Author Archive
Tuesday Links
- Price controls have failed in the past and there is no reason to think they will work now. So why is the president proposing price controls on health care? Michael Tanner: “Attempts to control prices by government fiat ignore basic economic laws — and the result could be disastrous for the American health-care system.”
- Does this federal government policy make me look fat? Be honest. (Yes).
- So, President Obama wants a presidential commission on the budget deficit. Isn’t that a little bit like W.C. Fields asking for a commission on sobriety?
- Podcast: “POTUS and Price Controls in Health Care” featuring Michael F. Cannon.
• February 23, 2010 @ 1:56 pm
Filed under: General; Government and Politics; Health Care; Regulatory Studies
Filed under: General; Government and Politics; Health Care; Regulatory Studies
Monday Links
- Progressives are outraged that the Supreme Court overturned limits on corporate political advertising last month. Here’s why they should be rejoicing.
- Policy forum today at Cato: “Will the Senate Health Care Bill Keep the Poor Poor?” Click here to watch live from 12:00-1:30 PM EST.
- Idea of the day: Cut the Commerce Department to boost real business.
- Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron: “Economists find weak or contradictory evidence that higher government spending spurs the economy. Substantial research, however, does find that tax cuts stimulate the economy and that fiscal adjustments—attempts to reduce deficits by raising taxes or lowering expenditure—work better when they focus on tax cuts.”
- Cato’s Ilya Shapiro wrapping up daily dispatches from the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. More here.
- Podcast: “How Many Libertarians?” featuring David Boaz.
• February 22, 2010 @ 12:19 pm
Filed under: Cato Publications; General; Government and Politics; Health Care
Filed under: Cato Publications; General; Government and Politics; Health Care
Thursday Links
- A few things you might not know about rail travel: “Automobiles in intercity travel are as energy efficient as Amtrak. Cars are getting more energy efficient, while boosting Amtrak trains to higher speeds will make them less energy efficient.” The list goes on…
- Quiz Time! Which was the only country in the 27-nation European Union to register economic growth without going through a recession last year? The answer might surprise you.
- Unionized teachers refuse to work 25 minutes more a day, so Rhode Island town fires all of them.
- Arnold Kling on Haiti, poverty, and capitalism.
- Podcast: This is what happens to American jobs when you have one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world.
Wednesday Links
- Is there a place for gay people in conservative politics? We’ll be discussing it today at Cato. Watch here live at 12 PM EST.
- President Obama announces $8 billion in loan guarantees to build a new nuclear power plant in Georgia. But are government subsidies for pet energy projects a good idea?
- What happens when the Olympics don’t go completely according to plan.
- Podcast: “Lessig, Schumer and Citizens United” featuring John Samples.
Tuesday Links
- How the Tea Party movement can prove its authenticity.
- Why Americans’ first loyalty must be to the Constitution
- “Snowmageddon!” If you’ve been watching the news, recent snow storms both prove and disprove global warming, depending on who you talk to. According to Pat Michaels, both sides are wrong: “The fact of the matter is that global warming simply hasn’t done a darned thing to Washington’s snow. The planet was nearly a degree (Celsius) cooler in 1899, when the previous record was set. If you plot out year-to-year snow around here, you’ll see no trend whatsoever through the entire history.”
- Did last week’s government shutdown actually save American’s billions of dollars?
- Podcast:”Scrap ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’” featuring Christopher A. Preble.
Thursday Links
- Why the Tea Partiers should not date the GOP: “This movement is simply saying: ‘We are fine without you, Washington. Now for the love of God, go attend a reception somewhere, and stop making health care and entrepreneurship more expensive than they already are.’”
- Why President Obama should be open to cutting military spending: “A real test of a leader’s wisdom and strength would recognize that more spending does not equal greater security.”
- A growing disconnect: “A nasty spat has erupted between Washington and Beijing over the Obama administration’s arms sales to Taiwan….The bulk of the evidence suggests that storm clouds are building in the US-China relationship.”
- Podcast: “Obama’s Permanent Bailouts” featuring Mark Calabria.
Wednesday Links
- David Boaz debates at The Economist: Is Obama failing? “In many ways, Obama has just doubled down on George W. Bush’s policies of bailouts, takeovers, expanded Fed powers and nationalizations. In a recession he is adding debt, taxes and regulation to the burdens already felt by business.” Readers can vote and join the debate.
- Ever wonder why weather forecasters can get things so wrong?
- Looking for a primer on the causes of the financial crisis? The new Cato Policy Report has answers.
- Podcast: “Citizens United and SpeechNow.org” featuring Steve Simpson of the Institute of Justice.
Tuesday Links
- Obama’s budget and the $1 trillion mistake.
- Justin Logan on the rise of government and central control: “The factor that explains the largest share of the centralism and growth of the American state is war.“
- What we can learn from Hugo Chavez: “The lesson for all of us, north and south of the border, is watch our presidents closely, and check them when they try to slip their constitutional bonds.”
- “Stimulus Means More Meddling in Education” featuring Adam B. Schaeffer.
Monday Links
- Another day, another IPCC-gate.
- Why remaining in Afghanistan and creating a stable government there is not a precondition to keeping America safe. For more, watch the debate on Bloggingheads.
- Jeffrey Miron: “Leave Mideast, end terrorism.”
- Could Iran’s nuclear program be a sacrificial pawn?
- Globalization: A curse or a cure?
- Podcast: “Liberate Bone Marrow Donors” featuring Jeff Rowes of the Institute for Justice.
Weekend Links
- A libertarian primer on the real meaning of the phrase “campaign finance reform.” For more, read John Samples’ book, The Fallacy of Campaign Finance Reform.
- New report shows that Head Start, a sacrosanct (and very expensive) federal education program, doesn’t work. So what should we do about it? Give it more money of course!
- “In his State of the Union address, President Obama proposed spending another $4 billion annually on K–12 public education. He did not mention that state, local, and federal governments already spend well over twice what they did in 1980, or that there has been no discernible improvement in student achievement during that period.” Just sayin’.
- Michael Tanner on Obama’s faith-based boondoggle: “The faith-based initiative was a typical example of Bush-style “big-government” conservatism. It has been co-opted by the Obama administration as another weapon for social engineering.”
How Will the Independents Vote?
In a recent Cato study, “The Libertarian Vote in the Age of Obama,” authors David Boaz and David Kirby found that libertarian voters, who make up about 14 percent of the electorate, are a leading indicator of how independents will cast their ballots.
Appearing on Freedom Watch earlier this week, Boaz explained the results of the study, and what it means for the next election. Watch:
Post-State of the Union Links
- Cato experts give Obama’s State of the Union a video fisking.
- Are we watching the History Channel or something? Because this new president sure does sound a lot like the old one.
- Time for the SOTU fact check: Cato experts put some of President Obama’s core State of the Union claims to the test. Here’s what they found.
- Flashback to February 2009: Gene Healy on how “the president talks too much.“
- During this year’s SOTU, President Obama criticized the Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case. Today’s podcast examines the Court’s ruling.
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