by Ryan Young
November 18, 2009 @ 3:06 pm
FCC regulators want to provide wider and cheaper broadband access by subsidizing it, raising taxes, and forcing network owners to share their network infrastructure with competitors.
A few things the FCC should consider:
-Subsidies don’t make broadband access any less expensive. They just change who pays for it. In this case, that would be anybody with a phone. Which probably includes you. The great economist Ludwig von Mises observed that “A government can no more determine prices than a goose can lay hen’s…
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by Hans Bader
November 10, 2009 @ 3:45 pm
Unemployment is now higher in the U.S. than in Europe, reports the Washington Post. “The official U.S. unemployment rate, reported last Friday, now stands at 10.2 percent,” compared to “9.7 percent” in Europe. This is the highest rate in more than 26 years, and marks a huge change from the recent past, in which unemployment was double the American rate in much of Europe, such as in France.
Unemployment is at 10 percent in France, which refused to adopt a U.S.-style stimulus…
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Your host Richard Morrison teams up with Jeremy Lott and Josh Barro to bring you Episode 68 of the LibertyWeek podcast. We start with Saturday night’s healthcare vote in the House, Freddie Mac’s losing bets and a gift card scandal in Charm City. We then move on to Andrew Cuomo’s attack on Intel in New York and Josh tells us why we can expect more tax hikes in the future.
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by Hans Bader
November 03, 2009 @ 10:57 am
The Wall Street Journal calls the House version of President Obama’s health care plan “the worst bill ever,” noting that it will lead to “epic new spending and taxes, pricier insurance, rationed care, dishonest accounting,” and other problems.
At the Atlantic, Megan McArdle, who voted for Obama, explains how ObamaCare will cost much more than promised — at least $150 billion more. That’s true even if promised cuts to Medicare included in ObamaCare actually take place — but as McArdle notes, even…
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by Ryan Young
November 02, 2009 @ 11:15 am
This month’s issue of Info Tech & Telecom News contains an article by yours truly on certain states’ attempts to collect sales taxes from out-of-state businesses. Key point:
Economists have known for a long time that when you tax something, you get less of it. Apparently some state legislators want less commerce in their states.
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by Fran Smith
October 08, 2009 @ 12:36 pm
Those pushing the Senate health care bill were ecstatic when the Congressional Budget Office reported that the bill “would result in a net reduction in federal budget deficits of $81 billion over the 2010-2019 period.” But it’s more budgetary legerdemain, as Cato’s Michael Tanner pointed out today. Tanner notes that new health care taxes are the revenue-raising tools:
The bill imposes a 40 percent excise tax on health-insurance plans that offer benefits in excess of $8,000 for an individual plan and $21,000 for…
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Your host Richard Morrison welcomes returning guest co-host William Yeatman and special guest commenter Ryan Radia to the program for Episode 61 of the LibertyWeek podcast. We start with the FCC’s just-announced proposal for “net neutrality,” Treasury documents that reveal the true cost of cap-and-trade legislation and the plan for getting over California’s great depression. We then move on to the G20 Summit’s potential path to prosperity and the ever-expanding scandal that is ACORN.
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by Hans Bader
August 25, 2009 @ 12:45 pm
ObamaCare won’t just raise taxes on the rich, and impose tax penalties on people without approved health-insurance plans. It will also dramatically change tax laws so that “taxpayers will be fined for honest mistakes,” explains prominent New York tax lawyer James M. Peaslee. That’s true even if the mistake resulted from a confusing tax rule, and the taxpayer “tried in good faith to comply with the law.”
(Keep in mind that the health-care bill backed by Obama is over 1,000 pages long, and some…
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by Hans Bader
August 19, 2009 @ 6:31 pm
“ObamaCare is all about rationing,” says one of Obama’s own advisers, Martin Feldstein. Feldstein earlier noted that Obama’s health-care plan would harm people with insurance, and massively raise taxes.
Civil-libertarian and former ACLU board member Nat Hentoff says that after reading Obama’s health-care plan, he was more scared of the Obama Administration than any other Administration he’s lived under. (In 1995, Hentoff received the National Press Foundation’s Award for lifetime distinguished contributions to journalism).
Legal experts and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights have questioned the…
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by Ryan Lynch
August 07, 2009 @ 1:54 pm
Reason TV hits a home run:
Massive savings from your own pocket!
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Your host Richard Morrison welcomes back returning guest co-hosts Michelle Minton and Jeremy Lott for Episode 54 of the LibertyWeek podcast. We start with ominous hints of new taxes, California state employees making strike threats and the possible antitrust implications of the Microhoo partnership. We continue with a double-dipping pay scandal, the suppression of dissent in Venezuela and some fully transparent Olympic News.
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CEI and the Pacific Research Institute recently co-hosted a Capitol Hill briefing on “California’s Meltdown” - the unprecedented combination of flawed economic, energy and environmental policies that have left the state with a massive budget deficit and facing even tougher times ahead.
Our keynote speaker was Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA), a first term member of the House of Representatives but a 22-year veteran of the California state legislature. He was introduced by Director of Energy & Global Warming Policy Myron Ebell:
After his speech…
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by Fran Smith
July 16, 2009 @ 11:48 am
Lead headline on the Drudge Report today – “Terrifying 57% tax looms for biggest earners in NYC.” It links to a NY Post article that points to the “job-killing effects” of the proposed tax surcharges to pay for the Democrats health care plan. As the Post noted,
That means New York’s top earners, small-business owners and most dynamic entrepreneurs will be facing new fees and penalties.
They’re likely to cut back on hiring and expanding their businesses – likely to deepen the recession. Also,…
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by Ryan Young
July 15, 2009 @ 5:18 pm
The potential specter of federal carry-on bag size restrictions has not deterred me from flying. But my jaw nearly hit the floor recently when I saw that I had paid more in taxes and fees than for actual airfare for an international flight.
Click here to see a list of 17 taxes we pay for flying. The September 11th Fee. International Departure Tax. International Arrival Tax. And those are just the direct taxes.
Indirect taxes are also legion. They’re harder to see.…
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Your host Richard Morrison brings you Episode 51 of the LibertyWeek podcast, along with special guest co-host Jeremy Lott and Fellow in Regulatory Studies Ryan Young. We start with Judge Sotomayor in the Senate hot seat, a privacy threat from “smart” passports and why Rep. Dan Lipinski has decided your suitcase is too big. The discussion continues with Rep. John Murtha’s expanding corruption scandal, beer news from the Beaver State and the arrival of Wal-Mart in India. We wrap up with…
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by Alex Hankins
July 07, 2009 @ 1:35 pm
On both of the most salient issues of the day, health care reform and climate change, proponents of the corresponding legislation are setting their sights on the rich to pay for these expensive measures.
The massive government health care bill in the House involves a very expensive restructuring of the health care system in the United States–so expensive, in fact, that Democrats are proposing a tax increase on the rich, that is, in addition to the one that will occur when the…
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