Now that four years of falling budget deficits have officially come to an end, how can the U.S. Congress regain control over federal spending? Previously, we looked at one basic common sense proposal that could slow the spending for the U.S.’ fastest growing mandatory expenditure, Medicaid, but what tools does the U.S. Congress have…
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As David Jensen explains in the Sacramento Bee, California’s government stem cell agency, the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) is spending another $30 million “to dramatically speed approval of stem cell therapies and establish the Golden State globally in the much-heralded regenerative medicine field.” Down lower in the piece, in paragraph six, readers…
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With the revelations of the past weeks, the third presidential debate is sure to be one of the best shows in Las Vegas. Many observers have already had enough of the Clinton-Trump spectacle, but there are still some important things to look for. Observers might examine the candidates’ statements for some sense of the…
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In 2016, the U.S. government’s annual budget deficit stopped falling for the first time in four years and swung sharply into reverse, increasing to $587 billion, which is 34% higher than 2015’s budget deficit. Nearly all of that increase was due to “mandatory” spending on entitlements, the part of the federal government’s expenditures that…
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Just over five years ago, the U.S. Congress passed the Budget Control Act of 2011, which President Obama signed into law on August 2, 2011. The law represented an attempt to arrest the phenomenal spending growth that led to the explosion of the national debt during President Obama’s first two years in office. The…
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As we noted back in 2013, when 8,000 government employees rallied at California’s capitol, Service Employees International Union boss Yvonne Walker proclaimed “We’re letting them know this is our house!” The SEIU and other massive government unions were clamoring for a pay hike at the time. In 2015 we noted two costly bills that…
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A couple of weeks ago, comedian John Oliver discussed the topic of police accountability on his show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. As part of that discussion, he focused on the specific issue of “gypsy cops”, where officers who have engaged in misconduct are allowed to resign and to relocate to other divisions…
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President Obama has signed the United States Appreciation for Olympians and Paralympians Act, which “eliminates a tax penalty imposed by the Internal Revenue Service on medals or other prizes awarded to Team USA athletes during the Olympic and Paralympic Games,” according to a press release from Bob Dold (R-IL). Olympic athletes with adjusted gross…
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If you added up the cost of all the regulations that the U.S. government has added to the Federal Register since 1980, how much would it be? Bentley Coffey, Patrick A. McLaughlin, and Pietro Peretto of the Mercatus Center researched that question for all the years from 1981 through 2012 and found that the…
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Finding a job in California is difficult but government makes it tougher still, according to Jobs For Californians: Strategies to Ease Occupational Licensing Barriers, a new report from the state’s Little Hoover Commission. “One out of every five Californians must receive permission from the government to work,” Commission Chair and former assemblyman Pedro Nava…
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