The Heartland Institute

Republicans appear to be warming to the notion of raising revenues to avoid the fiscal cliff, which is precisely the wrong thing to do. Instead they should be insisting on spending cuts. Real ones. Starting now. So says Richard Manning of Americans for Limited Government. ...

Uberbillionaire Warren Buffett recently declared tax rates don’t matter to investors, but the actions of publicly owned companies and investors as the nation nears the “fiscal cliff” say otherwise. Numerous companies have announced special dividends ahead of the end of the year, when tax rate cuts that were approved during the ...

Sam Brownback is the latest Kansas governor to establish a schools efficiency task force. He may be the only one to have prompted a dueling task force from offended school board members. The Kansas Association of School Boards formed its own efficiency committee, criticizing the governor’s for relying on people with business ...

While many studies have analyzed the current debt level of the federal government and to alesser extent that of state governments, there has been little research on county and municipal debt. This report seeks to begin to fill that void, starting with Cook County, Illinois. ...

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and other Republican leaders in Congress have offered to overhaul the federal tax code to take another $800 billion in taxes over the next 10 years, but some Republican legislators are already saying no to the deal. Boehner’s leadership team, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA ...

Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe has embarked on an effort to reform the way his state pays for health care through a new initiative intended to rein in runaway costs by rewarding doctors with financial incentives to provide more efficient care. But in order to get there, his approach may incentivize rationing of health care. In ...

In the latest setback for the renewable-energy sector, the Weld County District Attorney’s Office in Colorado is investigating Abound Solar for possible criminal violations. Although the District Attorney has yet to file charges, investigators are looking into whether the company engaged in securities fraud, consumer fraud, and ...

The Heartland Institute delivered to the U.S. Congress a petition signed by more than 16,000 citizens demanding Congress rein in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) accepted the petitions in a Nov. 27 gathering at the U.S. Capitol. At the Capitol event, Inhofe warned the EPA is poised to accelerate ...