ObamaCare Repeal Won’t Add to the Deficit
How, then, does the ObamaCare health control law magically convert $1 trillion in new spending into painless deficit reduction? It’s all about budget gimmicks, deceptive accounting, and implausible assumptions used to create the false impression of fiscal discipline.
Housing and Economic Growth
Nations with well-functioning housing markets that are responsive to changes in demand will be more likely to grow faster than nations with strict land-use regulation, says a new report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The report is a part of a series of studies known as Going for Growth that are […]
Does Congress really have authority to regulate campaign finance?
[Rob Natelson is the author of the new book, The Original Constitution: What it Actually Said and Meant. To learn more about this topic, hear Rob’s podcast Election Law and the Election Clause.] The Constitution granted Congress only enumerated powers. Did those powers include measures of “campaign finance reform?” Congress justifies campaign regulation as flowing […]
Falling Enrollment Pushes Small Colo. School District to $46,000 Per Pupil
I’ve heard my mom say on more than one occasion that people come in all shapes and sizes. The same is true for school districts, too. Rebecca Jones at Education News Colorado provides some interesting insights with a story focused on Colorado’s smallest, and steadily shrinking, school district: Agate. When you see the numbers and […]
Editing Comments
This site was briefly shut down yesterday when our server noted unusual activity. I did a scan of the site and found some malicious code in the comment editor plug in. I also discovered some anonymous person of foreign persuasion had made themselves into a site administrator. I deleted that user, changed the passwords, and […]
Colorado Environmental Coalition Suffers from Cognitive Dissonance
Yesterday the Colorado Environmental Coalition, a Denver lobbing group for “green” policies, issued an illogical press release. On the one hand, it quotes Executive Director Elise Jones saying, “When the dust settles on this session, we will judge our success based on the savings families across Colorado will see in their pocketbooks and the jobs […]
Yes, Medicare is an (unsustainable & bankrupt) welfare program
“With Medicare, we are all still making out like bandits, shoving all those costs to future generations,” said [economist Eugene] Steuerle. “At another level, we know that this system is totally unsustainable.”
House Transportation Subcommittee Chairs
Yesterday, Representative John Mica, who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, announced the names of the chairs and members of the committee’s various subcommittees. The good news for those who believe in user-fee driven transportation is that the chair of the Highways and Transit Subcommittee is John “Jimmy” Duncan, Jr., who is probably one […]
“What’s at the absolute top” of Jeb Bush’s Education Reform List? Digital Learning
Today I get to recommend to you a great video from reason.tv, as Nick Gillespie asks former Florida governor (and founder, board president and chairman of the Foundation for Excellence in Education) Jeb Bush, “What is at the absolute top of your education reform list?”:
For those of you too impatient to watch the video (or […]
CDPHE’s Regional Haze State Implementation Plan: At Least $100 Million Too Expensive
On January 15, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) submitted to the General Assembly a State Implementation Plan (SIP) to comply with the Regional Haze provision of the Clean Air Act. The General Assembly must approve the SIP before it can be sent to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for final review. […]
Medicaid block grant saves Rhode Island $100 million
Instead of receiving open-ended Federal matching funds for spending its taxpayers’ money Rhode Island received a block grant. The state’s Rhode Island’s Secretary of Health & Human Services explains the benefits.
Spend It While You’ve Got It
Last week, California Governor Jerry Brown said that the state’s financial problems are so bad that it should end urban-renewal subsidies. So the state’s urban-renewal agencies have selflessly stepped up and turned over surplus funds to the state to help it solve its financial problems. Just kidding. Instead, redevelopment agencies all over the state have […]
