Blog
Today’s Links: June 12, 2012
News Release
CEI Releases New Study, “All Pain and No Gain: The Illusory Benefits of the EPA’s Utility MACT”
Washington, D.C., June 12, 2012 – Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute published a new study, “All Pain and No Gain: The Illusory Benefits of…
News Release
Report: How to Fix Surface Transportation in Massachusetts
Washington, D.C., June 12, 2012 – Massachusetts, like other states, faces problems in funding its transportation infrastructure needs. A new report from the Competitive…
Forbes
Big Costs, Illusory Benefits: Why Congress Should Nix The Utility MACT
The U.S. Senate is expected to vote soon on legislation (S.J.Res.37) sponsored by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) to overturn one of the most costly regulations…
Forbes
EPA’s Phony Job Numbers
The Environmental Protection Agency acknowledges its new mercury regulation for coal-fired power plants will be the most expensive in history, costing more than $10 billion…
Newsmax
H.R. 1909 Lifts Barriers to Small Loans
Last Friday’s dismal jobs number renewed the call for Congress to find common ground and “do something.” Unfortunately, the “something” that the punditocracy usually calls…
WVNS TV
Machin, Republicans Fight Mercury Emission Rule
From WVNSTV and The State Journal: The Competitive Enterprise Institute released a report called "All Pain and No Gain" earlier this month stating…
Blog
Union Bosses Care More about Collective Bargaining than Students
Openmarket.org In Massachusetts and Louisiana, union bosses’ recent actions indicate collective bargaining privileges and lavish contracts are their number one priority. First in Massachusetts,…
Blog
Stigler on the Regulatory Mindset
"There are only two alternatives to the market: the state, and prayer. It turns out the two were merged in one."…
Blog
Union Bosses Care More about Collective Bargaining than Students
In Massachusetts and Louisiana, union bosses' recent actions indicate collective bargaining privileges and lavish contracts are their number one priority. First in Massachusetts, the AFL-CIO…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
65 new regulations last week, covering everything from substance abuse to the official taxonomy of the endangered African wild ass.
WVNS TV
Are Immigration Laws Like Jim Crow?
Alabama Governor Robert Bentley was forced to defend his state’s harsh immigration law recently against charges that it amounts to a return to segregation-era racially…
News Release
Center-Right Groups Oppose Price Controls on Retailers and Banks
Washington, D.C., June 11, 2012 – Two years after many retail associations lobbied successfully for price controls on the banks that process their debit…
WVNS TV
Should We Label Genetically-Modified Food?
Green State TV is back for 2011 with an interview on biotechnology and agriculture with Greg Conko…
WVNS TV
Norquist, Conservative Groups Petition FCC in Favor of Latest Verizon Deal
From Josh Peterson’s Daily Caller article: “Demand for wireless broadband is more than doubling annually, but vast swaths of valuable spectrum — the…
Letters
Coalition Letter on Consumer Debit Card Protection Act
Full Document Available in PDF To the Members of the United States Congress: You may have seen some recent reports, including in…
Study
Fixing Surface Transportation in Massachusetts
If all highway funding responsibility were to be devolved to the states, additional revenue must be found. Innovative financing, modern electronic tolling, and new roadway…
Newsletter
Labor Union Republicans, Highway Bill, and War on Salt
Study
All Pain and No Gain
The MACT Rule supposedly reduces risk to unborn children by lowering methylmercury concentrations in non-commercial fish. But the EPA provides no empirical evidence that any…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 220: Driver’s Side Mirrors
A math professor has invented a driver's side mirror that eliminates the dreaded blind spot, but regulators won't let car makers use them.
Study
MCOOL and the Politics of Country-of-Origin Labeling
The Mandatory Country-of-Origin Label (MCOOL) for beef and pork products was brought into force by the United States in 2008. It imposes uneven tracking, segregating,…
Blog
In New York, a Private/Public Sector Union Rift
The fact that government employee unions have been at the center of budget debates across the nation underscores their outsize influence on state and local…
Blog
Today’s Links: June 8, 2012
News Release
House Fails to Pass Taxpayer-Protection Measure
Washington, D.C., June 8, 2012 – Congress today failed in an 82-323 vote to end general revenue bailouts of the Highway Trust Fund. Rep.
Reuters
An Eye on Environmental Justice
From Curtis Brainard's post in The Observatory: The activity drew some attention from The Washington Post and The New York Times, but hasn’t…
Business Week
Obama Shouldn’t Embellish His Small Business Record
From Scott Shane's article in Bloomberg Businessweek: Now consider regulation. The National Economic Council report says that the president has cut “red tape”…
Blog
Seasteading for Enterprise on the High Seas
Complete exit from the state has long been a dream of many libertarians. From the defunct Republic of Minerva (perhaps the only nation every to…
Blog
CEI Podcast for June 7, 2012: MACT the Knife
A new EPA regulation is intended to cut mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants. Are the costs worth it? Policy Analyst David Bier, co-author of…
Blog
Tapping Space Resources
Over at The Washington Times, Bob Zubrin says that we need space property rights. Gee, I wonder…
Letters
Coalition Letter to Surface Transportation Bill Conferees Supporting Public-Private Partnerships
Blog
Union Leaders, Not Members, Determine Union Political Donations
Mother Jones blogger Kevin Drum dismisses the fact that 38 percent of Wisconsin union households voted to retain Governor Scott Walker as “exactly the…
Blog
Support the Broun Motion to Instruct; Oppose Future Highway Trust Fund Bailouts
Blog
Ten Thousand Commandments and Growing
Over at ?The Washington Times?, Wayne Crews and I praise President Obama's recent regulatory reforms. They're small, but they're better than nothing:…
Blog
Today’s Links: June 7, 2012
Blog
Taxpayers Win as Dulles Rail Drops Pro-Union Contracting Rules
In a win for Old Dominion taxpayers, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) yesterday rescinded a pro-union project labor agreement (PLA) for the building of the Metro…
Blog
Government Restrictions on Salt Consumption May Cost Lives
Some government officials would like to curb salt consumption, even though such restrictions could increase death rates. “The Department of Agriculture’s dietary guidelines still…
Blog
George Will Makes the Case for the REINS Act
In his column today, George Will makes the case for Congress to take responsibility for the enormous costs which regulation imposes on American businesses…
Blog
After Wisconsin, whither Government Unions ?
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s victory in a recall election at which organized labor threw everything but the kitchen sink will likely encourage lawmakers in other…
Blog
In Confronting Unions, Walker Further than Reagan
When Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker first put forward his public sector labor reform, organized labor and its allies tried to portray the legislation -- especially…
Blog
Bhagwati: How the Multilateral Trade System Is Being Eroded
Trade economist Jagdish Bhagwati’s latest article points out dangers to the world trading system of bilateral and regional trade agreements between unequal partners that…
Blog
Twisting the Law to Punish Heretics: Elane Photography v. Willock
Judges are supposed to interpret laws narrowly if a broader interpretation would potentially encroach on religious freedom. For example, in NLRB v. Catholic Bishop…
Blog
Washington’s Ten Thousand Commandments
The 2012 edition of “Ten Thousand Commandments” is out now. If you don’t feel like reading all 66 pages (though I recommend you do!),…
Letters
CEI Coalition Letter to Surface Transportation Reauthorization Conferees Supporting the Broun Motion to Instruct
Full Document Available in PDF Dear Member of…
Business Week
Paul Ryan at CEI Gala: Want to See How This Movie Ends? Look at Europe
From Francesca Chambers’ post in RedAlertPolitics: It’s not to late to turn around our country and get the American Dream back, said Rep.
Daily Mail
Scott Walker’s Victory is a Victory for Worker Freedom
You wouldn’t know it from the recall election campaign itself, but yesterday’s failed attempt to unseat reforming Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin was all about…
Washington Post
Would Don Draper Hate Today’s Corporate Ad Campaigns?
From Suzy Khimm's post in The Washington Post's WonkBlog: If an ad man like Don Draper saw the groveling, apologetic PR coming from…
Op-Eds
Judge Flouts Supreme Court, First Amendment
Lawyer Aaron Walker was recently arrested for blogging against left-wing activist and convicted bomber Brett Kimberlin in violation of the First Amendment, as The Washington…
News Release
Wisconsin Recall FAIL: This is What Democracy Looks Like
Washington, D.C., June 6, 2012 – As a result of the failure of labor union forces to recall the Wisconsin governor yesterday, taxpayers were the…
Blog
Cut The Budget By Cutting Republican Sacred Space Cows
Over at Forbes, Cato’s Doug Bandow says that the Republicans need to lead by example: Presumptive Republican Party nominee Mitt Romney…
Blog
A Liberal War on Women: “New Law Keeps Many Homemakers from Qualifying for Credit Cards”
The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (CARD Act), a law passed by a liberal Congress and signed by President Obama, “…