Discover a wealth of insightful materials meticulously crafted to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of the latest trends.
It’s a common saying in D.C., that bad news gets released on Fridays. But, that was not the case on Friday, November 30, 2018. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma announced that her agency was releasing four waiver concepts to help governors and state legislatures take advantage of Section 1332, Waiver […]
On November 14, 2018, the United States Postal Service (USPS) announced that, for the 12th year running, it lost money. While this annual revelation has become something of a dog bites man story, the new, and more alarming news was that the $3.9 billion loss will outstrip its FY 2017 losses, which were $2.7 billion, […]
Poll, after poll, after poll shows that healthcare was the top issue in the 2018 elections. This should not be a surprise as Democrats ran on the issue, while many Republicans hid from it. That’s too bad because the Trump administration has been doing a lot via regulations and guidance to create more choices and […]
Broadband overbuild using taxpayer dollars has been an ongoing problem across this country. Some providers will obtain a grant or loan from a federal agency to build out broadband in rural communities and then use the funding to either deploy or upgrade equipment where broadband already exists rather than spend taxpayer resources on unserved communities […]
Auditors at the Department of Defense (DOD) have provided a blueprint for underachieving students everywhere: they may have failed the test, but they never expected to pass! Speaking to reporters on November 15, 2018, Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan stated “We failed the audit, but we never expected to pass it.” While the DOD […]
All the way back at the beginning of the year, a federal energy regulator unanimously repudiated a proposed rule that would have subsidized coal and nuclear powerplants. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) said the rule failed to reach the “clear and fundamental” legal requirement that the rule was “just and reasonable.” FERC is an […]
Once again, open enrollment began for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), better known as Obamacare. The time frame to enroll is from November 1, 2018 to December 15, 2018 for coverage in 2019. There should be no surprise that individuals will discover once again, without government subsidies, the price of health insurance […]
On Tuesday, November 6, South Dakota voters will decide whether to approve Initiated Measure 25 (IM 25). This measure would increase taxes on cigarettes by $1 per pack and increase the wholesale tax on tobacco products from 35 to 55 percent. The revenue, it is claimed, will be devoted to the state’s four technical schools. […]
As people eat their leftover Halloween candy, they may want to think about how much they paid for all those treats. Raw sugar in the United States regularly costs double or triple the world average, and this hurts food companies and leads to high prices for consumers at the grocery store. U.S. laws artificially inflate the price […]
Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) was troubled and mystified when the Trump administration issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking that would change Medicare Part B reimbursement for outpatient drugs from the Average Sales Price (ASP) plus 6 percent to instead a reimbursement system based on what other countries pay for the same drugs. The […]
