Idaho appears the national leader now in bringing sanity to our health care system. Not that you would know it from the many complaints about what they are doing, as seen in the article in The New York Times: Some groups representing patients, including the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association and the lobbying…
Category: Corporate Welfare
Whose Better for the Texas Economy: Hollywood Filmmakers or Texas Entrepreneurs?
Filmmakers and government economic development types are bemoaning the fact that Texas doesn’t offer as much as other states when it comes to film subsidies. “Texas is losing jobs because we cannot compete,” said Janis Burklund, director of the Dallas Film Commission. It may, or may not, be the case that Texas is losing jobs…
Harry Reid’s Cronyist UFO Hunt Cost Taxpayers $20 Million
A recent program in the Defense Department for the purpose of understanding “unidentified aerial phenomena” cost taxpayers at least $20 million. The program was initiated by Harry Reid, at the behest of a campaign contributor, when he was still Senate majority leader. Politico reports: Reid initiated the program, which ultimately spent more than $20 million, through an earmark after he…
Alexander Hamilton: Father of Modern Corporate Welfare?
Corporate welfare, the use of government to enrich corporate executives and shareholders with profits they can’t earn in the market, is rampant today. Title insurers, alcoholic beverage distributors, and renewable energy companies are just a few who rake in ill-gotten profits at the expense of taxpayers and consumers. Though cronyism today may be at its…
Short Memories
We have such short memories. Relating to today’s debate about fossil fuels versus renewable fuels, here is what The Times of London said about a similar debate over coal versus renewables: Coal is everything to us. Without coal, our factories will become idle, our foundries and workshops be still as the grave; the locomotive will…
SwampCare 101 – Surprise, Surprise, Surprise
Few things in politics surprise me anymore; I expect to see the unexpected, the absurd, the mind blowing, etc. Still, the fact that the Republicans can’t see that with SwampCare (or RyanCare, or ObamaCare Light, etc.) they are doing the exact same thing that the Democrats did—“we have to pass the bill so that you…
Restoring Liberty through the States—and the People
Liberty has afforded all Americans the opportunity to live prosperous lives through hard work and civic cooperation. Unfortunately, the immense growth of the federal government has, in the words of Milton Friedman, made it more likely “that its actions will reflect special interests rather than the general interest.” Instead of government being the means for…
Good News and Not So Good News on Corporate and Constituent Pork
Good news from Florida on the corporate welfare front as reported by the News Service of Florida: The talks on [budget] allocations had largely centered on Gov. Rick Scott’s call for a $1 billion tax-cut package and a “Florida Enterprise Fund” of $250 million in business incentives. … In the end, lawmakers agreed to $400…