The Heartland Institute

As Medicaid costs continue to rise above already-unsustainable levels, states are looking for innovative ways to reform the program and save taxpayer money. One reform gaining traction is Rhode Island s Global Consumer Choice Compact Waiver, approved in 2009. A similar plan was adopted recently with unanimous bipartisan support ...

Review of The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding From You , by Eli Pariser, Penguin USA, 304 pages, 2011 $25.95 The Filter Bubble is a salvo fired over the epistemological challenges wrought by Internet filters. Overwrought is more like it. Upon reading The Filter Bubble , I was reminded of the equally overwrought Zager ...

Oregon lawmakers have unanimously approved a measure requiring state agencies to post information about Oregon’s economic development tax incentives on the state’s transparency Web site. House Bill 2825, sponsored by State Reps. Phil Barnhart (D-Eugene) and Kim Thatcher (R-Keizer), requires disclosure of the names of companies receiving ...

State Rep. Mark Mustio (R) has introduced a bill that would prevent Pennsylvania’s Liquor Control Board (LCB) from increasing handling “fees” on alcohol without prior approval from the legislature and governor. Pennsylvania is one of 19 states that give monopoly control over the sale and distribution of liquor to the state. Proponents ...

Washington State lawmakers are about to prove the adage that there is no such thing as a temporary tax. They are on the verge of reauthorizing several taxes scheduled to expire next year. Rep. Tina Orwall (D-Des Moines) introduced HB 1997 to remove the expiration date on several temporary taxes imposed by the Legislature in ...

The Special Council on Tax Fairness for Georgians was established to conduct a study of the state’s revenue structure and make a report of its findings and recommendations for legislation. On March 28, after months of wrangling, the Joint Committee on Georgia Revenue Structure reintroduced a proposal to lower the state’s income ...

Increasing broadcast retransmission fees have caused much tension between multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) and broadcasters. This has led to blackouts, often of major television events, when the two sides cannot reach agreement. These disputes are not normal market realities but instead a product of the FCC regulatory ...

Problem Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, recently called for a new policy that would create a government-run system to control what information we share about ourselves online. The proposal is aimed at advertising agencies that employ behavioral advertising, a practice Leibowitz and others consider a violation ...

Recent actions by the Federal Communications Commission display a fundamental misunderstanding of the benefits of vertical integration in the telecommunications industry, according to market analysts observing the FCC s handling of the proposed merger between Comcast and NBC Universal. While tentatively granting his consent for the ...

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski granted his tentative approval of the proposed merger between Comcast and NBC Universal in late December after executives met with Federal Communications Commission officials to discuss applying online distribution conditions between the cable giant and the broadcast content ...

The retransmission battle between Fox TV and New York-area multichannel video programming deliverer (MVPD) Cablevision has provided a boon for new startup ivi TV. The Internet broadcaster increased subscriptions during a nearly month-long programming blackout last October by more than 320 percent. The benefits provided ivi TV by ...

Medicaid is the joint federal-state program that funds health care for low-income Americans. Since its creation four-and-a-half decades ago, Medicaid spending has accelerated out of control, largely because of the formula for transfers: the federal government must pay at least 50 percent of a state s Medicaid costs. This creates ...

An agreement between 50 State Attorneys General and the District of Columbia with DIRECTV requires the satellite TV provider alter its business practices, offer restitution to eligible consumers, and remit $13.25 million to the states and DC. Announced December 15, the settlement addresses allegations DIRECTV locked customers into ...

In the wake of the 3-2 vote by the Federal Communications Commission to impose network neutrality regulations on the Internet this past December, the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives may change the terms of the debate significantly. Members of the incoming congressional leadership expressed displeasure with ...

Ongoing revelations about Google's privacy practices are raising more questions about whether the company illegally collected information without consent and whether its close relationship to the United States’ government is garnering the company special consideration. In May 2007, Google Street View was launched, and camera-equipped ...

Cyberterrorism, hackers, identity theft, and computer viruses threaten to disrupt the world s digital networks. Digital attacks can have severe effects on national wealth. In order to improve cyber-security nationwide, leading insurers and federal homeland security officials have agreed to work together to improve cyber-security within ...

Demonstrating how government control over the Internet gateway enables increased censorship, a new law in Syria could seriously curtail online media use in the Mideast nation. The law allows police access to editorial offices in order to arrest journalists and seize their computers. Arrested journalists will then be tried in ...

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli talks to Heartland about Obamacare's constitutionality. ...

Government should cost the least and do the most. Thomas Paine, Common Sense Entitlement Reform The Rhode Island Experience The United States is on a long-term unsustainable budgetary path. Entitlements are one of the largest spending categories in the federal budget and without real reform the nation will be forced to deplete ...

The financial benefits of tiered-pricing plans for residential and business customers may exceed unlimited plans by as much as 25 percent annually, according to a study by the Technology Policy Institute, Washington, DC. “Residential and Business Broadband Prices, Part 1: An Empirical Analysis of Metering and Other Price Determinants ...