Publications

Designed to recover welfare costs from parents who abandon their children, child support has expanded to include middle-class divorced families for which it was never intended. Through this abuse of power, taxpayers subsidize both fatherlessness and state government operations.

Today the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and lawmakers announced the “Family Choice Act of 2007,” legislation which should be more aptly named the “Nanny State Micromanages the Video Industry Act.

It’s getting to be a little difficult to engage in a calm, reasoned discussion of costs and benefits of immigration.

Natural disasters exposed serious flaws in the way we manage risk, including bread-and-butter items like homeowner's insurance. Regulatory power split between the states and Washington poses a challenge to reforming insurance regulation for the benefit of consumers and the US as global competitor.

Increasing competition among regulators is a promising idea, and one approach is an optional federal charter that would let insurers register with Washington rather than the state capitol. Another approach being tried out is for forward-looking states to contract with each other and regulate for economic efficiency and consumer welfare, not political grandstanding. These two ideas could also interact in a very productive way, and will get careful scrutiny in the months ahead.

More than 20 years ago Tipper Gore, the wife of then-Senator Al Gore (D-TN), initiated an educational effort.

The U.S. currently dominates the globe, but many Americans are uneasy about future competition from China. Much depends on getting U.S.-China policy "right." But Washington is operating from a position of strength and should engage China without fear. America should peacefully confront Beijing over economic and security issues. Moreover, the U.S. should push free trade throughout Asia, cooperate on China policy with friendly states, and put the American economy in order.

Well, the Democratic presidential candidates appear to be agreed on one thing: they will have to repeal President Bush’s tax cuts in 2010 to pay for their forays into government-run health care.

“Piddle twiddle and resolve, not one darn thing do we solve” said John Adams of Congress in the Broadway musical “1776”.

What if a state legislature decided it wanted to return some of the taxpayers’ hard-earned money? Hey, it could happen! What could the legislature do? Tax Freedom Day? Cutting the sales or income tax? A property tax cut? And where might legislators find some savings? How about passing school choice legislation.

Thailand has decided to “compulsory license” the AIDS drug Kaletra, made by the pharmaceutical manufacturer Abbott Laboratories.