The Heartland Institute

This likely represents the final edition of the Consumer Power Report prior to the Supreme Court’s ruling on President Barack Obama’s health care law. As I’ve noted in the past, the likeliest outcome is a partial strikedown – one that eliminates the individual mandate as well as the attached requirements of community rating ...

In New Jersey, a ticket for failing to wear a seat belt costs $46, but failing to buckle up your pet can land you in jail for up to six months or fines ranging from $250 to $1,000. Failing to restrain pets in cars is considered animal cruelty. Special pet seats and harnesses can be purchased to attach directly to ...

Many hospitals and doctors offer cash discounts for medical bills for their patients, regardless of income. But there's a catch: The lowest price is usually available only if the patients don't use their health insurance. The savings are impressive in some states. A Long Beach hospital recently charged a patient $6,707 for ...

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and minimum wage laws have been two of the primary mechanisms the federal and state governments have used to help low-income families move out of poverty. A debate is currently ongoing in many state legislatures and Congress over which of these two policies is more effective and should ...

The central component of California’s Global Warming Solutions Act (AB32) takes effect this year, and with the state facing a $15.7 billion deficit, political leaders have ended a long debate over how to spend revenue the Act is expected to generate. The central component is “cap and trade,” a complex system aimed at reducing ...

Several states have halted the creation of health insurance exchanges, awaiting a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court on the federal health care law. Meanwhile, others are finding they are too small to run an exchange successfully, regardless of the Court’s ruling. States with smaller populations can expect fewer individuals ...

Speaker of the House John Boehner and Sen. Joe Lieberman have reached a deal with the U.S. Department of Education to continue funding the endangered DC vouchers program. The agreement means no cap on program enrollment, current students can continue participating, and new students can apply. A U.S. Department of Education spokesman ...

Portland, Oregon officials have made it a crime for certain businesspeople to give customers more value for their dollar. Now the city is in federal court trying to defend the constitutionality of their action. In 2009, Portland passed an ordinance requiring a $50 minimum fare for limousine and sedan rides to or from Portland ...

Hydraulic fracturing does not present a significant risk of causing earthquakes, according to a newly published report by the National Research Council. The National Research Council, which is a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, found the only significant risk of earthquakes related to hydraulic fracturing comes from ...

Presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney announced his education policy platform in May. He supports tying federal education dollars directly to poor and disabled students to help them attend public, charter, or private schools or pay for online education and tutoring. He also supports reversing the nationalization ...

Last December, the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled new standards that sharply limit emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants from the nation’s coal- and oil-burning power plants. Shortly, EPA will be issuing similar rules for industrial boilers. If the Utility Maximum Achievable Control Technology Rule (U-MACT) is ...

The New York man claiming he’s entitled to a huge share of Facebook, Inc. is about to lose his ninth set of lawyers after his latest counsel asked the court for leave to withdraw after representing him for less than three months. Paul Ceglia claims he has a contract with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg entitling him ...

The New Hampshire legislature has sent a ban on the implementation of the health insurance exchanges mandated under President Obama’s health care law to the desk of their governor. The New Hampshire House agreed to Senate changes to a bill blocking implementation of the exchanges, sending the legislation to Democratic Gov. John ...

The recent Federal Reserve announcement that the Great Recession caused median family net worth in the U.S. to fall nearly 40 percent, from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010, prompted us here at Finance, Insurance & Real Estate Policy News to ask experts in economics, public policy and investing their reaction to the news ...

In response to the Obama administration’s federal contraceptive mandate, 43 religious institutions have now filed 12 lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, claiming the mandate violates their religious liberties. The mandate, put in place by a provision in President Obama’s health care law, requires ...

Scott Cleland, chairman of NetCompetition and president of Precursor LLC, discusses his Daily Caller essay “Obsolete Analysis Will Doom DOJ’s Antitrust Probe of Cable.” ...

Amazon.com Inc. is planning to partner with at least one California city to collect sales taxes from the entire state. Most of the collected tax money would go back to Amazon. The company is building warehouses in Patterson and San Bernardino, California. Under state law, purchases made by customers anywhere in the state can ...

When a member of Congress introduces legislation, the Constitution requires that legislative proposal to secure the approval of the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the president (unless Congress overrides a presidential veto) before it can become law. In all cases, either chamber of Congress may block it. In 2010, the ...

States across the country have accumulated at least $900 billion in off-balance-sheet liabilities, potentially leaving future taxpayers with much heavier tax burdens than states currently are imposing or acknowleding, according to a new study from the Institute for Truth in Accounting (IFTA). Government employee pensions and health ...

Today, North Carolina is expected to vote to allow the process of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” for natural gas. This comes just a month after Vermont became the first state to completely ban the process, even though the state has no known resources that actually could be tapped this way. Many environmental activists ...