The Heartland Institute

Sales tax collections in the United States are on the rise and at an all-time high, according to TaxConnex, America’s leading independent provider of sales and use tax outsourcing and consulting services. The company recently compiled data from the US Census Bureau regarding recent national sales tax trends. The study reveals ...

“Already,” President Obama claimed last night, “the Affordable Care Act is helping to slow the growth of health care costs.” That’s consistent with this report in the New York Times: “In figures released last week, the Congressional Budget Office said it had erased hundreds of billions of dollars in projected spending on ...

Although most young people voted for President Obama in 2008 and 2012, his signature achievement is particularly crushing to their freedom, health needs, and pocket books, says Dr. Alieta Eck. She is the founder of Zarephath Health Center in New Jersey, a free health clinic for poor and uninsured people. Iin this School Reform ...

Gary E. MacDougal, a former business consultant and executive, advised Gov. Jim Edgar of Illinois, a Republican, on welfare reform and is the author of “Make a Difference: A Spectacular Breakthrough in the Fight Against Poverty” discusses his latest New York Times article "The Wrong Way to Help the Poor." ...

Joel Kotkin once again shows that he is a particularly astute observer and analyst of economic and demographic trends in his latest Forbes.com piece, "Blue States Double Down on Suicide Strategy." He writes: On one side are the blue states, who believe that higher taxes are not only just, but also the road to stronger economic ...

Manufacturing in America is resurging in certan geographic areas. The reason is not due to any government involvement bolstering that sector, Three of the top 10 rated states for doing business, according to a recent survey by Area Development, a site selection magazine, are Gulf States. They earn high marks for their moderate ...

Ben Zycher, a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, writes a letter to Congressman Henry Waxman and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse in response to an inquiry they submitted to Dr. Arthur Brooks, President of the American Enterprise Institute, in regards to "actions the federal government can take to address climate ...

Adjusted for inflation, federal spending per capita has increased approximately 39 percent since 1992, yet a new Reason-Rupe poll finds 79 percent of Americans believe the government’s spending increases have reduced the quality of life or made no impact on the quality of life in the country during that time. Forty percent ...

How does the first and smallest of the three-trophic-level consortium affect the larger two as temperatures rise? Survival and development rate generally increase, thereby reducing the potential for damage in willow trees... Read More The Reproduction of a Key Arctic Copepod in Low-pH Seawater (12 Feb 2013) According to the ...

Alabama will withdraw from two national testing groups, but state and national officials are being tight-lipped about why and what’s next. In 2010, 45 states agreed to use the same set of requirements for what K-12 students should know in math and English. It’s called the Common Core. Since then, states have joined one or ...

The NAACP and the Hispanic Federation went to court in January to block a ban on large sugared soft drinks that New York City is set to begin enforcing in March. They join the American Beverage Association in challenging the ban, arguing it would hit small and minority-owned businesses especially hard. The authors of a new ...

Wireless consumers in the United States pay more than 17 percent in taxes and fees on average on their cell phone bills, including more than 11 percent in state and local charges, according to a new analysis by the Tax Foundation. In Nebraska, the combined federal-state-local average rate is nearly 24.5 percent, and in six ...

New York Times columnist John Broder experienced a rude surprise recently when he test-drove a taxpayer-subsidized Tesla sedan. Like its many failed cousins in the Green Economy, the Tesla sedan delivered very little for all its taxpayer funding and left him stranded in the freezing cold . Broder accepted delivery in Washington ...

Is Obamacare bad for the young? In a short answer, yes -- if "bad" means "forcing young people to buy more expensive health insurance than they need" is bad. And for most young, healthy people, that impact on your wallet isn't viewed as good. We already know that young people are in for sticker shock: The survey, fielded ...

Economist and former Federal Reserve Bank Vice President Randall Pozdena says "progressive" politicians are spreading many "myths" concerning taxes and economics. He teamed with fellow economist Eric Fruits to write "Tax Myths Debunked," a report that sets the record straight on seven of the most common myths. He joins us ...

Heartland Institute senior fellow James M. Taylor will give a presentation on renewable power at an Americans for Prosperity meeting Wednesday evening at Perkins Restaurant in Overland Park, Kansas. Taylor will explain how renewable energy subsidies and mandates are punishing electricity consumers in the Kansas City region. From ...

A similar model, a similar result. Massachusetts is the model for President Obama's national health care overhaul, and there, insurers continue to see higher costs despite efforts to bend the cost curve, including all-out government price controls. Here's the latest from the Boston Globe: Despite more modest increases in recent ...

A Parent Trigger bill that aims to give parents more influence in their children’s schools is making its way through the Tennessee legislature. Filed by Rep. John DeBerry (D-Memphis), the bill would allow a petition by the majority of parents at schools performing in the state’s bottom 20 percent to trigger one of several ...

In this article for Real Clear Markets, the author contends that President Obama's call for more "investments" in green energy will not help the economy. It will instead make energy more expensive, raising utility costs for consumers. Obama should "invest" in oil and natural gas instead. energy ...

President Barack Obama in his second inaugural address called for new action to “respond to the threat of climate change.” Leaving aside the question of whether the threat of manmade global warming (aka “climate change”) is real, his call for reducing carbon dioxide emissions is another reason Virginia should lift its moratorium ...