The pro-solar energy activists have been on full alert since the Nevada State Legislature passed a solar bill last May that failed to raise the net metering cap for rooftop solar customers.
CBO’s Obamacare Enrollment Numbers: Not Looking Good
There has not been much news coverage on a January 25, 2016 Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) report: “Budget and Economic Outlook: 2016 to 2026.” The likely reason is the news about the Affordable Care Act is not good. However, some health policy experts are not shy about telling us what is going on. Brian Blase of the Mercatus Institute wrote about the CBO report in his January 26 Forbes column…
Wyoming Legislature Continues to Reject Medicaid Expansion
On Friday, January 22, 2016, the Wyoming Joint Appropriations Committee struck out Governor Matt Mead’s budget proposal to expand Medicaid as provided for under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), better known as Obamacare.
Right to Work and the Friedrichs Case
On January 11, 2015, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association. Rebecca Friedrichs, a schoolteacher in Anaheim, California, brought the case, which addresses two key questions: do public-sector union agreements violate the First Amendment’s protections of freedom of speech and assembly, and does the First Amendment prohibit the practice of requiring public employees to affirmatively opt-out of subsidizing political speech rather than to affirmatively consent?
Scrubbing Oppressive Federal Regulations
The current political conversation is dominated by taxes and spending, which leaves out one of the most impactful activities of the federal government: regulations. The burdens that regulations place on individuals and businesses are often overlooked and underreported; the regulatory process is long overdue for major reform.
Congressional Insanity: Holding ITFA Hostage to MFA
When members of Congress impede the passage of popular legislation in order to attach something totally unrelated, the results are usually harmful to the American people. The ongoing effort to tie together a permanent ban on Internet access taxes with an online sales tax scheme is just the latest example of this unfortunate practice.
Why the Obamacare Reconciliation Bill is So Important
On Wednesday, January 6, 2016, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3762, the Restoring American’s Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act, by a vote of 240 to 181, after which it was sent to President Obama.
Solar Socialism 2.0: The Subsidy Saga Continues
On December 1, 2015, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) published a report, “The Sun Should Set on Solar Socialism.” The report reviewed the history of federal energy subsidies, particularly the dramatic increase in funding following the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Between 2004 and 2015, tax expenditures for alternative electricity generation cost $13.7 billion, according to the Internal Revenue Service; meanwhile, the University of California at Berkeley Energy Institute at Haas Business School stated that total tax expenditures for the four largest clean energy tax credits had cost more than $18 billion since 2006.
Auditing the Federal Reserve: Foiled Again!
Overshadowed by the excitement of President Obama’s final State of the Union, the Senate considered a procedural motion on S. 2232, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2015, on January 12, 2016.
State of the Union Observations
On January 12, 2016, President Obama delivered his final State of the Union address. During his address, President Obama cited some of his accomplishments while in office: the millions of people with healthcare, the increase in jobs and decrease in unemployment, and the great investments in renewable energy across the country.