Blog
Unexceptional Ruling on Lead Paint
Homeowners seeking to do renovations on pre-1978-built homes will continue to pay extra because of the EPA's lead paint rule -- and a federal court…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
101 new final regulations, covering everything from Costa Rican flowers to tanning.
Daily Caller
Senate highway bill contains ‘smoothing’ pension gimmick
From Angela Malik's article on The Daily Caller: Marc Scribner, a transportation analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, explained that smoothing “in theory…
Daily Caller
Groups Release Dueling Internet Freedom Declarations
From Grant Gross’ article in CIO: One declaration, backed by Free Press, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy and Technology and…
Daily Caller
Groups That Fought Anti-Piracy Bills Post Their ‘Declaration of Internet Freedom’
From Jennifer Martinez’ article in The Hill: Libertarian groups TechFreedom and the Competitive Enterprise Institute released their own declaration over the weekend and…
The Wire
This Declaration of Internet Freedom Is Vague
From Rebecca Greenfield's article in The Atlantic: We're not the only ones to find this declaration too simple. As a direct response, TechFreedom…
The Wire
Another Energy Department-Funded Program Goes Under
From Chris Woodward’s article in OneNewsNow: Brian McGraw, policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute‘s Center for…
The Wire
Anti-SOPA Veterans Issue Declaration of Internet Freedom
From Timothy B. Lee’s article on ArsTechnica: But not everyone was enthusiastic about the declaration. Indeed, a coalition of right-of-center organizations promoted…
The Wire
Sunday Reflection: After the Recall, Big Trouble for Big Labor
When it rains it pours, and right now organized labor is getting drenched. On June 5, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker survived a union-driven recall election,…
Capital Research
Attack of the Scare Ads!
(Published by Capital Research Center) Since Barack Obama took office in January 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a suite of…
Blog
Highway Bill Passes Congress, WSJ Blasts “Fiscal Accounting Hocus Pocus”
This afternoon, both the House and Senate approved the conference report of the largely Senate-crafted MAP-21 surface transportation reauthorization. The bill, which is expected…
Blog
Obamacare Lives. So, Now What?
Former CEI scholar Tom Miller (now with AEI) has some thoughts on the Obamacare decision in today's…
Blog
Soda Pop, States’ Interests, and the General Welfare
Michael Bloomberg is as notorious as any American politician of our time. The New York Mayor’s recently proposed ban on “sugary drinks” larger than 18 ounces is the…
Blog
Pension Reform: Could Michigan Be A Model State?
Appalled by the $22.4 billion fiscal millstone that the public teacher pension fund (MPSERS) has become, Michigan lawmakers hope to make long-overdue structural reforms.
Blog
Today’s Links: June 29, 2012
Wall Street Journal
The Road to Fiscal Hell
From Stephen Moore's column in The Wall Street Journal: Without the drilling money the bill elevates fiscal accounting hocus pocus to new heights.
Reason
Government Mini Golf: The Federal Regulations For Putt-Putt Courses
From Peter Suderman's post on Reason's Hit & Run: Under the umbrella of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the federal government has issued…
Newsletter
CEI Today: Pension bailouts, court ruling on EPA regs, and a RAISE Act defeat
Blog
CEI Podcast: June 28, 2012: The Obamacare Decision
General Counsel Sam Kazman shares his thoughts on the Supreme Court's health care decision, the Commerce Clause, Congress' taxation power, and more.
Blog
Supreme Court Concocts New “Rational (Tax) Basis” Test in Upholding Health Law
In a move that seems to have surprised many observers, the Supreme Court today upheld nearly all of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act…
Blog
Obamacare Upheld, 5-to-4: A Perverse Decision That Undermines Political Accountability
Today, in a really perverse ruling, the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare's individual mandate as a tax in a 5-to-4 decision, even though Obamacare's supporters…
Blog
Union Bosses: Are They Con Men?
The definition of a con man is “a dishonest person who uses clever means to cheat others out of something of value.” Nowadays, a fitting…
Blog
Quick Thoughts on the Health Care Ruling
The Supreme Court upheld the health care bill, as you've no doubt heard by now. Over at the Daily Caller, I offer a few quick…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 221: Miniature Golf Courses
The federal government regulates the slopes of miniature golf courses.
News Release
Supreme Court Concocts “Rational Tax Test” in Health Ruling
Washington, D.C., June 28, 2012 – Statement by CEI Senior Fellow Gregory Conko: In enacting the health care individual purchase mandate, Congress…
Politico
Transpo Bill Briefings Go Late
From Adam Snider and Burgess Everett's post in Politico's Morning Transportation: The Competitive Enterprise Institute isn’t exactly heartened that pension smoothing is going…
Daily Caller
Three Quick Thoughts on the Health Care Ruling
The Supreme Court has upheld the health care law’s insurance mandate, to the surprise of many. This surprise sparked a few quick thoughts about the…
Blog
A Political Climate that Discourages Setting Up a Small Business
The EEOC has punished a cafe owner for not selecting a hearing- and speech-impaired applicant for a cashier’s position, even though such impairments obviously…
Blog
The Good-Citizen Economist
Comment
Testimony on “Mandate Madness: When Sue and Settle Just Isn’t Enough”
Full Document Available in PDF Chairman Lankford, Ranking Member Connolly, Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to testify before…
Blog
Former GAO Auditor: Public Pension Underfunding Worse than Pew Estimates
This week, GASB approved new standards that would require state pensions that are less than 80 percent funded to base income projections on lower — more…
Blog
Highway Bill Would Continue Pension Underfunding Shell Game
As if the Senate Highway Bill (S. 1813) could not become more of a lumbering monster, along comes its Section 40312, which allows "pension…
Blog
Today’s Links: June 27, 2012
Forbes
The New York Times’ Impotent Whining About Apple Inc.
They're at it again, and this time it's not about the evils of outsourcing or the un-Western factory conditions in Asia. It's not about workplace…
Washington Post
Romney Finally Punches Back on Outsourcing
From Jennifer Rubin's post in The Washington Post's Right Turn: Hans Bader of the Competitive Enterprise Institute wrote about…
News Release
Threat of Pension Fund Bailouts Lurks in Senate Highway Bill
Washington, D.C., June 27, 2012 – Hidden in the ever-expanding Senate Highway Bill (S. 1813) is a provision that would make the already serious…
News Release
EPA’s Regional Haze Regime Imposes Big Costs for Invisible Benefits
Washington, D.C., June 27, 2012 – William Yeatman, Assistant Director of CEI’s Center for Energy and Environment, will testify at a June 28 hearing…
Blog
Georgia Offers “Amnesty” to Businesses From Its Tough Immigration Law
More amnesty from immigration laws by prosecutorial discretion! No, not the president’s order to defer deportation for certain children of undocumented immigrants, but the decision…
Newsletter
State Gift Clauses, UK in the EU, Dodd-Frank Lawsuit
Study
Government Barriers to Georgia’s Growth
Full Document Available in PDF Few states have been hit as hard by the financial…
Blog
The Highway Bill’s Sleeper Funding Provision: Pension Smoothing
Things appear to have turned around for the stalled surface transportation reauthorization talks. Conference committee members worked over the weekend trying to come to a…
Blog
Today’s Links: June 26, 2012
News Release
Future of Video Forecast: Sunny, With a Chance of Regulation
Washington, D.C., June 26, 2012 — Tomorrow morning, the U.S. House of Representatives Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology will hold a hearing…
Washington Post
Why Unions Don’t Want Workers to Earn More
During the recent debate on the farm bill, the Senate voted down an amendment that would allow unionized employers to give workers raises based…
Blog
The Growing Threat of a PBGC Bailout
Everyone hates a bailout. Or at least that's what everyone says, until circumstances force some business leaders to seek them and politicians to grant them…
Blog
Will New GASB Rules End States’ Fuzzy Pension Math?
Today, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) voted to approve new government accounting standards that will provide a clearer picture of the liabilities taxpayers across the…
Comment
Comment Letter on EPA’s Carbon Pollution Standard
CEI's Marlo Lewis' comments submitted to the EPA on the agency's proposed "Carbon Pollution Standard."…
Blog
Globalization Has Been Happening for a Long Time
Our innate tendency to truck and barter, as Adam Smith put it, is very strong indeed.
Blog
Supreme Court Limits Arizona’s Anti-Immigration Law
The Supreme Court has struck down portions of Arizona’s SB 1070 — the controversial immigration law that targets undocumented migrant workers. The Court ruled that…
Blog
Supreme Court Strikes Down Mandatory Life Sentences Without Parole for Teenagers, But Does Not Cite “International Norms”
The Supreme Court has just ruled 5-to-4 that states cannot mandate life sentences without the possibility of parole for murderers under age 18, no matter…