Author Archives: The Cato Institute

Lobbying: A Booming Business in a Politicized Economy

Lobbying expenditures are up in the second quarter of the Obama administration, reports the Center for Responsive Politics. Well-connected Democratic lobbyists like former House majority leader Richard Gephardt and Tony Podesta, the brother of Obama transition director John Podesta, did especially well. Continue reading

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Is Dr. Tiller’s Killer a Terrorist?

Mostly, it appears, the Tiller/terrorist question is emotional energy-drink for both sides of the abortion debate. Continue reading

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The Coburn-Burr-Ryan-Nunes Mandate-Price-Control Bill

The bill summary is self-contradictory. On the one hand, it lists “No Tax Increases” as a core concept. Do its authors not know that imposing price controls on health insurance premiums imposes a tax on healthier-than-average consumers? And where do they think the money for “risk-adjustment” payments will come from? Heaven? The bill sponsors seem to want to cement in place the monopoly regulation that currently exists at the state level — when they’re not encouraging Congress to take over that function. Have they abandoned their colleague Rep. John Shadegg’s (R-AZ) proposal to allow for competitive regulation of health insurance? Continue reading

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Why So Shy With The Hatchet?

ABC reports, “The Los Angeles Board of Education voted Tuesday to lay off as many as 5,400 teachers and support personnel for the upcoming school year” in order to help close “a roughly $718 million deficit.”

Ok, that’s a start. But the number of public school employees in the US has doubled since 1970, while the number of students has increased by just 9 percent. Continue reading

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Another Obama Lie

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Are We Ailing from Too Much Deregulation?

David R. Henderson “Americans May be Losing Faith in Free Markets” reads the title of a July 16 “news analysis” by Los Angeles Times reporter Peter G. Gosselin. “Wave Goodbye to the Invisible Hand” is the title of an August … Continue reading

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