Yesterday, on the 237th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, pressure from grassroots activists forced Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to withdraw his pork-laden Omnibus spending bill from further consideration. Not only was the bill chock-full of earmarks, but it also sought to provide funding to key provisions of Obama's health care law. Its defeat was an early holiday gift and a story Hollywood couldn't have…

United States Should Shoot Down U.N. Small Arms Treaty

The Obama administration recently appointed a negotiator to work with the United Nations on a treaty to regulate international trade in small arms. The ostensible goal is to staunch the flow of illegal weapons to drug cartels,…

Government Unions vs. Taxpayers

The rise of the labor movement in the early 20th century was a triumph for America's working class.

But the majority of union members today no longer work in construction,…

Practical Lessons in Budget Cuts: The WWII and Canadian Experiences

According to some polls, more than 70 percent of Americans believe the stimulus is not working. They worry that Washington isn't offering effective solutions to our persistent economic malaise. Instead of the endless -- and useless -- debate over whether stimulus theory works, let's look to concrete examples of how countries can escape a debt crisis, according to David R.…

Strapped States to Hollywood: Stay Home

The new primetime television show Detroit 1-8-7 is giving the Motor City's famous restaurant, American Coney Island, a lift, with customers pouring in since it appeared in the show in September. What's good for the restaurant, however, hasn't been so great for Michigan taxpayers, says Tom Moroney.

• The show's producers were lured by state incentives -- a mix…

How to Get Good Grades

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) PISA study details and ranks the reading, mathematics and science skills of 15 year olds in each member country every three years. But even more important than ranking school systems is knowing how to make them better, says the Economist.…

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the Tax Deal

Compared to ideal tax policy, the deal announced this week between congressional Republicans and President Obama is terrible. But compared to what many expected to happen, the deal is pretty good. In other words, grading this package depends on your benchmark. This is why reaction has been all over the map, says Daniel J. Mitchell, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute.…

Federal Pay Freeze Plan Wouldn't Stop Raises

President Obama spoke of the need for sacrifice last week when he announced a two-year pay freeze for federal employees. But feds won't be too terribly deprived in 2011 and 2012. Despite the freeze, some 1.1 million employees will receive more than $2.5 billion in raises during that period, according to the Federal Times.

• Congress is expected to approve Obama's…

No Volunteers, Please, We're Unionized

Petaluma is one of those idyllic small cities that dot Route 101 on the way north from the Golden Gate Bridge through the wine country. But Petaluma, struggling like most municipalities in California under the current fiscal crisis, has found delivering public services -- from education to public safety -- anything but pleasant, says Pete Peterson, executive director of the Davenport Institute for Public Engagement and Civic…

December 3, 2010

A Simple Way to Improve Medicare

Medicare's "doc fix" has been enacted and reenacted countless times over the past decade, says Jeffrey A. Singer, a surgeon in Phoenix, Arizona.

Each time the day of reckoning approaches, the American Medical Association (AMA) and others implore Congress to prevent the cuts under the sustainable growth rate. They argue, correctly, that cuts to physicians' reimbursements will…