EPA’s Economists, Healthcare Rallies and the Cash for Clunkers Crash
Environmental Protection Agency officials consider scrapping the agency’s economics office after receiving a report critical of current global warming policy.
Democrats plan public rallies to support proposed healthcare legislation.
The government website processing rebates in the “Cash for Clunkers” program crashes.
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1. ENVIRONMENT
Environmental Protection Agency officials consider scrapping the agency’s economics office after receiving a report critical of current global warming policy.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: General Counsel Sam Kazman on why the EPA needs its economists:
“Economists are the most likely professionals within EPA to examine the real-world effects of its policies. For this reason, the National Center for Environmental Economics is a restraining force on the agency’s out-of-this-world regulatory ambitions. EPA would love to get that office out of the way, especially since it has within it civil servants like Dr. Carlin, who are willing to expose the truth about EPA’s plan to restrict energy use in the name of global warming.”
2. HEALTHCARE
Democrats plan public rallies to support proposed healthcare legislation.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Attorney Hans Bader on elements of the President’s plan that might be unconstitutional:
“More legal experts are questioning the constitutionality of ObamaCare. [Recently in the] Washington Post, two former Justice Department lawyers, David Rivkin and Lee Casey, argue that a central provision of Obama’s health-care plan – the “individual mandate” – is unconstitutional…Earlier, other legal experts and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights criticized major provisions of ObamaCare, such as its affirmative-action and racial preferences, and its intrusive regulation of medicine, as being unconstitutional.”
3. BUSINESS
The government website processing rebates in the “Cash for Clunkers” program crashes.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Editorial Director Ivan Osorio on the questionable success of the program:
“The Cash for Clunkers program is a costly boondoggle that will yield little net benefit. The car buying site Edmunds.com compared car sales under Cash for Clunkers with typical car sales over a similar period as that of the [initial phase of the] program’s existence, and found a net increase of only 50,000 cars — at a cost of $20,000 each.”
Listen to LibertyWeek, the CEI podcast, here.