Vermont Single Payer Health Care Financing Slides Toward Chaos

In his 2011 inaugural address Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin declared “we must create a single-payer...
Health Care

Ohio Lawmaker Says to Save Money, End Project Labor Agreements

An Ohio lawmaker says a simple change to state law could save 20 percent on government building...
Fiscal

Preexisting Condition Troubles Illustrate ObamaCare’s Flaws

An early ObamaCare health insurance program that has been operating for nearly three years is...
Health Care
| Grace-Marie Turner

Obama’s New Minimum Wage, Insurance Mandates Will Create Labor Market Tsunami

By John C. Goodman   President Obama recently proposed raising the federal minimum wage. If...
Health Care
| John C. Goodman

Are Pearson-Taught Students Getting an Unfair Testing Advantage?

The largest education company in the world put reading passages from its new Common Core-aligned...
Education
| Evelyn B. Stacey

Kansas Town, Chinese Investors Feel Duped by Ethanol Plant Deal

In 2007, the 6,000 residents of Ulysses, Kan., were given big promises and high hopes with the...
Fiscal
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Education

Poll: Americans Likely to Support Parent Trigger Laws

Forty-nine percent of U.S. adults support Parent Trigger laws, which give parents the ability to petition for reforms at their children’s failing school, and 40 percent oppose such laws, finds a new poll. In urban areas, 57 percent of adults support a Parent Trigger law.  California passed the first such law in 2010, and now seven states have some version of it on the books. “Parents should...

Environment

Holocene Histories of Atmospheric CO2 Concentration and West Greenland Air Temperature

What can be learned from a cursory glance at the data? That the CO2 concentration of Earth’s atmosphere appears to have had no consistent impact on July air temperatures in the vicinity of North Lake, Greenland, over the past seven millennia... Read More Divining Future Winter Wheat Yields in the United Kingdom (21 May 2013) It would appear that even the worst-case climate-change scenarios...

Alaska Continues Its Record Long, Snowy Winter

Anchorage, Alaska set a record last week for its longest snow season on record. The city also set a record for its lowest May 17 maximum temperature. Global warming activists often claim Alaska is among the places most negatively affected by warming temperatures. In his movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore claimed warming temperatures are melting the Alaska tundra and destroying homes and...

Kansas Town, Chinese Investors Feel Duped by Ethanol Plant Deal

In 2007, the 6,000 residents of Ulysses, Kan., were given big promises and high hopes with the proposal of a second major ethanol processing plant. The facility, to be built by Nexsun Ethanol LLC, brought with it a commitment to the economic future of the community and the promise of 50 well-paying jobs. Barely a year later, the project came to a grinding halt. And since then, Nexsun’s site on...

Finance & Insurance

The Fed’s $1 Trillion Bailout . . . of Foreign Banks

In a recent eye-opening piece by Zerohedge.com, “Thanks to QE Bernanke has injected foreign banks with $1 trillion in cash for the first time ever,” the highly trafficked financial blog notes that as quantitative easing has increased, so have foreign bank cash assets. In fact, since 2009, as the Fed has loaded up on U.S. Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities, foreign bank cash assets have...

Federal Reserve’s ‘Exit Strategy’ is Just More Monetary Manipulation

The recent media reports that the Federal Reserve has devised an “exit strategy” to reverse their nearly $3 trillion increase of the money supply over the last several years shows the monetary central planners remain wedded to the philosophy of “fine-tuning.” The “Fed” leadership still retains the hubris that they can manipulate the economy into sustainable “soft landings” following their own...

Online 'Marketplace Fairness Act' Could Tax Your 401(k)



The U.S. Senate recently passed the Marketplace Fairness Act, which would force online retailers to collect sales taxes for states in which purchasers reside. Most have heard how this will hit us when we purchase goods over the Internet. But a lesser-known problem is the legislation also would enable states to levy new taxes on 401(k) and other savings vehicles. How? The bill authorizes states to...

Health

Preexisting Condition Troubles Illustrate ObamaCare’s Flaws

An early ObamaCare health insurance program that has been operating for nearly three years is foreshadowing big problems to come with the larger health overhaul law. The law allocated $5 billion for a program to help uninsured people with preexisting conditions get insurance. It was designed to provide temporary bridge coverage until the health law takes full effect in 2014. But this temporary...

Vermont Single Payer Health Care Financing Slides Toward Chaos

In his 2011 inaugural address Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin declared “we must create a single-payer healthcare system that provides universal, affordable health insurance for all Vermonters that brings these skyrocketing costs under control. Let Vermont be the first state in the nation to treat healthcare as a right and not a privilege.” From that moment on, Shumlin has directed a large part of his...

Obama’s New Minimum Wage, Insurance Mandates Will Create Labor Market Tsunami

By John C. Goodman   President Obama recently proposed raising the federal minimum wage. If the president gets his way, the mandate will jump from its current $7.25 an hour to $9 an hour and be indexed for inflation. In addition, next January the employer mandate goes into effect, which will increase labor costs even more—all thanks to the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare). The Congressional...

Taxes

Ohio Lawmaker Says to Save Money, End Project Labor Agreements

An Ohio lawmaker says a simple change to state law could save 20 percent on government building projects and give more companies the chance to compete for work with the state and local governments. State Rep. Ron Young (R-Leroy) is the prime sponsor of a bill that would do away with a state-level requirement for Project Labor Agreements, or PLAs, on all publicly-funded construction projects....

Kansas Town, Chinese Investors Feel Duped by Ethanol Plant Deal

In 2007, the 6,000 residents of Ulysses, Kan., were given big promises and high hopes with the proposal of a second major ethanol processing plant. The facility, to be built by Nexsun Ethanol LLC, brought with it a commitment to the economic future of the community and the promise of 50 well-paying jobs. Barely a year later, the project came to a grinding halt. And since then, Nexsun’s site on...

IRS Scandal Brings Calls for Heads to Roll, Obamacare to be Delayed

The scandal involving the Internal Revenue Service that exploded into the headlines in mid-May is still being investigated, but the implications already appear wide, perhaps even to the point of delaying implementation of Obamacare. With allegations swirling that the IRS was used as a political weapon against groups that are conservative, libertarian, or constitutionalist in nature came news it...

Tech

Online 'Marketplace Fairness Act' Could Tax Your 401(k)



The U.S. Senate recently passed the Marketplace Fairness Act, which would force online retailers to collect sales taxes for states in which purchasers reside. Most have heard how this will hit us when we purchase goods over the Internet. But a lesser-known problem is the legislation also would enable states to levy new taxes on 401(k) and other savings vehicles. How? The bill authorizes states to...

Internet Tax Bill Fight Moves from Senate to House

Now that the U.S. Senate has voted 69-27 to allow states to compel online retailers to collect sales tax even when they have no physical presence in a state where a shopper is located, will we see a stronger pushback? Politicos expect a tougher fight in the House of Representatives. Lobbyists including former lawmakers and governors have been hired by supporters of the bill to push it to victory...