In The News

Tom Giovanetti at the Institute for Policy Innovation says Obama is the first president in U.S. history not to have at least one year in office with a national GDP growth rate of at least 3 percent.

An oft-cited study from 2006 commissioned by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and conducted by the Institute for Policy Innovation found that film piracy cost the US economy $20.5 billion annually.

When you balance the “qualifiers” with the “disqualifiers,” it isn’t clear that either candidate is really qualified, much less “the most qualified.” 

Tim LaHaye's view of the end times as expressed in his 'Left Behind' series was influential in expanding the market for Christian fiction," said Merrill Matthews, IPI resident scholar. "The basic tenets of premillennial dispensationalism that emerged in the series were already embraced by many evangelicals. LaHaye's contribution was to put that theology in a format that was more accessible and relatable to readers.

If the goal is to increase penalties, then the Legislature can simply increase penalties. The hate crime designation is unnecessary.

This year’s convention is set to be a four-day effort to buy votes with taxpayer and employer money.

The Department of Justice announcement to block two separate health insurer mergers sabotages those insurers’ ability to survive Obamacare’s financially unsustainable and onerous regulatory environment in the health insurance marketplace.

Despite concerted efforts to keep its state health insurance exchange rate increases low and feign the Affordable Care Act as “affordable,” California’s Obamacare exchange customers will see a 13.2% rate hike, which is more than triple the premium increases they saw the previous two years, undermining the Obama administration’s claims that health care costs have moderated.

This month’s Democratic convention will be a hotbed of anti-fossil fuel vitriol. The policy platform, invited speakers, and nominee herself all support a war against oil and natural gas.

"No one has any idea what the Trump campaign's positions are on communications policy," Giovanetti told us. "There's no evidence at this point that there is anything approaching a policy process on the Trump campaign -- which is part of why I thought the platform was more important in this peculiar year."