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…
Blog
A History of Interstate Commerce Part 3: The Expansion
The seminal event in expanding the commerce clause’s interpretation was the 1937 Supreme Court case National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp.
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
77 new final rules and 1,633 Federal Register pages, covering everything from prison rape to airport concession workers.
Real Clear Markets
Global Governments’ Growing Embrace of Big Pharma
As the pharmaceutical industry wrestles with multiple existential threats-from price controls to patent cliffs to dwindling pipelines-calls are growing for deeper government-industry cooperation. As private…
Daily Caller
Supreme Court Rules 7-2 Against SEIU
From Angelica Malik's article in The Daily Caller: Ivan Osorio, of the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute said, “The Court’s ruling is a significant…
Gold Water Institute
The Gift Clause: Big Government Kryptonite
Gov. Scott Walker’s recall election victory and California ballot measures garnered the bulk of headlines this month. The results indicate voters are fed up with…
News Release
Supreme Court Immigration Ruling a Modest Victory for Free Market Reforms
Washington, D.C., June 25, 2012 – The Supreme Court has struck down portions of Arizona’s SB 1070—the controversial immigration law that targets undocumented…
Blog
Who’s the Outsourcer-in-Chief? Obama
Earlier, after discussing all the jobs that have been sent overseas by the Obama administration using taxpayer subsidies, I dubbed President Obama the “…
Legal Brief
State National Bank of Big Spring et al. v. Geithner et al.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute and the 60 Plus Association join the State National Bank of Big Spring, Texas, in their lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of…
Blog
The Myopia of “Green” Business at Rio+20
If cliches carry a grain of truth, the saying, “No good deed goes unpunished,” carries a silo in the business world. One of the sorriest…
Newsletter
CEI Weekly: Scott Walker Wins Recall Election
Newsletter
CEI Weekly: EPA’s Utility MACT Is All Pain, No Gain
Newsletter
CEI Weekly: CEI Joins Dodd-Frank Lawsuit
Blog
Bailouts Won’t Save Europe, Only Reform Will
As European leaders panic over bailouts for Southern Europe, they miss an important reality. Comprehensive structural reform is the only long-term solution for recovery. Perversely, bailouts…
Blog
The Gift Clause: Big Government Kryptonite
Gov. Scott Walker’s recall election victory and California ballot measures garnered the bulk of headlines this month. The results indicate voters are fed up with…