Recent Policy Studies

• National Security
  

  The Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review: Simply an Extension of the President’s 2010 Defense Budget Plans

  By Mackenzie Eaglen, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 02/02/2010
  

  The QDR lacks long-term vision and serves largely as an analytical justification for current defense plans and programs.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  Obama’s Budget Seeks $2 Trillion More in Spending and Deficits Than Last Year

  By Brian Riedl, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 02/02/2010
  

  President Obama’s budget would spend an additional $1.7 trillion and run up an additional $2 trillion in budget deficits.

  
  
  
• Regulation & Deregulation
  

  Is the Only Form of “Reasonable Regulation” Self Regulation?

  By Peter J. Boettke, Mercatus Center
  
  Paper, 02/02/2010
  

  This paper asks whether the foundation of an effective system of regulation must be found first and foremost in the rules of self-regulation that communities adopt and their citizens abide by, rather than in well-designed regulatory statutes by efficiency experts. Efforts to regulate human activities to suppress their most crass desires, discipline their wildest whims, and harness their self-interest exist throughout the world. Most of the intellectual efforts of economists and political economists have been directed at studying the formal regulations established and implemented by agencies within government. Lin, on the other hand, studied the political economy of everyday life and the self-regulation of behavior, rather than the political economy of government exclusively. What do we learn from Lin’s work about the relationship between these two forms of the regulation of behavior in human societies? Thus, the question, ‘is the only form of ‘reasonable regulation’ self-regulation?’

  
  
  
• Education
  

  Competition and Education Reform

  By Eileen Norcross, Johan van der Walt, Jerrod Anderson, Mercatus Center
  
  Mercatus on Policy, 02/02/2010
  

  The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act allocated approximately $9 billion for funding K-12 education, and conditioned part of these funds on states increasing the number of charter schools. The authors examine the role of federal funding for charter schools, discussing how these policies both improve and threaten competitiveness and results in education.

  
  
  
• Economic Growth
  

  Growth in a Time of Debt

  By Carmen M. Reinhart, Kenneth S. Rogoff, American Economic Review
  
  Paper, 02/02/2010
  

  We study economic growth and inflation at different levels of government and external debt. Our analysis is based on new data on forty-four countries spanning about two hundred years. Our main findings are: First, the relationship between government debt and real GDP growth is weak for debt/GDP ratios below a threshold of 90 percent of GDP. Above 90 percent, median growth rates fall by one percent, and average growth falls considerably more. Second, emerging markets face lower thresholds for external debt (public and private)—which is usually denominated in a foreign currency. When external debt reaches 60 percent of GDP, annual growth declines by about two percent; for higher levels, growth rates are roughly cut in half. Third, there is no apparent contemporaneous link between inflation and public debt levels for the advanced countries as a group The story is entirely different for emerging markets, where inflation rises sharply as debt increases.

  
  
  
• International Trade/Finance
  

  Globalization: Curse or Cure? Policies to Harness Global Economic Integration to Solve Our Economic Challenge

  By Jagadeesh Gokhale, Cato Institute
  
  Policy Analysis, 02/02/2010
  

  Globalization holds tremendous promise to improve human welfare but can also cause conflicts and crises as witnessed during 2007–09. Intensifying foreign competition and employment uncertainty could provoke calls by industry lobbyists and displaced workers for additional government protections. And worker migration toward developed nations will continue, spurred by wage differentials between developed and developing countries. Younger immigrants may eventually help developed nations to ease the economic challenge posed by population aging, but immigrants are often viewed as competing for jobs, adding to public welfare costs, and reducing social cohesion. This paper offers policy recommendations for developed nations to reduce globalization’s negative effects and, indeed, harness it for solving aging-related economic challenges.

  
  
  
• Crime, Justice & the Law
  

  The Criminalization of Almost Everything

  By Harvey Silverglate, Tim Lynch, Cato Institute
  
  Cato Policy Report, 02/02/2010
  

  When laws grow so voluminous and vague that they oppress those who live under them, society can become as unlivable as if it were lawless. Subject to the arbitrary scrutiny of prosecutors overcome by ambition for their own 15 minutes of fame, ordinary citizens face the horrors of becoming criminal defendants.

  
  
  
• Monetary Policy/Financial Regulation
  

  A Perfect Storm of Ignorance

  By Jeffrey Friedman, Cato Institute
  
  Cato Policy Report, 02/02/2010
  

  The question of whether deposit insurance was necessary is worth asking, and I will ask it later on. But for now, the key fact is that once deposit insurance took effect, the FDIC feared that it had created what economists call a “moral hazard”: bankers, now insulated from bank runs, might be encouraged to make riskier loans than before. The moral-hazard theory took hold not only in the United States but in all of the countries in which deposit insurance was instituted. And both here and abroad, the regulators’ solution to this (real or imagined) problem was to institute bank-capital regulations. According to an array of scholars from around the world — Viral Acharya, Juliusz Jablecki, Wladimir Kraus, Mateusz Machaj, and Matthew Richardson — these regulations helped turn an American housing crisis into the world’s worst recession in 70 years.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  Cages of Their Own Design: Five Strategies to Help Education Leaders Break Free

  By Frederick M. Hess, American Enterprise Institute
  
  Education Outlook, 02/02/2010
  

  The education profession is notorious for its resistance to change. School leaders often claim that collective bargaining agreements, state and federal regulations, and budget concerns prevent them from pursuing effective school reform. The culture of the K-12 leadership environment is one that often seeks consensus over progress and collegiality over accountability. But breakthrough leadership is possible in schools. This Outlook offers five strategies to help reform-minded educators step boldly out of self-defeating mind-sets into the turbulence of change.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  It Is Past Time for Macedonia to Join NATO

  By Sally McNamara, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 02/01/2010
  

  NATO must send a clear message that it remains open for business and that accession is possible for all free, democratic nations in Europe.

  
  
  
• The Constitution/Civil Liberties
  

  To Keep and Bear Arms

  By Nelson Lund, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 02/01/2010
  

  Modern debates about the meaning of the Second Amendment have focused on whether it protects a right of individuals to keep and bear arms or, instead, a right of the states to maintain militia organizations like the National Guard. This question, however, was apparently never even discussed for a long time after the Bill of Rights was framed. The early discussions took the basic meaning of the amendment largely for granted and focused instead on whether it actually added anything significant to the original Constitution. The debate has shifted primarily because of subsequent developments in the Constitution and in constitutional law.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  Ways to Make Higher Education More Affordable

  By Dan Lips, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 02/01/2010
  

  President Obama’s newest plan for subsidizing student loan borrowers would not address the root problem: out-of-control college costs.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  The Age of Obama: Anno Domini 2

  By Charles Krauthammer, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Heritage Lecture, 02/01/2010
  

  President Obama’s foreign policy agenda of gradual American retreat will have inexorable consequences. Allies who see the American umbrella being withdrawn will accommodate themselves to those from whom we were protecting them. If Obama proves impervious to empirical evidence and experience, these accommodations, the weakening of alliances, and the strengthening of adversarial power in Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, Caracas, and elsewhere will continue until we are awakened by some cataclysm.

  
  
  
• National Security
  

  Tanker Contest Headed For Sole-Source Award

  By Loren B. Thompson, Lexington Institute
  
  Issue Brief, 02/01/2010
  

  Senior executives at Northrop Grumman have made a tentative decision not to bid in the Air Force’s pending re-competition of its KC-X aerial-refueling tanker. Only a year ago, Northrop looked like the odds-on favorite to win the contract for the future tanker, which will be worth about $35 billion for the first increment of 179 planes, but could ultimately be valued at over $100 billion as the service replaces the rest of its 450 Eisenhower-era refuelers. Northrop’s startling reversal of fortune is traceable to the collision of two forces: a new administration determined to tighten up terms on contractors, and a new corporate CEO determined to assess rigorously the risks and rewards of business opportunities.

  
  
  
• Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, & Science
  

  Too Hot for Courts to Handle: Fuel Temperatures, Global Warming, and the Political Question Doctrine

  By Laurence H. Tribe, Joshua D. Branson, Tristan L. Duncan, Washington Legal Foundation
  
  Working Paper, 02/01/2010
  

  Whether it is the lure of lucrative damage awards and attorneys’ fees, or the ability to affect change through litigation, activist lawyers and even some elected officials have increasingly sought judicial involvement in some of America’s most vexing public policy issues. These litigants have relied upon such broad and superficially appealing legal theories as public nuisance and consumer fraud, and have strategically chosen unpopular U.S. corporations as defendants in these lawsuits. But before determining whether such theories are applicable in these policy-oriented cases, the authors of a new Washington Legal Foundation publication argue, judges must first examine whether they even have the constitutional authority to rule on the issues brought before them.

  
  
  
• Crime, Justice & the Law
  

  Appellate Court Ruling Narrows Attorney Work Product Doctrine

  By Richard Ben-Veniste, Dan Himmelfarb, Washington Legal Foundation
  
  Legal Opinion Letter, 02/01/2010
  

  Late last summer, in United States v. Textron Inc., a sharply divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, sitting en banc, held that “tax accrual work papers” are not protected by the work product privilege. The decision is highly consequential and may well be reviewed by the Supreme Court. Although the Supreme Court grants only a tiny fraction of certiorari petitions, the prospects for further review here are far better than in a typical case. The business community is hoping that the Court accepts this invitation.

  
  
  
• Crime, Justice & the Law
  

  Drug Manufacturers’ Defenses: Everything Is Old Again

  By Gene M. Williams, Kathleen Frazier, Washington Legal Foundation
  
  Legal Backgrounder, 02/01/2010
  

  In recent years, pharmaceutical manufacturers have become the target of plaintiffs’ attorneys across the country. Reasons for the focus on the pharmaceutical industry can be attributed, at least in part, to tort reform. As state legislatures have begun to impose caps on the amount of damages a plaintiff can recover from a defendant, it has become more worthwhile for plaintiffs’ attorneys to resort to a volume model in which they sue a single defendant on behalf of many plaintiffs. Pharmaceutical manufacturers have worked to develop novel defenses to combat the litigation they now face. Some of these defenses will prevail and some will fail. The cost of advancing these defenses can be high. Consequently, it may be more cost effective and may result in a better outcome for pharmaceutical manufacturers to rely on that old friend, the learned intermediary doctrine, in battling failure-to-warn claims.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  State Pension Funds Fall Off a Cliff

  By Barry W. Poulson, Arthur P. Hall, American Legislative Exchange Council
  
  Report, 02/01/2010
  

  This study examines different measures of historical and current funding shortfalls in state pension plans. Two case studies are examined in greater depth to explore some fatal flaws that have caused funding crises in these plans: Public Employee Retirement Association of Colorado (PERA) and the Kansas Public Employee Retirement System (KPERS). The solution to the funding crises in plans such as PERA and KPERS will require fundamental reform. These plans should also consider replacing their defined-benefit plans with defined-contribution plans for new employees.

  
  
  
• Economic Growth
  

  Wholesaler’s Versus Consumers: Using Monopoly Protection Legislation to Stifle Competition

  By Michael Hough, American Legislative Exchange Council
  
  The State Factor, 02/01/2010
  

  One of the most basic rights of every American is the right to contract. The freedom to choose a business partner and enter into a contract are essential components to America’s free enterprise system. The importance of the right to contract is evidenced by the fact the U.S. Constitution in its first Article recognizes the key importance of private contracts. To that end, the Contract Clause of the U.S. Constitution guarantees every American the freedom to enter into to contracts without the threat of government interference.

  
  
  
• National Security
  

  Change and the American Security Paradigm

  By Kenneth Allard, Foreign Policy Research Institute
  
  Orbis: A Journal of World Affairs, 01/29/2010
  

  Two hundred years of U.S. history have inevitably reshaped and softened its basic outlines. But it is worth recalling that the federal system was founded on the assumption that experimentation and innovation were best performed at the state and local levels, the natural laboratories of future directions for the nation. Because its success ultimately depends more upon measures applied by the several states than in Washington, D.C., perhaps the transformation of homeland security is the appropriate place to re-apply lessons that the Founders knew very well. In adjusting the bureaucratic, top-heavy superstructure currently characterizing the U.S. security establishment, perhaps it is now time to begin reversing the pyramid.

  
  
  
• National Security
  

  How the United States Lost the Naval War of 2015

  By James Kraska, Foreign Policy Research Institute
  
  Orbis: A Journal of World Affairs, 01/29/2010
  

  Years of strategic missteps in oceans policy, naval strategy and a force structure in decline set the stage for U.S. defeat at sea in 2015. After decades of double-digit budget increases, the People’s Liberation Army (Navy) was operating some of the most impressive systems in the world, including a medium-range ballistic missile that could hit a moving aircraft carrier and a super-quiet diesel electric submarine that was stealthier than U.S. nuclear submarines. Coupling this new asymmetric naval force to visionary maritime strategy and oceans policy, China ensured that all elements of national power promoted its goal of dominating the East China Sea. The United States, in contrast, had a declining naval force structured around 10 aircraft carriers spread thinly throughout the globe. With a maritime strategy focused on lower order partnerships, and a national oceans policy that devalued strategic interests in freedom of navigation, the stage was set for defeat at sea. This article recounts how China destroyed the USS George Washington in the East China Sea in 2015. The political fallout from the disaster ended 75 years of U.S. dominance in the Pacific Ocean and cemented China’s position as the Asian hegemon.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  The State Legislators Guide to Prescription Drug Policy

  By Christie Herrera, American Legislative Exchange Council
  
  Booklet, 01/29/2010
  

  The Guide will provide “plain English” definitions of common prescription drug policy issues you’ll hear in your statehouse. It will identify the harmful, unintended consequences of these “reforms” to help you in floor debate. And most importantly, it will help you identify effective health reform solutions that curb rising health costs without restricting access to prescription drugs.

  
  
  
• Immigration
  

  A Bailout for Illegal Immigrants? Lessons from the Implementation of the 1986 IRCA Amnesty

  By David North, Center for Immigration Studies
  
  Backgrounder, 01/29/2010
  

  By now most of us realize that the government handled the $700 billion bailout of the big banks badly. The money went out in a whoosh to the Wall Street outfits that had created the crisis, but without the needed regulatory changes to prevent its repetition. Is Congress about to make a parallel mistake about the illegal alien population and give that group a blanket amnesty like the one it lavished on the (much smaller group of) bankers, without giving a thought to the inevitable impacts of such an action? With that dubious prospect on the horizon, it is a good time to take a careful look at the dysfunctional inner workings of the last major bailout of America’s illegal alien population, the alien legalization program that Congress created with the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  Tattered Road Map

  By Robert Zelnick, Hoover Institution
  
  Hoover Digest, 01/29/2010
  

  One suspects that in his heart today, Netanyahu cherishes the land Israel has captured in its wars for survival and believes that in the long run it is a better defense than pieces of parchment bearing signatures of Palestinian negotiators. But the world and even the United States are not hospitable to that point of view, particularly when Netanyahu’s counterparts are progressive, honest, and committed to improving the lives of their fellow Palestinians. Netanyahu, a courageous, highly intelligent, and perceptive man, will probably know when it’s time for a strategic change as opposed to a mere tactical adjustment. Just as the hard-line Prime Minister Menachem Begin saw the virtue of an honorable peace with Egypt, so may Netanyahu one day conclude that changes in his world and his region require a fresh approach to the Palestinians.

  
  
  
• Economic Growth
  

  Jobs for America: Investments and Policies for Economic Growth and Competitiveness

  By Ross DeVol, et. al., Milken Institute
  
  Report, 01/29/2010
  

  A new economic report conducted by the Milken Institute and sponsored by the National Association of Manufacturers shows that changes to economic and tax policies and investment in key infrastructure project categories could create more than 11 million jobs in the United States this decade. The study analyzes how reducing corporate tax rates, establishing a permanent research and development credit, modernizing the U.S. system of export controls and making major investments in energy and transportation infrastructure would create jobs and make the United States more competitive.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  The School Budget Validation Process: Stronger Voting Rights and Real Budget Savings for Maine Taxpayers

  By Stephen Bowen, Maine Heritage Policy Center
  
  Issue Brief, 01/29/2010
  

  Maine’s Legislature will debate on LD 1739, “An Act To Remove the Requirement that the Annual Budget of a Regional School Unit Must Be Approved at a Budget Validation Referendum.” This bill, sponsored by seven Republican state legislators and two Democrats, would not only remove from state law the requirement that all school budgets be put out to taxpayers for a referendum vote, it would repeal the budget validation law entirely.

  
  
  
• Transportation/Infrastructure
  

  6th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey: 2010

  By Wendell Cox, Hugh Pavletich, Demographia
  
  Report, 01/29/2010
  

  It is apparent that high-density is not the way to resolve the challenges posed by an increasing population. The enforced bland uniformity of high density living means more greenhouse gases, high traffic densities, worse health outcomes, a creaking and overloaded infrastructure, poor social outcomes and a whole generation locked out of owning their own home. It is particularly concerning that the unwise policies that afflict Sydney have spread to so many urban areas throughout the six nations covered by this Survey.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  10 China Myths for the New Decade

  By Derek Scissors, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Backgrounder, 01/29/2010
  

  China’s economic growth has been accompanied by growing misinformation about its economy. Contrary to conventional wisdom, China is not leading the world out of a recession, is no longer moving toward a market economy, is not America’s banker, and may never surpass the U.S. This paper debunks 10 leading myths about the Chinese economy and replaces them with the accurate picture necessary to guide American policy.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  Health Care and Medical Malpractice Reform: The Necessity of Reform in the Current Debate

  By John Cornyn, Edwin Meese III, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Heritage Lecture, 01/29/2010
  

  All victims of medical malpractice should have access to the courts for the compensation that they are entitled to under our laws, but state laws have encouraged highly inefficient litigation that enriches trial lawyers at the expense of both doctors and patients. Our current medical liability system encourages the practice of defensive medicine, which causes doctors to order unnecessary tests and treatments, simply close their practices, or refuse to perform high-risk procedures. Medical liability reform cannot solve all problems, but no health care bill will ever be comprehensive without it. The goal of health care reform, rather than raising premiums, taxing the middle class, and cutting Medicare, ought to be to lower costs, increase access to care, and improve the quality of care. Medical liability reform can accomplish all three of those goals.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  It Is Past Time for Macedonia to Join NATO

  By Sally McNamara, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 01/29/2010
  

  NATO must send a clear message that it remains open for business and that accession is possible for all free, democratic nations in Europe.

  
  
  
• Economic Growth
  

  Failure to Thrive: Job Creation and Loss in Massachusetts: 1990 – 2007

  By John Friar, Megan Gay, Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research
  
  White Paper, 01/29/2010
  

  In the United States as a whole, the number of employed individuals peaked in December, 2007. Since then, the country has shed 7.3 million jobs. However, Massachusetts is distinguished from the rest of the U.S. by the fact that it has been shedding jobs since the 2001 recession. Overall, job trends in Massachusetts from 2001 on show a significant and negative divergence from those in the rest of the country. This brief examines how jobs have been created and lost in Massachusetts in the eighteen- year period (1990-2007) leading up to the current recession.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  Healing without Harm: 21st Century Healthcare through High Reliability

  By Marcia L. Delk, Laura Linn, Melissa Ferguson, Rynnie Ross, Center for Health Transformation
  
  Report, 01/29/2010
  

  Listening to and learning from many of the experts advances have been made, but much more needs to be done; that we are safer in many places more of the time, but that overall healthcare is not safe. We identified “islands of excellence,” some of the exceptional organizations on the patient safety and quality journey that are doing amazing work and seeing results. It is our hope that by sharing this information with policymakers, healthcare stakeholders and the public, we can accelerate the transformation of the current healthcare system into a 21st century intelligent health system that saves lives and saves money.

  
  
  
• Economic Growth
  

  Our Vanishing Ultimate Resource

  By Steven Malanga, Manhattan Institute
  
  City Journal, 01/29/2010
  

  Nations today are faced with the startling revelation that their population-replacement levels are at an all time low. The “birth dearth,” as it has been dubbed, shows that nations are faced with declining labor pools, decrease in consumer spending, and are running head-on into a social security crisis. Although, efforts in countries such as Italy, Germany, and Japan to increase the fertility rate have been fruitless, America holds a much better chance of “maintaining its demographic balance.” America as it stands now holds a stable population-replacement level. As long as America continues the stability or even growth the benefits of that stability will “far outweigh many of the short-term economic concerns currently dominating headlines.”

  
  
  
• Economic Growth
  

  2010 Index of Economic Freedom

  By Terry Miller, Kim R. Holmes, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Book, 01/28/2010
  

  The 2010 Index of Economic Freedom covers 183 countries around the world, ranking 179 of them with an economic freedom score based on 10 measures of economic openness, regulatory efficiency, the rule of law, and competitiveness. The basic principles of economic freedom emphasized in the Index are individual empowerment, equitable treatment, and the promotion of competition.

  
  
  
• National Security
  

  The State of the U.S. Military

  By Mackenzie Eaglen, The Heritage Foundation
  
  White Paper, 01/28/2010
  

  The U.S. government’s primary job is to provide for the common defense. Regrettably, the collective decisions by Congress and both Democratic and Republican Presidents over the past 15 years have left the U.S. military using equipment that is extremely old and, in many cases, outdated. While compensation for military personnel continues to rise necessarily and deservedly, defense investment in modern systems to replace the vast arsenal of the military’s high-end platforms, like ships, planes, and tanks, is falling. Robust investment in next-generation equipment is needed now so that the troops who sign up in 10 years can also reap the benefits of American military primacy.

  
  
  
• Family, Culture & Community
  

  Marriage, Parentage, and the Constitution of the Family

  By Chuck Donovan, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 01/28/2010
  

  Policymakers should adopt reforms to strengthen families and rebuild civil society as the engine of the greatest human goods.

  
  
  
• Economic and Political Thought
  

  Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism

  By Lee Edwards, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Heritage Lecture, 01/28/2010
  

  One Western leader above all others forced the Soviets to give up the Brezhnev Doctrine and abandon the arms race, brought down the Berlin Wall, and ended the Cold War: President Ronald Reagan, whose victory strategy included challenging the Soviet regime’s legitimacy, regaining superiority in the arms race, and using human rights as a weapon as powerful as any in the U.S. or Soviet arsenal.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  How Health Care Reform Will Affect Young Adults

  By Rea S. Hederman Jr., Paul L. Winfree, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Center for Data Analysis Report, 01/28/2010
  

  Both of the current House and Senate health care bills disproportionately burden younger, healthier Americans with higher insurance premiums. To ensure that these young people buy health insurance anyway, Congress has decided to nudge them into purchasing insurance by enforcing a penalty for those who fail to buy coverage. Heritage Foundation analysts estimate that many under age 35 will opt out of buying insurance altogether, choosing to pay the penalty instead. If younger workers do not join the risk pool, insurers will be forced to raise premiums even higher to cover higher-benefit payouts to older people. Either way, younger Americans will have less disposable income—which means they are able to buy and save less—a lose-lose situation.

  
  
  
• Labor
  

  Davis-Bacon Suspension Would Fund 160,000 New Construction Jobs

  By James Sherk, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 01/28/2010
  

  President Obama should issue an executive order suspending the Davis-Bacon Act, creating 163,000 jobs with one stroke of the pen.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  Why a Public Plan Is Unnecessary to Stimulate Competition

  By Thomas P. Miller, Christopher J. Conover, American Enterprise Institute
  
  Working Paper, 01/27/2010
  

  Proponents of a public health insurance plan, including President Obama, claim it is needed to stimulate competition. This paper challenges that claim from a national, state and local perspective. The evidence shows that at the national level the health insurance market generally is highly competitive for the 61 percent of privately insured Americans who now purchase their coverage through large groups.

  
  
  
• Economic and Political Thought
  

  Why Tocqueville on China?

  By James W. Ceaser, American Enterprise Institute
  
  Paper, 01/27/2010
  

  Under the guidance of Tocqueville’s thought, the range of questions considered relevant for political inquiry extends well beyond that treated in ordinary political analysis today. With so enormous an array of subject matter to be covered, the Tocqueville on China project has sought more to propose a syllabus of study than to provide a definitive set of answers at this point. The syllabus poses great challenges at the same time that it opens up enormous opportunities. It calls to mind one of Lao-Tzu’s best-known proverbs: a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  Myths about Budget Deficits

  By John H. Makin, American Enterprise Institute
  
  Economic Outlook, 01/27/2010
  

  Last year projections, especially a three-year string of actual and projected deficits over a trillion dollars from 2009 through 2011, excited widespread comment and hand wringing about runaway deficits and their allegedly damaging effects in the form of lower growth, higher inflation, and higher interest rates. Come November’s midterm congressional elections it will offer voters an opportunity to render a judgment on the desirability of policies pursued over the past two years. If a large number of incumbent representatives and senators are voted out, part of the implicit mandate for the new Congress would be to undertake constructive measures to slow the growth of federal debt.

  
  
  
• Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, & Science
  

  Climategate & Penn State: The Case for an Independent Investigation

  By Commonwealth Foundation, Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives
  
  Policy Brief, 01/27/2010
  

  The release of embarrassingly candid emails from the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia has intensified, if not vindicated, suspicions that scientific misconduct has played a significant role in fueling alarmism over supposed catastrophic manmade global warming. Penn State University (PSU) is to be commended for recognizing that Climategate is a serious matter and that an investigation into Michael Mann’s conduct is warranted, the investigation constitutes a conflict of interest for the university. Mann’s climate work brings enough visibility, prestige, and revenue to PSU to legitimately call into question the university’s ability to do a thorough and unbiased investigation.

  
  
  
• Regulation & Deregulation
  

  Texas Criminal Justice Reform: Lower Crime, Lower Costs

  By Marc Levin, Texas Public Policy Foundation
  
  Policy Perspective, 01/27/2010
  

  In recent years, Texas has strengthened alternatives to incarceration for adults and juveniles, achieving significant reductions in crime while avoiding more than $2 billion in taxpayer costs that would have been incurred had Texas simply constructed more than 17,000 prison beds that a 2007 projection indicated would be needed. Similarly, juvenile crime has markedly declined at the same time Texas has reduced the number of youths in state institutions by 52.9 percent. By building on these successes in a challenging budget environment, policymakers can continue delivering improved results for public safety and taxpayers.

  
  
  
• Crime, Justice & the Law
  

  Prices, Reliability, and Consumer Choice in the Texas Electricity Market

  By Bill Peacock, Texas Public Policy Foundation
  
  Policy Perspective, 01/27/2010
  

  Markets may not guarantee the lowest possible prices, but they do guarantee the best possible prices based on a customer’s preference. Customers often prefer reliability, customer service, lack of volatility, and brands over the lowest possible price. Yet today, it appears that Texas consumers are getting all of those things and low prices as well. Only the government is keeping prices from getting even lower, proving to critics that reform does not bring on higher costs.

  
  
  
• Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, & Science
  

  What Boxer-Kerry Will Cost the Economy

  By David W. Kreutzer, et al. , The Heritage Foundation
  
  Backgrounder, 01/27/2010
  

  Barbara Boxer and John Kerry are pushing their climate-change legislation in the Senate. Like the Waxman-Markey bill, passed by the House last year, Boxer-Kerry is a cap-and-trade bill. Why is that bad? Because severely restricting greenhouse gas emission places an enormous burden on American families—higher gasoline prices, higher heating costs, higher energy taxes, higher unemployment. The Heritage Foundation’s team of economic and climate-change experts details the extraordinary costs that will fall on businesses and families across the country should this legislation become law.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  Realistic Budget Baseline Shows $13 Trillion in Debt over the Next Decade

  By Brian M. Riedl, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 01/27/2010
  

  The new CBO 10-year budget baseline provides a sobering picture of unsustainable deficits.

  
  
  
• Economic and Political Thought
  

  The Decline of Britain: A Cautionary Tale for America

  By Robin Harris, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Special Report, 01/27/2010
  

  Pursuing an authentically Anglo-Saxon route to decline offers no benefits to the United States. What works in one of our countries has been shown to work in the other. But what fails in one country also fails in the other, and in crucial respects Britain is now failing. The country’s palpable decline from its prosperity and security of just two decades ago constitutes an awful but, if intelligently observed, timely and useful warning to America.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  Battling Chavez’s Radical Vision for an Anti-U.S. Honduras

  By Ray Walser, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 01/27/2010
  

  The U.S. should take the critical first steps toward improving conditions not only in Honduras but—to Chávez’s chagrin—throughout Latin America.