PolicyBytes

Obamacare tries to impose a failed industrial-era Medicaid program on states; Mississippi is choosing 21^st century technology and innovation instead.

There is good news this Earth Day, but somehow we expect that many people will grumble at the good news rather than celebrate.

The tech bubble of the late 1990s was fueled by an economy that embraced the optimism, so both fell hard and at the same time. The recent tech-stock sell off never got widespread economy buy-in because it's still struggling under President Obama's economic policies. That means the tech sell off is probably more a correction than a bubble that just burst.

Democrats wrote, passed and praised Obamacare, including the legislation's cuts to seniors' Medicare Advantage program. But now that many of them are facing tough reelections, they asked the Obama administration to ignore the law and unilaterally postpone the cuts. The Obama administration responded by actually providing a spending increase.

Russia is a threat only because of it's military and energy resources, not because of it's economy. If the industrialized democracies, and especially the U.S., expand energy production, they can whittle away at Russia's budget and ability to create mischief.

Democrats want to make what's known as the gender pay gap an issue. But economists point out that when relevant factors are considered, there is little of no gap between men' and women's wages.

Red states are doing much better at reducing the rate of unemployment than blue states, largely because they shun the president's economic policies. Ironically, by doing so they lower the national unemployment rate making the president look better.

After a wrenching policy battle, billions of taxpayer dollars and a disastrous Obamacare rollout, a new study shows the uninsured rate has dropped to the high end of its historic level. But the media jumped on it as a clear sign that Obamacare is finally working.

There is an interesting and close correlation between U.S. minimum wage increases and rising youth unemployment that implies that hiking to cost of labor does cost jobs.

Is Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel telling the truth when he says spending cuts to the defense budget means popular programs will be eliminated? Who knows?