Nevada Chronicles: No escaping the politicians in the airport
It’s not unheard of for politicians to spend your money on projects that then get named after themselves. (See: Byrd, Robert.) But I think that Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has in some ways done that act one step better. Last week, I flew into the Reno-Tahoe airport for a convention. The baggage-claim area was playing videos of the senate majority leader, touting the charms of […]
Breitbart RIP – hold the conspiracy theories
As I browse through various websites and email lists today, it’s sad to hear people suggest conspiracies regarding the death of Andrew Breitbart. Yes, he was young, and yes, he made enemies, but it’s likely an undetected heart problem claimed him. It happens to high school and college athletes; why not to a man in his early 40s? Death due to a heart problem at […]
A surplus now, but the deficit’s on the way
Minnesota Management and Budget has forecast a tiny surplus in the state budget for the current biennium. Great. But as Commissioner Jim Schowalter observes, “we still have lots of IOU’s” to pay back–including the “school shift” of $2.7 billion. The press release also shows another cloud on the horizon: “The forecast shows a projected deficit of $1.1 billion for fiscal years 2014-15.” Uh-oh. The state’s spending trajectory […]
School choice doesn’t hurt, often helps
Breaking the chain between street address and the school a child attends–school choice–is not only moral, it works. Education Week recently ran a commentary from nine scholars who make that point. The nine, who include representatives from the American Enterprise Institute and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, say that in 20 years we have learned a lot about how to design choice programs, as well as how […]
Religion, yes; political religion, no
A few thoughts on the Michigan primary: Predictions at the top of the race are more likely to be accurate than predictions at the bottom. At least that was the case for me. I overestimated Romney’s performance by 9 percent (not bad for an amateur who didn’t carefully follow the polls), and things got more inaccurate after that, to the point where I underestimated Gingrich’s […]
Shifting towards a sales tax
While government needs taxes to run, not all taxes are equal in their effect. A new report from the Tax Foundation–State and Local Sales Taxes in 2012–evaluates the burden of state and local sales taxes across the United States. It shows great variation. State sales tax rates range from 0 percent (Alaska, Delaware, New Hampshire, Oregon), to 7.25 percent (California). Some states have local sales taxes, […]
Individual Mandate May Be Linchpin of ObamaCare, But It’s Still Unconstitutional
Should a state-focused think tank care about ObamaCare? How about state legislators? You betcha! That’s why the Minnesota Free Market Institute at the Center of the American Experiment has joined in a legal brief on the question of whether Congress can require you to purchase health insurance. Let’s review a few of the harms that ObamaCare does to states and to federalism. You can make the case […]