The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, is bringing many changes in the healthcare space and few are as subtly transformative as the rapid increase in cross-industry consolidation. A record breaking 115 mergers and acquisitions among hospitals and health systems occurred in 2017, an increase of 13 percent from 2016. These mega-deals can […]
Music Copyright Modernization Moves Forward
Technological advances over the past several decades have dramatically changed the way everyone listens to music, but compensation for performers, producers, and songwriters remains in the dark ages. They do not receive just compensation for the intellectual property created by their hard work and ingenuity. For the past couple of years, House Judiciary Committee has […]
Rescission and the Trump Administration
Rescission is an abstruse presidential tool passed amid the Nixon administration under the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974. Using rescission, a president can select any appropriated federal program for reduction or elimination by telling Congress what he or she intends to cut. The Congress then has 45 days to accept the decision […]
Online Sales Tax Debate to See Day in Court
During the first week of April, 2018, a number of organizations filed amicus briefs with the Supreme Court with respect to the case of South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., Overstock.com, Inc., and NewEgg, Inc. The petitioner in the case seeks to overturn the physical nexus requirement specified by the Supreme Court in 1992, when it […]
Americans Continue to Pay More for Sugar
As people eat their leftover Easter candy from last weekend, they may want to think about how much they paid for all those treats. Raw sugar in the United States regularly costs twice or triple the world average, and this hurts food companies and leads to high prices at the grocery store. U.S. laws artificially […]
CBO Projects Strong Economic Growth in 2018 and 2019
Taxes, Budget, Appropriations
Stealing Patents Won’t Bring Down Drug Costs
On February 15, 2018, 18 Democratic members of Congress sent a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar, asking him to use his authority under 28 U.S.C. §1498 to issue a compulsory license on patents for drugs that treat hepatitis C. In other words, they are demanding that the government steal a […]
Are Republicans Serious About a Balanced Budget Amendment?
In 2018, Republicans have done little to separate themselves from Democrats when it comes to spending taxpayer dollars. On February 9, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 eviscerated the last semblance of fiscal responsibility in Washington, the 2011 Budget Control Act, by allowing spending caps to increase by $300 billion over the next two years. […]
New House Bill to Permanently Ban Earmarks
The Earmark Elimination Act—H.R. 5369—would prohibit the House from considering any legislation containing earmarks, and it would strip any earmarks found in a bill being considered by the House before it could proceed.
A Moment of Truth: Will Virginia Republicans Expand Medicaid?
On April 11, 2018, Virginia legislators will return to Richmond for a special session in which they will aim to finish work on the Commonwealth’s budget. At center stage, yet again, is the issue of Medicaid expansion, still unresolved eight years after Obamacare became law. Medicaid is a deeply flawed program that was meant to […]