Budgets/Taxes · Education · Environment/Energy · FIRE
Stories from the Must-Read Heartlander Digital Magazine
You’re a reader of this blog, so you are a part of the conversation at The Heartland Institute, one of America’s most influential free-market think tanks. The posts here reflect the exchange of ideas, insights, and opinions on liberty from the writers, editors, thinkers, and scholars that happen at Heartland every day.
But Heartland has also, for many years, produced news coverage from a free-market perspective — the counter-spin to the mainstream media. At the Heartlander digital magazine, our team of writers and editors cover budgets and taxes, education; environment and energy; finance, insurance and real estate; lawsuit abuse; and technology.
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ObamaCare: How to Pay for Delay
Regardless of whether they are supporters or opponents of President Obama’s health care law. members of Congress will have to revisit the legislation soon to correct some serious flaws. Here is a revenue-neutral approach to begin the necessary corrections: Delay the scheduled cuts in Medicare spending by five years and pay for that expense by delaying the 2014 start date of ObamaCare by two years.
Obama’s Law Is Poised to Hurt Those It Was Supposed to Help
Americans will soon find President Obama’s health care law hurts those who need health security the most: the poor, sick, and elderly. Although Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius recently claimed that “no matter who you are, what stage of life you’re in, this law is a good thing,” the truth is ObamaCare will harm the most vulnerable.
Renewable Power Mandate Is Punishing Missouri Economy, Study Finds
Renewable power mandates in Missouri are likely to cost state residents nearly $6 billion between now and the year 2021, economists at the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University report. Electricity costs by 2021 will be 15 percent higher than would be the case without the mandates, the Beacon Hill study finds.
Cliff Looms; It’s Anyone’s Guess How Bad the Fall Could Be
On January 1 the so-called “fiscal cliff” will be reached unless Congress and the president agree to avert it.The effect of its big tax hikes and smaller spending cuts on the economy remain a matter of much speculation.
As the federal government grows increasingly desperate for money, Congress looks for more creative ways to grab more of our cash. One sure way to raise taxes without necessarily raising tax rates is to do away with deductions.
Economist Jonathan Williams says one way to solve state pension funding problems is to give local governments more control over and responsibility for their employees’ pensions.
FINANCE, INSURANCE, REAL ESTATE
Homeowners aren’t the only ones feeling the pain from the troubled housing market. The Federal Housing Administration has seen a loss of 45 percent in its reserves over the course of a single year, exposed in a recent audit by Integrated Financial Engineering, Inc. of Rockville, Maryland. Down from $4.7 billion in 2010, FHA reserves stood at $2.6 billion in 2011 — a veritable drop in the bucket considering that loan exposure is just over $1 trillion.
The Obama administration maintains that pushing hospitals and physicians to adopt electronic medical records will improve efficiency, increase patient safety, and reduce health care costs. But as more providers transition to EMRs, there has been an unexpected consequence: Billions of dollars in higher costs for Medicare, private insurers, and patients.
The captain of an Italian cruise ship that hit a rock and sank in January, killing 32 passengers, was fired from his job. So now, of course, he’s suing for wrongful termination.
