Mainstream media disinformation — the new case of “The Hill”
“The Hill” offers the latest example of outrageous pro-establishment media bias—publishing false information about the citizens’ constitutional amendment process, and then refusing either a correction or a response.
Getting serious about housing affordability
Although many cities across the country are facing serious housing shortages, the efforts they are making to fix the problem are doomed to failure. Their so-called affordable housing programs address symptoms, not causes, and apply band-aid solutions when far different (but less costly) tools are needed. Median home prices in most American cities are less […]
Educational opportunity is a family-wide benefit
How does expanded educational opportunity impact families in terms of expectations, habits, and aspirations? This central question too often gets lost in purely data-driven debates about private school choice programs. Given the early evidence, perhaps it is time to change that. Longstanding public policy debates often begin to take on a strange feeling of deja […]
For health policy that works, look at the evidence
When a policy generating a lot of fame and fortune starts to go wrong, the temptation to ignore new data can be irresistible. For over 50 years, mainstream U.S. health policy makers have promoted research supporting Kenneth Arrow’s 1963 assertion that “it is the general social consensus, clearly, that the laissez-faire solution for medicine is […]
In the wake of a gun ban, Venezuela sees rising homicide rate
Since April 2017, at least 163 pro-democracy protesters in Venezuela have been murdered by the Maduro dictatorship. Venezuela serves as an example of how gun prohibition can sometimes encourage gun crime. In 2012, the communist-dominated Venezuelan National Assembly enacted the “Control of Arms, Munitions and Disarmament Law.” The bill’s stated objective was to “disarm all citizens.” […]
Obama is gone, but his fiscal waste is still befouling American health care
For real health care waste, it is hard to beat the Obama administration. Crony capitalists, academic institutions, select nonprofits, and state bureaucracies are raking in enormous sums. Ordinary Americans are paying the price. If government officials cannot find the courage to return control of health care to patients and their doctors, American health care quality […]
Montana high court set to rule on state’s discrimination against religious schools
The ignominious death of a critical educational choice case at the hands of a newly elected school board majority in Colorado dealt a serious blow to disadvantaged students nationwide. However, the debate about Blaine Amendments goes on. Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, a similar case in Montana, will get its day in court on […]
Gun ban for young adults would be wholly unconstitutional
Besides violating the laws of some states and cities, firearms bans for young adults also violate the Constitution. In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the Supreme Court reiterated that “[c]onstitutional rights are enshrined with the scope they were understood to have when the people adopted them.” When the Second Amendment was adopted, there were no firearms restrictions on 18-to-20-year-olds, and they were included in every militia across the country.
Coloradans are taking on the state’s largest monopoly utility
With COPUC approval, Xcel, the state’s largest monopoly utility, plans to shift its generating portfolio from away from majority hydrocarbons (coal and natural gas) in favor of industrial wind, solar, and battery storage.
Schatz’s ignorance of our Anglo-American legal heritage is part of a much wider problem
Educated citizens who enter politics eventually learn that deep ignorance is not unusual among elected officials. To idealists, the discovery can be a shock.
Another government shutdown would be great for America
Once again, we are threatened with a federal government “shutdown.” Well, this citizen out in the hinterland says, “Bring it on!” Most of the functions that would be interrupted aren’t really constitutional anyway, and we could do well without them. In fact, we should defund some of them permanently to help close the federal deficit. […]
Local Colorado governments are boarding the gravy train of corporate welfare
Like most states, Colorado has a bureaucracy dedicated to doling out taxpayer-subsidized “incentives” to politically favored private businesses that don’t actually need a subsidy in the first place. The most recent example is a “consolidated” corporate welfare pitch to Amazon to bring its coveted HQ 2 to the Denver area. Several years ago, the New York […]
