• NCPA Celebrates Working Moms; Offers Ideas to Help

• NCPA Takes on Al Gore Over Global Warming Science

• Modern Healthcare Features Goodman in Father’s Day Issue

• Economic Policy Forum

• Capital Hill Testimony/Briefings/Events

• On the Speaker's Circuit

• NCPA Scholars in the News

• NCPA Publications

• NCPA Online

• The NCPA unveiled its latest book, Leaving Women Behind: Modern Families, Outdated Laws, at a forum May 4, hosted by the Cato Institute at their headquarters in Washington, D.C. The book is co-authored by Kimberley Strassel, editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal; John C. Goodman, president of the NCPA; and Celeste Colgan, an NCPA consultant.
  
  The authors show how our major economic institutions — including tax law, labor law and employee benefits law, as well as Social Security, and retirement policies — reward families with a full-time worker and a stay-at-home spouse and by comparison punish every other arrangement. It is published by Rowman & Littlefield in cooperation with the Manhattan Institute and is available at booksellers, including Amazon.com.
  
  Strassel highlighted the book in a special editorial for the Wall Street Journal on May 13. Goodman gave his own take on the issue in a special Mother’s Day commentary for the May 14 edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

• With former Vice President Al Gore’s global warming documentary hitting theaters, the NCPA has taken the substantive lead in disputing the underlying science with the release of a study by NCPA Adjunct Scholar David Legates, director of the University of Delaware’s Center for Climatic Research.  The study’s findings were reported May 19 on Fox News and May 23 in The Washington Times, as well as the May 18 editions Greenwire and the Environment News Service.  The study was also featured in NCPA Chairman Pete du Pont’s monthly commentary for the May 23 edition of the Wall Street Journal’s OpinionJournal.com; and in a special commentary by NCPA Senior Fellow H. Sterling Burnett for the May 15 Washington Times.  Legates appeared May 18 on WILM-AM and KEZK-AM on May 23.  Burnett also appeared on KSVI-AM on May 15, KOA-AM and Fox News Channel’s Dayside on May 23

• Goodman was featured in a special “Father’s Day” feature for the June 19 edition of Modern Healthcare.  For the issue, the magazine interviewed four “founding fathers” of health policy.  Tabbed as the “Father of Health Savings Accounts,” Dr. Goodman was featured alongside Paul Ellwood on HMOs, Tommy Frist on for-profit chains and Lucien Leape on patient safety.

• Former Russian Economic Advisor Dr. Andrei Illarionov, was featured in Dallas as the NCPA launched a new Economic Policy Forum at the Belo Mansion April 10.  Dr. Illarionov, who resigned from the Putin government in protest, discussed the decline of economic freedom in Russia.
• John Stossel, co-anchor of ABC’s 20/20, was featured speaker for the second NCPA Economic Policy Forum series at the Belo Mansion in Dallas on May 17.  Stossel discussed his new book Lies, Myths and Downright Stupidity.  Stossel’s talk in Dallas focused mainly on the myths surrounding public education.

• The NCPA hosted a Capitol Hill briefing, May 1, featuring John Palmer and Thomas R. Saving, the two public trustees of Social Security and Medicare.  The briefing was held immediately following the official release of this year’s trustees reports.  Palmer and Saving highlighted the growing unfunded liabilities of the nation’s elderly entitlement programs. 
• The NCPA hosted a Capitol Hill briefing on April 26, featuring a discussion of key health and pension reforms that can garner bipartisan support and that are needed in order to prepare for the retirement of the baby boomers.  The briefing featured remarks from NCPA President John Goodman; Boston University professor and NCPA Senior Fellow Laurence Kotlikoff; Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation President Stephen Entin; and Brookings Institution Retirement Security Project Senior Fellow J. Mark Iwry. 
• The NCPA once again convened a meeting of the American Health Policy Network, a group of high level executives who meet periodically to discuss ways to improve the nation’s health care system.  Goodman moderated a session on April 19 that discussed how to increase adoption and remove barriers to consumer-directed health care.
• In a rare appearance, two former vice presidential candidates for opposite parties (John Edwards and Jack Kemp) appeared at a news conference hosted by the Retirement Security Project (RSP) of the Brookings Institution to endorse automatic enrollment for employer-sponsored 401(k) pension plans.  Automatic enrollment is a central plank in a series of bipartisan retirement reform ideas put forth by the NCPA and the RSP.
• Goodman provided written testimony for a June 28 hearing on Health Savings Accounts by the House Ways & Means Committee.  Goodman told the committee how to improve incentives and create opportunities for the chronically ill. 

• NCPA President John C. Goodman spoke at the Association of Private Enterprise Education annual conference April 3 in Las Vegas.  Goodman participated in a health reform panel discussion chaired by NCPA Senior Fellow Thomas R. Saving.
• On March 31, Goodman spoke about the NCPA’s early history of success at the Atlas Foundation’s “Teaching Freedom Initiative Project” conference in Philadelphia.
• Goodman provided the keynote address at the National Managed Health Care Conference in Washington, D.C. on April 26.
• NCPA Senior Economist Barry Asmus spoke during June about the effects of global events on the U.S. economy in Phoenix, Lost Canyon (UT), San Diego, and Boca Raton (FL) and about his book, The Best Is Yet to Come, in Boston, Madison (WI) and Louisville.
• NCPA Senior Policy Analyst Matt Moore spoke to the Collin County Texas Republican Men’s Club on June 15 about federal spending.

• NCPA President John C. Goodman discussed Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and the recent health reforms in Massachusetts on the April 11 edition of CNBC’s Squawk Box.
• Goodman told the Dallas Morning News on April 16 that a battle is raging inside the GOP over educational opportunities for poor, minority children whose parents rarely vote Republican.  
• In his April 26 commentary for the Wall Street Journal’s OpinionJournal.com, NCPA Chairman Pete du Pont noted that Congressional Republicans and the White House appear to be addicted to spending.  He suggested that the only way to return the GOP to its small government, less spending ways might be for the American public to fix it from the outside.
• NCPA Senior Fellow Devon Herrick debated the merits of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) on the April 4 edition of CNBC’s Morning Call.
• Gov. du Pont told the Fox News Channel on June 4 that the truth about "global warming" is much less dire than Al Gore wants you to think, and was the subject for his May 23 commentary in the Wall Street Journal’s OpinionJournal.com.
• NCPA Senior Fellow H. Sterling Burnett appeared on the April 27 edition of CNBC’s Squawk Box to debate the cause of high gas prices.
• Goodman responded to the release of the Social Security and Medicare Trustees’ Reports by saying that while the unfunded liability of Social Security continues to be a huge problem, the unfunded liability of the new Medicare prescription drug benefit is actually worse.  His comments were reported in the May 2 editions of the Los Angeles Times, Washington Times and CNS News.
• Burnett told the April 18 edition of the Christian Science Monitor that businesses in California are uncertain whether enacting Gov. Schwarzenegger’s emission reductions will have any impact on climate change.
• Herrick told the April 2006 edition of Health Care News that many insurers are trying to remove the veil of secrecy that surrounds health care by making cost and quality more transparent.
• In a separate bylined article, Herrick told the April Health Care News that many of the factors behind obesity are indicators of economic development and a desirable society.  These include lower rates of smoking, higher standards of living, and technology that makes food cheap and work easy.
• Goodman appeared on the June 16 edition of CNBC’s Morning Call to debate the future of employer-sponsored health insurance.  Goodman said there is a role for employers, but it will shift more to the financial to open the door for personal and portable insurance.
• Goodman discussed Leaving Women Behind in a special Mother’s Day commentary for the May 14 edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
• Burnett told CNBC’s Power Lunch program on May 30 that a windfall profits tax is a bad idea.
• Burnett appeared on CNBC’s Morning Call on May 24 to debate the merits of opening up ANWR for oil drilling.
• Goodman told the June 11 edition of The Dallas Morning News that while he disagrees with Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s state health care plan, there are some good things worth paying attention to in it.  Gov. Romney noted his discussions with Dr. Goodman in a keynote speech to the recent AHIP meeting in Washington, D.C.
• The May 26 edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution carried Burnett’s remarks that CAFE standards won’t reduce foreign oil imports.
• The May 29 edition of the Washington Post cited Burnett’s and the NCPA’s work in debunking junk science in public policy debates about global warming.  Burnett’s remarks also appeared on the McCuistion program on PBS and in the Dallas Morning News and Seattle Times. 
• Burnett told the April 1 edition of Reason that Raincoast Conservation Foundation’s purchasing of hunting rights to protect bears is not an example of free market environmentalism.
• Kimberley Strassel, senior editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal and co-author of the new NCPA book, Leaving Women Behind: Modern Families, Outdated Laws, appeared on the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC-AM (New York) on June 7 to discuss the modern role of women in the work force.
• NCPA Senior Policy Analyst Matt Moore told the April 10 edition of the Daily Oklahoman that as people prepare their income tax returns, they should not forget the payroll tax and how high it will have to be raised if Social Security is not reformed.
• Burnett told the Dayside with Linda Vester program (Fox News Channel) on May 23 that Al Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth, is not “Apocalypse Now, rather it is Apocalypse Not.”
• Burnett appeared in the April 1 edition of Environment and Climate News discussing proposals in Alaska and Wisconsin for a windfall profits tax and the benefits and dangers of federal efforts to further criminalize acts of eco terror.
• On April 6 Herrick discussed Massachusetts’ recent health reforms on Seattle’s KUOW-AM.
• Burnett told the April 4 edition of Environment and Energy Daily that Congress should be wary of an economic backlash likely to come from proposed climate change legislation.
• Burnett told the April 3 edition of Human Events that if Congress wanted to increase oil supply and reduce gas prices, they should reduce barriers to exploration and production.
• Herrick told the May 2006 edition of Health Care News that the uninsured get about the same quality of care as those with coverage once they actually set foot in a doctor’s office.
• Herrick told the June 2006 edition of Budget & Tax News that waste and fraud plague the New York Medicaid system.  Herrick also told HealthLeaders/ InterStudy, for its Spring 2006 Health Plan Analysis of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, that many of the uninsured don’t consider traditional health coverage to be a good buy.
• Burnett appeared on the May 1 edition of McCuistion, a public affairs program several PBS stations carry across the country, for a discussion on corporate responsibility.
• Burnett told the April 27 John Carlson show on KVI 570 AM in Seattle, that a windfall profits tax would be bad public policy.
• Burnett told the April 26 edition of The Washington Examiner that criticism of the compensation package for ExxonMobil’s former Chairman is off-base.
• Burnett told the April 26 edition of Chemical Week that gas prices are likely to continue their rise as distributors and retailers switch to the summer blend that must include Ethanol.
• Burnett told the May/June 2006 edition of Insight, that if all signatories to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change actually met their targets, the world’s economy would suffer from a severe tailspin.
• Moore told the May 21 edition of the Seattle Times that Congress is likely to pass reforms to 401(k)s this year.
• Burnett told the May 2006 edition of Environment & Climate News that environmentalists are beginning to warm up to the idea of nuclear power.
• On April 24, Burnett told the Fred Hornsberger Show, which airs on Pittsburgh’s KDKA 1020-AM, that a windfall profits tax would likely lead to less exploration and potential gas shortages.
• Burnett told the May 3 edition of Chemical Week that a proposed gas tax rebate would be bad fiscal policy.
• Herrick told the May 15 edition of Fortune that the Massachusetts health plan has flaws that will drive up the cost of health coverage.  His remarks also appeared in the May edition of Health Care News.
• Burnett told the May 26 edition of CNSNews.com that raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for combating rising gas prices.
• Burnett told the May 15 edition of Janet Parshall’s America that the Endangered Species Act should be reformed.  Burnett’s remarks also appeared in the May 11 edition of CNSNews.com.
• Herrick told the June 1 edition of Health Care News that telemedicine provides benefits, but there are security and privacy risks.
• In the May 24 edition of BankRate.com, Herrick said patients can lower drug bills by shopping smart.
• Burnett said global warming isn’t causing the extinction of polar bears and, in fact, bear populations are stable in the May 27 edition of the Anchorage Daily News.
• Herrick told Crain’s New York Business on June 5 that New York state is doing a lot of things wrong in its Medicaid program.
• Herrick told Bloomberg Radio in a June 9 interview that the AMA’s policy on drug advertising should require full not voluntary disclosure.
• Herrick told the June 11 edition of the Utica(NY) Observer-Dispatch that a system of “cost-plus” reimbursement for nursing homes should be scrapped in favor of selective contracting with nursing homes that are efficient.
• NCPA Graduate Student Fellow Pamela Villarreal’s analysis about how the death tax hurts small entrepreneurs and business owners appeared in Deroy Murdock’s commentary about the vote to repeal the estate tax in National Review Online on June 8.
• Strassel told the June 18 edition of the Dallas Morning News that Social Security needs to rethink its benefits for divorced women.
• Burnett told the June 19 edition of Alberta, Canada’s Western Standard that Canada’s ditching of the Kyoto Protocol and hyping ethanol moves the country closer to the U.S. position.
• Burnett appeared on CNN International on June 13 arguing that the government has been too slow to act to allow off-shore oil and gas production outside of the Gulf Coast region after Hurricane Katrina.
• Burnett told the June 7 edition of Energy Pulse that a windfall profits tax would not lower energy prices and would undermine energy security. 
• Herrick told the June 11 edition of the Observer-Dispatch that one of New York’s problems with Medicaid spending is that the state does not have an incentive structure in place to reward efficient nursing homes.  The story also noted a recent NCPA study that found while New York is home to 7 percent of the U.S. population, it accounts for 14 percent of Medicaid spending.
• Burnett told KPSI-AM (Palm Springs, CA) on June 21 that the U.S. Senate should take the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial eminent domain decision as an opportunity to protect private property rights.
• Herrick told the June 15 edition of the Hawaii Reporter that consumer-directed health care is leading to new models for health care delivery.
• In his June 2006 article for Health Care News, Herrick explained how the Internet is transforming the way Americans interact with the health care system

• Government spending on health care in the U.S. is on a course to consume about a third of national income by mid-century; an amount that would absorb the entire federal government budget as well as all state and local government budgets, according to a new NCPA study.  http://www.ncpa.org/pub/st/st286/
• Former Vice President Al Gore's global warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, is the latest in a line of films, TV shows and news features warning of a impending global catastrophe caused by human-induced climate change. Yet according to a new NCPA study, the most inconvenient truth is that the science behind these claims is fatally flawed. http://www.ncpa.org/pub/st/st285/
• Al Gore has long argued that human activities — primarily the burning of fossil fuels — are causing the Earth to warm significantly, with potentially catastrophic results.  Yet according to an NCPA Brief Analysis, the movie is filled with misstatements, half-truths and verbal sleights of hand concerning what we can and can't say with some level of certainty regarding the causes and consequences of climate change. http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba/ba561/
• Various state legislators and interest groups around the United States are pushing for increases in the minimum wage. In California, for example, even Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger now advocates raising the state minimum wage from its current $6.75 an hour to $7.75 by July 2007. But, according to a new NCPA Brief Analysis, when the minimum wage law confronts the law of demand, the law of demand wins every time. And the real losers are the most marginal workers — the ones who will be out of a job.  http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba/ba550/ 
• The 2004 Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, an international project of the Arctic Council and the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), concludes that "global warming could cause polar bears to go extinct by the end of the century by eroding the sea ice that sustains them."  However, according to a new NCPA Brief Analysis by NCPA Senior Fellow H. Sterling Burnett, there is little basis for fear. By and large, polar bear populations are in good shape. http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba/ba551/
• Developing countries that have lowered trade barriers have experienced higher rates of economic growth, according to two new NCPA brief analyses by Arnold Harberger, an economics professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.   Part I: http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba/ba552/
  Part II: http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba/ba553/
• Millions of Americans are saving for retirement in 401(k)s and Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs). These tax-deferred accounts allow people to invest pretax dollars, but require them to pay taxes on their deposits and accumulated earnings at the time of withdrawal. By contrast, a Roth account allows individuals to deposit after-tax dollars, but withdraw the accumulated balances tax-free.  According to an NCPA Brief Analysis, Roth accounts make sense for many taxpayers as taxes on retirees will likely be much higher in the future, due to taxes on Social Security benefits and the cost of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.  http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba/ba554/
• The Social Security benefits tax — while nominally a tax on Social Security benefits — is really a tax on other retirement income like pensions or personal savings. And, according to an NCPA Brief Analysis, it inflicts some of the highest marginal tax rates in the entire federal tax code. http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba/ba555/
• The 2001 tax cuts included a gradual phase-out and full repeal of the estate tax in 2010. But due to the sunset provision imposed by federal budget rules, the estate tax will reappear at its full pre-reform rates in 2011.  According to an NCPA Brief Analysis, at that time estates in excess of $2 million will be taxed at the old rates — up to 55 percent.  http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba/ba556/
• As gasoline prices hover below an all-time inflation-adjusted high, an NCPA Brief Analysis shows that the causes of high prices have little to do with political rhetoric.  http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba/ba557/
• Senator DeMint and Rep. Shadegg have each introduced bills in their respective chambers that would allow health insurers licensed to sell policies in one state to offer them to residents of any other state.  According to an NCPA Brief Analysis, both bills would create a more competitive, nationwide health insurance market. http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba/ba558/
• Consumer-driven health care (CDHC) is leading a growing number of medical providers to offer innovative services to meet the demand of empowered patients.  According to an NCPA Brief Analysis, these physician services tend to have two characteristics: (a) they offer patients greater convenience and (b) they step outside normal reimbursement channels.  http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba/ba559/ 
• This year's annual reports for Social Security and Medicare show the combined unfunded liability of these programs is $84 trillion in today's dollars — up more than $7 trillion from last year's report.  According to an NCPA Brief Analysis, Social Security and Medicare will consume an ever-increasing portion of workers' incomes unless the government either breaks its promises to future retirees or makes significant changes to our elderly entitlement programs.  http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba/ba560/
• Both the U.S. Energy Information Administration and the International Energy Agency estimate there are sufficient global oil resources to supply generations to come.  Unfortunately, according to an NCPA Brief Analysis, much of the world's oil lies under countries with economies that do not provide market incentives to encourage production.  http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba/ba562/
• The former Communist countries of Central Europe are among America's most reliable allies and a growing market for U.S. trade and investment. But in recent years, this region has been largely ignored by the U.S. foreign policy establishment. “Tipping the Scales,” a new publication by the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), an NCPA project, explains why Central Europe matters to the United States, why EU enlargement did not mark the end of history in the region, and why U.S. policymakers should seek a deeper level of engagement with the region and its leaders than they currently do. 

• The NCPA’s consumer driven health care Web site—http://cdhc.ncpa.org—has been updated to provide the latest, most comprehensive information and research about reforms that provide more choice and control to patients and health care professionals.  The site also features Weekly Health Policy Digest and the recently-launched SPN Medicaid Exchange, a joint project of the NCPA and the State Policy Network.
• Team NCPA, an all-volunteer educational initiative for Social Security reform, has added an information blog, The Filing Cabinet, to its new, revised Web site – http://www.teamncpa.org/.  The site continues to provide the latest information in the public policy debate about reform and retains the NCPA’s unique Social Security calculator.

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