The Heartland Institute

When Congress and President Obama in January came up with their beyond-the-last-minute deal to put off addressing the coming fiscal crisis, The Wall Street Journal turned the spotlight on a little-noticed, yet too typical aspect of Washington's machinations: "The bill's seedier underside is the $40 billion or so in tax payoffs ...

The latest report from the Congressional Budget Office highlights a number of reasons why the CBO is concerned about the implementation of Obamacare. It boils down to this: Obamacare is going to be more expensive than the Obama administration thought, disrupt the marketplace more than it thought, and be tougher to implement ...

This year North Carolina joined the growing number of states considering major changes to its tax system. Republican legislators proposed in early January a tax reform plan that would eliminate personal and corporate income taxes and offset the cuts with increases in state sales taxes while expanding the latter to cover all ...

The world’s largest philanthropy has targeted education policymaking, sparking debate among education wonks and watchdogs over whether some of its activities cloak government actions and amount to lobbying. “A lot of private foundations are making decisions that would normally be left up to a public institution that would be accountable ...

Benjamin Domenech discusses the latest CBO report on the implementation of Obamacare. ...

February 8, 2013 Policy Tip Sheet — North Carolina Renewable Energy Mandate Problem In August 2007, Senate Bill 3 established a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) for the state of North Carolina, requiring utilities to generate 12.5 percent of retail electricity sales from renewable energy by 2021. Municipal utilities and cooperatives ...

The U.S. Geological Survey has published the results of a study regarding water quality in Arkansas near natural gas fracking sites. The USGS analyzed water samples from 127 wells near fracking sites and found no evidence of fracking pollution. While anti-energy activists launch unfounded, irresponsible allegations that natural ...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is launching an inquiry into the impact of financial products marketed to students through colleges and universities. It will then determine whether these arrangements are in the best interest of students. "We have seen many colleges establish relationships with financial institutions to ...

As states implement provisions of the federal health care law, many are debating whether to expand their Medicaid programs in order to receive a larger federal subsidy. Gov. John Kasich recently announced expansion “makes sense for the state of Ohio,” but state taxpayers may disagree. If Ohio expands its Medicaid program to ...

On February 14, 2012 – one year ago – Fakegate began. Like Climategate , it was a scandal revealing the dishonesty and desperation of those who claim man-made global warming (alias “climate change”) is a crisis . Fakegate involved criminal activity, repeated lying, and outright theft by a high-ranking scientist in the global ...