The Heartland Institute

President Obama wants to privatize one of the nation’s largest government-owned companies, a proposal that is bringing pushback from some unlikely sources: politicians who ordinarily promote themselves as favoring smaller government and more free enterprise. In his 2014 budget, President Obama called for a strategic review of ...

In this video, Nobel-Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman examines the modern welfare state and discusses why it doesn't work in the long run. As we're now seeing, the long run appears to be catching up with America. Friedman outlines in detail — in a lecture at the University of Rochester in 1980 — how the modern welfare ...

The Pennsylvania House is considering a bill that would privatize the state’s liquor sales. Currently all liquor sales in Pennsylvania are done in state-run stores. Other than Pennsylvania, only Utah retains total government control over both wholesale and retail liquor sales within its borders. Pennsylvania House Bill 11, first ...

Although gasoline taxes have long been the main source of funding for building, maintaining, and operating America’s network of highways, roads, and streets, the tax is at best an imperfect user fee. As such, Congress and the states should take action to transition from gas taxes to more efficient vehicle-mile fees. One of ...

Chicagoans are about to learn if Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago Infrastructure Trust is worthy of the name. Forty-one of the city’s 50 aldermen voted for the $1.7 billion plan in late April even though the city’s inspector general, several aldermen and neighborhood groups expressed doubts about trustworthiness before the vote. The ...

With transportation coffers barely able to maintain highways, let alone adding new capacity to relieve congestion, many transportation economists and urban planners have concluded that the best solution to U.S. freeway congestion is to implement variable pricing on all congested freeways. At the same time, many political scientists ...

With transportation coffers barely able to maintain highways, let alone adding new capacity to relieve congestion, many transportation economists and urban planners have concluded that the best solution to U.S. freeway congestion is to implement variable pricing on all congested freeways. At the same time, many political scientists ...

Increasing numbers of for-profit service providers have begun to enter the education sector, performing tasks from collecting and analyzing standardized test data to providing tutoring and bus services. As legislatures have voted to give school districts more options, some defenders of public school monopolies have begun to attack ...

The United States Postal Service is one of the best-liked agencies of the federal government, enjoying near-universal approval of the public. But it is in deep trouble. Over the past four years the Postal Service has lost billions: $2.8 billion (2008), $5 billion (2009), $3.8 billion (2010), and $5.1 billion (FY 2011). The ...

A partial privatization plan being explored by the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro could increase donations, enhance attractions, and speed up needed repairs, its operators say. Free-market advocates hail the move as a step in the right direction. “Basically, what we’re looking at is a public-private partnership, which 75 percent ...

From 1775 when Benjamin Franklin was appointed as the first postmaster general of the United States, the agency known as the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has grown to become an institution that delivers about half of the world’s mail in rain, snow, and the dark of night. Employing about 656,000 workers and 260,000 vehicles and ...

Congestion pricing use has been limited in the United States because of political, institutional, and public acceptance concerns. The Federal Highway Administration, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, and National Cooperative Highway Research Program sponsored a scanning study of Europe and Singapore ...

The U.S. Postal Service is a branch of the federal government. It is headed by a Postmaster General and a Board of Governors, with further oversight provided by the Postal Regulatory Commission. However, ultimate authority over the USPS rests with Congress. The USPS is structured like a business in that revenues from the sale ...

The concept of privatization is relatively simple: a shifting of a government-provided service or aspects of it to a private business subject to the rigors of a competitive marketplace. In many cases, similar services are already being provided more efficiently in the private sector. Privatization is an important option for state ...

Chicago s multibillion-dollar lease of Midway Airport has collapsed. City officials announced in late April the $2.5 billion deal to privatize the airport fell through after the winning bidder could not arrange financing to complete the transaction. The City Council approved the deal last October about one week after Mayor Richard ...

Highway congestion occurs when a vehicle causes delay to other vehicles on the road, resulting in longer and less reliable travel times, the use of additional fuel, and other costs to the economy. According to one widely cited study, in 2005 highway congestion resulted in 4.2 billion hours of delay and 2.9 billion gallons ...

States and local jurisdictions are increasingly discussing congestion pricing as a strategy for improving transportation system performance. In fact, many transportation experts believe that congestion pricing offers promising opportunities to costeffectively reduce traffic congestion, improve the reliability of highway system performance ...

Chicago's Midway International Airport, which handles 19 million passengers a year, could become the first major commercial airport in the United States to go private. Six firms have submitted qualifications to Chicago city officials to lease the airport and run it privately. The city expects to select one of the firms by ...

Approximately 840 acres, located eight miles southwest of Chicago's central business district Terminal square footage: 941,000 feet Six airlines provide nearly 300 daily flights to 55 destinations Served 19 million passengers on 304,000 flights in 2006 Includes five runways and 43 gates Creates 90,000 jobs for ...

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) enjoys subsidies that distort the private package delivery market and suffers legal restrictions that hinder its performance, according to a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report that concludes USPS should lose the subsidies and the restrictions. "Accounting for Laws that Apply Differently to the ...