Gas Prices, DEA and Telephone Trends
The AAA reports that record high gas prices might soon begin to fall.
CEI launches the “Politics of Pain” campaign to end harassment of pain doctors by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
A new report finds increasing numbers of Americans abandoning traditional land line telephones in favor of cell phones.
1. CONSUMER
The AAA reports that record high gas prices might soon begin to fall.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellows Iain Murray and Eli Lehrer on Congress’ misguided attempt to deal with high energy costs:
“The Consumer-First Energy Act of 2008 (S.2991), intended to address the energy crisis, fails to achieve its stated purpose. While it contains a few good ideas, it fails to implement those properly, and contains some very bad ideas that would make the nation’s energy situation worse. The legislation relies on a failed command-and-control model, when liberalization would achieve much better results.”
2. HEALTH
CEI launches the “Politics of Pain” campaign to end harassment of pain doctors by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: General Counsel Sam Kazman on the DEA’s misplaced priorities:
“DEA is attempting to control drug abuse by regulating the practice of medicine. But DEA consists of bureaucrats, not physicians, and its views on treating chronic pain often amount to malpractice.”
3. TECHNOLOGY
A new report finds increasing numbers of Americans abandoning traditional land line telephones in favor of cell phones.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Eli Lehrer on how regulators can respond to this decline:
“The flexibility of the free market appears better suited to figuring out how—if at all—land line telephone service can survive into the 21st century and beyond. Not matter how well-intentioned or, in the case of the E-911 mandate, genuinely useful, there is no particular advantage—and there are significant downsides—to government mandates. If the United States wants to arrest the rapid decline of land line telephone service of all kinds it should repeal existing regulations on these technologies and avoid imposing any new ones. Two particular mandates stand out: E-911 service and “universal access fees.”
Blog feature: For more news and analysis, updated throughout the day, visit CEI’s blog, Open Market.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
To contact a CEI expert for comment or interviews, please call the CEI communications department at 202-331-2273 or email to [email protected].