The Heartland Institute

Steven Camarota examines census data to find that immigration makes for a much larger overall population, while having only a small effect on slowing the aging of American society. Among the findings: If immigration continues as the Census Bureau expects, the nation's population will increase from 309 million in 2010 to 436 million ...

June 20, 2013 – The 518 taxing districts within Cook County have a combined “financial burden” of almost $34 billion - an average of $17,147 per Cook County household - according to a study released today by The Heartland Institute and Truth in Accounting (TIA). Thirteen taxing districts in Cook County have a worse financial ...

On June 10 the U.S. Senate approved its version of the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013, also known as the Farm Bill. The bill would fund food stamps, direct payments to farmers, crop insurance, disaster assistance, and various other subsidies. The Congressional Budget Office estimates it will cost ...

The California Assembly recently defeated a proposed moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, a technology requiring water mixed with trace amounts of sand and chemical additives to be injected under pressure to fracture underground shale formations and stimulate the flow of oil and natural gas for collection. Advances in hydraulic ...

Several states are taking second looks at the renewable portfolio standards (RPS) they passed in the late 1990s and early 2000s. An RPS requires utilities to obtain a specified percentage of their power from renewable sources by a certain date. Twenty-two of the 29 states with such mandates have considered changing those laws ...

Since the first charter school opened 20 years ago in Minnesota, charters have been a focus of school reform advocates and the subject of substantial research. Yet the regulators of the charter industry (called “authorizers” or “sponsors”) remain a mystery to many. In fact, many authorizers work in isolation, developing their ...

The courts have gradually abandoned their proper role of policing the structural limits on government and neutrally interpreting the laws and constitutional provisions without personal bias. Judicial activism occurs when judges decline to apply the Constitution or laws according to their original public meaning or ignore binding ...

Two proposals are being considered in Oregon to increase tobacco excise taxes at the state and local levels. One proposal would increase the statewide tobacco tax from $1.18 per pack to $2.18. Although the current rate is below the national average of $1.48, it is higher than all of Oregon’s neighbors’ (Idaho: 57 cents, Nevada ...

Economic prosperity generated by and through intellectual property is dependent upon the existence of the same conceptual and legal framework applicable to property rights more generally. Of course, such framework may be adapted in certain appropriate ways to take into account the advances of the Information Age. But there is ...

National Louis University is firing tenured professors and hiring part-time instructors. This act is similar to what many universities are doing across the U.S. At issue is the quality of education, and the firing of tenured professors who are not supposed to lose their jobs so easily because they have attained the rank ...

Last year, the Senate twice voted down the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 because of concerns that a regulatory approach might harm U.S. cybersecurity efforts. Despite these concerns, President Obama issued a cybersecurity executive order that uses a regulatory or standards-based approach to require additional security from private-sector ...

Collective bargaining by teacher unions has an enormous impact on public education. And while salaries and benefits for teachers have increased over time, student academic achievement has not. At almost every opportunity, teacher unions have vehemently opposed efforts to consider student academic performance in teacher evaluations ...

Later this month, the House of Representatives could consider legislation regarding pediatric research. H.R. 1724 would require the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to provide a justification for any existing grants studying health economics, and would prohibit new grants until “a federal law has been enacted ...

The Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) was passed in part to reduce the number of Americans without health insurance. One of the primary ways ObamaCare would accomplish this is by expanding Medicaid—the program that currently provides insurance to low-income Americans—so more Americans are eligible. The original law sought to compel ...

This May 7, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled 6–1, in Louisiana Federation of Teachers v. Louisiana , that a statewide school voucher plan was unconstitutional. The opinion offers a fascinating glimpse into the developing field of non-religious state challenges to school voucher programs. The moral, for those following school voucher ...

Imprimis In the history of mankind, freedom has been the exception. Governed by kings and queens, human beings were told that power starts at the top and flows down; that their rights emanate from a monarch and may be taken away at the monarch’s whim. The British began a revolution against this way of thinking in a meadow ...

The Senate passed a new farm bill on 11 June 2013. In this Chicago Tribune editorial (section 1, page 22), the paper comes out against farm subsidies as being perverse incentives and costly to taxpayers, not to mention bad for the production of our nation's food. They call for an end to this form of agricultural welfare ...

Policy Brief It is difficult to gauge the success of community development programs. The funds often do not go to the neediest communities, and federal and state community development programs exhibit evidence of cronyism, with a small number of individuals and corporations benefiting at the expense of the wider public. In light ...

The Federal Communications Commission now has an opportunity to rethink its misguided aggressive regulatory approach to program carriage. Now is the time for the FCC to consider a deregulatory, free market approach that avoids a myopic look at the “cable” market. Instead, it must take a holistic view of the video programming ...

While advocates of the Rhode Island Health Benefits Exchange are optimistic about its ability to substantially reduce the unacceptably high number of uninsured in the state (along with the Medicaid expansion), there is substantial reason to be concerned that it will not attract large numbers of individuals and families. As demonstrated ...