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California’s $20 fast food worker minimum wage a regressive tax
California’s new $20 an hour minimum wage for fast food restaurants has turned into a regressive tax on the state’s low-income residents. People who wanted…
Blog
FDA makes lab test power play
The Food and Drug Administration has just released its long anticipated final rule that explicitly asserts its claim of authority to regulate laboratory-developed-tests (LDTs)—tests that are designed, manufactured,…
Blog
This week in ridiculous regulations: Space debris and dried prunes
The privately-built Odysseus spacecraft became the first American moon lander since 1972. President Biden announced new Russian sanctions in response to opposition leader Aleksey Navalny’s…
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News Release
CEI Analyst: Senate Food Labeling Amendment ‘Uncommonly Silly’
WASHINGTON, D.C., May 23, 2013 – In today’s Senate Agriculture Committee markup hearing on the 2013 Farm Bill, members will consider an amendment introduced…
Letters
Coalition Letter on the “Terrible Twelve” of Farm Policy
Full Document Available in PDF Washington’s Farm Policy is a nearly trillion dollar tangle of agriculture subsidies, welfare payments and environmental patronage.
Letters
Coalition Letter to House Members on the Sugar Program
Full Document Available in PDF Dear Congressman, Over the next several weeks, policymakers in the House and the Senate will be marking…
Letters
Coalition Letter to Senate on the Sugar Program
Full Document Available in PDF Dear Senator, Over the next several weeks, policymakers in the House and the Senate will be marking…
News Release
Coalition Urges Congress to Address “Outdated, Wasteful” Sugar Program
WASHINGTON, D.C., May 9, 2013—As Members of Congress prepare to mark up provisions for the 2013 Farm bill, a coalition of consumer, taxpayer, and policy…
Real Clear Markets
The GOP Has a Blurry View of Free Markets In Medicine
Bad ideas and special interest politics don't ever die in Washington, D.C. They get re-introduced in the next Congress. Earlier this month, Rep. Larry Bucshon,…
Orange County Register
Lost lives the real costs of regulator overreach
Every once in a while, one encounters the perfect example of the folly, naivete and hubris of an ivory-tower academic. A case in point was…
News Release
CEI Analyst on Court Overturning Soda Ban in NYC: “Sweet!”
WASHINGTON, Mar. 11, 2013 — A state judge in New York has struck down the ban enacted by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on…
Daily Caller
Beer market needs liberty, not lawsuits
The U.S. Department of Justice wants to protect your ability to buy cheap beer. At least, that’s what it’s claiming to do in its January…
Human Events
Chicago Adults Could Be Forced to Give Up Energy Drinks
Are adults responsible enough to choose whether or not to consume energy drinks? Chicago Alderman Edward M. Burke doesn’t seem to think so. He introduced…
News Release
Sin Taxes Fail to Tackle Sin, Report Finds
WASHINGTON, D.C., February 20, 2013—From alcohol to tobacco to sugary or caffeinated foods and beverages, price increases known as “sin taxes” that target politically incorrect…
Study
The Wages of Sin Taxes
In The Wages of Sin Taxes, Chris Snowdon reveals that sin taxes not only do little to limit the use of “bad” products, they do…
Human Events
Beer Distributors Say Yes To Middlemen
The NBWA study comes less than a month after the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington, D.C. policy shop, launched a broadside against the…
Human Events
Alleged Conflict of Interest on FDA Tobacco Panel
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon has allowed a lawsuit seeking an injunction by R.J. Reynolds and Lorillard Tobacco to proceed against the Tobacco Products…
Study
Avoid a Beer Monopoly By Setting the Market Free
The number of craft breweries continues to rise as states free up the market, making it easier for brewers to produce and sell their products.
News Release
New Report: ‘Big Beer’ Embraces Free Market, Attacked by Liberal Group
WASHINGTON, D.C., Dec. 11, 2012 — Big corporate beer interests seek to cut out the government-mandated middle man and let all breweries sell directly to…
Op-Eds
Senator Durbin is wrong on energy drinks ban
Several lawmakers have called on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to “do something” to protect the public from the alleged threat of energy…
Forbes
Regulatory Uncertainty Drives A Fish Farmer To Foreign Waters
Feeding 7 billion people is no small challenge. As it has from time immemorial, high quality protein harvested from the sea plays a major role…
Breitbart
Harry Reid’s Online Poker Folds on Freedom
The Internet Gambling Prohibition, Poker Consumer Protection, and Strengthening UIGEA Act of 2012, which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is expected to introduce soon,…
Washington Examiner
Would a soda ban make D.C. thinner?
First, it was Mayor Michael Bloomberg telling New Yorkers what's good for them by banning large sodas. Is a Bloomberg-style schoolmarm mentality now coming to…
Reason
Let Individuals Take Responsibility for Their Own Food Choices
From Baylen Linnekin's article in Reason: “Consumer groups play an essential role in a free market by [helping] individuals to make informed choices,”…
Orange County Register
A Losing Proposition on Food Labeling
California's initiative process – which allows "propositions" to be placed on the ballot quite easily – can lead to laws that are muddled, intentionally misleading…
Forbes
“Genetically Engineered” In California: A Food Label We Don’t Need
From “food miles” to farmers’ markets, it seems that consumers have never been more interested in the ways their food is grown. That’s one motivation…
Fox News
Sugary drinks ban begs the question — who has the right to decide what you consume?
Consuming too much sugar can lead to obesity; few people would argue to the contrary. Yet not everyone agrees, as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg…
Fox News
The dangerous demonization of our food
Apples, celery, and bell peppers may be hazardous to your health, according to some environmental activists. At least that's the impression you might get reading…
Fox News
Should We Label Genetically-Modified Food?
Green State TV is back for 2011 with an interview on biotechnology and agriculture with Greg Conko…
News Release
On National Donut Day, Be a Patriot – Eat One for Yourself, One for Your Freedom
Washington, D.C., June 1, 2012 – In a week that New York City’s mayor announced a planned ban on large-size sugary sodas, consumers have…
Mackinac Center
Improve Michigan’s Economy with Alcohol Sales at Farmers Markets
Michigan farmers are on the cutting edge of the buy local trend, a movement that could provide a great boon for businesses and the state’s…
Washington Times
Letter to the Editor: D.C. Alcohol Tax Increase Will Hurt Servers
Council member Jim Graham’s proposal to increase the District’s liquor excise tax by 6 cents a drink is not as innocuous as he claims…
Washington Times
Dick Durbin’s Backward Approach to FDA Reform
It is a tragedy when a patient suffers or dies because the drugs that could help him are simply not available. In recent years, the…
Washington Times
Sugar Program Isn’t Sweet for Consumers or the Economy
Don’t look now, but here comes the farm bill, one of those catch-all legislative behemoths littered with wasteful programs and supported by entrenched special interests.
Washington Times
Direct Alcohol Shipping To Minors Is Not a Public Safety Problem
(Also published by the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity) If you’ve ever had a remarkable local beer while traveling, you may…
Washington Times
Too Fat? Too Thin? Progressive Policies Can Fix That!
Political projects that seek the perfectibility of man by using the coercive powers of the state have a long and checkered history – perhaps the…
Washington Times
The Anti-GM Food Circus Rolls Through Connecticut
From the American Council on Science and Health’s “Health Facts and Fears”: But as Gregory Conko, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise…
Washington Times
The FDA Has It Dead Wrong
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Does Four Loko Help Live La Vida Loca?
News Release
CEI Defends Consumer Choice as FTC, State Attorneys General Unfairly Target Popular Alcoholic Beverage
Washington, DC, January 4, 2011 – As state attorneys general and federal regulators move forward with efforts to persecute the maker of the alcoholic beverage,…
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
FDA Was Right to Deny Petition to Restrict Animal Antibiotics
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Labeling Of Biotech Foods Is Unnecessary And Unconstitutional
This piece was co-written with Henry Miller. Should the government require that labels on cans of marinara sauce contain information about whether the tomatoes in…
Comment
CEI Comments to FTC Regarding the Proposed Agreement with Phusion Projects, LLC
Full Document Available in PDF The Competitive Enterprise Institute has…
Comment
Comments of the Competitive Enterprise Institute Regarding Food and Drug Administration and Food Safety Inspection Service Approaches to Reducing Sodium Consumption
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) appreciates the opportunity to submit these comments regarding the Food and Drug Administration’s and Food Safety Inspection Service’s Approaches to…
Legal Newsline
Watchdog, State AGs Target Four Loko Agreement
Legal Newsline
Washington Offers Lessons for Michigan Alcohol Law Reform
Imagine walking into your local wine, liquor or beer shop and finding all of your favorite brands on sale — permanently. This could be the…
Legal Newsline
Freedom Equals Money: New York State Shows how Freedom in Wine Shipping Benefits Consumers and State Coffers
Prior to 2005, several states took a lopsided approach to regulating the shipment of wine within their borders. They allowed in-state wineries and retailers to…
Free Republic
Commentary: Michigan’s Keg Tracking Won’t Stop Underage Drinking
Free Republic
Michigan’s Keg Tracking Won’t Stop Underage Drinking
Few people will argue against preventing underage drinking. Michigan’s new keg registration law, however, an attempt to trace the buyers of kegs that end up…
Michigan Capitol Confidential
Election Day Alcohol Tremors?
If you live in Michigan, you can’t order online from wine retailers in other states, at least not if you want the wine shipped…
Michigan Capitol Confidential
Liquor Delivery Changes Needed
While former Detroit Police Chief Jerry Oliver is correct that Prohibition was a failure (“Don’t change state’s liquor delivery system,” Oct. 13), it does…
Michigan Capitol Confidential
New Tax on Jack Daniel’s Could Come Back to Haunt Company Town
About an hour and a half drive south of Nashville is the small town of Lynchburg, Tenn. You probably haven’t heard of it unless you’re…
Washington Times
Wholesale Deception
Beer wholesalers contend that alcohol legislation they are pushing on Capitol Hill would safeguard state and local rights – but in reality, it is…