Reason Foundation

Recent Research and Commentary

Taking Steps Towards Better Child Welfare Programs In Nebraska

The focus should be on the kids and outcomes, not reorganizing state agencies

February 8, 2012

Lisa Snell

The Nebraska legislature should move ahead with the hands-on child welfare recommendations rather than getting caught up yet again in agency reorganization which will ensure that the child welfare system remains in transition and chaos for some time without guaranteeing better outcomes. The immediate focus should be on reforms that will have the greatest impact on outcomes for children by both DHHS and the lead agencies.

Liberal Programs Deserve Blame for Income Inequality

The Congressional Budget Office documents income gains for everyone, not just the wealthy.

November 8, 2011

Shikha Dalmia

Liberals are treating a new Congressional Budget Office study showing that income inequality increased in America over the last three decades as the smoking gun they’d always been looking for—the ultimate indictment of America, capitalism, and apple pie.

Soak the Rich or Soak the Super Rich?

Harry Reid's "millionaire' surcharge" is a new move in the old Democratic game of class warfare.

October 18, 2011

Shikha Dalmia

For Democrats, millionaires are the new Gypsies—a minority whom it is perfectly acceptable to persecute because its wealth is ill-gotten, not the product of hard work.

Strict Scrutiny

ObamaCare and the long slow death of conservative judicial restraint

August 18, 2011

Damon W. Root

In his recent opinion upholding the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s mandate that all Americans purchase health insurance, conservative 6th Circuit Judge Jeffrey Sutton adopted what used to be a very common conservative legal position: judicial deference. But does judicial deference matter anymore on the legal right? Associate Editor Damon Root explains why Chief Justice John Roberts is the one conservative on the Supreme Court most likely to echo Sutton’s views. Roberts may very well uphold the health care law as an act of judicial restraint, Root writes. Just don’t expect the conservative rank and file to thank him for it.

Looking for Limits

The power to mandate health insurance is the power to mandate almost anything.

August 17, 2011

Jacob Sullum

Defenders of the federal law requiring Americans to buy government-approved medical coverage have to justify it in a way that does not also justify every other conceivable congressional dictate regarding how we spend our money. So far, says Senior Editor Jacob Sullum, they have not managed to do so, which is the main reason a federal appeals court last week rejected this "wholly novel and potentially unbounded assertion of Congressional authority."

We're from the Government and We're Here to Help

The government created our current health care mess. So why do progressives want to give the state more control?

August 2, 2011

A. Barton Hinkle

The federal government's management of its health care programs has turned out to be a financial disaster, observes A. Barton Hinkle. So what, according to progressives, is the solution? More government management of health care. Of course.

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