The Heartland Institute

The next time you hear President Obama beating up on oil companies and crusading to wipe out what he calls the industry’s “tax breaks,” don’t be fooled: He’s telling a lie. Recently at the White House, Obama unleashed some of his most aggressive rhetoric yet on the subject, telling Congress that it can “stand with big oil ...

Do school workers scam taxpayers by filing for unemployment on scheduled breaks like Easter and spring break? Ohio's special education vouchers help students get the personal attention they need , argues the Lima News editorial board. Southern states such as Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina have recently seen a surge ...

Idaho and Wyoming residents and environmental groups are expressing opposition to a proposed 1,100-mile long high-voltage power line designed to transmit 3,000 megawatts of mostly wind-generated electricity to fast-growing areas in the West. Sage Grouse, Pristine Lands The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is overseeing ...

Western Governors University is pioneering a new, fast-growing model of education: Competency-based learning. In traditional classrooms, time is fixed and student learning varies. Schools operate under inflexible calendars, schedules, and seat-time requirements. When the bell rings, official learning time ends whether students have ...

The Heartland Institute’s Seventh International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC-7) will take place in Chicago, Illinois from Monday, May 21 to Wednesday, May 23, 2012 at the Hilton Chicago Hotel, 720 South Michigan Avenue. The event will follow the NATO Summit taking place in Chicago on May 19–21. The previous ICCC to take ...

A confidential memo from the director of Illinois’ largest state pension system said decades’ worth of unfunded liabilities may require the state to cut benefits for current and retired teachers. With the state currently owing $43 billion to the fund, Illinois Teachers Retirement System Director Dick Ingram cited forecasts predicting ...

State government tax collections in Fiscal 2011 showed strong year-over-year growth compared to fiscal 2010 collections, according to Census Bureau data released April 12. Fiscal 2011 ended on June 30, 2011 for 46 states. Fiscal 2011 total state government tax collections increased by 8.9 percent. Personal income tax grew by ...

Federal energy policies designed to rid the nation of traditional incandescent light bulbs continue to encounter popular resistance, with South Carolina’s legislature considering its own unique act of defiance. Intrastate Bulbs Considered Lawmakers in Columbia are pondering a proposed “Incandescent Light Bulb Freedom Act,” a measure ...

Benjamin Domenech talks with Jim Capretta of the Ethics and Public Policy Center regarding his recent conversation with Don Berwick and the benefits of premium support. ...

National Conference of Insurance Legislators Property and Casualty Insurance Committee VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL Members of the Committee: The Heartland Institute is a 28-year-old national nonprofit education and research organization, headquartered in Chicago and dedicated to discovering, developing, and promoting free-market solutions to a ...

One of the big questions on the minds of many in Washington at the moment is: what comes after the individual mandate? Should the Supreme Court strike the requirement down but not strike down President Obama's entire law, some substitute will likely be proposed by the White House and its allies in Congress. Health policy ...

Health insurance companies have experienced dramatically higher stock prices in the two years since the passage of President Obama’s health care law, thanks to the individual mandate to purchase their product. Wellpoint (WLP) was at about $80/share in 2007, dropped significantly in price shortly after the 2008 election, and is ...

Economist Jonathan Williams joins us to discuss the new edition of the Rich States, Poor States book, which evaluates each of the 50 states on taxes and other policies that shape their economies and add to or subtract from the financial well-being of their citizens. ...

Meredith, New York seems like an idyllic place—patchwork farms roll tranquilly along the western foothills of the Catskill Mountains, interspersed with small ponds and temperate woodlands. Gentle breezes blow through the tall grasses, symbolizing the town’s serene lifestyle. That same breeze, however, has divided Meredith’s 1,529 ...

The average Illinois household could be facing higher hospital bills under Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn’s $33.8 billion proposed budget, which decreases how much the state compensates providers treating patients on Medicaid. Quinn’s office said under normal circumstances Medicaid spending should jump by $2.7 billion. But spending on ...

Louisiana lawmakers sent to Gov. Bobby Jindal two education bills that would establish the largest voucher program in the country, curtail teacher tenure, tie educator pay and job security to student performance, and expand charter schools. House bills 974 and 976 passed by solid margins a month after they were introduced, amid ...

A panel of seven former U.S. Department of Agriculture secretaries representing Republican and Democratic presidents alike spoke in favor of genetic engineering and large, corporate farms at a Feb. 23 agriculture conference in Virginia. The former secretaries said environmental activist groups that oppose corporate farming and the ...

Academic Drug Detailing Problem A recent report from the Goldwater Institute highlights an upcoming issue in the pharmaceutical industry known as academic drug detailing. Through its academic drug detailing policy, the federal government will fund academics to reach out to physicians and specifically encourage them to prescribe generic ...

Guest Mike Wendy, director, Media Freedom.org, discusses the National Taxpayers Union policy paper on municipal broadband. ...

President Obama this week re-launched his advocacy for a "Buffett Rule," which maintains that no millionaire should pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than a middle-class family. On Tuesday, the National Economic Council issued a white paper justifying the Buffett Rule as a “basic principle of tax fairness.” Yet ...