In The News

During fiscal cliff talks, transparency advocacy groups including the Institute for Policy Innovation called on President Obama and congressional leaders to post bills online for 72 hours before a vote; release in real-time details on any lobbyist meetings; and disclose any "side deals" for future legislative consideration.

A Rio Rancho man faces charges of music piracy after investigators found more than 20,000 bootleg CDs in his possession. A study by the Institute for Policy Innovation indicated that music theft means more than 70,000 jobs lost in the music community and more than $2 billion in lost wages to American workers.

Trade restrictions are almost always a bad idea. In the case of natural-gas exports, they would be particularly foolish and economically disastrous.

ALEC's Communications and Technology Task Force is examining "uber trends" affecting the telecom world, big changes that won't be easy to "crystallize into model legislation," as the heavyweight organization has often done in the past, said IPI's Bartlett Cleland, Private Chair.

If Obama wants more federal revenue, he can have it without raising taxes. Just relax the restrictions on drilling on federal lands and offshore and let natural gas companies export abroad.

NPR health policy correspondent Julie Rovner cites IPI's Dr. Merrill Matthews on why Medicaid needs a complete overhaul. "Although it's better than not having any insurance, it is bad insurance. And I argue that health care coverage for the poor shouldn't necessarily be poor coverage."

Since ObamaCare's success will be judged solely by how many uninsured people attain coverage, Democrats are desperately hoping the states will accept the Medicaid expansion being foisted on them by the health care law. But they may be be disappointed, writes IPI's Merrill Matthews.

Stand fast, keep your promise, says a coalition of interest groups, including IPI, that implore lawmakers not to waver on the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, even as Democrats and select Republicans insist that the only alternative to the "fiscal cliff" is instant compromise. Not so, says the coalition.

In their endless quest to blame someone other than their own policies for the country’s economic ills, liberals are focusing less on former President George W. Bush and more on Grover Norquist, founder and president Americans for Tax Reform and creator of the “Taxpayer Protection Pledge.”