Think Tank West

Steve Moses is a one-man long-term-care-reform juggernaut.  No, literally. Moses is currently conducting a whirlwind National Long-Term Care Consciousness Tour.  The tour aims to educate the public about the damage that government has done to the market for long-term care, the fact that the government will not be able to provide long-term care to baby boomers [...]

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“If that’s democracy, then I’m not a democrat.” -Rafael Correa, president of Ecuador, stating his refusal to allow the opposition to participate in the debate for a new constitution in his country [in Spanish].

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The Economist recently reported about Hugo Chávez’s abrupt changes of mind. One day he decrees an intelligence law that turns Venezuela into a police state, the next day he denounces it. One day he calls for political recognition for the FARC guerillas in Colombia, the next one he asks them to put down their arms. [...]

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New evidence reveals the continued power of Edwards’ Budget Law over government policymaking. The law holds that government projects will end up costing at least twice what policymakers initially claim. The policymaking trick is that by the time the full cost is revealed to taxpayers, it’s too late–the project has become too entrenched to be reversed.  From the Washington [...]

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Here is the first of what might become a series depending on the fan mail . . . We have tax credits for all manner of things at the federal, state, and local levels that we don’t need and shouldn’t have tax credits for . . . like hybrid cars, movie production, and lemonade stands [...]

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Good news on the economy, sort of. The Commerce Department reported this morning that it has revised the economy’s growth rate in the first quarter of 2008 to 1.0 percent. That is slightly higher than the government’s earlier two estimates and it means we have probably dodged a technical recession, at least for the first [...]

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My recent blog on Minnesota governor — and potential Republican vice presidential nominee — Tim Pawlenty brought a great deal of e-mail from Pawlenty partisans. Most of their criticism was of the “definition of ‘is’” variety. Governor Pawlenty doesn’t support “price controls” for the Medicare prescription drug program, he merely wants the government to “negotiate” [...]

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Certain commentators are noting the relative dearth of 5-4 decisions this term after a full third of last year’s cases were decided by that narrowest of margins (with Justice Kennedy in the majority in all of them).  That’s a bit premature, however, as already the last ten days have produced more 5-4 cases than the [...]

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Reading Tim Lee on FISA, I had a historical revelation. We could have avoided the long national nightmare of Watergate if only the burglars had carried letters from President Nixon stating that John Dean had determined that they had a legal right to trespass.

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Over at RedState, they’re excited about a video narrated by Sen. Fred Thompson — remember him? — for the President’s Dinner of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee. It’s a fine video, full of stirring music and appeals to freedom and smaller government by Thompson, John McCain, and the President — [...]

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