Publications -- Government

Jun 28, 2001

BA #363 – Fighting the Last War

Congress is considering several versions of a Patients Bill of Rights. In the Senate, the "bipartisan" McCain-Kennedy-Edwards bill is going to duke it out with the "propartisan" Breaux-Frist-Jeffords bill and others. In the House, Rep. Charlie Norwood (R-Ga.), declaring that he was tired of waiting for the White House to compromise, prepared to move ahead with his own legislation. Meanwhile, Andrew Card, the White House Chief of Staff, announced that the President will veto any legislation that goes too far.

Apr 27, 2001

BA #360 – Financial Privacy: The Choice Is in the Mail

In one of the largest financial-customer notifications ever, banks and other financial institutions are mailing information to every customer of record to clarify how they collect and use people's financial information and what options customers have with regard to the sharing of this information. Many bank customers have already received notices. The mail campaign is a result of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999.

Apr 23, 2001

BA #358 – The Marriage Penalty: A Tax On Working Couples

The most significant change in the U.S. labor force in the last 60 years has been the increasing participation of women. Women now account for 46 percent of the total U.S. workforce, and nearly half of married women with children (47 percent last year) work.

Apr 04, 2001

BA #354 – Creating Factories Behind Bars

The Bush administration has announced its intention to reach across party lines and look at old problems in new ways. Perhaps nowhere would this strategy reap a greater harvest than in jointly alleviating the 93 percent unemployment rate behind the gates of American prisons and a workforce shortage that threatens American competitiveness.

Mar 15, 2001

BA #353 – Restorative Justice, American Style

Ted McGarrell, a criminology professor at Indiana University in Bloomington, has teamed up with the Hudson Institute and the city of Indianapolis to try an experiment that offers something besides jails to control crime. "Restorative justice," a program being tried with youthful first-time offenders, is based on three principles:

Feb 14, 2001

BA #348 – California's Electrical Mess: The Deregulation That Wasn't

In 1994 California enacted legislation intended to deregulate the electric power business in the state and establish a competitive market. By January 2001, flaws in the California approach had become evident with the state's utilities driven to the brink of bankruptcy and Californians suffering electricity shortages and blackouts.

Feb 05, 2001

BA #346 – Canada: A Health Care System on the Edge

Patients are lined up in the hallway, stretcher after stretcher. There are so few chairs that anxious relatives stand by the gurneys for hours. A woman with a migraine sits with her hands pressed to her ears. She waits like this for a couple of hours, perhaps longer.

Dec 08, 2000

BA #344 – Myths about Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance

For more than 50 years, America has relied on employers as the primary source of health insurance coverage. For the most part, this has been a successful approach, providing coverage in 1998 to 155 million people, compared to only 15.5 million who purchase their own coverage.

Nov 01, 2000

Notes on Freedom: Individual Liberty vs. Government Tyranny, 18th Century and Today

The principles of the American political process were slowly being fonnulated in the decades before the American Revolution and the writing of the Constitution of the United States of America. The sources were largely English and had a profound impact on Americans of the 18th century. The Framers left us with an intellectual heritage in which rights flow from one's nature as a human being. By adherence to the rule of law, private property and individuals are protected from the potential tyranny of the many (democracy) and the totalitarianism or authoritarianism of the few (central control, collectivism). To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, Liberty requires continuous diligence to preserve freedom.

Aug 31, 2000

BA #338 – Private Wildlife Conservation

Government land use regulations in the United States discourage landowners from protecting wildlife. This is unfortunate, since private landowners control approximately 60 percent of the land base, and at least 80 percent of wildlife in the 48 contiguous states is dependent in whole or in part upon private land. The biggest threat to wildlife is loss of habitat. Without the cooperation of the private sector, public parks and wildlife refuges will become island ecosystems, and the future of animals existing on these lands will be in jeopardy.