Publications

Over the past 40 years, taxpayers have supplied the U.S. public education system with steady improvements in funding, teacher pay, teacher credentials, and student/teacher ratios.Yet with these resources, public education has consistently failed to produce well-educated children; indeed, the quality of education has declined over time as measured by almost any standard. Centralization and unionization have removed parental voice and exit from the system, which can only be restored through school choice.

Several state organizations are promoting a new, "simplified" state sales tax system in order to tax e-commerce. While the current moratorium doesn’t prohibit states from collecting taxes within their own borders, it does prohibit them from creating new and discriminatory taxes. The Founding Fathers wanted states to compete against each other, even in taxation. Extending or making the current moratorium permanent would coincide with the Founders’ principles of federalism.

As the market for prescription drugs becomes more competitive, consumers have more choices of high-quality drugs at reasonable prices. It is competition and DTC advertising — not government regulation — that enables the choices and will enhance the benefits. If legislators and health policy experts want to ensure that more drugs are available at lower prices, they should consider policies that encourage advertising and competition. We have no reason to fear advertising; what we should fear is the people who want to control it.

The personal saving rate in the U.S. is alarmingly low — far too low to meet the retirement needs of the baby boomers. The very low saving rate restricts investment, which in turn retards economic growth. The culprit is the pervasive bias against saving that is built into almost every aspect of the tax code. Removing this bias against saving through tax reform could raise national income by 10 to 15 percent in 15 years.

This publication is part of the Road Map to Tax Reform™ Series

In 2000 Congress ended the Social Security retirement earnings test for retirees 65 years and older, but the earnings test remains for early retirees ages 62-64. This Issue Brief lays out the case for eliminating the retirement earnings test for all retirees.

Major current political criticisms of the pharmaceutical industry are answered, such as direct-to-consumer advertising, "obscene" profit margins, patent protection, etc.

President Bush's prescription drug proposal, properly done, would provide prescription drug coverage for those most in need without creating a new entitlement that could bankrupt Medicare. This IPI Idea proposes a modification to the catastrophic portion of President Bush's proposal.

The January 2001 issue of IPI's newsletter, IPI Insights. Available only in Adobe Acrobat PDF form (for now), or hard copy.

This annual listing of ten of the worst regulations of the federal government, jointly produced with the Lexington Institute, focuses this year on environmental and technology regulations.