of gross domestic product. A budget commission, in conjunction with other steps, may be needed to jolt the legislative process into addressing the looming fiscal crisis, but the Conrad-Gregg commission as proposed is fatally flawed. Instead, a bipartisan budget commission must include the American people fully in the discussions and must not override appropriate protections for the minority in Congress.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  How Online Learning Is Revolutionizing K-12 Education and Benefiting Students

  By Dan Lips, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Backgrounder, 01/14/2010
  

  Virtual or online learning is revolutionizing American education. It has the potential to dramatically expand the educational opportunities of American students, largely overcoming the geographic and demographic restrictions. Virtual learning also has the potential to improve the quality of instruction, while increasing productivity and lowering costs, ultimately reducing the burden on taxpayers. Local, state, and federal policymakers should reform education policies and funding to facilitate online learning, particularly by allowing funding to follow the students to their learning institutions of choice.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  The Chinese Navy’s Budding Overseas Presence

  By Dean Cheng, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 01/14/2010
  

  Expanded encounters with the Chinese at sea can serve as an opportunity to signal U.S. strength, resolve, and commitment.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  The House-Passed Health Care Plan Revisited: Employer Mandate Penalties on Small Firms

  By John L. Ligon, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 01/14/2010
  

  The House-passed health care bill would create a strong disincentive for small firms to increase compensation or hire additional employees.

  
  
  
• Economic and Political Thought
  

  Reappraising the Right: The Past and Future of American Conservatism

  By George H. Nash, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Heritage Lecture, 01/14/2010
  

  Conservatives want a society that sustains and encourages freedom, virtue, and safety: goals reflected in the movement’s libertarian, traditionalist, and national security dimensions. To achieve these goals, they must communicate in language that connects with Americans in all stations of life. The recent past has been unsettling to conservatives, but in the words of William F. Buckley Jr., “the wells of regeneration are infinitely deep.”

  
  
  
• National Security
  

  Christmas Day Terror Plot Highlights Need to Sharpen Intelligence System

  By Lisa Curtis, Matt Mayer, Jena Baker McNeill, Charles Stimson, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 01/14/2010
  

  The post-mortem on the attempted airline terrorist attack demonstrates the importance of continually refining U.S. intelligence capabilities.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  Movie Production Incentives: Blockbuster Support for Lackluster Policy

  By William Luther, Tax Foundation
  
  Special Report, 01/14/2010
  

  While broad-based tax competition often benefits consumers and spurs economic growth and development, industry-specific tax competition transfers wealth from the many to the few. Movie production incentives are costly and fail to live up to their promises. Nonetheless, they remain popular with state officials and many of their constituents. Some of the MPIs’ negative results may eventually cause this support to wither, particularly in tough economic times. Among these failures, the two most important are their failure to encourage economic growth overall and their failure to raise tax revenue. From the movie industry’s perspective, the increasing censorship that accompanies many incentives may eventually drive a wedge between film producers and state officials. Until then, filmmakers will continue to enjoy the bounty while taxpayers are left with the bill.

  
  
  
• Elections, Transparency, & Accountability
  

  Class War

  By Steven Greenhut, Reason Foundation
  
  Reason, 01/13/2010
  

  People who are supposed to serve the public have become a privileged elite that exploits political power for financial gain and special perks. Because of its political power, this interest group has rigged the game so there are few meaningful checks on its demands. Government employees now receive far higher pay, benefits, and pensions than the vast majority of Americans working in the private sector. Even when they are incompetent or abusive, they can be fired only after a long process and only for the most grievous offenses. It’s a two-tier system in which the rulers are making steady gains at the expense of the ruled. The predictable results: Higher taxes, eroded public services, unsustainable levels of debt, and massive roadblocks to reforming even the poorest performing agencies and school systems. If this system is left to grow unchecked, we will end up with a pale imitation of the free society envisioned by the Founders.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  Who Wants to Tax a Millionaire?

  By Veronique de Rugy, Reason Foundation
  
  Reason, 01/13/2010
  

  According to the Congressional Budget Office, the top one-fifth of households already pay 69 percent of the costs of the federal government. Now the millionaire’s tax is being tasked to pay for more than half the cost of the House bill. Is it really fair to place that much of the burden on just 0.3 percent of the taxpayers?

  
  
  
• Education
  

  A Kansas Primer on Education Funding, Volume III

  By Dave Trabert, Kansas Policy Institute
  
  Education Report, 01/13/2010
  

  Volume III of A Kansas Primer on Education Funding identifies how court-mandated funding increases were spent by Kansas school districts and compares per pupil spending across districts in search of minimum spending levels that, at least under current curriculum standards, produce adequate results. It also offers specific alternatives to “just spend more” that provide reasonable funding to schools without raising taxes or eliminating other necessary government services.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  A Kansas Primer on Education Funding, Volume II: Analysis of Montoy vs. State of Kansas

  By Dave Trabert, Kansas Policy Institute
  
  Education Report, 01/13/2010
  

  Volume II of The Primer addresses the repercussion of the decision in Montoy vs. State of Kansas where the state was ordered to increase the financial budget of schooling by $853 million dollars. Although the aid to schooling was increased the state of Kansas is experiencing a decline in tax receipts and is unable to keep up with the budget. Author Caleab Stegall offers a detailed explanation of the litigation and outcomes since the decision of Montoy. He finds that the “Kansas Supreme Court’s school finance decision and order in Montoy vs. State of Kansas is both a cause of the current crisis and a symptom of the deeper pattern of reckless spending and disregard for fundamental principles of republican forms of self government that has taken hold of both Kansas lawmakers and judges in the past decade.” Ultimately, Stegall warns that unless the legislature decides to take constitutional action the tax payers will continue to financially support a carte blanche spending habit.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  A Kansas Primer on Education Funding, Volume I: History of Education Finance

  By Dave Trabert, Kansas Policy Institute
  
  Education Report, 01/13/2010
  

  Volume I of A Kansas Primer on Education Funding traces school funding developments, starting at the inception of statehood in 1863 and leading up to the filing of the above-mentioned Montoy lawsuits.

  
  
  
• Monetary Policy/Financial Regulation
  

  The Case Against New Restrictions on Payday Lending

  By Todd Zywicki, Astrid Arca, Mercatus Center
  
  Mercatus on Policy, 01/13/2010
  

  In the wake of the financial crisis, Congress is considering new regulations on non-traditional lending products like payday lending, although there is no evidence that such products were related in any way to the financial crisis. If enacted, the principal legislation, H.R. 1214 (the Payday Loan Reform Act of 2009), would limit the charge for a single-payment loan to an effective 391 percent annual rate ($15 per $100 two-week loan). H.R. 1214 also purports to limit borrowers to one loan at a time from a single lender, prohibit rollovers, and limit borrowers to one extended repayment plan every six months. Economic theory and empirical evidence strongly suggests that these paternalistic regulations would make consumers worse off by limiting their choices to unappealing alternatives.

  
  
  
• Monetary Policy/Financial Regulation
  

  Speed Bankruptcy: A Firewall to Future Crises

  By Garett Jones, Ben Klutsey, Katelyn Christ, Mercatus Center
  
  Working Paper, 01/13/2010
  

  In light of the 2007 - 2008 financial crisis, policymakers are reforming financial regulations in order to create a resolution system for large failing financial institutions. This paper advocates that speed bankruptcy, specifically overnight debt-to-equity conversions be considered as a viable option to recapitalize troubled financial institutions. At the very least, overnight debt-to-equity conversions could have been used to provide hundreds of billions of dollars of extra equity to weak firms in 2008, and could still be used the next time a firm that is ostensibly “too big to fail” comes close to going bust.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  Rising China and Its Postmodern Fate: Memories of Empire in a New Global Context

  By Charles Horner, Hudson Institute
  
  Book, 01/13/2010
  

  The future of every major country is now connected to China's, and this book explains how China, now seeing itself as the complex and thriving result of the old and the new, is poised to change the world.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations

  By Lee Smith, Hudson Institute
  
  Book, 01/13/2010
  

  In a provocative, timely book, a noted journalist and expert on Arab-American affairs overturns long-held Western myths about the Arab world, and offers a doctrine to help the United States correct its assumptions concerning the region.Through clear-eyed analysis, Smith explodes the many myths permeating Americans' understanding of the Arab world: colonialism spurred the region's ongoing turmoil; Arab liberalism is waiting for U.S. intervention; technology and democracy can be transforming. In response to these untruths, Smith offers what he terms the “Strong Horse Doctrine”-that Arabs want to align themselves with strength, power, and violence. Given America's ongoing interest in the Middle East, Smith says America needs to be the strong horse in order to reclaim its role there, and only by understanding the nature of the region's ancient conflict can we succeed.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  Learning as We Go: Why School Choice is Worth the Wait

  By Paul T. Hill, Education Next
  
  Book, 01/13/2010
  

  Why haven’t schools of choice yet achieved a broader appeal? Publicly funded school choice programs—charter schools in forty-three states and vouchers in a few localities—have for the most part been qualified successes. Yet the rhetoric of choice supporters promised much more effective schools and an era of innovation that has not come to pass. In Learning as We Go: Why School Choice Is Worth the Wait, Paul T. Hill examines the real-world factors that can complicate, delay, and in some instances interfere with the positive cause-and effect relationships identified by the theories behind school choice.

  
  
  
• National Security
  

  The Best Defense?: Legitimacy and Preventive Force

  By Abraham D. Sofaer, Hoover Institution
  
  Book, 01/13/2010
  

  Drawing from the findings of the Stanford Task Force on Preventive Force, Abraham Sofaer offers a practical guide to identifying and considering the issues relevant to preventive uses of force, in the hope that such uses of force, if undertaken, will advance national and international security and the purposes of the United Nations Charter.The Best Defense? Legitimacy and Preventive Force reveals that, although preventive uses of force in general pose even greater dangers and potentially adverse consequences than uses of force in self-defense, the costs of each type of error depend on the consequences of acting versus not acting in particular cases. No general rule is available to ensure foolproof decisions. It makes sense, the author concludes, to encourage states to undertake a systematic appraisal of the merits of any threat or use of preventive force based on legal standards, U.N. Charter purposes, and established norms of conduct.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  China’s North Korea Dilemma

  By Michael D. Swaine, Hoover Institution
  
  China Leadership Monitor, 01/13/2010
  

  China’s leadership has been faced with an exquisite dilemma: how to encourage or prod its strong-willed, highly volatile Stalinist neighbor to give up the bomb and open up to politically threatening reforms while sustaining the cooperation and support of a seemingly impatient, often internally divided and potentially threatening United States. This article identifies the most salient elements of change and continuity in China’s approach to North Korea in order to gain a more precise understanding of the range of interests, assumptions, fears, and hopes that will most likely influence the PRC leadership’s future behavior

  
  
  
• Elections, Transparency, & Accountability
  

  Intra-Party Democracy in China: Should We Take It Seriously?

  By Cheng Li, Hoover Institution
  
  China Leadership Monitor, 01/13/2010
  

  The dominant theme of the recent Chinese Communist Party Central Committee meeting was “intra-Party democracy.” China’s top leaders characterized intra-Party democracy as the “lifeblood” of the Party and the principal determinant of whether the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will be able to maintain its position of primacy in the future. Directives adopted at the meeting specify that the Party should more strictly and vigorously govern itself, noting that “this matter is more urgent than at any time in PRC history.” It is evident that those who favor more political reforms, especially more competitive elections within the political establishment, now control the platform and agenda of the CCP. This article argues that intra-Party democracy not only reflects the need for institutionalizing the new rules and norms of elite politics in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), but might also provide for an incremental and manageable experiment of Chinese-style democracy. The success or failure of this experiment will have profound implications for China’s future, and this development should not be too hastily written off as irrelevant by the outside world.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  Obama’s Prescription for Low-Wage Workers: High Implicit Taxes, Higher Premiums

  By Michael F. Cannon , Cato Institute
  
  Policy Analysis, 01/13/2010
  

  House and Senate Democrats have produced health care legislation whose mandates, subsidies, tax penalties, and health insurance regulations would penalize work and reward Americans who refuse to purchase health insurance. As a result, the legislation could trap many Americans in low-wage jobs and cause even higher health-insurance premiums, government spending, and taxes than are envisioned in the legislation.The legislation would thus encourage “adverse selection”—an unstable situation that would drive insurance premiums, government spending, and taxes even higher.